Must-Have GBA Games For Big Screen?

Thanks to several readers for pointing out the IGN Pocket summary picking their 15 must-have GameBoy Advance titles for those who've bought the GameBoy Player add-on for the GameCube, and so are getting a chance to play GBA games on their TV sets for the first time. The authors have "..gone through the GameBoy Advance library, and hand-picked 15 titles in the collection that we'd consider 'can't miss' games on the handheld." Picks include obvious class acts like Advance Wars 2 and Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow, as well as less well-known titles such as Ninja Five-O and Puyo Pop.

Comments

Puyo Pop

[Craig Maloney]

Puyo Pop is a must-have anyway. Go Arle! :)

Re:Puyo Pop

[Webz]

Puyo Pop is a rehash of games like Kirby's Avalanche and Dr. Robotnik's Bean Machine. Does anyone happen to know what the original game was?

Re:Puyo Pop

[Craig Maloney]

The original game was Puyo Puyo.

Fire Emblem

[Gr33nNight]

If any of you liked Advanced Wars and want a fantasy slant to it, pick up Fire Emblem when it gets released over here. If you have played Shining Force, you know what Fire Emblem is going to be like. Personally I cant wait!

The List

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure it's just my setup, but with my add blocker on the webpage is unreadable. With the blocker disabled, it never finished downloading. All I wanted was to see the list. Here it is:

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Konami's Collectors Series: Arcade Advance
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Metroid Fusion
Ninja Five-O
Pokemon: Ruby Version/Sapphire Version
Puyo Pop
Sonic Advance 2
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
Wario Ware: Mega Microgame$
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

They still make the FamiCom? & Game Over

[Hollinger]

Q: The Famicom (NES) recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary, your thoughts?

Fortunately, many people have the chance to enjoy it. It became impossible to procure a fixed number of parts to continue manufacturing the console, so production will stop this year. Our intention however is to keep the Famicom alive. There were clearly masterpieces of software available for it, and we're examining how we can keep those titles alive with today's technology.

Are they still making the FamiCom (NES, whatever)? I really, really one want one of the top loading variety... If I can get it new, I'd be one happy geek. I've been a Nintendo convert since my first NES back in the day.

Anyone ever read Game Over, a book about the rise (and fall) of Nintendo? It's a great read, giving loads of history and insight into the game maker, and the business (and fun) of gaming. Check out the amazon.com entry for it here. By the way, I snipped off the extra bits of the URL, so there's no referral code, or session ID.

Re:They still make the FamiCom? & Game Over

[Echnin]

Slashdot linked to a guide for going to Japan and buying video games a while back, and it talked about getting old consoles and stuff. I think that going to Japan and getting a Famicom might be the easiest thing to do. I'm not sure what you mean by a "top-loading" variety, but I know that the Japanese one was different from the European one; more I don't remember. And the European NES cartridges looked like the American SNES cartridges. But I don't have that much clarity here, as much of this information comes from reading Nintendo Power (or Nintendomagasinet as it was known in Sweden) in the early '90's. I don't know how I'll be able to bring back all the stuff I want to bring back from Japan when I go there as an exchange student next year.

Re:They still make the FamiCom? & Game Over

[Gr33nNight]

In America, towards the end of the NES's life span, Nintendo released a top loading NES. This was great because you didnt have to mess with a broken spring or other stuff wearing out like you had to with the old NES.

Re:They still make the FamiCom? & Game Over

[drinkypoo]

I just gave two of them to someone I met on efnet#california as part of a large trade of my vintage video game stuff for a bunch of computer stuff.

You can pick them up at flea markets, at least in California, with some regularity.

WarioWare, Inc.

[DJayC]

WarioWare, Inc. is (surprisingly) one of my favorite games. It's quite simple: you play tons of mini games, close to 200, for about 5 seconds each in rapid succession. The better you do, the faster it gets. Once you beat all the themed levels (including a classic gaming level where you play classic games) you can then try to get high scores on each individual mini game. There are also hidden 2 player games (2 players at the same time on the same gameboy), and hidden full length games. It's a lot of fun, and can keep you occupied for hours. One of the most original games I've seen on the GBA to date. Good stuff!

