GBA Game Reviews
Review Golden Sun: The Lost Age - More Of The Same, Which Is No Bad Thing
The return of the prodigal sun
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to celebrate the game's arrival in Switch's Game Boy Advance library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Back in 2001 (2002 in Europe) some players were left feeling short-changed when Golden Sun reached its abrupt ending...
Review Golden Sun - A Radiant RPG, Once It Gets Going
Magic hands make light work
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to celebrate the game's arrival in Switch's Game Boy Advance library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Golden Sun expands on proven genre archetypes to deliver an experience that both pays tribute to and refines the classic...
Review Kirby & The Amazing Mirror - Messy With Metroid Influences, Better With Buddies
Oh, Kirby, you blowhard...
This review, penned by Philip J Reed — our much-missed friend and Nintendo Life contributor — was originally published in January 2012. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack GBA library. We have to hand this much to
Review Fire Emblem - The Blazing Blade Is Still As Sharp As Ever
So much to love Lyndis game
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack GBA library. Before Fire Emblem: Awakening kicked off 2013 (the Year of Luigi, you'll recall) with a bang, there was a great deal of concern at Nintendo regarding its...
Review Metroid Fusion - An Infectious, Portable Pleasure
SA-Xcellent
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's GBA library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Released a full eight years after its phenomenal Super Nintendo predecessor, Super Metroid, 2002's Metroid Fusion is a well-paced, tense, atmospheric game and...
Not your average Joe
It is not uncommon for a game's critical appeal to far outweigh its selling power. Throughout the history of gaming there have been many cult hits that now go for ridiculous prices on the second hand market, EarthBound and the original Shantae being a couple of notorious examples. However, few games can boast the extreme rarity...
Review WarioWare Twisted! (GBA)
A turn for the best
Mario's diabolical, greedy and slightly-overweight rival Wario is a genius of sorts. After all, why bother with long games when you can make many quick-paced, five-second challenges? The third game in the WarioWare series, entitled WarioWare Twisted!, never made its way to Europe - which is a crying shame, as it's one of the most...
Review Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun & Blue Moon (Wii U eShop / Game Boy Advance)
Nothin' but net
In every long running game series, there's always "that" one game which greatly splits the fanbase. Usually due to a major overhaul of an aspect that flies in the face of series tradition, these black sheep games typically are wrongfully seen as a bad or disappointing release simply because they did something different. Mega Man...
Review Mega Man Zero 4 (Wii U eShop / Game Boy Advance)
The battle for Neo Arcadia
After three enjoyable Mega Man Zero entries, Capcom just had to sneak in one more. Released extremely late into the Game Boy Advance's life - after the Nintendo DS had already been released, in fact - Mega Man Zero 4 is the final game in the series and mostly follows along with the previous three titles. Once again...
Review Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World - An All-Time Classic, Tweaked
A world in no need of change
Having Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World exist alongside the original Super Mario World is like having two legit copies of the Mona Lisa hanging in the Louvre: each is fundamentally a masterpiece, and any attempt to compare the two is mostly going to come down to nitpicking about the way each is framed and whether...
Review Super Mario Advance - A Welcome Reworking Of Two Atypical Mario Platformers
Old Super Mario Bros.
While some video games don't age well, playing through Nintendo's back catalogue is generally like drinking a fine vintage wine. Super Mario Advance is rather unique in that it's a re-release of a collection of remade NES games. Super Mario Advance's brightly coloured remakes of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Mario Bros. and their...
Review Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (Game Boy Advance)
The dynamic duo go portable
When we at Nintendo Life think of Rare’s masterpieces from the Nintendo 64 era, we think of expansive and adventurous games like Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, and of course the beloved Banjo-Kazooie series. Off-the-wall characters, exuberant locales, and an epic sense of scope added to the hook of what made these...
Review Sonic Advance (Game Boy Advance)
Spin-tendo
One of the few good things about being old is that sometimes you can glean satisfaction from being in the right place at the right time, where you were lucky enough to have first-hand experience of something special. Nostalgia is the bread-and-butter of retro gaming and throughout its history there will always be moments that stick in a...
Review Silent Hill Play Novel (Game Boy Advance)
Choose your own survival horror
A popular release for the Playstation in 1999, Silent Hill saw players take control of Harry Mason – following a car accident, he awakens to find that his daughter, Cheryl, has disappeared. Naturally, Harry sets off to find her, but it soon becomes apparent that there's something strange about the surrounding town...
Review Pokémon Emerald (Game Boy Advance)
Some things, it seems, never change
In Japan in 1996 a craze started; by the turn of the century, it had worked its way around the world capturing the hearts and minds of gamers as easily as a level 3 Rattata is caught in a Master Ball. That craze was Pokémon: Nintendo’s pocket monster catching/training/battling powerhouse. The two Game Boy...
Review Atari Anniversary Advance (Game Boy Advance)
A nice sampler of classic greatness
When you open the arcade gaming history books to the early years, they should feature the name "Atari" in big, bold letters. Though strongly associated with home consoles in later years, Nolan Bushnell started this gaming empire in the arcades with games like Pong and Breakout (the assembly of the latter...
Review Jet Grind Radio (Game Boy Advance)
Funk on wheels
Sega's Dreamcast died in an explosion that sent the company's intellectual property flying all over what was left of the gaming landscape, and few consoles of that generation received more surprise ports than the Game Boy Advance. Not only did it see Sonic return to his former 2D self in the Sonic Advance series, the handheld also...
Review Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon (Game Boy Advance)
Turds in space
We can only imagine what mind-numbingly stupid things people were thinking during the pitch for Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon. We suspect it started out with noble intentions: the Rogue Squadron games were well received, and crazier games had successfully made the leap to the Gameboy Advance. Why not put the Millennium Falcon at the...
Review ChuChu Rocket! (Game Boy Advance)
The ultimate game of space cat and mouse
Around the turn of the millennium, Sega wasn’t doing so hot. Their much-beloved Dreamcast failed to ignite the sales charts despite being home to a plethora of fantastic new and original games as well as nigh-perfect (in some cases, improved) home conversions of arcade hits. It was with a heavy heart that...
Review Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Game Boy Advance)
Street Fighter returns! Bigger and better!
Three years after porting the first Street Fighter Alpha to the Game Boy Color, Crawfish Interactive tried something a bit more ambitious, this time for the more powerful Game Boy Advance. The decision was made to skip Alpha 2 and instead port the third game of the series. Street Fighter Alpha 3 had arrived...
Review Densetsu no Stafi 3 (Game Boy Advance)
The third time is the charm for the Densetsu no Stafi series.
After the success of the first two Densetsu no Stafi releases, TOSE obviously wanted to knock one out of the park with their third and final Game Boy Advance Stafi title. To say that they were successful would be a huge understatement, as Densetsu no Stafi 3 offers up the type of...
Review Densetsu no Stafi 2 (Game Boy Advance)
Densetsu no Stafi 2 kicks things up a notch.
The original Densetsu no Stafi started a series that features a unique blend of platforming and puzzle-solving elements to form one of the more unique Game Boy Advance titles, and certainly one that's become quite beloved by platformer fans the world over. Its sequel, Densetsu no Stafi 2, picks up where...
Review Densetsu no Stafi (Game Boy Advance)
Densetsu no Stafi kicks the series off in grand style.
Before the Densetsu no Stafi series made an appearance on Nintendo's DS system, it started off with three amazing Game Boy Advance releases. The game creatively combined platforming elements with underwater puzzle solving game play to form one of the most unique and engrossing games available...