One underrated game that I highly recommend is Summon Night Swordcraft Story. It’s like a standard RPG with dungeon crawling and weapon crafting aspects, but the gameplay shifts to almost like a 2D beat-‘em-up style (closest I can compare to is like Zelda 2) whenever you encounter an enemy.
I love this game, the story is very simple yet fun and enjoyable, all characters are really interesting and well developed, the soundtrack is great, graphics are great, the gameplay and the overall systems are all pretty fun and mix up in kind of a unique way
The sequel is even better! Better story pacing, has weapon upgrades, forgeable special attacks/abilities. It's possibly the best GBA game - and tgats coming from huge Minish Cap fan
01. Klonoa 2 dream champ tournament 02. Scurge Hive 03. Iridion 2 04. Ninja five-o 05. Gt advance 3 pro concept racing 06. Astro boy omega factor 07. Medabots metabee 08. Boktai 09. Zone of the enders - the fist of mars 10. Yggdra union
@@thatvideogamesshow Coming from a fan of the GBA who has always been pissed off that we never saw these games be put on lists of best GBA games (which is understandable because of a stupid lack of recognition), thank you so much for giving these criminally underrated GBA games (no pun intended) the light of day!
This is a refreshing thing - someone on TH-cam making a “hidden gems” video about games that are actually that! Great work! I’m going to look into a few of the ones I’d never heard of!
@@martinde-serres8724 - Oh of course. My point was that he's the ONLY one I've personally seen that actually has what I'd call 'hidden gems' in the lineup. Stuff that I've either never heard of or had completely forgotten about since they released. Either way, it's a compliment to TVGS :D
Absolutely glad Klonoa got some love here, and am even more stoked for the ports recently announced. Wish they'd included the GBA games too but I'll take what I can get at this point.
@@hong10ly70 Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is a compilation of both Door to Phantomile and Lunatea’s Veil. They’re both HD remakes and are on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Steam on the PC. I’m glad it is now available for purchase and just in time for the series’ 25th anniversary. Wahoo!
Another greatly underrated GBA game to me is Sigma Star Saga, a horizontal shooter RPG with metroidvania elements, I found it pretty cool when I played it and I totally recommend to take a look at it.
I picked that game up last year, the box was a bit damaged but the game was sealed and everything inside was like new. And it only set me back 40 bucks. Just recently I bought Scurge Hive also sealed for real cheap :)
Se no vídeo tiver Boktai eu automaticamente estarei aqui..... kkkkkkkkkkkk Bom vídeo cara, eu realmente gostei que você colocou boktai nesse vídeo :) translate: If the video has boktai, I'll automatically be here....... LOL Good video man, i really liked that you put boktai in this video :) nota: eu não sei escrever direito em inglês kkkkkkkkk Note: I don't know how to write so much in English LOL
Yeah Ninja five-0 is underrated, which is why it's been on every hidden gem list since racketboy did this almost twenty years ago, and it costs $150 for a loose cartridge, no demand there.
My favorite GBA game back then was The Urbz: Sims in the City. Very underrated IMO! The GBA/DS version is a completely different game than the console version. The graphics are amazing for a GBA game, the story is simple, but a lot of fun, the characters are varied and memorable and the music is some of the best I've heard in a GBA game. If you want to check the music out: you can find a video with the full OST, completely remastered on the YT-channel of the original composer, Ian Stocker. The Urbz has an (semi) open world, a lot of great mini games, multiple apartments you can rent and furniture, secret rooms to discover and more. It's the perfect game to play if you just want to relax. Would highly recommend! And if you want more after you've finished Urbz: It's predecessor, Sims Bustin' Out, is very similar and very good as well. It has very similar gameplay and graphics. It's a little less polished than The Urbz, but just as fun. If I could only play one I would recommend Urbz over Sims Bustin' Out though, just because it's more polished and more memorable.
You're videos are always informative, to see how developers can push hardware to its limits and come up with interesting ideas like the solar cartridge.
Boktai is particularly cool because the sensor has basically made it immune to emulation. Sad that it means it's stayed relatively "unknown" despite being a very well received game but at the same time - nice that there are still a few games out there which keep their mystique! Playing through it on a backlit gameboy, actually trying to get some light on the console, is a really cool idea that's still extremely distinct.
There’s a patch that removes the need for actual sun I think, but it is much more fun to actually play it the way it was intended to be! Thanks for watching 🙂
@@thatvideogamesshow that's quite cool! Never doubt the ability of modders and ROM creators to overcome basically every single barrier to playing games haha
I came across Yggdra Union on the PSP (Rom). Didn't know it was for GBAas well. Same for Riviera the Promised Land (RPG). Riviera was a beautiful game - I first encountered on Bandai's Swan Crystal (RIP, lovely console but never released out West I think). Later I saw a copy of Riviera on GBA. and then on PSP (PSP had the nicer graphics).
Yggdra Union was the friggin bestest. The most underrated game in the whole list, I daresay. I swear TVGS, keep bringing up my childhood back like this.... and I'll watch more of your videos!
Yggdra Union is basically: *_"What if we overthrow the evil Emperor that burned our kingdom to the ground and then push our ambitions further and murder the Gods themselves? Hehe, just kidding... unless...?"_*
Scruge hive was really fun, I thought the Ds version was a sequel, sadly it wasn't. Ninja five 0 was truly a surprise, didn't think I could like it, cause the graphics wasn't for me. But the gameplay made me stick it out. Metabots was and is one of my top 3 favorites games on GBA. And calling it a knock off is insulting, the only thing it had was collecting parts, but the whole system was unique. Boktai really made me mad, I really didn't want to go outside to play it. Yggdra was cool, but I prefer the advance war style.
