So, I’ve been getting into GBA and want some recommendations. I’ve been playing advance wars and really like it, anyone know any similar games? (Not fire emblem because permadeath is an annoying mechanic?
And justgoogd GBA games in general
Most similar to Advance Wars:
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation
Shining Force:Resurrection of the Dark Dragon
Just in general:
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 and 2
Drill Dozer
Golden Sun 1 and 2
Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
Guru Logic Champ
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Zero Mission
Medabots RPG
Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
- Boktai series: Hideo Kojima’s most unusual work, and I mean that in the best way. These games were so near and dear to my childhood, especially 2. Really though you want the Solar Sensor hardware for the full experience, but I love these games too much not to plug them anyway. Emulating them is worth it over not playing them at all. And for the third game, you’d have to pick between original hardware or the translation patch anyway.
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: It’s Castlevania. It’s good. Also check out Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance, but AoS was by far the best of the GBA entries.
- Golden Sun 1/2: These games were way ahead of their time for how they designed a combat system that encourages you to use all of your tools and not just click basic Attack as if you gotta hoard your MP for a rainy day. Fantastic puzzles too.
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: If you’ve played any of the other Mario RPGs, this one’s great too. Has a 3DS remake but I haven’t played that version so I can’t tell you how it compares.
- Metroid: Zero Mission: The original Metroid has aged rather poorly if you ask me, but this remake does a perfect job modernizing it into one of the best games in the series. Fusion is good too, but some fans have opinions on that one.
- Mother 3: Surely you have already heard of this game and do not need me to tell you to go play it. Have you not played it by now? Why not? Well, okay, if you haven’t played Earthbound first, go do so, then play this.
- Rhythm Tengoku: A wonderful game about pressing the A button. Sometimes you press the d-pad too. Translation patch.
- Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1/2: If you’ve ever played the classic 2D Tales games, these are excellent spiritual successors to those. There’s a third game that’s JP-only, translation patch is being worked on but it’s been stuck in development hell for years…
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: Zelda.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
I’m weird and I have a real soft spot for the original PlayStation 1 Final Fantasy Tactics as well. Both solid games, imho.
I honestly only ever see people talking about FFTA, I almost never see people mention FFT for playstation.
Could just be me, but I don’t exactly run into lots of folks who are even aware it exists.
Here’s my top 8 in no particular order
- Golden Sun / The Lost Age
- Drill Dozer
- Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland
- Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1/2
- Mega Man Battle Network 3, 5, and 6 (either flavor of each is good)
- Mother 3
- Astro Boy Omega Factor
- Sonic Battle
mega man battle network 1-6
Came to the comments to say this. Love that series. Wish they hadn’t moved to that follow-up series Star Force. Wasn’t as good, imo.
Jeez… I want to play them, but I am foreseeing hundreds of hours in those games lol… Also I didn’t know there was a sixth game for GBA.
they’re great for short bursts of gameplay, each dungeon takes like an hour on average. if it helps your decision, the first game is the shortest at 10-25 hrs but is also the hardest. the hd collection has an easy mode that lets you kill most weak enemies in a few shots. the DS port of 1 is the definitive version & has maps to make the dungeons easier (there’s an English patch)
