The GBA was a life saver because 2D games disappeared almost entirely from home consoles starting this gen (outside of fighters). Fortunately, the GBA kept them alive.
Yeah, they are back now thanks to indies. But I'm talking about the PS2, GCN, and Xbox, which have a very limited selection of original 2D games (though the PS2 had a ton of compilations and 2D fighters).
The neo geo pocket colour (and its expensive counterpart the neo geo) also fulfilled this role, after PS1, Saturn and Jaguar had embraced 3d in a big way these had gorgeous 2d graphics and GBA kind of continued this
I thought it would be helpful to make a list of all the games mentioned in the video. Super Mario Advance Rayman Advance Sonic Advance Counter Punch Mario Golf Gunstar Future Heroes Mega Man Zero Mario Kart Legend of Zelda A Link To The Past Final Fantasy 6 Alien Hominid Castlevania Circle of the Moon Bubble Bobble Kuru Kuru Kururin Super Mario Advance 2 Advance Guardian Heroes Pokemon Emerald Advance War Metroid Fusion Wario Land 4 Astro Boy Golden Sun WarioWare Inc Sonic Advance 2 Pokemon Pinball F-Zero Maximum Velocity Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance Fire Emblem Advance Wars 2 Mario Tennis Sword of Mana Klonoa Mega Man Zero 2 Super Mario Advance 3 Metal Slug Advance Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen Metroid Zero Mission Mario vs Donkey Kong WarioWare Twisted Legend of Zelda Minish Cap Sonic Advance 3 Fire Emblem Sacred Stones Castlevania Aria of Sorrow Golden Sun The Lost Age Super Mario Advance 4 Mega Man Zero 3 Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga Final Fantasy 4 Mother 3
PathEtic ! ! So many more impressive and important things to do and think about ! You are both little children in your mentality , the baby should be ripped and taken from you when it is born and given to real adults to raise ! Shame on you and yours !
i agree about the wall jump being difficult to do on metroid, it really grinds my gears to see people do it so easily on the walkthroughs. nice list. greetings from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Drill dozer and boktai 3 definitely deserve a mention - they both do cool things with custom cartridges, but are really charming unique games in their own right too with some clever mechanics. Sigma star saga (RPG, but the battles are shmups), Cima: the enemy (an RTS RPG?!), and yggdra union are also pretty interesting, although the latter starts at deceptively tough before rapidly cranking up to hard as balls difficult.
The back-lit GBA SP AGS-101 could easily be crowned the greatest handheld system of all time, if we're judging handhelds solely on what they can natively run.(IE Soft-modded PSP doesn't apply here). It runs the already impressive Game Boy Advance library, the Game Boy Color library, and even colorizes Game Boy games. Some of my favorites for the system not already talked about in your video include Doom, Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku II, Gadget Racers, Batman Begins, Splinter Cell, Iridion 3D, Duke Nukem Advance and Double Dragon Advance.
@@finnhaverkamp 3 out of the set you mentioned. My personal favorite will always be 6. Also, note that 5 was a double release for the DS. The music and graphics were updated for the DS release. There is also voice acting.
One that I always enjoyed was Dragon Ball Z supersonic fighters. It was always good for a quick fight on the go, and did a good job of getting DBZ combat right on a handheld.
You could make a top 100 list and you'd still be missing somebody's favourite GBA game, the system is just THAT good! Here are some games I think are great and worth mentioning which aren't on your list (in no particular order): Iridion II, the Densetsu no Stafy series, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival, King of Fighters EX 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Final Fight One, Double Dragon Advance, River City Ransom EX, Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure, the Donkey Kong Country series, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch - Pichi Pichitto Live Start, Puyo Pop, Puyo Pop Fever, Mario Pinball Land, Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and 2, Avatar the Legend of Aang, Crash Bandicoot XS, Crash 2 N-Tranced, Doom 1 and 2, Gradius Galaxies, R-Type 3, Phalanx, Steel Empire, Top Gear Rally, F-Zero Climax, Konami Krazy Racers, Monkey Ball Jr, Smashing Drive, Rhythm Tengoku, Sega Arcade Gallery, Game & Watch Gallery 4, Super Star Shooter Advance (I know it's a homebrew game, but it's still great), Super Ghouls and Ghosts, the Ninja Turtles games, and I'm sure somebody else could still mention even more great GBA games that aren't in either of our lists...