Medabots was slightly annoying with how you needed a very rare item to run from fights, which could get tedious but it was still great. Shame we never got any of the other games in that sub series outside Japan but if we had to only get one pair, those were apparently the best ones to get.
Some more hidden gems: *Shining Soul 2* - Awesome, addicting action RPG. If you want something like Diablo on the GBA, pick this. Also a massive improvement over the first title. *The King Of Fighters EX2 Howling Blood* - There's the "impossible" Street Fighter Alpha 3 port and the first GBA KoF stinks in comparison but EX2 is somehow even better than SFA3! *Harcore Pinball* - This is actually one of the best flat 2D-scrolling pinball games. Has 4 dope tables that are better than those in "Epic Pinball" which was the 2D pinball reference before. *Ultimate Card Games* - giant collection of well implemented card games. I could play Video Poker for hours. Secretly got the most playtime of my GBA cardridges (and I own a lot).
Boktai was ahead of its time. If it released today on mobile phones it would've been much more successful because these days smartphones have build solar sensors.
I've had a Game Boy Advance since the early 2000's, but I have not heard of any of these games before accept for Astro Boy, a lot of them do look like fun to play and are worth trying, thank you for making a nice list of GBA games I'd like to try sometime, you did a nice job TVGS ✌️
One Underrated GBA game I grew up with was Monster House, it is pretty much top down Legend of Zelda combined with Resident Evil, the GameCube and Ps2 version took me 3 days to beat but the GBA took me years to beat and there were some moments that legit gave me a good jump scare
Nice video but just wanted to point out that Yggdra Union has nothing to do with Disgaea. It was developed by Sting Entertainment, not Nippon Ichi. They later went on to create Gungnir for the PSP which is very similar in style to the Yggdra games.
Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and ESPECIALLY 2, deserve to be here. Btw Ninja Five-0 was my first GBA game. It was stolen from me though. Now its impossible to buy
10:10 If memory serves, Astro Boy was overshadowed by a major console release tied to a flop movie at the time. People simply didn't realise that Astro Boy on the GBA was a different, much better game.
The two I were most expecting to see were Drill Dozer and Gunstar Super Heroes. Treasure got plenty of love in this video but Gunstar Super Heroes was woefully underrated when it launched. Ditto for Drill Dozer, a unique platformer from the developers of Pokémon. It came out after the DS, and the same year as Pokémon Emerald, and just got lost in the shuffle.
@@paydrohellawave3611 Drill Dozer is legit in my top GBA games. WarioWare Twisted is pretty underrated too but I think more people may appreciate it after its games were featured in WarioWare Gold.
Fun fact: the European version of Drill Dozer, with its translations in European languages, was officially published for the first time on the Wii U's Virtual Console.
Ninja Five O is like $400 minimum if you check price charting. If it's underrated it's because people aren't talking about it anymore because of how obscenely expensive it is.
So glad I have the 2 Klonoa GBA games (that released in the west). I love the Klonoa platform games. I’m amazed how much they manage to get from the ‘grabbing an enemy to double jump’ mechanic.
I got Boktai the day it came out and owned/played all 3. I used to sing the praises of this game to everyone and I always felt like I was the only one in the world that played or even heard of it.
Wasn't it wonderful? Generally, Japanese mech games don't interest me, but "Fists" had me hooked until my fingers practically fell off. Even the character writing was terrific---rare in a portable game of the era!
Yggdra union is one of my favorites gba and psp games man If you enjoy strategies that one is for you, is not easy and it is a serious challenge for those who want one
One of the most overlooked game in gba is mario vs donkey kong. Its an amazing puzzle like game that even im adult it feels great to play, its one of the best title ive played in gba but almost no one talks about it.
The GBA has a game that is simultaneously one of the best GBA games while also being a complete unknown that nobody remembers. So the Spyro games went through a trilogy where they were a lot darker and more serious than what the series was known for. The first two games in this series (A New Beginning and The Eternal Night) actually received GBA SP ports. And let me tell you, Eternal Night is one of the all time greats of GBA games. Great music, good controls, fun combat, platform it was good, solid amount of content, decent representation of the actual game despite the system limitations, and some of the best pixel art of any game in the system. A New Beginning is also solid but Eternal Night is really where it shines. But it’s funny cause Eternal Night isn’t just underappreciated, it’s outright underknown. Almost nobody even knows the game exists, let alone remember it. And that’s a shame because it genuinely is one of the better GBA games.
@@AikuraShardless Yeah it's definitely one of the standout Metroidvania's which is why it's weird it's never come up in discourse even with the resurgence of appreciation for metroidvanias brought on by the success of the Dark Souls franchise over the last decade
@@gryph0n55 A big reason I think (and this is true of many GBA titles including some actually quite solid movie tie-in games), it gets eclipsed by the games with the same name released on home consoles. Even though, oftentimes, the completely different game released on GBA is better.
Remember, too, that "Eternal Night" was one one of the last GBA games; it was released a full three years after the arrival of the Nintendo DS. EDIT: I almost forgot to say THANK YOU for your recommendation---I'll look for it!
I do agree Ninja Five 0 and Scurge Hive are some of the best hidden gems on GBA, but I think in the same vein even more of a hidden gem is actually Advance Guardian Heroes.
