Game Boy Advance Retrospective — Geoff’s Picks

I’ve been reminiscing about my favorite Game Boy Advance titles and memories since making the 15th Anniversary post last week. Outside of wallowing in nostalgia, this had a practical purpose: I originally wanted to involve all the Damage Control staff in that post (the ones who play video games, anyway), but forgot to propose the plan by the time the anniversary date approached. Drew wanted to go through with it anyway, and others also agreed to go along with it. See? They’re all great people.

This also meant I had to pick five GBA games that other staffers wouldn’t use, but that wasn’t too difficult given how robust its lineup was, despite another writer in particular getting the good Castlevania.

1. Final Fantasy V Advance: Though the Final Fantasy GBA ports were a mixed bag overall, it’s tough to disagree that Final Fantasy V’s port was the best of them. The original version didn’t push any technological boundaries for the time on SNES, but Advance spruced up its presentation by giving it more polished backgrounds and improved music. Add the extra classes, new difficult bosses, and two new dungeons to the mix, and it easily qualifies as the definitive edition of FFV. That goes double with this version not being afflicted with issues that plagued the PSOne Final Fantasy Anthology port, and how it featured a much improved localization.

Those enhancements were added on top of what’s a superlative and addictive RPG. Though FFV wasn’t the first game in the series to include a job system, its implementation was far more refined than Final Fantasy III’s. You wouldn’t believe how many hours you can spend customizing the ability set of every character after they mastered multiple jobs, and doing that was far more palatable on a handheld rather than a console. Even in the face of other versions, like the aesthetically displeasing mobile port, the GBA version remains the best way to experience it after all these years.

2. Fire Emblem: After years of the franchise being Japan only, Nintendo decided to give us our first installment in the Fire Emblem series with the seventh title, whose subtitle was literally translated as “The Sword of Flame” in Japan. It’s one they chose well, as it introduced westerners to the complex and strategic battles these titles often involve. It wasn’t too hard as to be intimidating for anyone who’d never played a title in the series before, but many of its battles were challenging, balanced, and well designed, especially in the latter half. Combine that with an entertaining story full of endearing characters and beautiful sprites, and it’s easy to see why it was so successful in establishing the FE brand in the west.

3. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising: Meanwhile, Intelligent Systems’ other strategy franchise was no slouch, either, thanks to how it required the player to use a different set of strategies compared to FE. The first Advance Wars did a good job establishing the brand in the system’s launch window, despite there being a healthy amount of software in the GBA’s first year. Those who gave it a shot found a fun game whose more jovial take on war was strangely appealing, alongside the level of strategy and micromanaging its battles often involved — though that’s not to say its story didn’t have some tragedy. Black Hole Rising refined the formula by containing more complex-but-fair battles and a more balanced character set, which made it the better game out of the two GBA installments. It’s also the most tightly designed title in the franchise, particularly when comparing it to easily-breakable successor Dual Strike.

4. Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island was a fantastic platformer that many sadly skipped in favor of Donkey Kong Country 2 when it originally released on SNES in 1995 — me included. But this GBA port marked a chance for that crowd to repent for the sin of missing this alternate take on a Mario platformer, and for me, playing it for the first time in handheld form made the experience all the more memorable. It contains some of the best level design to ever grace a platformer, in being challenging and engaging, but never unfair. Its sprite work and music were also excellent, and shined on the front-lit and backlit GBA screens. To this day, it stands as one of the best 2D platformers Nintendo’s ever made, to the point that none of its successors have come close to touching it. Perhaps they will one day in the future.

5. Mega Man Zero 3: There were four Mega Man Zero installments released for the GBA, but the third game is the most polished and unique of them. Its level design fits the challenging-but-fair mold better than the others (especially compared to the sometimes-unfair first title), and it contained an alternate approach to how the player could choose levels to venture through by Mega Man standards. It’s a pity the fourth title played it safe by returning to the more traditional stage select, which ended up giving it less of an identity for familiarity; not to mention the franchise started feeling a little long in the tooth by then. Capcom may have released too many MM games too fast while the franchise was still breathing, but the better titles still stood out, and MMZ3 was among them.

This is only a slice of the great software that released on GBA. Fortunately, four out of these five picks can be purchased on the Wii U Virtual Console. I’m not sure what’s taking Square Enix so long with getting their ports on it, but maybe they need to be reminded that it exists through a barrage of fan comments. The series of unique software titles chosen by the four of us between today and tomorrow should show you how much quality software released for the system during its short lifespan (compared to other Nintendo handhelds), and that’s enough to make its legacy well worth remembering.