Re:WarioWare, Inc.

[Gr33nNight]

The 2 player minigames are a whole lot better with the GBP. You dont need to scrunch up anymore with one GBA.

AdvWars ooooo!

[Komarosu]

Well, if advance wars 1 is anything to go by the 2 will rock. Atm ive got a standoff with a CPU player fighting over a bridge, the lines havn't moved for over 100 turns, both maxed money, both with about 5 factories...heres day 172 *sigh*

Re:AdvWars ooooo!

[Gr33nNight]

Yeah, in Advanced Wars 2 you get AT/STs :)

Re:AdvWars ooooo!

[Chris Mattern]

I liked AW2. It's definitely more of the same; they haven't done anything startling or revolutionary to the game. But it's such a *good* same that it's worth getting. The new campaign is very good, with nice new scenario concepts. You have the new unit, the neotank, which actually doesn't shake things up that much. It's a better medium tank, but it doesn't dominate mediums the way mediums dominate small tanks. New terrain, including fortifications (which only show up for Black Hole in the campaign, alas), volcanos and most interestingly, pipes. Pipes completely block movement (even air), but some pipe squares are "seams" that can be destroyed by attacking them. It makes a very interesting addition to terrain strategy. Eight new COs, the existing COs have been profitably tweaked for better balance, and you now have CO "super powers" where you can forgo using your regular power and let your meter continue to fill to get a *really* devastating effect. And the AI has been nicely improved; it's no longer quite so fixated on APCs and is generally harder to decoy. Still cheats some in fog of war, though.

Chris Mattern

Re:AdvWars ooooo!

[Chris Mattern]

Well that's one way to look at neotanks...I wish they really were that cool. First time I saw neos, I thought, "Pigs. With long legs."

Chris Mattern

Re:AdvWars ooooo!

[Shadarr]

I'm just glad they came out with a sequel that is as good as the first. I didn't really want to have to buy a copy of the first game off Ebay, and the chances of finding it in a physical store were arbitrarily close to zero. Now, if only I could convince my girlfriend to get over her irrational fear of the tiny screen, we could play multiplayer on our train trip across Canada.

Re:AdvWars ooooo!

[Chris Mattern]

Is it that hard to find in Canada? I noticed just yesterday that my local Sam Goody had AW racked right next to their copies of AW2.

Chris Mattern

Re:AdvWars ooooo!

[Shadarr]

I saw a copy in EB before I had my GBA (it was on order from a place that sold them with the Afterburner preinstalled). I decided to buy MarioKart as my first game instead, and I've never seen it in a store since.

what about TETRIS?

[nsda's_deviant]

This is going to sound like a flame but my girlfriend & sister both itch to play tetris on the bigscreen. EGM called it the #1 game in the world in their 100th issue and people still have their Marios and Animal Crossing but their love for Tetris never never dies. Even with the black and white version, Tetris on the bigscreen would still put hours and hours of play in a comfy lazyboy recliner instead of neck arched back bending gameplay. Try finding the play of Tetris on the GameCube and all you'll get are sorry remakes. This is what makes the GameBoy/GameCube adapter a killer app for enthusiasts, hours of gameplay on a comfy TV.

Re:what about TETRIS?

[damiangerous]

There's some Tetris clones out there for the Dreamcast, I have a couple of them. If they want to play it that badly pick up a cheap DC.

Re:what about TETRIS?

[drinkypoo]

Probably the neatest way to play tetris on the big screen is to get Dreamtendo 2000 for Dreamcast. It's a NES emulator with a superfuckload of roms on it, including three tetris variants, which includes tengen tetris, one of the most sought-after NES games ever produced. (And one which I have NEVER seen.) One of the tetrises on it is JUST like the arcade.

Re:what about TETRIS?

[Randar the Lava Liza]

Actually if you pick up a flash2advance cartridge and then download PogoShell you can load up a few hundred NES ROMs on the cartridge and play your good ol' NES games on the go or on the gameboy player. PogoShell also can play GBA ROMs, play old Frotz games like Hitchhiker's Guide, and even read text files (like books from Project Gutenberg.)