I have to be honest i started watching these videos to emulate a few games but the narration is so chill that i watch it in tandem to relax. Keep going man!!
Still to this day Scurge Hive is a game I want to play SOO BADLY ALL THE WAY THROUGH! But I just can’t take the camera! It literally gets me nauseous after a half hour of playing it! But such a great game!
I was totally gonna suggest Ninja Cop/Ninja 5-0 for part 2 but it's already here! I found it randomly on some rom site years ago and it was seriously one of my favorite GBA games.
I recently put an old PSP to good use as my childhood dream - a GBA with ALL the games and a headphone jack (sadly it lacks the insane battery life of my old SP) and after playing everything I could remember I looked for stuff I didn't know about, which was harder than I thought. Then I found this video (looked for "obscure gba games") and holy shit, this is exactly what I was looking for, instant sub mate
No mention of turok evolution? That game was so damn awesome, it could've imo been one of the best for the gba. Too bad it was ruined by the difficulty.
SO glad you threw out Ninja Five-O. That game inspired me to write a movie script based on it. Because it would be something akin to Big Trouble in Little China meets TMNT.
It's still one of my favourite SRPGs ever. Awesome story, lovable characters and fun gameplay that has balls to bring action into an SRPG which actually somehow works very well on the tiny GBA screen. Incredible, extremely underrated game.
Big reason for quite a few of these games going relatively unknown went from being released after the launch on the Nintendo DS in 2004. Despite featuring a mastering of the GBA hardware with some of the best graphics the system could push, people were simply switching to DS games. This happens everytime a new console is released, the previous console is very quickly dropped by the majority for the new shiny machine, even if games continue to be released for it. As such many of these become huge collects items from their limited run released and small numbers of sales makes them very rare to find.
Ohhh Yggdra Union, I started playing this one night and then the device I started playing on was trashed the next day. I’ve been wondering what the name of it was for so long now 😆
Boktai and Boktai 2 are two of my favorite games of all time. They were perfect and the solar sensor was the coolest quirk of any game of the time (or even nowadays). I ended up selling my copies because the batteries died in both of them and I didn't have the means to get them repaired. One day I'll splurge and rebuy them, though. They're worth every penny. Absolutely perfect. Kojima made my childhood that much sunnier.
Just to let you know, the Medabots game on gba that was in english is a remake of Medarot 2, not Medarot 1. There is a sorta remake of Medarot 1 on gba called Shingata Medarot but that changes the art style and music, though story is pretty much the same
GT3 is badass. It looks so good for a GBA game, and while it's VERY linear (every car unlock is far better than the previous ones) it's a fun little romp and controls better than you'd think. I bought it when I was 12, loved it, lost it, then rebought it years later because I had such a good time with it.
If I knew how awesome the gba was when it came out I would have absolutely bought one. I think this was right around the time when WoW stole my heart. They didn't call it war crack for no reason
Heck yes loving boktai! And yes, couldn't really play it much during winter times with lack of sun :c Even though I have the original, it's easier to play a patched rom where you can set the sun intensity manually. Also the clock's battery will likely be empty on most copies by now. I know mine was empty...
I used to play this game back when it was new and would tell all my friends about it, and they were like "that sounds weird." But I'd be like "It's so good!" It's nice to "meet" someone else that actually played it too!
In addition to a potentially dry battery, if your cartridge has yellowed even an imperceptibly small amount then the solar sensor will never be able to hit full bar even under direct summer sunlight.
And seeing Solar Boy Django as a guest/cameo in the Megaman Battle Network games - awesome. Which one was it that had Darkman/VamypreMan... 🤔 This is going back 15 years ago.
I like Invincible Iron Man. I never even heard of it until after the GBA was no longer supported, so it seemed like an obscure gem to me. I’ve beaten the hell out of it lots of times.
Some more info: - Klonoa 2 was not released in PAL regions. Europeans have it hard adding the game to their collections. - Ninja five-o is called Ninja cop in Europe. Either way it's one of the rarest games for the system. - The Medabots RPG has 2 versions, these lists always contain the Metabee version, I don't get it why. The Rokusho version is just as good!
The GBA was a BEAST. Boktai series is, to this day, one of my favourite game series of all time. What an amazing trilogy. A shame the third entry didn't release in NA, and fan translations are all we have. Played the original in japanese, but I reeeeally wanted to better grasp the plot on my first run through. Lunar Knights was really cool, but it didn't quite deliver the same degree of exploration the first games provided... Boktai 2 is my favourite, it's overworld is quite packed and the San Miguel city is a fantastic hub area
Iridion II freezes on the emulator I'm using. Bummer AF! I HATE SHOOTERS but I actually liked this one because it reminded me and felt a lot like Star Fox 64. Daaaaaamn!
Thanks to you and your show every now and then I find out about a game that somehow completely flew under my radar. This time it was Scurge Hive, and I really look forward to trying this one out. Thanks for doing what you do and keep up the great work 👍
I didn't mention Boktai also appeared in Mega Man Battle Network games such as 4, 5, 6 and Mega Man Star Force. Also Mega Man.EXE appeared in Boktai 2. Geo Stelar, Star Force Mega Man and Omega-Xis appeared on Lunar Knights.
