Picking up with Zero from the X series more than a century after those games, this game tweaks the classic Mega Man gameplay more than ever with upgradeable secondary weapons, mission objectives besides just defeating bosses, and Cyber Elves that can alter entire levels.ĭespite those additions to the gameplay, the game is hardly a cake walk. While the original Mega Man series will always reign supreme for many gamers, the Zero series is quite possibly the best spin-off. Nintendo has repeatedly tried to surpass this game with Yoshi sequels over the years, but still, nothing comes close to the original masterpiece. This port crops the screen a little to fit the GBA’s display but makes up for it by adding eight fantastic new levels to a game that was already approaching perfection, to begin with. Unfortunately, that meant that its hand-drawn art-style wasn’t fully appreciated at the time, but the 2002 re-release on GBA gave the game a new lease on life to be appreciated as one of the greatest platformers of all-time. Yoshi’s Island was first released on the SNES in 1995 when 3D graphics were starting to take off, thanks to the original PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The recent 3DS entries in the series may be more accessible (and they certainly look a lot better), but this is still a great game to go back to in order to see the history of the series and explore its strategy RPG roots.
That doesn’t make the game any less understandable, however, and the deep strategy gameplay, in all of its difficult permadeath glory, is still on full display here. This is actually the seventh game in the Fire Emblem series overall, but the very first released in the U.S. Fire Emblemįire Emblem may be a household name in North America now, but Nintendo stubbornly refused to localize the games for years. Get this to play while waiting in line somewhere. Pick up the later titles if you want to sit down with your GBA for a few hours. These are among the best games to play in short spurts on the go, while the later games require quite a bit more focus.
These are simpler games than Final Fantasies IV– VI, which were also released on the GBA, but that’s part of the charm that makes them perfectly suited for portable gaming. There are even four additional dungeons thrown in for good measure, and of course Final Fantasy II, which was never released on the NES in North America. Dawn of Souls fixed all of those problems with better pacing, faster combat, and beautiful 16-bit style graphics.
The original Final Fantasy, in particular, is slow, plodding, and overly difficult if you try to play it in its original 8-bit form. Let’s be honest: a lot of NES games have not aged terribly well.
Nintendo brought the original Game Boy Pokemon games to the 3DS eShop recently, but the world really needs these games on there too with the ability to transfer GBA pocket monsters directly into the 3DS games.
And once you beat the game, you can import Pokemon from Ruby and Sapphire. These are remakes of the very first Game Boy Pokemon games, but with actual color and animation during battles. Those games are best experienced through their recent 3DS remakes.īut FireRedand LeafGreen are the real stars of the GBA era. Nintendo’s first Pokemon entries on the GBA, Ruby and Sapphire are fine games in their own right but still felt a little disappointing compared to the previous entries. You can’t talk about the best games on a Nintendo handheld without including Pokemon games. The important thing is that Juste Belmont’s dash and spell-heavy attacks have held up well over the years, and the additions of a boss rush mode and a second playable character give Harmony of Dissonance some of the stronger replay value in the series. 2 in Japan would be too difficult for American gamers, so they took an unrelated game called Doki Doki Panic, slapped Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach onto it, and called it a day, confusing the hell out of American kids in the late ‘80s who wanted to know what happened to the goombas and fireflowers from the first game.Ĭastlevania: A Dracula Masterpiece 90 Years in the Making By Matthew Byrd Nintendo thought the real Super Mario Bros. Car Battler Joe has always been one of the more underrated games on the GBA, but at least now its readily available on the Wii U. The story is pretty basic RPG fare, with slight Mad Max influences, but the 7-style battles are where the gameplay really shines, and they still hold up pretty well today. There are only four car types available, but each can be outfitted with a huge number of weapons, and Overdrive features that can affect the speed and handling of your car. At its core, Car Battler Joe is a cutesy Twisted Metal RPG.