Michirin9801 Yup, the system has a ton of great game! I'm in the minority of preferring the feel of the original version in my hands, but the SP definitely makes that screen a lot easier to see!
...and Pinball of the Dead, Goemon, Sega Arcade Gallery, SD Gundam, Lufia, Shining Soul, Boktai, Doom, CT Special Forces, Megaman and Bass, Shining Force, Pocky and Rocky, Onimusha Tactics, FF Tactics Advance, and so many more it's ridiculous.
Although I've already mentioned Doom and Sega Arcade Gallery, taking the games you and I mentioned and adding them to the ones in the video, you already get more than 100 games! My point is thus proven...
I couldn't imagine making a top 50 GBA game list.. soooooo many good games on the GBA and picking the top 20-30 would be crazy hard. Love GBA. Best handled system to date. I have close to 80 CIB games and around 30 loose carts.
Great video, i do feel i miss out on a few games. Street fighter alpha 3, a great port of the psx game with a huge roster. Few cuts were made to fit the gba but still amazing. Ninja cop, or ninja five - o in some regions. Amazing platformer with tight controls. Crash bandicoot xs. Small version of the beloved game that feels like a full version! Super puzzle fighter 2 turbo: very fun and challenging puzzler. Bruce Lee: nice action platformer with a good variety of moves and great controls
There use to be so many great options to go for!! To think they were all released within a few years! Now we are here waiting a year to get 1 new mario kart DLC cup with half of the tracks being remakes, in a game that was released almost 10 years ago.. I feel like the constant fight for best graphics and heaviest games just killed creativity. I think that was a great advantage about the portable consoles: the limited capacity of cartridge pushed developers to focus more on great gameplay rather than hyper realistic water reflection or plants movements
Man I spent soooo many hours as a kid playing TLOZ A Link to the Past 4swords edition…literally the only Zelda game I’ve 100% including the 4 swords part which you had to do to 100% the in game and get your very last item…this vid brings back quite a bit of nostalgia!!
I think Mega Man Zero 2 was the best in the series. The story hits its peak there, and I liked the balance between the levels and enemies the most. And of course, I had just way too much fun with the chain rod. I think the first TH-cam video I ever made was one showing off the chain rod.
final fantasy tactics is fabulous if you've never played it. Some of the most charming illustrations and music of any game I've played on any console. Surprisingly good story as well. Used to swap between that, fire emblem, metroid fusion, and castlevania.
Every top blah is so fantasy flooded. No sports, no shoot em ups. Like the tf? Baseball advance is still my fav. Legendary fielding and smooth and rewarding hitting. Mario golf is another great one.
Finn Haverkamp 2, 3 and 6 are most people’s favourites (I started with 2). 1 is a bit clunky but still fun (if you plan to play the whole series might as well start at 1). 5 is underrated, play the DS version. Just stay away from 4. So I’d say play 2 (and if you really like it): 1, 3, 5DS, 6. And then 4 if you crave more
While 4 is the neglected stepchild.. it has some cool innovation. Introduced Souls. Free Tournaments. Dark Soul. E-Reader. Zero Connectivity. Battlechip Gate. Either you love it. Or you prefer 1.2.3.5.6. I'll take the former. Multiplayer was super fun.
I completely disagree with the critisism of ruby and sapphire. The linearity and the it's completely unique Pokédex of Pokémon is what makes that game infinitely replayable for me. I always end up with the same party of Pokémon across all the other games and ruby and sapphire forces you to not do that. They are the best in the series in my opinion. I wish people would stop complaining about the national dex. I dont want to have the same Pokémon in every game, it's so boring and it's making the whole game series stale. Having new Pokémon in every game keeps it new and fresh.
Finally! Someone recognizes the Mega Man Zero games for the gems they are. I was surprised you left out 4 though, its personally my favorite in the series. Great vid
9:21 Thank you so much for your opinion :3 For me, Ruby and Sapphire were indeed depressing due to this link cable nonsense... And as you said a HUGE step down from Gen 2. I always thought, I was the only one who had that opinion..
I grew up with gba, I still have a July 2004 nintendo power magazine through 2005 from when i was 11 years old. Pokemon leaf green and fire red and emerald came out, the DS was coming that next holiday season and my neighbors had the cool flippy little SP with the convenient as hell back light, so for me the nostaligia is way up there...I still really only think there's like 20 good games lol. With that said, he missed out on GT Advance 3. An awesome over the top view racing game.