Ninja Five O is like $400 minimum if you check price charting. If it's underrated it's because people aren't talking about it anymore because of how obscenely expensive it is.
if anyone is a fan of racing games for the GBA, i highly recommend the GT Advance series. i know the third is covered here. the 3d is surprisingly food for a GBA game, the forst game has 48 licensed cars, up to the third which has 97 licensed cars. there are plenty of upgrades (even body kits), and the tuning changes rhe cars sound the more you tune it. the second game has leas cars than the first, but given they are all licensed group B rally cars. the second game has hills and different track conditions as it is a racing game, where as GT1 and GT2 are street racing, with dirt tracks spread about. you can find each individual game for about 15$, but they also made a a complete collection cartridge which includes MotoGP, a motorcycle racing game also made by the GT team, for about 30. the first GTadvance is a password saved game (unless you have the japanese version, which is file saved), and the second and third are file saved. each game has manu tracks, i believe up to 46. they are my favorite racing games for the GBA, and my favorite racing games over all.
Feel bad for Boktai games. It has an innovative concept to use solar sensor of GBA catridge to gameplay. However, Boktai 3 was only released in Japan. They did try to revive the series to a DS game, but DS doesn't have solar sensor, so they create Lunar Knight, which is quite a lackluster in comparison and solar sensor gets replaced by some space-shooting game.
Medarot is not a Pokémon knock-off. The concept of an RPG in which the combat takes place between creatures tamed and raised by the player dates at least as far back as Dragon Quest V (1992).
bruh the most underrated gba game was golden sun. THIS SHIT SLAPS. its painfully sad that they didnt make enough money to expand their franchise.. only one ds sequel that was not even that good and it never continued so we will never know what happened to the story..
![[UNCUT] “บอสณวัฒน์” ลากไส้!! ใครหนุนหลัง "แม่ตั๊ก ป๋าเบียร์" I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ I 30 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QlD7mU2KKRk/mqdefault.jpg)
One underrated game that I highly recommend is Summon Night Swordcraft Story. It’s like a standard RPG with dungeon crawling and weapon crafting aspects, but the gameplay shifts to almost like a 2D beat-‘em-up style (closest I can compare to is like Zelda 2) whenever you encounter an enemy.
Loved that game! Will have to include it for part 2 🙂
So it's like Code Of Princess or Mystic Heroes?
Omg yes, definitely an underrated game, even the graphic is nice and clean
I love this game, the story is very simple yet fun and enjoyable, all characters are really interesting and well developed, the soundtrack is great, graphics are great, the gameplay and the overall systems are all pretty fun and mix up in kind of a unique way
The sequel is even better! Better story pacing, has weapon upgrades, forgeable special attacks/abilities. It's possibly the best GBA game - and tgats coming from huge Minish Cap fan
01. Klonoa 2 dream champ tournament
02. Scurge Hive
03. Iridion 2
04. Ninja five-o
05. Gt advance 3 pro concept racing
06. Astro boy omega factor
07. Medabots metabee
08. Boktai
09. Zone of the enders - the fist of mars
10. Yggdra union
I've played some of these gems, and it's nice to see them getting some attention in your video. Long live the GBA!! 👍
I’ll second that! Such a great handheld!
Not cheap anymore though
@@thatvideogamesshow Coming from a fan of the GBA who has always been pissed off that we never saw these games be put on lists of best GBA games (which is understandable because of a stupid lack of recognition), thank you so much for giving these criminally underrated GBA games (no pun intended) the light of day!
@@열심게임 I just use a sd card reader.
I have that Analogue Pocket ordered, so that will help it live a bit longer too! 🎉
This is a refreshing thing - someone on TH-cam making a “hidden gems” video about games that are actually that!
Great work!
I’m going to look into a few of the ones I’d never heard of!
Thanks Callum! Glad you found something new man 🙂
@@martinde-serres8724 - Oh of course. My point was that he's the ONLY one I've personally seen that actually has what I'd call 'hidden gems' in the lineup.
Stuff that I've either never heard of or had completely forgotten about since they released.
Either way, it's a compliment to TVGS :D
Absolutely glad Klonoa got some love here, and am even more stoked for the ports recently announced. Wish they'd included the GBA games too but I'll take what I can get at this point.
They announced Klonoa in which console??
@@hong10ly70 Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is a compilation of both Door to Phantomile and Lunatea’s Veil. They’re both HD remakes and are on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Steam on the PC. I’m glad it is now available for purchase and just in time for the series’ 25th anniversary. Wahoo!
Another greatly underrated GBA game to me is Sigma Star Saga, a horizontal shooter RPG with metroidvania elements, I found it pretty cool when I played it and I totally recommend to take a look at it.
I’ll have to check it out and include it for part 2!
Sigma Star. My favorite GBA game of all time. A shooter AND an exploration RPG.
I just sold that game a while ago for like $75 mint condition. I didn’t like it ._.
I picked that game up last year, the box was a bit damaged but the game was sealed and everything inside was like new. And it only set me back 40 bucks. Just recently I bought Scurge Hive also sealed for real cheap :)
@@thatvideogamesshow Don't forget nightmare before Christmas gba version !
This video made me appreciate how good the Sprite animations could be on the GBA.
I’ll second that, there’s some really good sprite work on the GBA!
There are few things as feel-good as getting cosy with GBA games precisely because of the art styles, in my opinion. So bright and colourful.
