GBA games worth looking forward to

[stiffler]

We never seem to talk about the GBA here, and with the migration of the Road to Gold here, I figured I would pop in and talk about the upcoming GBA titles I am looking forward to.

First up, Mega Man Anniversary Collection.  More crazy-hard MM madness in a conveniently thrown package.  Five classics from the orginal GameBoy make there way to the GBA in bold new color (or old-school black and white for the purists).

Second we have Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.  Ah, Kindgom Hearts.  You either loved it or hated it.  Or like me, you have no opinion since you never played it.  Well, I intend to form an opinion one of these days.  Regardless, this one is coming and I plan to be on it like puke under the tea cup ride.

Last, but certain to sell the most, we have The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.  Honey I shrunk the franchise!  It's Link and he's tiny.  Like "old woman that lives in a shoe, except this isn't a giant house-sized shoe" tiny.  Link will be shrunk down by some nefarious do-badder and then go about on dumb quests handed out by even dumber people in an effort to obtain one poorly guarded hunk of useless treasure after another until he can find the super treasure which will make him big again (or rather normal sized again).  He battles giant bees (except they are normal-sized bees, but Link is small, remember, so they look big!), worms, and other inconsequential-to-us-big-people crap.

That's what's on my GBA radar.  I have been trying to complete my collection of more obscure puzzle titles as of late so I haven't purchased anything new.  I love going to my local video game retailer and checking out the used games because they always have new games coming in at a fair price.  Best of all, GBA games don't get all scratched up like used discs.  I rented Kill Bill vol. 2, which had been out only four days and it already looks like it has been belt sanded and a meal has been served off of it.  Let me stop now as I am clearly delerious from a lack of sleep.  Or is it oxygen to my brain.  Who knows in these wacky times!  I'll try and think of more ways to describe the "big, but not really, because Link is just small now" thing tomorrow when I look forward to reading what is on your radar (hopefully not bogies! check your six).  If I ever wake up from what is certain to be a most wonderful and merciful rest.  And I don't drink, thanks for asking.  Well, I have done so in the past, but it's really not my thing.  I'm just tired, damnit!  Shake it like a salt shaker and Godspeed John Glenn!

[Tebunker]

You got Minish Cap partly wrong, yeah you'll go around, and like every other Zelda game, you'll get new items to access new areas. However, the minish cap is used to shrink you down and is what's used to solve certain puzzles. You can shrink and unshrink yourself at will. Nothing special, but this game is being made by the Oracle Zelda developers, and those two were fairly good GBC games.

I tend not to look forward to GBA games, as I pick them up mainly as a diversion more than anything.

[farley2k]

Sad to say that is about all that is on my radar too, except for Final Fantasy 1 & 2 which should be incredible.

I know that Nintendo says the DS isn't the GBA replacement but I get a strong feeling that we may be seeing the end of the GBA.  Oh it will take a couple years to finish up all that is already started and planned but I think - especially if the DS does well - that Nintendo will start focusing on the DS and dump the GBA

[EddieA]

It looks like developers are abandoning the GBA in favor of the DS.  There's a very long list of games in development for the DS, and it's been a slow year for GBA releases already.  I'm guessing the GBA will be pretty much dead by the end of the year.  I really wish they had ported over more SNES classics and RPGs - Actraiser, Soul Blazer, the Lufia games, Super Mario RPG, etc.  I just hope we'll see some of them on the DS.

That said, there are still several games I'm looking forward to - Dragonball Z : Buu's Fury, F-Zero : GP Legend, Mario Pinball Land, LoTR - The Third Age, Kingdom Hearts, and Zelda.  I would be looking foward to the new Wario Ware game, but I only have the Gameboy player, and I don't think it would be a good idea to shake my Gamecube around to get it to work

[EngineNo9]

I'm thinking that Mario Pinball game could be cool.  It certainly looks nice, but isn't so much of a traditional pinball game.  It looks more like one simple screen-sized room connected to another by a trick hole which is connected to another, etc.  Solves the whole scrolling problem most portable pinball games have.

[Destructor]

It looks like developers are abandoning the GBA in favor of the DS.  There's a very long list of games in development for the DS, and it's been a slow year for GBA releases already.  I'm guessing the GBA will be pretty much dead by the end of the year.  I really wish they had ported over more SNES classics and RPGs - Actraiser, Soul Blazer, the Lufia games, Super Mario RPG, etc.  I just hope we'll see some of them on the DS.

Well, there's one advantage to the DS - just as many buttons on the thing as the SNES controller.
So I do hope to see a few more SNES ports. Or classics as I call them.

The amazing part? You loved the same set of games that I did. I didn't know that anybody remembered the classic Soul Blazer or the Lufia titles (before they became the crap that they are now).

[Devil]

Astro Boy?

[Belgedin]

Soul Blazer owns. I still play that one once in a while.

[EddieA]

I loved Soul Blazer, and played through it 4 times, and I rarely play any game more than once.  The city-building/action RPG genre may be pretty small, but it's produced some great games.

"Lufia titles (before they became the crap that they are now)."
That probably answers my question, but did you play Ruins of Lore for the GBA?  It's supposed to be part of the Toys R Us sale, but I haven't read many good things about it.

[TheMissingLink]

I'm a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts so I'm debating on whether or not to purchase a GBA (don't own one currently) as well as Chain of Memories since it supposedly takes place after the 1st but before Kingdom Hearts 2.

[EngineNo9]

Astro Boy?

Yeah, I've heard some good stuff about this one.  Plus, it was developed by Treasure who are one of the old school kings of side-scrolling action shooters.