1. Pokémon Sapphire 2. Super Mario Advance 4 3. FF5 Advance 4. FF4 Advance 5. Fire Emblem 6. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror 7. Zelda A link to the past 8. Zelda MC 9. Golden Sun: The Lost Age 10.Pokémon Emerald
Sonic had a few additional great entries on the GBA, and I think you only mentioned Sonic Advance. I especially liked Sonic Advance 3 and Sonic Battle. Final Fantasy also had its Tactics game port in GBA. It was different than the other games; whether it was great is a matter of taste.
I would recommend would be The Sims: Bustin' Out GBA, I got it as a gift when I was younger because I was such a big fan of the pc version. Its sort of a free-roam RPG with a lot of aspects from the original game, has nice music, cool old school sims atmosphere. It was one of the last games I remember getting for the system and I played it a lot for the few years I owned it.
5:42 I don't want to be captain obvious but its actually called Four Swords, Four Swords Adventure was released for the Gamecube and allowed the use of a GBA as a controller.
Advance Wars is tactical strategy, but it's not a role-playing game....and Yoshi's Island had a whole set of new levels on GBA, 1 per world....btw, interesting to hear Maximum Velocity praised like that, personally I prefer GP Legend & Climax also worth mentioning: Mother 1 & 2 ( hey EarthBound remains my all time favorite game....wish the dual GBA port was localized :/ ) Rhythm Tengoku Final Fantasy V Advance Drill Dozer Breath of Fire ( port ) Breath of Fire II ( port ) F-Zero GP Legend F-Zero Climax Tomato Adventure Magical Vacation Sakura Momoko no Ukiuki Carnival Tales of Phantasia ( port ) Donkey Kong Country DKC 2 DKC 3 Mega Man & Bass Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
I enjoyed Pokémon mystery dungeon red rescue team as well as Lufia, Final fantasy 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, Breath of fire 2, hamtaro ham ham heartbreak, Summon night swordcraft story 2, as well as some of the others mentioned on your list like Mario and Luigi and the Golden Sun games and mother 3. I also had fun with dragon Ball legacy of goku 1 and 2 games and yuyu Hakusho spirit detective game.
I would've enjoyed seeing Final Fantasy V on your list. It really was Advanced, with features unavailable in the Playstation version, like four new job classes to switch between and new dungeons to try your hand at. Also, the story was very campy and enjoyably silly.
GBA FOREVER! By the way, hey, THGM? Are you familiar with a TH-camr named Sega Lord X? If not, check out his channel. He is a HUGE Sega historian and he covers anything Sega-related on his channel.
Oof hard one. I guess the castlevania and metroid games. Oh and that diablo like game. Baldurs gate you have to try that one top cat gaming man. Its a little rusty these days but still a diablo like game on an handheld inc loot and different characters YES PLEASE
Actually THGM Warioware Twusted isn't the only GBA title to have motion controls, there's a Yoshi game (Yoshi Tupsy Turvy I believe is called) also had motion control, and in before there was a Kirby game on the GBC.
I think you've done a great disservice to the world by not talking about the humorous and dynamic world of Final Fantasy 5. It's story doesn't take itself to seriously, but it's fun gameplay and unique leveling system made for a highly customizable experience that shouldn't be missed!
I find myself missing the mindless games that are enjoyable. Such as old Mario sonic etc. I have found myself revisiting the GBA entries alot recently.
Good list, lots of good sidescrolling and rpgs on that system, I remember playing Golden Sun on my clamshell GBA when I was at college The GBA and DS easily had the best libraries, only the SNES was finer
Legend of starfy series is probably worth a mention. Definitely worth a play if you've never experienced them. Theyre the gba hidden gem equivelent that ristar is to the megadrive. They never got a western release but arent text heavy enough to hinder gameplay although youll probably be missing out on the story. Deffo worth a look
The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood and The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood. alternate versions of KOF '99 and 2000 where the nests saga never happened and after the 3 sacred treasures; Kyo, Iori, and Chiziru, sealed Orochi, Kyo was found by a girl named Moe and there's also 10 sacred treasures instead of the usual 3 and it gets weird with a child version of Goenitz.
Holy crap, I had no clue Bubble Bobble was ported to GBA!! My mom and I used to play it for hours on the NES so it holds a very special place in my heart. Would love to place it on the go. Hopefully I can track down a copy. That doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you for the heads up, Mister Hat! The only game I would say you missed, and this is just a personal favorite of mine, is Double Dragon Advance. I think it's a great port plus adds in some fun new levels. I've seen some online that don't care for it, but I love it.
