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00:00The Game Boy Advance is officially considered retro. There are plenty of people out there
00:04that have never played it or simply have forgotten about it, but let's give the system its due.
00:09It's in the top 10 best-selling video game consoles of all time. And when you have a great
00:13console, you need some great games. Here are the best of what Nintendo's handheld department were
00:18doing in the 2000s. I'm Cy for WhatCulture.com and these are the 20 best Game Boy Advance games
00:24of all time. 20. Mario Kart Super Circuit The GBA, despite being the console that kept
00:30Nintendo raking in the cash when the GameCube floundered, started off quite weakly. Its launch
00:35lineup was pretty poor and the new entry in the system-selling series Pokemon was nearly two years
00:40away. The first big eye-catching moment for the console was Mario Kart Super Circuit. The title
00:46has colourful courses which are so good that they were updated and put into future instalments like
00:50the brilliantly weird Cheeseland. That's just one example from a roster with quite a lot of
00:56personality that also includes a haunted pier, a world made of toys, and a park that contains an
01:01erupting volcano. Mario Kart Super Circuit is fully deserving of being called one of the best GBA games
01:06of all time. It gave us Mario Kart on the go and yeah, it's not all that impressive by today's standards,
01:12but the idea of playing the series portably in 2001 was mesmerising.
01:1619. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Chain of Memories looks like a weird spin-off,
01:21but if you play Kingdom Hearts for the story, it's integral. Of course, with the existence of
01:25Kingdom Hearts Re-Chain of Memories, a remake of this title for modern platforms, you don't need
01:30to take your GBA out to experience this, but it's an interesting novelty worth a look all the same.
01:35The card-based battling gameplay here is the most strategic the series has ever gotten, and it's
01:40fun building up your deck and trying out different strategies against your enemies. It isn't perfect
01:45though. The biggest problem is that the story is very similar to the original game, as you spend
01:49Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories in Sora's memories of that game. However, the new elements it does add
01:55tie perfectly into Kingdom Hearts 2, and players who skipped out on Chain of Memories were left quite
02:00confused because of it. 18. Super Mario World Super Mario Advance 2
02:05Nintendo love their re-releases, and in an industry that is begging for more video game preservation,
02:10we have to applaud them when they do it right. Although they probably could have spent more time
02:14working on the naming scheme of the Super Mario Advance series, Super Mario Advance is a remaster of
02:19Super Mario Bros 2. Super Mario World Super Mario Advance 2 is a part of the SNES game. There's also
02:25Yoshi's Island Super Mario Advance 3, which is of course a remaster of Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's
02:30Island. And finally there is Super Mario Advance 4, Super Mario Bros 3, Wolverhampton 0.
02:36Are you confused yet? Well, switch your brain off, pick up your GBA, and simply enjoy one of the
02:40platforming genres finest. Super Mario World is one of the best games ever made, and so a faithful
02:45adaptation of that, on the go, simply cannot be ignored. Additionally, it separates itself from
02:50the SNES original by including Luigi as a playable character in one-player mode, complete with his own
02:55unique attributes like Super Mario Bros 2. Pretty neat. 17. WarioWare Inc. Mega Microgames
03:02The origin of the WarioWare series, Mega Microgames is still one of the best entries all these years
03:08later. The story of the game is simple yet perfect for a character like Wario. Wario realizes that
03:13video games can make a lot of money, and so he decides to get his friends to make them for him.
03:18In the end, he attempts to run away with all the cash because Wario is actually pretty similar to
03:22real-life video game company executives, letting his employees do all the work only to run off with
03:27the riches. WarioWare isn't something you go into for the story though, it's the small bursts of
03:32amazing gameplay. The title consists of a collection of over 200 incredibly weird micro games,
03:37which exude charm and make the game a struggle to put down. If you want some pure uncompromised fun,
03:42you can do much worse than this, and if you really want to pick somebody's virtual nose,
03:47well, this might be all you've got actually. 16. Sonic Advance 2
03:51Sonic Advance 2 is part of the Sonic Advance series because many games on the GBA had to have the word
03:56Advance in the title so that we didn't forget what system we were playing. These underrated 2D
04:01side-scrolling titles were the perfect place to go for any Sonic fan who was just tired of seeing what
04:06the series was doing on home consoles at the time. And who would have thought that Sonic would thrive
04:10on a Nintendo system like this? Sonic Advance 2 is a pure Sonic experience, no fuss and no muss.