Criminally Expensive GBA Games
E-M-U-L-A-T-I-O-N
Se no vídeo tiver Boktai eu automaticamente estarei aqui..... kkkkkkkkkkkk
Bom vídeo cara, eu realmente gostei que você colocou boktai nesse vídeo :)
translate: If the video has boktai, I'll automatically be here....... LOL
Good video man, i really liked that you put boktai in this video :)
nota: eu não sei escrever direito em inglês kkkkkkkkk
Note: I don't know how to write so much in English LOL
Yeah Ninja five-0 is underrated, which is why it's been on every hidden gem list since racketboy did this almost twenty years ago, and it costs $150 for a loose cartridge, no demand there.
My favorite GBA game back then was The Urbz: Sims in the City. Very underrated IMO! The GBA/DS version is a completely different game than the console version. The graphics are amazing for a GBA game, the story is simple, but a lot of fun, the characters are varied and memorable and the music is some of the best I've heard in a GBA game. If you want to check the music out: you can find a video with the full OST, completely remastered on the YT-channel of the original composer, Ian Stocker.
The Urbz has an (semi) open world, a lot of great mini games, multiple apartments you can rent and furniture, secret rooms to discover and more. It's the perfect game to play if you just want to relax. Would highly recommend!
And if you want more after you've finished Urbz: It's predecessor, Sims Bustin' Out, is very similar and very good as well. It has very similar gameplay and graphics. It's a little less polished than The Urbz, but just as fun. If I could only play one I would recommend Urbz over Sims Bustin' Out though, just because it's more polished and more memorable.
The Harry Potter games (1, 2 and 3) for the GB and GBA are amazing. They are very fun RPGs and follow the story of the books very well.
You're videos are always informative, to see how developers can push hardware to its limits and come up with interesting ideas like the solar cartridge.
Advance Guardian Heroes. That is definitely a hidden gem for the GBA. I believe you can unlock and play as any character in the game
Oh yes!!!! This game is amazing!
Boktai is particularly cool because the sensor has basically made it immune to emulation. Sad that it means it's stayed relatively "unknown" despite being a very well received game but at the same time - nice that there are still a few games out there which keep their mystique!
Playing through it on a backlit gameboy, actually trying to get some light on the console, is a really cool idea that's still extremely distinct.
There’s a patch that removes the need for actual sun I think, but it is much more fun to actually play it the way it was intended to be! Thanks for watching 🙂
@@thatvideogamesshow that's quite cool! Never doubt the ability of modders and ROM creators to overcome basically every single barrier to playing games haha
Haha the work they do is insane!
I might emulate boktai 3 the first 2 are the best games ever
I came across Yggdra Union on the PSP (Rom). Didn't know it was for GBAas well.
Same for Riviera the Promised Land (RPG).
Riviera was a beautiful game - I first encountered on Bandai's Swan Crystal (RIP, lovely console but never released out West I think). Later I saw a copy of Riviera on GBA. and then on PSP (PSP had the nicer graphics).
Golden sun is pretty underrated
Yggdra Union was the friggin bestest. The most underrated game in the whole list, I daresay. I swear TVGS, keep bringing up my childhood back like this.... and I'll watch more of your videos!
Such a solid game man! Haha there’s me thinking you watched all of my videos… Pepsi man is sad now. 😅
@@thatvideogamesshow I don't always leave a comment because of what time I may have, but trust, I've seen em 😁
i think riviera the promised land should also get a mention considering its basically the same franchise
Yggdra Union is basically: *_"What if we overthrow the evil Emperor that burned our kingdom to the ground and then push our ambitions further and murder the Gods themselves? Hehe, just kidding... unless...?"_*
Scruge hive was really fun, I thought the Ds version was a sequel, sadly it wasn't.
Ninja five 0 was truly a surprise, didn't think I could like it, cause the graphics wasn't for me. But the gameplay made me stick it out.
Metabots was and is one of my top 3 favorites games on GBA. And calling it a knock off is insulting, the only thing it had was collecting parts, but the whole system was unique.
Boktai really made me mad, I really didn't want to go outside to play it.
Yggdra was cool, but I prefer the advance war style.
Medabots was slightly annoying with how you needed a very rare item to run from fights, which could get tedious but it was still great. Shame we never got any of the other games in that sub series outside Japan but if we had to only get one pair, those were apparently the best ones to get.
i have recently picked up bomtai for 75 and i figured out a black light works as sunlight! best cheatcode ever
Some more hidden gems: *Shining Soul 2* - Awesome, addicting action RPG. If you want something like Diablo on the GBA, pick this. Also a massive improvement over the first title.
*The King Of Fighters EX2 Howling Blood* - There's the "impossible" Street Fighter Alpha 3 port and the first GBA KoF stinks in comparison but EX2 is somehow even better than SFA3!
*Harcore Pinball* - This is actually one of the best flat 2D-scrolling pinball games. Has 4 dope tables that are better than those in "Epic Pinball" which was the 2D pinball reference before.
*Ultimate Card Games* - giant collection of well implemented card games. I could play Video Poker for hours. Secretly got the most playtime of my GBA cardridges (and I own a lot).
These are good. The 2nd Shining Soul is a major step up from the 1st - same with KOF EX. I recommend Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and 2.
One of the few times you don't use a clickbait woman in the thumbnail image
Boktai was ahead of its time. If it released today on mobile phones it would've been much more successful because these days smartphones have build solar sensors.
なす
I've had a Game Boy Advance since the early 2000's, but I have not heard of any of these games before accept for Astro Boy, a lot of them do look like fun to play and are worth trying, thank you for making a nice list of GBA games I'd like to try sometime, you did a nice job TVGS ✌️
Glad you found some thing new to play mate. I hope you enjoy them when you get around to playing them! 🙂
I love that you use ACTUALLY underrated games for your lists rather than games of major franchises with meh reviews. Kudos.
