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The Game Boy Advance Was A Monster System

Awesome library, shitty hardware. It was GBA Player for Gamecube or nothing for me until Nintendo DS Lite, the first time I feel confortable with the screen.
 

Stopdoor

Member
I'll take any excuse to post my cool multiplayer GBA collection

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I'm really into trying out these sort of niche multiplayer modes you rarely hear talked about like Kuru Kuru Kururin, Kirby Amazing Mirror, or 4-player Mario Bros. There's some cool stuff!
 
Forever my favorite handheld (specifically the SP). The GBA really was my chance to play alot of the Super Nintendo franchises I missed out on growing up, while also producing some of the best 2D handheld games Ive ever played.

Super Mario Advance 2, The Mega Man: Battle Network series, Pokemon gen 3, The Legacy of Goku sequels, Rayman, etc.

The list goes on and on.

Also, with backwards compatibility, and later, a backlit screen and rechargeable battery, the GBA was the last nintendo related device I was in love with, and it was a hell of a ride.
 

Shanlei91

Sonic handles my blue balls
FF Tactics Advance, Gunstar Super Heroes, a Bomberman with a zelda/pokemon-esque single player and I think it was the first handheld to have a Yu-Gi-Oh game that played to the actual rules, Mega Man Battle Network, etc.

My favorite handheld. When Xperia Play support just wasn't happening I used that thing purely as a GBA emulator. The games still hold up.
 

Chris R

Member
Installing an afterburner in my launch model was the best. My favorite handheld by far.

Wish I had enloops back then lol
 
Gamewise it's the greatest portable system of all time imo. A lot claim that the DS is better, but I feel like the DS mostly had shovelware and the best games on the DS are nothing compared to the best on the GBA.
You dont need to buy shovelware and there are original games on DS that make the GBA library look had (Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing WW, Ouendan, Bowsers Inside Story, Order of Ecclesia, Kirby Mass Attack, DQ IX for example)
 
I miss having a system that was that small. I doubt my hands today would like it as much, but damn was it a great system.

Ridiculous sales for the short time period it was out. I'm pretty sure the GBA made Game Boy more of a housthold name than the original GB or GBC did
 

haozz

Member
OP has included nearly all of the games I've played, except for the FPS games Ecks vs Sever and its sequel (both kind of average).

And the games were only 30 USD at release if I recall correctly. Pretty good deal for some of them.
 
I had to make do with a "I can't see shit" edition but the thing was still a beast. Probably my best memory was picking up Golden Sun on a whim. First time I cast Ragnarok and saw that panning action around the sprites with those crazy effects my mind was literally blown.
 

DashReindeer

Lead Community Manager, Outpost Games
Goddamn, I loved my GameBoy Player so much. The GBA is one of Nintendo's finest systems and the reason why I never really got into the OG DS as I just felt the games always failed to live up to the greatness of their GBA forebears.
 
I wish someone would release a small cheap console that costs $30, only capable of graphics like this and with support from all the indie devs. Man I would play it all day and I'm sure the battery could last like days.
 

vaporeon

Member
Never had the original GameBoy growing up, so the GBA was my first handheld. Absolutely loved this era of pixel art style.
 
Pretty sure I missed some underrated gems, just saw the nightmare before Christmas game that looks very good this week too.

Anyone have any recommendations for less played gems? I will recommend riviera, a JRPG with unusual levelling up and combat mechanism and some dating sim elements plus mutilple endings; and one of the metabot games that play like a 2D smash clone, you can customise your bots too!
 
It had good games but nothing was as deflating than buying it at launch, booting up castlevania and not being able to see anything. External lights would create huge glare. What a mess.

Then the DIY kits started to roll out and the sp showed up
 
It had good games but nothing was as deflating than buying it at launch, booting up castlevania and not being able to see anything. External lights would create huge glare. What a mess.

Then the DIY kits started to roll out and the sp showed up

Lol I feel you. Also in retrospect the castlevania games on GBA were kinda shitty sans aria
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Beautiful.