04:16The gameplay mixes some surprisingly fast moments considering the hardware with platforming to
04:21stop it from becoming totally mindless. It inches out ahead of its siblings simply based on its
04:25excellent level design. There's also the introduction of the now long-standing worst-named Sonic character,
04:31Cream the Rabbit, who offers a beginner difficulty for those coming to the series for the first time.
04:3615. Golden Sun
04:38When you think of classic fantasy JRPGs, Golden Sun may not be the first that comes to mind,
04:43but it really should. It doesn't do much new that's going to rock the world,
04:47instead concentrating on really refining traditional JRPG tropes to the nth degree. The idea of using magic
04:53not only in battle but to interact with the environment isn't uncommon in JRPGs,
04:58but Golden Sun ramps that up to 11. Exploration is just as important in the game as combat is.
05:04Speaking of which, the turn-based battles are baked to perfection and make great use of the
05:08GBA's overall visual capabilities. Utilising the four elements, the game has a host of cool-looking
05:14spells and summons, as well as a killer soundtrack. Seriously, this thing goes hard. Golden Sun is just
05:19a really solid JRPG and definitely worth your time.
05:2314. Wario Land 4
05:25The Wario Land series is overshadowed by the WarioWare games. Whilst both franchises are great
05:31and the WarioWare series is definitely more creative, the Wario Land games are as good as
05:36they are underappreciated. Wario Land 4 lacks the carefree fun of Wario Land 2 and 3, as you can
05:41actually die in this game as opposed to the two previous entries, but it's still a fun platformer
05:46that rewards experimentation and exploration. The game takes place in the Golden Pyramid,
05:51a place filled with portals to other worlds, each containing a myriad of treasures to collect.
05:56Wario Land 4 is just a lot of fun to play through and perfectly suited to the GBA.
06:00We might not have gotten an original mainline Mario entry on the system, but Wario was willing
06:05and capable to take his rival's place and give us the best original pure 2D platformer on the
06:10handheld.
06:1113. Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald
06:14Generation 3 is a real line in the sand for Pokemon. This is where a lot of the classic fans
06:19really jumped off the Pokey train, especially as it feels like a big leap away from Gold
06:23and Silver. However, it's also a childhood classic for many. Instead of dusting a few
06:28new Pokemon into the mix like Gold and Silver did, Ruby and Sapphire resets everything with
06:32an entirely new line-up. Classics do appear in the poster game at least, and both mons, new
06:37and old, look lovely in full colour on the GBA. The game's location, Hoenn, has a more tropical
06:43feel than most regions in the Pokemon world, and while some review outlets claim it has too
06:47much water, that water hides interesting locales such as an abandoned ship and the extremely rare
06:52Mirage Island, something that led to many playground rumours throughout the world. The
06:57games later got a third version called Pokemon Emerald, which adds the battle frontier to make
07:01this the definitive version of Hoenn.
07:0312. Advance Wars
07:05The Game Boy Advance was the place where many franchises that weren't released outside of Japan
07:09finally got shipped off to the west. It happened to Fire Emblem, we'll get there,
07:13and it happened to Advance Wars, which is a part of the Wars series, a franchise with the worst naming
07:18convention ever. At first glance, it's hard to know that Famicom Wars, Advance Wars, and Battalion
07:23Wars are all part of the same series. The word Wars is too common in gaming to make it the only way of
07:29distinguishing a game in your franchise. Ergo, my favourite entry is Star Wars Battlefront.
07:33See Nintendo, see what you did!
