lucky me! (GBA SP)

[Jeff]

I had been thinking about getting a Nintendo DS, and was wavering due to a lack of titles specifically for it that intrigued me.

A local friend of mine just called, and offered to sell me a mint GBA SP for $45, with one of those 3 game changer thingies included. Not sure I'll use the changer, but it's a helluva price for the SP, so I took him up on it.  Him and his son had two SP's, and they just got a DS, so one SP became obsolete, and I win

Now... for the games... recommendations? I know I want Mario Golf Advance, Advance Wars 1 (and or 2). What else is good? Recently I thought I heard someone say something about Super Mario Smashing Sunshine Wario World ... err.. or something like that

Any other 'must haves'?

[warning]

Fire Emblem is quite nice if you are into strategy RPG's.  It's by the same people who made Advance Wars 1 & 2.  And really, you only need Advance Wars 2.

[Gratch]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is the only GBA game you'll ever need.

[Ascendent]

So by having FFTA and Advance Wars II that my collection is nearly complete? *chuckles* I plan on getting Fire Emblem as well as Tactics Ogre.

Ascendent

[Torfish]

Seriously, you will spend many of hours with FFTA.  I'm not done with it yet and I have put in 60-80 hours on it.

Advance Wars is also a definite.  Mario and Luigi is great too.

[Jeff]

Seriously, you will spend many of hours with FFTA.  I'm not done with it yet and I have put in 60-80 hours on it.

Advance Wars is also a definite.  Mario and Luigi is great too.

FFTA sounds cool. I'll get it. Thanks for all the recommendations.

[Chrisoc13]

I went through this a month or so ago, adn soeone mentioned ffta. I got it, and ive spent 30 hours on it now, and not another game has graced my gba yet. Im not bored of it yet either.

[Jeff]

Went to pick up the GBA-SP, and my friend dumps a bag of games out, and gives me FFTA for $10, and gave me Pokemon Silver, Super Mario Brothers Deluxe, and Earthworm Jim for free. those last three are older games, but still, pretty cool.

edit: just started FFTA. Seems really cool. I just got the PDF guide at Gamespot, and it's 288 pages! :shock:

[Chrisoc13]

Yeah, a guide would be nice. One thing that annoys me about the game is that I never know what the laws really mean. An example: One law recently for me was no color magic. I didnt even think that would mean no black or white magic. Call me an idiot but I thought it meant some kind of magic I didnt have yet.So I used it, and sure enough, I get a yellow card (its like a soccer match   ). Little things like this have happened to me over and over again regarding laws. Enough so that I should probably just get a guide. If you break a law you dont get the bonus for the mission, and you get docked power or weapons or stuff like that, or you can go to jail, which sucks. Basically, it jsut sucks. And I never break the laws on purpose, it is usually just because I dont undrstand exactly what it meant. Oh well. Awsome game. I hate to admit this, but I have been addicted to it lately. I have played it mroe then Halo 2 or the Sims 2 this last week, and those are both new games for me  :shock: .

[Jeff]

I played for an hour last night, getting thru all that opening part, and never did get to a part where I was offered a way to save progress. Got a mission to go pick herbs or something, and broke a law and got sent to prison, then "GAME OVER".  

Do I have to replay the full hour of intro text and tutorial again? Is there any way to skip all that?

How the heck do you save?

[Gratch]

You save on the World Map page.  Can't remember exactly (it's been a while since I played it0, but I think you press start and select "data".  You should get into the habit of saving after every battle.  I made the mistake of playing 3-4 battles back-to-back a few times, and it's awfully frustrating when you die on the fourth battle and lose 2 hours of play time.  Unfortunately, you will have to play through the intro again.  I did the exact same thing first time I played.

Honestly, I don't know how you'd get through FFTA without some sort of guide.  I bought the official guide (Bradygames?) after playing it for a day.  I never used the battle strategies, but a knowing the character job requirements and progressions is vital to your enjoyment of the game imo.

One of the only qualms I had with FFTA is if you figure out how to power level, the game is pretty easy.  After about the 20 hour mark, I was never seriously challenged in a battle.  That didn't stop me from playing another 50+ hours, so the game definately got it's money's worth.

[JayG]

There's a new Zelda game out here that's supposed to be pretty good, and there's a Kingdom Hearts game out in a few weeks that's supposed to make the most of the GBA hardware. Also Final Fantasy 1 and 2 are due next week.

There's also a pretty sweet version of Max Payne, complete with voice overs. My favorite game though is also my first game, Fire Pro Wrestling. If you have any interest in wrestling games this is a must purchase. The Two Towers is a pretty good Diablo type game, Bomberman Tournament is a great multiplayer game that only needs one cart, and GTA advance is a decent version of the original PC game. Doom 1 and 2 are pretty good as well, and Duke Nuke 'em advance is a totally new game.

[Chrisoc13]

I agree gratch. Save after EVERY battle. It wont be a big deal at first, but later oin, some battles take time. And 3 or 4 together plus all of the thins you do inbetween can really take time.

Also, it does get pretty easy after a while it seems. My clan now is immensly powerful it seems. Perhaps the thing that makes it the easiest is how powerful my white mage is. Nobody gets touched in my party because of this.

Another problem I have with FFTA is that it seems to be harder to get items. The stores sell fairly weak items later on. So I get stuck with them until some random quest gives me good items. I am not using the strategy guide so it makes it all trickier. I should get one. If for no other reason then to figure out how to get all the jobs. It took me forever to figure out how to get a ninja, and now I want an assasin, but im not sure how to go about it. I resist looking at guides because I feel this immense sense of pride if I get through a game liket his without it, but this one is breakign me down, making me feel like I need it.

Great game though. Im 35 hours in and still playing all the time (Iv got the week off, so that helps ).

[Jancelot]

I had fun with Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

[Gratch]

Perhaps the thing that makes it the easiest is how powerful my white mage is. Nobody gets touched in my party because of this.

That's the secret to power levelling in FFTA.  Your white mage gets 10 exp for every white magic action, no matter if it's done on a lower level character.  Every other character gets less EXP if their action is done on a lower level character (i.e. Fighter gets 10 exp for hitting a same or higher level opponent, but only gets 1-2 exp for hitting a lower level opponent.).  Once your white mage is a few levels higher than the rest of your party, simply pound on him with your own party members for great XP.  During most battles, I'd kill every enemy but one, then surround my white mage and have everyone thwack him a few times.  Great way to get XP.

[PaulBot]

Pokemon Firered or Leafgreen!!