The GBA was a life saver because 2D games disappeared almost entirely from home consoles starting this gen (outside of fighters). Fortunately, the GBA kept them alive.
Octopath traveller, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Slain: Back from Hell, many more on Nintendo Switch.
Yeah, they are back now thanks to indies. But I'm talking about the PS2, GCN, and Xbox, which have a very limited selection of original 2D games (though the PS2 had a ton of compilations and 2D fighters).
Sorry the way I read your original comment I thought you were referencing the current gen.
goldenraven20
Old memories
The neo geo pocket colour (and its expensive counterpart the neo geo) also fulfilled this role, after PS1, Saturn and Jaguar had embraced 3d in a big way these had gorgeous 2d graphics and GBA kind of continued this
I thought it would be helpful to make a list of all the games mentioned in the video.
Super Mario Advance
Rayman Advance
Sonic Advance
Counter Punch
Mario Golf
Gunstar Future Heroes
Mega Man Zero
Mario Kart
Legend of Zelda A Link To The Past
Final Fantasy 6
Alien Hominid
Castlevania Circle of the Moon
Bubble Bobble
Kuru Kuru Kururin
Super Mario Advance 2
Advance Guardian Heroes
Pokemon Emerald
Advance War
Metroid Fusion
Wario Land 4
Astro Boy
Golden Sun
WarioWare Inc
Sonic Advance 2
Pokemon Pinball
F-Zero Maximum Velocity
Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance
Fire Emblem
Advance Wars 2
Mario Tennis
Sword of Mana
Klonoa
Mega Man Zero 2
Super Mario Advance 3
Metal Slug Advance
Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen
Metroid Zero Mission
Mario vs Donkey Kong
WarioWare Twisted
Legend of Zelda Minish Cap
Sonic Advance 3
Fire Emblem Sacred Stones
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
Golden Sun The Lost Age
Super Mario Advance 4
Mega Man Zero 3
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
Final Fantasy 4
Mother 3
*_Not all heroes wear capes._*
I miss pokemon on the gba.
I quit pokemon when it switched to ds.
Still waiting for the switch game to get me back into it.
Then what's the damn point of the video?
Really Nightmare in Dreamland over Amazing Mirror? That has to be a mistake
@@guywithglasses5309 He said Nightmare in Dreamland and I actually like that one better than the Amazing Mirror.
My pregnant wife [who is currently on bed rest] has a goal before baby arrives: Beat Final Fantasy VI on the GBA before her water breaks.... No joke!
how many more months or days are left?
She can do it!!
Denver Naicker She is 8.5 months with our 2nd child
Joey Parkhill no protection
PathEtic ! ! So many more impressive and important things to do and think about ! You are both little children in your mentality , the baby should be ripped and taken from you when it is born and given to real adults to raise ! Shame on you and yours !
literally the only gba list that even mentions Mother3
That’s literally what I thought too! I only really came here for Mother 3.
@Brendan Lewis Imagine gatekeeping the enjoyment of a children's game console in TH-cam comments.
The Mega man Zero games are some of my all time favorite games, so I'm really glad that you gave it a little attention.
Metroid Fusion is incredible, and holds up well today. Thank you for including it :-D
I bought an Anbernic rg531p last week and I am doing a research on which roms to download. Advance Wars is one of my favorites!
i agree about the wall jump being difficult to do on metroid, it really grinds my gears to see people do it so easily on the walkthroughs. nice list. greetings from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
I love the thumbnail. I wish i could see the rest of Lyn. Fire Emblem on the GBA was my first ever Fire Emblem game
Drill dozer and boktai 3 definitely deserve a mention - they both do cool things with custom cartridges, but are really charming unique games in their own right too with some clever mechanics. Sigma star saga (RPG, but the battles are shmups), Cima: the enemy (an RTS RPG?!), and yggdra union are also pretty interesting, although the latter starts at deceptively tough before rapidly cranking up to hard as balls difficult.
I know I'm late but... That thumbnail is amazing
I see Mother 3 on a GBA List, I hit like!
I love the GBA. It is my favourite handheld for a reason. I just wish I could afford some of the games you mentioned.
just use emulators
I have emulators, I have a GBA, DS, SNES, Sega one and PSX. I just like having the physical carts too.