07:35In Advance Wars, you follow the conflicts between the four countries Orange Star, Blue Moon, Green Earth,
07:40and Yellow Comets, but there's of course something happening behind the scenes. You fight these
07:45battles with a really solid turn-based strategy system set in a modern setting. This is unique
07:50enough as other games in the genre are typically medieval fantasy. There's plenty of variation with
07:54unit types, making it an addictive and charming little conflict simulator.
07:5811. Super Mario Advance 4
08:00Super Mario Bros. 3
08:02Wolverhampton 0
08:03Even if you prefer Super Mario World over Super Mario Bros. 3, its GBA remaster absolutely deserves a
08:09high ranking due to the huge array of extra levels all included via the e-reader. To get the levels,
08:14you needed the e-reader and specific Super Mario Advance 4, Super Mario Bros. 3 cards. Sadly,
08:20American gamers never saw the full release of these cards, and in Europe, they never came at all.
08:25Unless you're a wealthy Japanese man who loved Mario in the early 2000s, it's unlikely you've
08:29experienced all of these levels legitimately on the Game Boy Advance. Which is a shame as the levels
08:33take mechanics from all other 2D Mario games that were released at the time, and use them within
08:38Super Mario Bros. 3 to make some of the most imaginative levels in the franchise. It's almost
08:43like a proto-Super Mario maker in a way. Oh, and once you're finished with those levels,
08:48legitimately or otherwise, you've still got an amazing port of the excellent Super Mario Bros.
08:523 to play through.
08:5410. Fire Emblem
08:55This was the first time Westerners got a taste of Fire Emblem. The game's full title is technically
08:59Fire Emblem The Blazing Blade, but Nintendo dropped the subtitle to make it clear to Western gamers
09:04that this was a perfectly good starting point for a new audience. It has compelling characters,
09:09an interesting story that is relatively constrained in comparison to later entries,
09:13and the combat here is simple yet engaging. Interestingly, this entry is a prequel to Fire
09:18Emblem The Binding Blade. That game stars Roy, who, because of his inclusion in Super Smash Bros.
09:23Melee, is one of the most recognisable characters in the series. So it's strange that The Binding Blade
09:28wasn't localised, but this game, which stars Roy's dad, was. All the same, there's been very few
09:33Fire Emblem games since Blazing Blade that have only released locally. As such, it goes to show
09:38the success of the franchise's first foray into the West, which began an upwards trajectory that
09:42has made it one of Nintendo's biggest franchises all over the world.
09:469. Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen
09:49The GBA has a lot of remakes and ports. Kirby, Nightmare and Dreamland, Final Fantasy 4,
09:545 and 6 Advance, and the myriad of other games that are on this list. But the most recognisable
09:59one is arguably Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, remakes of Pokemon Red and Green, or in the West,
10:05Red and Blue. Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are easily the most definitive versions of Generation
10:101 that you're going to get. Even with the games getting another pair of remakes in a Let's Go
10:14Pikachu and Eevee variety for the Nintendo Switch, FireRed and LeafGreen are just a more pure version
10:20of that original formula. There's the right amount of nostalgia and refresh in the pair
10:25of Monster Battlers. All of Red and Blue's bugs have been removed, the games are better balanced,
10:29and the game adds in combat mechanics from Ruby and Sapphire. FireRed and LeafGreen doesn't end
10:34when you're champion either, as you can travel to the Sevi Islands to continue the story and catch
10:39Pokemon from Generation 2 and 3. When you decide to revisit Kanto for the 100th time, honestly,
10:45these are your best options. 8. Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town
10:50Whilst most of the Harvest Moon games are worth your time, Friends of Mineral Town is one of the
10:54best in the series. Whilst not the first portable entry, it's the one that at the time stood toe
10:59to toe with its home console counterparts. In fact, this game might just be better. There's a reason
11:04that Friends of Mineral Town got a remake with Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town,
11:08as it's arguably the most beloved entry in the series. You play as an unnamed boy who becomes
11:13friends with a kindly old man who gives you a farm in his will. You don't find out about this until
11:18half a year after the man died, though, so the farm isn't in great shape when you start.
