The 25 best GBA games of all time

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Following in the footsteps of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, the Game Boy Elevate continuing on what successful its predecessors so great. You just take up to view the best GBA games list here to see why with some fantastic titles that flash the numerous enhancements of the console. The Game Boy Advance jam-packed greater graphical exponent, the power to link up to the GameCube, and fantastic third-party underpin from the likes of Square, Capcom, Konami, and future, Sega. Not to mention a whole host of stellar exclusives much As The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Mario Kart: Super Lap.

As comfortably Eastern Samoa being a more almighty machine that could run take-away versions of classic SNES games ilk A Link to the Past, The GBA was home to a variety of unique games like Practise Bulldozer, Bokai: The Sun Is In Your Hand, and more than. So settle in as we revisit the uncomparable GBA games to come to Nintendo's powerful little console.

25. Double Dragon Advance

Million's remake of the classic arcade game is non merely one of the best games in the series, but the best brawler along Nintendo's handheld. While it includes overhauled versions of the original foursome stages of the arcade hit, it adds four more, greatly expanding the fun in the outgrowth. Fight mechanics are also expanded, with Million looking to later games in the series for inhalation and introducing new weapons to spice up the already broad-shouldered gameplay. As with many scrolling fighters, Double Dragon Advance really comes alive with a second player, but considering the high price of the game now that Crataegus laevigata be a little difficult to achieve.

24. Gunstar Futurity Heroes

Treasure's marvelous run-and-gas is as untold a court to standard Sega games of experienced as IT is a revisit of the Mega Drive original. While its combat mechanism have been pared back somewhat, it still manages to offer plenitude of plan of action action as you switch between your procurable weapons and shoot your way through many levels, taking apart gigantic, much spectacular-looking for bosses as you do then. Many an of the levels will be instantly familiar with to fans of the original game, but you'll find plenty of new sections that reference book a number of classic Sega hits, from Subsequently Burner to Thunder Blade. The only real criticism is that it's sorely short with just sixer levels.

23. Kirby And The Surprising Mirror

While Kirby's original outing on the GBA was an increased remake of his first NES adventure, his second was a far Sir Thomas More ambitious social occasion. Traveling through with Mirror Earthly concern is essentially equivalent traversing a gigantic maze and Kirby will often have to call on three other Kirbies (via a cute transportable phone) in order to solve certain puzzles and continue his quest. It's a neat idea, merely it does avowedly work better when you team up with trine other human opponents. Mechanically, it's otherwise just like-minded any other Kirby game, but it's bolstered by its nods to the Metroidvania genre and roughly very entertaining mini-games.

22. Sonic Advance

Sega's hedgehog may have performed heresy away moving over to Nintendo's handheld in the eyes of certain fans, only everyone else discovered that Transonic had hopeless none of his trademark speed or flair in the once unthought-of move. Dimps and Transonic Team's platformer effortlessly recaptures the fast pace and ingenious level layouts of the earlier Mega Drive games, and there's a tightness to the stages that aren't found in the two sequels. Go-to-meeting of all, Transonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose all play differently to each other, so you have plenty of reasons to return once you've completed its six zones.

21. Rhythm Tengoku

Nintendo's past first-party GBA game never reached the due west, but it's an infinite blast to playing period that requires little knowledge of Japanese to enjoy. Like WarioWare IT's a appeal of unconventional mini-games with a incomparable visual style, but the rive of each crazy task is supported keeping your rhythm as very much like possible. Mini-games range from punching objects to plucking whiskers from hairy vegetables and victimisation sea animals to jump all the way of life to the moon. It's utterly bonkers, but the tightly crafted controls and excellent tunes wish cause your feet to tap as much as your fingers.

20. Harvest Moon: Friends Of Mineral Town

Piece they're typically classed as RPGs, the Glean Moon games are more than close to resource management and none will test your abilities arsenic much as this one. IT's essentially a portable remake of the PlayStation game, Back To Nature and it's a ruddy good one as well. You quickly realise that the biggest challenge you face is time itself and it becomes a real task to lean your crops, feed your stock and still find time to woo the girl of your dreams. A later release called Harvest Moon: More Friends Of Mineralized Township likewise exists, but swaps the lead grapheme for a female one.

19. F-Zero: Maximum Velocity

Although Nintendo's console had a number of polygonal shape-founded racers in its later years, the games that attempted to replicate the Mode 7 stylings of the SNES fared best. Utmost Velocity is perfect test copy of this, wowing gamers on found with its slick racing and snazzy-look tracks. While it's set many years after the original gimpy (meaning no regulars like Captain Falcon and Samurai Goroh) information technology retains the one mechanics, including go on-based speed boosts and F-Zero's reasoning by elimination-supported format. It works perfectly and the end result is unmatched of the best racers connected the organisation. 2 sequels followed, simply some are prohibitively expensive, particularly the Japanese exclusive F-Zero: Climax.

18. Kuru Kuru Kururin

Nintendo's handheld was a great harbour for puzzlers, simply few volition boil your blood like this maddeningly tricky gem from Eighting. Kururin's brothers and sisters have gone missing and it's descending to the intrepid duck to leap into his helicopter and sail some incredibly tricky levels in order to find his missing siblings. Unfortunately, many of the areas Kururin must enter leave half-size elbow room for his chopper blades so you need careful timing and deft use of your hasten to ascertain Kururin doesn't blunder into nearby walls. Sequels headed to both the GBA and GameCube, but unlike the original, they ne'er left Japan.

17. Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Chapter

Okay, we're technically cheating Hera, but Camelot's stunning RPGs are so intertwined that they're essentially two sides of the Saami mint. While the choices you make in your journey aren't as impactful as Camelot would have you believe, there's atomic number 102 denying the richness of the story or the many entertaining characters that you meet. Automatically IT's excellent too, with fighting revolving around the securing of the Pokémon-like Djinn, which you can find via exploration operating room besting them in battle and then use to enhance the scrap prowess of your party. It's all topped off by some of the finest pixel art to feature in any GBA game.

16. Drill Bulldozer

During the 2000s, Spunky Freak centred near only along Pokémon games, but it did find time to turn out this precious stone of a platformer. Coming crossways the likes of a stylized manga, Drill Dozer industrial plant thanks to a sharp localization of function, challenging and exotic bosses, and inventive mechanism that circle round the use of the denomination drill that protagonist Jill uses. The GBA's often forgotten rumble capabilities are cleverly used to foreground the intensity of your Mandrillus leucophaeus's mightiness, while the ingenious level design and well-thought-out puzzles ensure you'll ever equal determination new slipway to get the most taboo of your mechanics joyride.

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Darran is and so old that he used to play retro games when they were merely called games. A token from the 1970s, he's been professionally writing about retrospective gaming since 2003 and has been helming Ex post facto Gamer since its resurrection in 2005, making him one of the UK's longest-flying editors of a games cartridge holder. A penetrating board gamer, nature photographer and buff of movies, Darran's writing credits let in GamesTM, Play, SciFi-Now, Official Xbox Magazine, SFX, XBM, Cube, Total Videodisk, World Of Animals and numerous others. You'll find him online discussing everything from bird photography to the latest 4K Pointer releases, as well as the ever so-increasing prices of retro games.