What DS emulator you use? I've yet to find one that doesn't run like crap
I just use DESumE.
On my laptop.
The back-lit GBA SP AGS-101 could easily be crowned the greatest handheld system of all time, if we're judging handhelds solely on what they can natively run.(IE Soft-modded PSP doesn't apply here). It runs the already impressive Game Boy Advance library, the Game Boy Color library, and even colorizes Game Boy games.
Some of my favorites for the system not already talked about in your video include Doom, Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku II, Gadget Racers, Batman Begins, Splinter Cell, Iridion 3D, Duke Nukem Advance and Double Dragon Advance.
101 screen inside gba frame is the best for me
I watched this list to see if Legacy of Goku 2 appeared.
@@MakingGainz dragon ball advanced adventure and Super Sonic fighter are way better games.
I think megaman battle network series need some love
I'm going to play it for the first time. I've narrowed it down to 2 or 3. Which do you recommend?
If I were you I would play all 6 in order
Sorry but megaman zero series for gba is superior
@@finnhaverkamp 3 out of the set you mentioned. My personal favorite will always be 6. Also, note that 5 was a double release for the DS. The music and graphics were updated for the DS release. There is also voice acting.
@@finnhaverkamp Play all 6 in order
Great list! Good to see some love for Mega Man Zero, I really love Zero series. What do you think of Megaman Battle Network? I personally love it.
The Game Boy Advance is still one of my favorite systems!! Great video!
Nice Lynn artwork in the thumbnail 7w7
More content for later this evening! Excellent!
Now look at this. I get a GBA player and daddy hat man releases this video, nice.
with this quality of contents you really should have 10x your subscribers! Thanks for this great video!
One that I always enjoyed was Dragon Ball Z supersonic fighters. It was always good for a quick fight on the go, and did a good job of getting DBZ combat right on a handheld.
I would add V-Rally 3 and Colin McRae 2.0, great games for racing lovers.
That thumbnail is EXTRA THICC
What's the game?
@@JKL_1999 fire emblem 7
I could use the original. For uh, research.
It looks nothing like the actual lyn tho.....just some weird deviant art fantasy.
She's 15 you pervs!
You could make a top 100 list and you'd still be missing somebody's favourite GBA game, the system is just THAT good! Here are some games I think are great and worth mentioning which aren't on your list (in no particular order):
Iridion II, the Densetsu no Stafy series, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival, King of Fighters EX 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Final Fight One, Double Dragon Advance, River City Ransom EX, Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure, the Donkey Kong Country series, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch - Pichi Pichitto Live Start, Puyo Pop, Puyo Pop Fever, Mario Pinball Land, Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and 2, Avatar the Legend of Aang, Crash Bandicoot XS, Crash 2 N-Tranced, Doom 1 and 2, Gradius Galaxies, R-Type 3, Phalanx, Steel Empire, Top Gear Rally, F-Zero Climax, Konami Krazy Racers, Monkey Ball Jr, Smashing Drive, Rhythm Tengoku, Sega Arcade Gallery, Game & Watch Gallery 4, Super Star Shooter Advance (I know it's a homebrew game, but it's still great), Super Ghouls and Ghosts, the Ninja Turtles games, and I'm sure somebody else could still mention even more great GBA games that aren't in either of our lists...
Michirin9801 Yup, the system has a ton of great game! I'm in the minority of preferring the feel of the original version in my hands, but the SP definitely makes that screen a lot easier to see!
Yes to all of this. I'd also add Shaman King 1 and 2 (Castlevania clones developed by konami) Godzilla Domination and Ninja Cop.
...and Pinball of the Dead, Goemon, Sega Arcade Gallery, SD Gundam, Lufia, Shining Soul, Boktai, Doom, CT Special Forces, Megaman and Bass, Shining Force, Pocky and Rocky, Onimusha Tactics, FF Tactics Advance, and so many more it's ridiculous.
Although I've already mentioned Doom and Sega Arcade Gallery, taking the games you and I mentioned and adding them to the ones in the video, you already get more than 100 games! My point is thus proven...
Champion 2D Rob Thank you! _Shaman King_ fell below my radar.
A great selection from a true connaisseur! Really enjoyed this video.
Another great video Top Hat Gamer. A very informative and very entertaining watch, great listing for a fantastic system 👍
My favorites are Mother 3, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, and Pokemon Emerald.