11:23When was someone going to tell you that you now own a farm? The mayor only tells you because you
11:26leave home to come visit. Friends of Mineral Town and its follow-up re-release, which lets you play
11:31as a girl, are arguably still the most streamlined and satisfying Harvest Moon experiences.
11:367. The Legend of Zelda The Minish Cap Timing can be everything, and The Legend of Zelda The Minish Cap
11:42is a victim of poor circumstance. This Capcom-crafted Zelda experience released just weeks before the
11:47Nintendo DS dropped, and so attention was firmly elsewhere. It's pretty sad, really, as Minish Cap
11:53is one of the most creative entries in the series. The gimmick of shrinking Link down and exploring
11:57little environments never gets old. Seriously, we need more games to do this. But even regardless of
12:02this, Minish Cap still provides a classic Zelda adventure on the go. The game introduces the
12:07adorable Minish to the series, Ezlo, who is one of the most underrated characters in the franchise,
12:11and new mechanics like the Kinstones. It's also the second game on the timeline included with
12:16Hyrule Historia, so for those who care about the deep Zelda lore, like why Link wears a green hat,
12:22then this game is pretty important.
12:246. Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga Mario has a long legacy of RPGs, which is a bit weird for
12:30a character who usually stars in games where the story is as simple as it can get. The princess has
12:35been kidnapped, go rescue her, be back in time for tea. The majority of these RPGs have charming worlds,
12:40lovable characters, and fun stories. For example, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga.
12:45In Superstar Saga, you play as the titular brothers and journey through the Bean Bean kingdom to defeat
12:50the evil Fawful and Cackletter, who feels like a character who is named basically as a dare. Cackletter,
12:57really? Aside from the lovely story and characters, it's a basic yet compelling turn-based combat system
13:02where you must time your button presses to your attacks to maximize damage, much like its Mario RPG
13:07predecessors. It worked incredibly well on the little purple handheld, and the Mario and Luigi
13:12series became a cult-hit franchise because of it.
13:145. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
13:17Even people who don't normally enjoy turn-based strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics,
13:21that's how good it is, and so its follow-up had a hell of a big pair of boots to fill.
13:26Final Fantasy Tactics Advance follows a group of real-world school friends as they are transported
13:30into the fantasy world of Ivelisse. Tactics Advance has all the charm of the best Final Fantasy games,
13:35with the added bonus of its amazing grid-based tactical combat. The gameplay is arguably much
13:40deeper and more thoughtful than anything the Final Fantasy series had to offer when this came out,
13:45proving that the series could excel in different directions. Oh, and it even teaches its combat
13:50with a snowball fight, which is the best way to teach any combat system, just ask The Last of Us Part 2.
13:56Tactics Advance for die-hard FF fans usually ranks pretty highly, and it's hard not to see why.
14:01It marries the GBA's pick-up-and-play style with a truly compelling combat system,
14:05showing that handheld games could be every bit as deep as home console releases.
14:09Number 4, Metroid Fusion. Metroid Fusion is amazing. Whilst it's not as good as its predecessor
14:15Super Metroid, little is, Fusion manages to be a game worthy of the Metroid 4 status.
14:20After getting infected by the X-Parasite, Samus gets cured by cells from the little baby
14:25Metroid that she rescued in Metroid 2, which in turn makes her part Metroid. Truly,
14:30she became what she vowed to destroy. The X-Parasite has managed to mimic Samus,
14:35however, creating SA-X, an evil entity who will stalk you throughout the game.
14:40Metroid Fusion manages to be a compellingly creepy horror title on the Game Boy Advance.
14:45That doesn't seem possible, and yet, here it is.
14:47Metroid Fusion is definitely more linear than other entries, which is an easy criticism to make.
14:52However, it doesn't mean that the game's tone and plot aren't worth celebrating.