One Underrated GBA game I grew up with was Monster House, it is pretty much top down Legend of Zelda combined with Resident Evil, the GameCube and Ps2 version took me 3 days to beat but the GBA took me years to beat and there were some moments that legit gave me a good jump scare
Astro Boy on the GBA is an absolute masterpiece. The bosses get very FRUSTRATING around 70% into the game.
Such a great game!
I keep seeing this one! Keeping this in mind to add to my gba collection
And here I am still stuck on the early spider robot boss 😂
I played ASTRO boy...it was awesome
Such a solid platformer!
Nice video but just wanted to point out that Yggdra Union has nothing to do with Disgaea. It was developed by Sting Entertainment, not Nippon Ichi. They later went on to create Gungnir for the PSP which is very similar in style to the Yggdra games.
I gotta remember Scurge Hive. GBA got alot of games that are in zelda view.
Edit. Ahh Yggdra Union, my number 1 rpg.
Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and ESPECIALLY 2, deserve to be here.
Btw Ninja Five-0 was my first GBA game. It was stolen from me though. Now its impossible to buy
10:10 If memory serves, Astro Boy was overshadowed by a major console release tied to a flop movie at the time.
People simply didn't realise that Astro Boy on the GBA was a different, much better game.
The two I were most expecting to see were Drill Dozer and Gunstar Super Heroes. Treasure got plenty of love in this video but Gunstar Super Heroes was woefully underrated when it launched. Ditto for Drill Dozer, a unique platformer from the developers of Pokémon. It came out after the DS, and the same year as Pokémon Emerald, and just got lost in the shuffle.
I got both of those and they great games for sure 🔥 hella fun and replayabillity
@@paydrohellawave3611 Drill Dozer is legit in my top GBA games. WarioWare Twisted is pretty underrated too but I think more people may appreciate it after its games were featured in WarioWare Gold.
Fun fact: the European version of Drill Dozer, with its translations in European languages, was officially published for the first time on the Wii U's Virtual Console.
Wait, that thumbnail on this video,
*SOLAR BOY? OMG SINCE WHEN I SAW HIM... 12 YEARS AGO?!*
Ninja Five O is like $400 minimum if you check price charting. If it's underrated it's because people aren't talking about it anymore because of how obscenely expensive it is.
Emulator
So glad I have the 2 Klonoa GBA games (that released in the west). I love the Klonoa platform games. I’m amazed how much they manage to get from the ‘grabbing an enemy to double jump’ mechanic.
As usual, I'm astounded I haven't heard of some titles here. Like Boktai?? How in the world did that pass me by, it looks wonderful. Great video :)
Thanks Ernest! Glad you found something new to try out 🙂
I got Boktai the day it came out and owned/played all 3. I used to sing the praises of this game to everyone and I always felt like I was the only one in the world that played or even heard of it.
@@johnnythewalrus not alone man! 👍
Oh god. Seeing Medabots Metabee here after forgetting about it for quite sometime gave me a rush of nostalgia!
That Video Games Show is criminally underated.
Zone Of The Enders - The Fist Of Mars is one of my favorites from my childhood. Cannot recommend enough.
Such an interesting take on the series!
Wasn't it wonderful? Generally, Japanese mech games don't interest me, but "Fists" had me hooked until my fingers practically fell off. Even the character writing was terrific---rare in a portable game of the era!
Yggdra union is one of my favorites gba and psp games man If you enjoy strategies that one is for you, is not easy and it is a serious challenge for those who want one
One of the most overlooked game in gba is mario vs donkey kong. Its an amazing puzzle like game that even im adult it feels great to play, its one of the best title ive played in gba but almost no one talks about it.
I love that game. It actually plays like a sequel to Donkey Kong 94, at least for the first half of the stages.
The GBA has a game that is simultaneously one of the best GBA games while also being a complete unknown that nobody remembers. So the Spyro games went through a trilogy where they were a lot darker and more serious than what the series was known for. The first two games in this series (A New Beginning and The Eternal Night) actually received GBA SP ports. And let me tell you, Eternal Night is one of the all time greats of GBA games. Great music, good controls, fun combat, platform it was good, solid amount of content, decent representation of the actual game despite the system limitations, and some of the best pixel art of any game in the system. A New Beginning is also solid but Eternal Night is really where it shines. But it’s funny cause Eternal Night isn’t just underappreciated, it’s outright underknown. Almost nobody even knows the game exists, let alone remember it. And that’s a shame because it genuinely is one of the better GBA games.
Eternal Night takes a lot of inspiration from Castlevania, and deserves to be mentioned alongside those titles on the GBA.
@@AikuraShardless Yeah it's definitely one of the standout Metroidvania's which is why it's weird it's never come up in discourse even with the resurgence of appreciation for metroidvanias brought on by the success of the Dark Souls franchise over the last decade
@@gryph0n55 A big reason I think (and this is true of many GBA titles including some actually quite solid movie tie-in games), it gets eclipsed by the games with the same name released on home consoles. Even though, oftentimes, the completely different game released on GBA is better.
Remember, too, that "Eternal Night" was one one of the last GBA games; it was released a full three years after the arrival of the Nintendo DS. EDIT: I almost forgot to say THANK YOU for your recommendation---I'll look for it!
I do agree Ninja Five 0 and Scurge Hive are some of the best hidden gems on GBA, but I think in the same vein even more of a hidden gem is actually Advance Guardian Heroes.