Yeah the only series that was really worse on DS what happened? (mystery of emblem was okay I guess)
 

gondwana

Member
Still using my GBM as a dedicated Soundvoyager machine. Sometimes i play the endless modes in bed and wake up with it running. Incredible game. please make interesting games again, skip ltd
 

ferrx

Member
I imported that shit the day it was released in Japan. Back when importing was still a thing. Great system.
 

ironmang

Member
As dumb as it sounds, playing THPS2 blew my mind when I bought mine near release. Sucks that was the same year my friends and I started high school and gave up on handhelds for whatever reason. I really should go back and start buying some games I missed. Sucks building the 3DS with GBA games playable wasn't the direction they went.
 
D

Deleted member 57681

Unconfirmed Member
Pretty sure I missed some underrated gems, just saw the nightmare before Christmas game that looks very good this week too.

Anyone have any recommendations for less played gems? I will recommend riviera, a JRPG with unusual levelling up and combat mechanism and some dating sim elements plus mutilple endings; and one of the metabot games that play like a 2D smash clone, you can customise your bots too!
I busted out Double Dragon Advance this week because of the DD4 announcement, and it might just be the best Double Dragon game.
Hamtaro Ham Ham Heartbreak is a personal favourite of mine, but mostly because it's just so darn cute.
 

boltz

Member
If only it had a lit screen from the beginning. Shipping the GBA as it was with the screen that dark was one of the worst decisions they ever made

Man, your comment just takes me back to the days when back-lit screens weren't taken for granted. All those goofy light contraptions you could get!
 

linko9

Member
I was gonna come in here and shit on the GBA, but that's a very compelling OP. It did have a ton of good games, given its lifespan. But I'll never forgive it for having the shittiest, borderline radio-static sound of any piece of electronic equipment ever produced. A generation of handheld music rendered close to unlistenable. But yeah, I guess it had a bunch of good games.
 

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
My Game Boy Advance isn't pink, dude. It's fuschia. It says 'fuschia' on the box.

Tony Hawk was the only GBA game I had for a pretty long time. It was awesome. I've definitely spent more time with the GBA than any other handheld.
 
Man, for my birthday I was about to get a Gameboy Advance, but then the store guy told my parents it was best to wait a week more cause the Gameboy Advance SP was coming out. I didn't want to wait a week, I wanted to play the Gameboy Advance that day on my birthday but my dad convinced me to wait.

Man that was the longest week of my life, but it was soooooooooo freaking worth it. The machine with it's frontlight integrated LCD screen and the awesome portability clamshell design.

I'll never forget starting up my first gameboy advance game, Sonic Advance 2.
 

Gleethor

Member
This thread made me incredibly nostalgic for the early 2000s.

Man, every form of the GBA looked cool as shit. Original, SP and Micro.
 

alf717

Member
That Gamecube adapter was the shit. Weeks worth of hours of Pokemon and FFTA were played on the big(ger) screen. Also made local Advance Wars VS much easier and fun. Only downside was that it made Dual Strike on the tiny NDS screen feel like a downgrade in comparison :p

It was and still is. It got the most use out of me with long session of Mega Man Battle Network. I was hooked on the Game Cube and Game Boy Player during that era of gaming. For some reason I always remember the time I got the level 5 Bowl Man chip with the GBP and Wavebird.
 

fester

Banned
Great system with great games, but jesus christ what a terrible sound chip.

At least the lack of back/front light was a flaw you could partially fix yourself and would eventually be addressed by Nintendo with the updated SP and GB Micro. A real shame they left the audio in such a shitty condition. It taints an otherwise fantastic handheld. I still love my OG, SP, and Micro.
 
D

Deleted member 57681

Unconfirmed Member
The sound was crap, but man, I was still blown away by Castlevania's Kyrie Eleison barking out of the speakers on day 1. And dat stage 1 music.
Couldn't see shit though.
 
The GBA was truly a special little system. So many memories of playing Advance Wars, Pokemon Ruby, Super Mario World, Pokemon Pinball and Harvest Moon FoMT.

I aways felt like the DS's early games were very similar to the games made for GBA before they decided to make more inherent use of the DS features. Advance Wars Dual Strike, Lost Magic and Lunar Knights SCREAMED GBA to me.
 
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