14:56Fusion is a more deliberately delivered story and experience than the open exploration of
15:01other Metroid titles. It also has some of the most refined gameplay in the entire series,
15:05taking what worked from Super Metroid and giving you even more.
15:09Number 3, Castlevania Aria of Sorrow.
15:12All three Game Boy Advance Castlevania games are great. In fact,
15:15despite Symphony of the Night being the point of reinvention for the franchise,
15:18its true re-emergence took place on the GBA. This is where the Metroidvania portion of the series
15:23really kicked off hard with three solid back-to-back-to-back titles. However,
15:27Aria of Sorrow just beats out the other two games due to its introduction of the fan-favorite
15:32character Soma Cruz and the tactical soul system. The system encourages you to kill every enemy you
15:37see as they'll all have cool abilities that they can pass on to you. This became a staple of the
15:42series, of course, but it all started here in Aria. The setting is also something worth noting.
15:47Unlike other Castlevania games, this one takes place in the future. You'd think that would stop this
15:51from feeling like a Castlevania game, but in reality it gives Aria of Sorrow a unique identity whilst
15:56not preventing it from feeling at home in the series. As the final Castlevania title on the
16:01system before jumping to the DS, Aria really shines as an example of the franchise's growth.
16:06Number 2, Metroid Zero Mission. The original Metroid was revolutionary when it came out,
16:11but it's hard to go back to it today. Metroid is filled with archaic design choices, or lack thereof,
16:16which makes it near impossible to beat unless you have as much time as a kid in the late 80s,
16:20or have a guide. Because of this, it makes sense that they ended up really updating the game down
16:25the line. Let's get the one major criticism of Zero Mission out of the way. Yes, it is super
16:30linear and also quite hand-holdy. The thing is, it's so fun to play that you'll stop caring about
16:34that pretty quickly. Exploration is still there, just maybe not as much as there is in something
16:39like Super, still the best game in the entire series, Metroid. It is, however, one of the most fun
16:43games in the entire franchise, introducing new moves that Samus wishes she had in the original Metroid.
16:49Metroid Zero Mission is so good that it pretty much outright replaces the original version these days.
16:54Whilst we can all look back and appreciate what the 1986 NES classic gave us, Zero Mission is the
16:59version that people should actually play. And Number 1, Mother 3. Released exclusively in Japan
17:04in 2006, fan demand for Mother 3 across the world has been loud and consistent enough at times that
17:10Nintendo have been forced to answer it, even going so far as to make jokes about it themselves,
17:15but never actually deliver it. Thankfully, devoted fans have made English patches for emulation,
17:20but all the same, Mother 3 might be the most obvious cash left on the table move Nintendo have
17:24ever made, simply based on the hype alone. Additionally, it's also really good. The game
17:29refines everything about the SNES classic Earthbound, adding in new elements like rhythm-based attacks to
17:35its turn-based battles. Which works well because the soundtrack is also a masterstroke on its own. But
17:40Mother 3's biggest achievement is the strength of the story it tells. It follows Lucas as he
17:45explores the Nowhere Island in an effort to take down the pig army, find his brother and stop a
17:50dragon who slumbers below the islands from waking on the wrong side of the bed. That's the simple
17:54version of course, as Mother 3 really goes a lot of places and plums some really effective emotional
18:00depths. Never thought you'd cry at a GBA game? Well, Mother 3 will do its darndest. Critics and gamers
18:06alike call Mother 3 the perfect Game Boy Advance title, so how could it be anything other than
18:10number one? If you watch this video, most likely you're a Nintendo fan, so why not check out more
18:15of our content based on the big N? Here's a list on the 10 most brutally difficult NES games ever.
18:20Other than that, don't forget to leave a comment down below. This list is all subjective,
18:24so I'd personally love to hear what your favourite Game Boy Advance games are. Don't forget to like this
18:28video, subscribe, head over to WhatCulture.com for more content every day. I've been Cy for WhatCulture,
18:33and have a good week.
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