MEDABOTS RPG METABEE / ROKUSHO My fav game ever
OMG i finally found my childhood gba game! Its Klonoa, i love this game. THANKS!
9:45 You can Fight Kimba!?
I have to be honest i started watching these videos to emulate a few games but the narration is so chill that i watch it in tandem to relax. Keep going man!!
Thanks Kazuya, I really appreciate that man :)
Car Battler Joe is my favorite little known game on the GBA that I have played.
Still to this day Scurge Hive is a game I want to play SOO BADLY ALL THE WAY THROUGH! But I just can’t take the camera! It literally gets me nauseous after a half hour of playing it! But such a great game!
I always thought boktai was super popular cause of the unique mechanic.
I remember people on G4 freaking out over it
Boktai is amazing. Love that series.
Such a solid game!
I beat Astro Boy on my DS lite when I got stuck on in Seattle Airport for over 24 hours back in 2008 >_< I'll remember it forever
I was totally gonna suggest Ninja Cop/Ninja 5-0 for part 2 but it's already here! I found it randomly on some rom site years ago and it was seriously one of my favorite GBA games.
Haha it’s such a fun game to playthrough! Wish we could have got a sequel! Thanks for watching mate ❤️
Surprised the heck outta me, too. Tried telling people about it, and they just looked at me funny.
@@guyvizard549 i heard it’s good, but a physical copy costs as much as a car.
I recently put an old PSP to good use as my childhood dream - a GBA with ALL the games and a headphone jack (sadly it lacks the insane battery life of my old SP) and after playing everything I could remember I looked for stuff I didn't know about, which was harder than I thought. Then I found this video (looked for "obscure gba games") and holy shit, this is exactly what I was looking for, instant sub mate
No mention of turok evolution? That game was so damn awesome, it could've imo been one of the best for the gba. Too bad it was ruined by the difficulty.
SO glad you threw out Ninja Five-O. That game inspired me to write a movie script based on it. Because it would be something akin to Big Trouble in Little China meets TMNT.
Such a solid game man! And now I want to see that film you’ve written as that sounds awesome haha
@@thatvideogamesshow If I can find it... ha!
I was hooked on ZOE on GBA as a kid. And back then, unknowingly unlocked multiple endings as I played. It was awesome.
It's still one of my favourite SRPGs ever. Awesome story, lovable characters and fun gameplay that has balls to bring action into an SRPG which actually somehow works very well on the tiny GBA screen. Incredible, extremely underrated game.
@@theshinken Totally agreed! It's not the type of game I usually enjoy, but I was completely hooked on "Fists of Mars."
Big reason for quite a few of these games going relatively unknown went from being released after the launch on the Nintendo DS in 2004. Despite featuring a mastering of the GBA hardware with some of the best graphics the system could push, people were simply switching to DS games. This happens everytime a new console is released, the previous console is very quickly dropped by the majority for the new shiny machine, even if games continue to be released for it. As such many of these become huge collects items from their limited run released and small numbers of sales makes them very rare to find.
The Boktai series is great I have the 2nd and 3rd one on my gba with a solar bar hack so I don't have to go in the sun
Such a great series!
Love the GBA. One of my favorite systems of all time and I still play it regularly.
Same here man, so many fond memories with it!
Ohhh Yggdra Union, I started playing this one night and then the device I started playing on was trashed the next day. I’ve been wondering what the name of it was for so long now 😆
Haha it can get pretty tough!
Boktai and Boktai 2 are two of my favorite games of all time. They were perfect and the solar sensor was the coolest quirk of any game of the time (or even nowadays). I ended up selling my copies because the batteries died in both of them and I didn't have the means to get them repaired. One day I'll splurge and rebuy them, though. They're worth every penny. Absolutely perfect. Kojima made my childhood that much sunnier.
I love boktai too my favourite games ever
Don't you hate that you use to have these games but then you stop playing growing up and now they are gone.
Pokemon is a clone of Shin Megami Tensei series so really Medabots Metabee is a Shin Megami Tensei clone.
Just to let you know, the Medabots game on gba that was in english is a remake of Medarot 2, not Medarot 1. There is a sorta remake of Medarot 1 on gba called Shingata Medarot but that changes the art style and music, though story is pretty much the same
GT3 is badass. It looks so good for a GBA game, and while it's VERY linear (every car unlock is far better than the previous ones) it's a fun little romp and controls better than you'd think. I bought it when I was 12, loved it, lost it, then rebought it years later because I had such a good time with it.
If you like this game. I have another good one. V-rally 3. It even has first person view in some game modes.
HUGE love for showing boktai, still awaiting someone to talk about shining soul 2
Great choices! I also loved Mech Platoon, while it wasn't the most robust title, it was still amazing having a RTS on a handheld console!
The Boktai Trilogy was so good. It was (again) a really ambitious Kojima games ahah. :)
So glad you mentioned zone of the enders. I picked it up randomly around the time it came out and was amazed.
You and me both! It's a genre I don't usually play, but "Fist of Mars" had me utterly hooked.
If I knew how awesome the gba was when it came out I would have absolutely bought one. I think this was right around the time when WoW stole my heart. They didn't call it war crack for no reason
Damn two weeks later and Klanoa gets switch remakes nice
Heck yes loving boktai!
And yes, couldn't really play it much during winter times with lack of sun :c
Even though I have the original, it's easier to play a patched rom where you can set the sun intensity manually.