Thank you for making this video man. It showed me the games that I forgot the names of that I used to play as a child. Great vid
I used to play gba games so much as a kid- I’m 25 now and I’ve started buying them again and I can’t wait to get a custom ips console
Feels like you played this one EXTREMELY safe
I couldn't imagine making a top 50 GBA game list.. soooooo many good games on the GBA and picking the top 20-30 would be crazy hard. Love GBA. Best handled system to date. I have close to 80 CIB games and around 30 loose carts.
A lot of bad ones too
@liamconverse8950 yeah also a lot of bad games for GB, GBC, DS, 3DS, Atari ( all systems ), NES and other systems as well lol.
I'm still surprised neither Summon night swordcraft story 1 or 2 made this list. Great story, and a unique battle style for an rpg.
I have to second that! Such great games with great visuals, story, music, mechanics.. all around mint 👌
Great video, i do feel i miss out on a few games. Street fighter alpha 3, a great port of the psx game with a huge roster. Few cuts were made to fit the gba but still amazing. Ninja cop, or ninja five - o in some regions. Amazing platformer with tight controls. Crash bandicoot xs. Small version of the beloved game that feels like a full version! Super puzzle fighter 2 turbo: very fun and challenging puzzler. Bruce Lee: nice action platformer with a good variety of moves and great controls
Loved this system. It's like a portable SNES.
But without Chrono trigger :c
And its twice as strong!
There use to be so many great options to go for!! To think they were all released within a few years! Now we are here waiting a year to get 1 new mario kart DLC cup with half of the tracks being remakes, in a game that was released almost 10 years ago.. I feel like the constant fight for best graphics and heaviest games just killed creativity. I think that was a great advantage about the portable consoles: the limited capacity of cartridge pushed developers to focus more on great gameplay rather than hyper realistic water reflection or plants movements
Coolness, beautiful 16-bit pixel art.
God bless.
Man I spent soooo many hours as a kid playing TLOZ A Link to the Past 4swords edition…literally the only Zelda game I’ve 100% including the 4 swords part which you had to do to 100% the in game and get your very last item…this vid brings back quite a bit of nostalgia!!
Where's the artwork of Lyn from?
that's what I want to know
Street fighter 5 chun li pose
revolverwing i think
No DBZ Legacy of Goku 2 or Buu's Fury? Breath of Fire 2? Bomberman Tournament?
Good show Top Hat love the list. Yeaaaaahh!!!
I think Mega Man Zero 2 was the best in the series. The story hits its peak there, and I liked the balance between the levels and enemies the most. And of course, I had just way too much fun with the chain rod. I think the first TH-cam video I ever made was one showing off the chain rod.
final fantasy tactics is fabulous if you've never played it. Some of the most charming illustrations and music of any game I've played on any console. Surprisingly good story as well. Used to swap between that, fire emblem, metroid fusion, and castlevania.
Surprised he didn't mention FFTA it's in my top 5 GBA games.
5:35 I really wish they didn't make him scream when he uses his sword
"metroid land 4" 11:30
Super Mario world music brings me back every time.
Nicely done mate! Very informative as usual! 👍🏻
Great list man! I think I missed far too many good GBA games but considering getting into collecting for it!
got a gba just no games!
Jack Of All Hell yeah! Great game!
Yoshi's Universal Gravitation on GBA also used motion controls THGM
Every top blah is so fantasy flooded. No sports, no shoot em ups. Like the tf? Baseball advance is still my fav. Legendary fielding and smooth and rewarding hitting. Mario golf is another great one.
mother 3 was my favorite as well
Castlevania was great. Different card combinations gave you different powers there were so many cards too
Mega man Battle network 1-6 are some of my favourites. Lord of the Rings the the towers and return of the king are also amazing hidden gems.
I'm going to play it for the first time. I've narrowed it down to 2 or 3. Which do you recommend?
Finn Haverkamp 2, 3 and 6 are most people’s favourites (I started with 2). 1 is a bit clunky but still fun (if you plan to play the whole series might as well start at 1). 5 is underrated, play the DS version.
Just stay away from 4.
So I’d say play 2 (and if you really like it): 1, 3, 5DS, 6. And then 4 if you crave more
While 4 is the neglected stepchild.. it has some cool innovation. Introduced Souls. Free Tournaments. Dark Soul. E-Reader. Zero Connectivity. Battlechip Gate.
Either you love it. Or you prefer 1.2.3.5.6.
I'll take the former.
