Here we are with our fifth installment of “What’s Worth Keeping?” As always the point of this is to help me pare down my collection to just twenty games per system. In the previous column we did on the Nintendo DS, I mentioned I couldn’t think of even twenty games on the DS that I thought were worth keeping – the only handheld I didn’t have an abundance of games for. After that column, I decided it might be time to look at some of those other handhelds before going back to console and the first might as well be my favorite handheld of all time – the Game Boy Advance. When we started this series of columns I had close to forty games for it. I’ve been slowly whittling them away and now I call on you to help me figure out what should be the final few to go.
In the my ten and a half years of video game journalism I’ve only reviewed 28 Game Boy Advance titles, but that’s because I came in partway through the life cycle of the system. Nine out of my first ten reviews were for the GBA, starting with my Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire and ending with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team. Fitting, isn’t it? Here now is a list of those 28 games. Remember if they aren’t in my current collection, I got rid of them for one reason or another. If you’re curious I’m more than happy to expand on why for a particular game.
Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire
Robotech: The Macross Saga
Phantasy Star 1
Phantasy Star 2
Phantasy Star 3
Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder
Lunar Legend
Space Channel 5
Pokémon Pinball R/S
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Shining Soul
Demikids Dark
Double Dragon Advance
Onimusha Tactics
CIMA
Sword of Mana
Shining Soul 2
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon
River City Ransom EX
Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Games
Pokémon Fire Red/Leaf Green
Advance Guardian Heroes
Bubble Bobble Old & New
Pokémon Emerald
Riviera
Sigma Star Saga
Centipede/Warlords/Breakout
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon -Red Rescue Team
On retrospect, it was mostly RPGs and beat ’em ups, wasn’t it? On average, I scored a GBA game with a 6.68, the highest average out of any system I’ve ever review and a nearly a full point higher than the Nintendo DS games. OUCH. If you look at the above list those, some of those are big time ports of some of the most classic games of all time. No wonder they scored as highly as they did compared to my lifetime average score of 5.99.
Now, let’s take a look at the games I still have in my collection. As I said, when we started this series of columns in April, I had roughly forty GBA games. Now I’m down to 23 and I’m finding I’m stumped for the final three to remove. Here they are!
1. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance
2. Bubble Bobble: Old and New
3. Centipede/Breakout/Warlords
4. Drill Dozer
5. Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder
6. Gunstar Heroes
7. Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Games
8. Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak
9. Lunar Legend
10. Onimusha Tactics
11. Pinball of the Dead
12. Pokémon Emerald
13. Pokémon Fire Red/Leaf Green
14. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
15. Pokémon Pinball R/S
16. Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire
17. Robotech: The Macross Saga
18.
19. Shining Soul
20. Shining Soul II
21. Sigma Star Saga
22. Super Bust-A-Move
23. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis
Wow, that’s a big list for me, especially if you factor in I’ve already removed games like Double Dragon Advance, Silent Hill Phantasy Star Collection, both Mother games, Metal Slug Advance, Magical Vacation, Demikids, Golden Sun and still others. There were so many great games for the Game Boy Advance, I have no problem declaring it the best handheld of all time. The problem remains however, what to get rid of for the last few?
If we look at what remains it’s three Action RPGs, a Platformer, an arcade compilation, one Action, two Dungeon Crawls, one Run & Gun, a Sports Game, one Point and Click Adventure game, four Turn Based RPGs, three SRPGs, two Pinball games, two Shoot ’em Ups and a Puzzle game. That’s a whopping thirteen different genres – the most out of the five systems we’ve looked at so far.
Dark Alliance is doable as I have the GCN version, but it’s honestly the best action RPG for the system. Both Hamtaro themed games are amazing, which is a shock to pretty much anyone who plays them. Ask Matt – he’s not really a Hamtaro fan or an adventure game fan, but he LOVED Ham-Ham Heartbreak back in the day. Ham-Ham Games is not only the best looking GBA title, but it’s also the best sports game for the system as well, bringing me back to the days of the NES Track& Field titles. I’ve got Lunar for every system it’s out for save the Saturn, but I have emotional reasons for keeping this version, which is the same reason for Shining Soul. I think Onimusha Tactics is the next to go as it’s very well done, but the last of the remaining games. I suppose Drill Dozer is on that short list too, but both games are fun and have some strong replay value so it’s bloody hard to decide, it is!
That’s where you guys come in. Help me figure out what’s next to go as we continue to whittle down my collection. Hey, it could be harder. Imagine if I still had all forty games! Next time I believe we’ll do either the PSP we’ll tackle one of the three big consoles I need to whittle down: The PS2, the Dreamcast and the Sega Saturn.
Links to the previous issues follow below:
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