Also the clock's battery will likely be empty on most copies by now.
I know mine was empty...
I’ll second that man, such a great game!
I used to play this game back when it was new and would tell all my friends about it, and they were like "that sounds weird." But I'd be like "It's so good!" It's nice to "meet" someone else that actually played it too!
That one in particular interested me, so knowing such a patch exists is nice. Might check it out at some point. :)
In addition to a potentially dry battery, if your cartridge has yellowed even an imperceptibly small amount then the solar sensor will never be able to hit full bar even under direct summer sunlight.
And seeing Solar Boy Django as a guest/cameo in the Megaman Battle Network games - awesome.
Which one was it that had Darkman/VamypreMan... 🤔 This is going back 15 years ago.
Iridion II might be the best looking GBA game I've seen. Super clean look with simple 3D.
I like Invincible Iron Man. I never even heard of it until after the GBA was no longer supported, so it seemed like an obscure gem to me. I’ve beaten the hell out of it lots of times.
Some more info:
- Klonoa 2 was not released in PAL regions. Europeans have it hard adding the game to their collections.
- Ninja five-o is called Ninja cop in Europe. Either way it's one of the rarest games for the system.
- The Medabots RPG has 2 versions, these lists always contain the Metabee version, I don't get it why. The Rokusho version is just as good!
Sorry but ninja five 0 or ninja cop are not rare. Just expensive. Stop if dont know well GBA .
The GBA was a BEAST.
Boktai series is, to this day, one of my favourite game series of all time. What an amazing trilogy. A shame the third entry didn't release in NA, and fan translations are all we have. Played the original in japanese, but I reeeeally wanted to better grasp the plot on my first run through.
Lunar Knights was really cool, but it didn't quite deliver the same degree of exploration the first games provided... Boktai 2 is my favourite, it's overworld is quite packed and the San Miguel city is a fantastic hub area
platformer Shrek is good
How the F' is Ninja Five-O "Criminally Underrated"???? That game is super sought out and expensive!
I totally forgot about Yggdra Union! I loved that game!
Such a solid rpg!
Great list! Zone of Enders Fist of Mars rocked my world when I was younger. Probably my favorite GBA game of all time.
You and me both! It's a genre I don't usually play, but "Fist of Mars" had me utterly hooked.
Can someone tell me what music is playing at 3:21
Iridion II freezes on the emulator I'm using. Bummer AF!
I HATE SHOOTERS but I actually liked this one because it reminded me and felt a lot like Star Fox 64. Daaaaaamn!
I played ninja five-o four times, i love that game is super fun
One of the greats!
i see solar boy i click vid.
Thanks to you and your show every now and then I find out about a game that somehow completely flew under my radar. This time it was Scurge Hive, and I really look forward to trying this one out. Thanks for doing what you do and keep up the great work 👍
Glad you found something new!
GT Advance 3.. is the best fun racer on the Gameboy Advance. 🏁🏁🏁
Always happy to see some Boktai love.
Such a solid game!
medabots is NOT a "knock off of pokemon".
pokemon did not invent the monster taming genre of video games.
You´re crazy not to include Metabots AX. Still play it on an emulator.
Best fighting game ever made.
I didn't mention Boktai also appeared in Mega Man Battle Network games such as 4, 5, 6 and Mega Man Star Force.
Also Mega Man.EXE appeared in Boktai 2.
Geo Stelar, Star Force Mega Man and Omega-Xis appeared on Lunar Knights.
"When you think of a ninja game, what do you imagine? Perhaps something along the lines of Shinobi, or Ninja Gaiden..."
Me, a weirdo: "I-Ninja"
Ninja Five O is like $400 minimum if you check price charting. If it's underrated it's because people aren't talking about it anymore because of how obscenely expensive it is.
if anyone is a fan of racing games for the GBA, i highly recommend the GT Advance series. i know the third is covered here. the 3d is surprisingly food for a GBA game, the forst game has 48 licensed cars, up to the third which has 97 licensed cars. there are plenty of upgrades (even body kits), and the tuning changes rhe cars sound the more you tune it. the second game has leas cars than the first, but given they are all licensed group B rally cars. the second game has hills and different track conditions as it is a racing game, where as GT1 and GT2 are street racing, with dirt tracks spread about. you can find each individual game for about 15$, but they also made a a complete collection cartridge which includes MotoGP, a motorcycle racing game also made by the GT team, for about 30. the first GTadvance is a password saved game (unless you have the japanese version, which is file saved), and the second and third are file saved. each game has manu tracks, i believe up to 46. they are my favorite racing games for the GBA, and my favorite racing games over all.
Feel bad for Boktai games. It has an innovative concept to use solar sensor of GBA catridge to gameplay. However, Boktai 3 was only released in Japan. They did try to revive the series to a DS game, but DS doesn't have solar sensor, so they create Lunar Knight, which is quite a lackluster in comparison and solar sensor gets replaced by some space-shooting game.
Might be underrated, but they sure aren’t cheap like they were a few years ago.
Medarot is not a Pokémon knock-off. The concept of an RPG in which the combat takes place between creatures tamed and raised by the player dates at least as far back as Dragon Quest V (1992).
10:26
I think this is a stupid take since they have nothing in common (creature collecting is a genre btw) but I'm glad to see Medabots here.
bruh the most underrated gba game was golden sun. THIS SHIT SLAPS. its painfully sad that they didnt make enough money to expand their franchise.. only one ds sequel that was not even that good and it never continued so we will never know what happened to the story..