Multiplayer was super fun.
Basically no one mentioned Lyn Leg
I’d put Advance Wars 2 in my top handheld games of all-time too! In fact, it’d be up there in my favourites list full stop.
onaretrotip I only intended to sink 5 minutes into gameplay capture of each game for this list. I lost an hour to Advance Wars 2 lol
Ha, that does not surprise me. I've been playing it again recently... almost every night for months!
onaretrotip Congrats on the channel growth by the way, well deserved! You will be in the 100k sub club in know time.
Ah, thank you very much!
Advance Wars 2 is my favorite GBA game and the one I've played the most by a country mile. It's one of the most addicting games I've ever played.
Watching this now to get a personal liking for a future collection of GBA games for the Pocket Analogue
I completely disagree with the critisism of ruby and sapphire. The linearity and the it's completely unique Pokédex of Pokémon is what makes that game infinitely replayable for me. I always end up with the same party of Pokémon across all the other games and ruby and sapphire forces you to not do that. They are the best in the series in my opinion. I wish people would stop complaining about the national dex. I dont want to have the same Pokémon in every game, it's so boring and it's making the whole game series stale. Having new Pokémon in every game keeps it new and fresh.
Superb, definitive list! Subscribed because of this vid.
2 weeks ago I released another video on 50 great GBA games, this time more obscure ones if you care to check it out.
@@TopHatGamingManChannel Thank you, will do! :)
I love the GBA, it has such a great library of games and overall, it's one of my favourite systems ever, along with SNES and 3DS.
Love the Megaman battle network series, I feel like I’m the only one that plays them since I’ve never seen it mentioned in articles or videos. Lol.
Finally! Someone recognizes the Mega Man Zero games for the gems they are. I was surprised you left out 4 though, its personally my favorite in the series. Great vid
It's criminal that I haven't seen Pokemon Mystery dungeon red/blue rescue team on any of these lists so far!
Suprised to see a Donkey Kong Country game missing from this list, especially with the use of Sticker Brush Symphony from 2! Good list all the same :)
9:21 Thank you so much for your opinion :3 For me, Ruby and Sapphire were indeed depressing due to this link cable nonsense... And as you said a HUGE step down from Gen 2. I always thought, I was the only one who had that opinion..
Very good list. You were missing Breath of Fire 1 and 2. If it was there I might have missed it.
I grew up with gba, I still have a July 2004 nintendo power magazine through 2005 from when i was 11 years old. Pokemon leaf green and fire red and emerald came out, the DS was coming that next holiday season and my neighbors had the cool flippy little SP with the convenient as hell back light, so for me the nostaligia is way up there...I still really only think there's like 20 good games lol. With that said, he missed out on GT Advance 3. An awesome over the top view racing game.
1. Pokémon Sapphire
2. Super Mario Advance 4
3. FF5 Advance
4. FF4 Advance
5. Fire Emblem
6. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
7. Zelda A link to the past
8. Zelda MC
9. Golden Sun: The Lost Age
10.Pokémon Emerald
Sonic had a few additional great entries on the GBA, and I think you only mentioned Sonic Advance. I especially liked Sonic Advance 3 and Sonic Battle.
Final Fantasy also had its Tactics game port in GBA. It was different than the other games; whether it was great is a matter of taste.
Fantastic video
I think that Rhythm Tengoku deserves a spot on that list, it's a classic!
I would recommend would be The Sims: Bustin' Out GBA, I got it as a gift when I was younger because I was such a big fan of the pc version.
Its sort of a free-roam RPG with a lot of aspects from the original game, has nice music, cool old school sims atmosphere. It was one of the last games I remember getting for the system and I played it a lot for the few years I owned it.
This. Even my Switch and 3DS spoiled younger post 2000 era brother loves it for its quirky humor.
The three *CT Special Forces* games are my GBA top picks.
They are very like *Metal Slug* only with more variety.
You are cool man. I hope we're neighbors and enjoy playing gba. I'm still playing games on that console.
Great video. I’ve seen 16 out of that list I’d like to get hold of ☺️👍
Lol the thumbnail looks like a mix of Lyn and Chun li
5:42 I don't want to be captain obvious but its actually called Four Swords, Four Swords Adventure was released for the Gamecube and allowed the use of a GBA as a controller.