So there's a lot you can do with that spiffy Gameboy Player. If you have a GameCube, it's a no-brainer, you have to get one. If you're getting a new GameCube you can get a GBA Player for free. So worth it!

Re:what about TETRIS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Success-hk overcharges. Look around a bit and you can find a 256Mb cart and linker shipped for about $15 less than success-hk without adding in shipping.

I ordered one from www.dcslinks.com for like USD120 shipped free. It arrived in 4 days, and I promptly loaded pogoshell, an ass load of NES roms, my favorite .MOD music and some project guttenberg stuff (they have some cool epic poetry, which lends itself well to the screen width and is easy to read in little bits.) onto it. I'm glad I have a NiMH GBA dock, or I'd have spent another 120 on batteries by now...

I don't think it will slow my purchase of GBA games, but it concerns me that others will.
I'll probably still pick up a GBAplayer... wonder if the F2A cark will work in it> NES on the GBA on the GC would be crazy.

Wing Commander Prophecy

[PeteyG]

This is a groundbreaking game on a handheld console... the PC port of Wing Commander Prophecy (3d space combat game with Mark Hamil) is wonderful on GBA. It uses a nifty 3d engine called Blue Roses to faithfully reproduce the flying and fighting experience that Prophecy was on the PC.

There's no full motion video, though (big surprise, eh?) like in the original. The story is conveyed through 3d cutscenes and headshots of the characters with text dialogue.

All in all a great game, and extra wonderful on the big screen!

Prophecy GBA

I'd add...

[robson]

*Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
*007: Nightfire
*Rock N' Roll Racing

Re:I'd add...

[PenguinMasterInfinit]

This is a list of must-have games for the gameboy player, the GC version of Nightfire is far superior.

Gameboy player (multiplayer)

[standsolid]

is the gameboy player capable of multiplayer features ?? by that i mean can you multiplayer using only yout gmaecue and a split screen? if not can the gameboy player be used as multiplayer with other gameboy players/advances? i really want four swrods if it can :p

Re:Gameboy player (multiplayer)

[Anonymous Coward]

The GameBoy player doesn't do split-screen. However, it does support multiplayer the same way it would if you had several GameBoy Advance: simply consider the GBPlayer as an extra GBA. That way, you can play with up to 4 people, each one with his screen (one on the TV, the others on their handhelds). This works for both single-cartridge and mutiple cartridge modes.

That means you need a GBA / GBA SP for each extra player, with the relevent number of cables to plug the handhelds to the GameCube.

Re:Gameboy player (multiplayer)

[mdbales]

You can't play split screen, but you can connect it to other gameboy advances. The instructions say not to hook up to other gameboy players, but I'm not sure if there's any truth to that.

Re:Gameboy player (multiplayer)

[gearheadsmp]

For most GBA games, you have to have one GBA/GBA Player per person, excluding turn-based pass-it-around games like Advance Wars 1/2. Too bad, because most of the Nintendo published games support the "1 cart, 4 players" philosophy that lets you play multiplayer with 3 other GBA owners using just 1 cartridge.

That's a bit unfair, IMO

[N10sb2002]

Whoever has the GB Player can see everything clearly and on a fullscreen and the other people just have a dinky GBA. Unless it is a SP.

The scoop from the horse's mouth

[gearheadsmp]

I finally found an article detailing the multiplayer details of the GB Player.

Sonic Advance 2

[PenguinMasterInfinit]

It has Sonic Advance 2 on the list but I think it is inferior to the original Genesis Sonic Games which are on the Sonic Mega Collection for GC.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit not that good

[Anonymous Coward]

Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc should be on the list instead. The graphics and sound in this game are incredible as is the gameplay. Mario Kart is not bad but it was too easy, I beat it very quickly.

Lady Sia

[whiteinge]

Lady Sia is a great platformer that went almost completely unnoticed when it was released. It has gorgeous backgrounds and animations that really shine when viewed on a TV. Playing it on a TV also made it easier to deal with the brutal hit-detection in the game.

Re:Lady Sia

[Anonymous Coward]

it's not that good.
But Rayman 3 should be on the list.