Megaman Zero is my fav on the platform
Advance Wars is tactical strategy, but it's not a role-playing game....and Yoshi's Island had a whole set of new levels on GBA, 1 per world....btw, interesting to hear Maximum Velocity praised like that, personally I prefer GP Legend & Climax
also worth mentioning:
Mother 1 & 2 ( hey EarthBound remains my all time favorite game....wish the dual GBA port was localized :/ )
Rhythm Tengoku
Final Fantasy V Advance
Drill Dozer
Breath of Fire ( port )
Breath of Fire II ( port )
F-Zero GP Legend
F-Zero Climax
Tomato Adventure
Magical Vacation
Sakura Momoko no Ukiuki Carnival
Tales of Phantasia ( port )
Donkey Kong Country
DKC 2
DKC 3
Mega Man & Bass
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
Gba is my favorite console ever
Handheld
Handheld console
I enjoyed Pokémon mystery dungeon red rescue team as well as Lufia, Final fantasy 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, Breath of fire 2, hamtaro ham ham heartbreak, Summon night swordcraft story 2, as well as some of the others mentioned on your list like Mario and Luigi and the Golden Sun games and mother 3. I also had fun with dragon Ball legacy of goku 1 and 2 games and yuyu Hakusho spirit detective game.
I would've enjoyed seeing Final Fantasy V on your list. It really was Advanced, with features unavailable in the Playstation version, like four new job classes to switch between and new dungeons to try your hand at. Also, the story was very campy and enjoyably silly.
If you get Super Mario Bros Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 on the Wii U Virtual Console, it has the bonus e-reader card stages! Fun fact!
GBA FOREVER! By the way, hey, THGM? Are you familiar with a TH-camr named Sega Lord X? If not, check out his channel. He is a HUGE Sega historian and he covers anything Sega-related on his channel.
Oof hard one. I guess the castlevania and metroid games. Oh and that diablo like game. Baldurs gate you have to try that one top cat gaming man.
Its a little rusty these days but still a diablo like game on an handheld inc loot and different characters YES PLEASE
Super Robot Taisen Original Generation 1 & 2. that series was my childhood.
GBA title games cost around $50 to $80+ during those days.
They are worth buying.
Actually THGM Warioware Twusted isn't the only GBA title to have motion controls, there's a Yoshi game (Yoshi Tupsy Turvy I believe is called) also had motion control, and in before there was a Kirby game on the GBC.
Great you mentioned that.
I think you've done a great disservice to the world by not talking about the humorous and dynamic world of Final Fantasy 5. It's story doesn't take itself to seriously, but it's fun gameplay and unique leveling system made for a highly customizable experience that shouldn't be missed!
Good video but you need to put the title of the game on the screen somewhere for a moment. Would be a of great use to use. Thanks.
I love Gameboy Advance especially The Legend Of Zelda : A Link To The Past
whats next? mega man advance? mario kart advance? mario golf advance? final fantasy advance?
I find myself missing the mindless games that are enjoyable. Such as old Mario sonic etc. I have found myself revisiting the GBA entries alot recently.
Good list, lots of good sidescrolling and rpgs on that system, I remember playing Golden Sun on my clamshell GBA when I was at college
The GBA and DS easily had the best libraries, only the SNES was finer
Mother 3 dude. Easily best gba game in my opinion.
Legend of starfy series is probably worth a mention. Definitely worth a play if you've never experienced them. Theyre the gba hidden gem equivelent that ristar is to the megadrive. They never got a western release but arent text heavy enough to hinder gameplay although youll probably be missing out on the story. Deffo worth a look
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Súper Ghouls N Ghost
Megaman Battle Network 1-6
Megaman & Bass
Long live the GBA!! :)
I loved the GBA, but man oh man how I have ALWAYS wished they just added two more buttons!
The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood and The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood. alternate versions of KOF '99 and 2000 where the nests saga never happened and after the 3 sacred treasures; Kyo, Iori, and Chiziru, sealed Orochi, Kyo was found by a girl named Moe and there's also 10 sacred treasures instead of the usual 3 and it gets weird with a child version of Goenitz.
Holy crap, I had no clue Bubble Bobble was ported to GBA!! My mom and I used to play it for hours on the NES so it holds a very special place in my heart. Would love to place it on the go. Hopefully I can track down a copy. That doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you for the heads up, Mister Hat!
The only game I would say you missed, and this is just a personal favorite of mine, is Double Dragon Advance. I think it's a great port plus adds in some fun new levels. I've seen some online that don't care for it, but I love it.