Tag: Gba - Page 3
Review Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Tending to the roots
If you're a fan of the Harvest Moon series, you know that a faithful instalment will leave only two questions: who do I get to marry and just how much free time can I afford to sacrifice over the next month or two? Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town sticks closer to this original formula than some of its more modern cousins,...
Review Final Fight One (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Still the One?
It's fair to say Capcom was on a roll in the late '80s and early '90s. During this period it pushed out some bona-fide classic pieces of software, including 1989's seminal coin-op brawler, Final Fight. Indisputably one of the finest side-scrolling beat-'em-ups ever created, it joined a rush of similar coin-guzzling titles including...
Review Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Ryu on Wii U (again)
1991's Street Fighter II is a game that got people very excited and led to a surge of interest in the fighting genre. It's also a game that got updated a lot — new moves, new characters, new speeds... — while being ported to numerous home consoles and computers. Several of those ports have seen a Virtual Console release...
Review Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Just like a black hole, it'll suck up hours of your time
With the first Advance Wars being a hit on the GBA not long after the system launched, it was no wonder that a sequel would eventually follow. Released about two years later, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising feels very much like an expansion pack, but one that is still more than worth the...
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...
News Super Metroid Was Planned As An Extra In Metroid Prime Before Nintendo Had It Removed
A third-party emulator ended the dream
It may seem like distant history now, but there was a relatively recent time when the Virtual Console was merely an idea rattling around in Nintendo HQ. Super Metroid is one classic that's now been available to buy on two separate occasions, but there was a time when it was almost a bonus feature in a more...
Review Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue & White (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Gotta bust 'em all
The Mega Man Battle Network series was a brilliant idea from Capcom to offer a refreshing and unique departure from the classic action platformer, while still delivering a colourful and engaging gameplay experience. Though it wasn't the first time the Mega Man series flirted with becoming an RPG, it was by far the most...
Hardware Review REVO K101 Plus
Hands-on with the ultimate hardware GBA clone
Love them or loathe them, hardware clones of vintage gaming platforms are here to stay. Technical wizards operating on the fringe of the gaming hardware arena are constantly dreaming up new products which ape the performance and feel of classic consoles, and in the past few years we've seen imitations of...
Review Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Sweet dreams
Klonoa's never really gotten the recognition he deserves, has he? The floppy-eared hero's original adventure, released for PlayStation in 1997 and given a superb Wii remake in 2008, was an extraordinary 2.5D platformer that forced players to take a different perspective on the action. Following this, Klonoa got multiple releases on...
News Natsume Has Eight Game Boy Advance Titles Prepped For The Wii U Virtual Console
Medabots! Medabots DX! Pocky & Rocky with Becky! More!
Publisher Natsume has eight GBA titles ready for launch on the Wii U Virtual Console, according to director of operations Graham Markay. Markay dropped the news during the latest Fragments of Silicon podcast, adding that the company had been planning its Virtual Console attack for quite some...
News Game Freak's GBA Title Drill Dozer Rated By The Australian Classification Board
Konami's The Adventures of Bayou Billy is also on the way
The Australian Classification Board has revealed Game Freak's GBA hit, Drill Dozer, will be arriving on the Wii U Virtual Console in the near future. The critically praised action platformer previously released in Japan in 2005 and North America in 2006 has players take control of a...
News Canned Shooter Dune: Ornithopter Assault Could Have Added Spice To The GBA Library
Title was practically finished but fell foul of publisher issues
Frank Herbert's epic fantasy series Dune has inspired some amazing video games - including Dune II: Battle for Arrakis - and should have delivered another riveting experience in the shape of Game Boy Advance shooter Frank Herbert's Dune: Ornithopter Assault. Developed by Soft Brigade...
Review Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Worth fighting for
While Fire Emblem is a franchise with a long history in Japan, its track record in the West is far more condensed; in fact Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones on Game Boy Advance was only the second series entry to arrive in the West. The first Western arrival is also available on the Wii U eShop, meaning that there's a useful...
Review Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Slightly less than super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts
Once upon a time when arcades were vibrant and 2D platform games were all the rage, Capcom struck gold with the original Ghosts 'N Goblins. The legendary tale of Sir Arthur and his quest to save Princess Prin Prin from demons was a huge success, but also notoriously difficult. Super tough from the off, in...
Review Mega Man Zero 2 (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Zero times two
Just one year after Mega Man Zero, Inti Creates released a sequel for the Game Boy Advance spin-off. That might sound a bit quick, but Mega Man Zero 2 is no mindless cash-in. It took the sturdy foundation set by its predecessor and built upon it in impressive ways, while also smoothing out the rough edges. On top of that it wove an...
Retrospective The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - A Decade On
Caps off to The Minish
Today marks an historic day. The tenth anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Perhaps one of the most unappreciated and overshadowed chapters in the long and lucrative series - selling just over 1 million units since its release - it's also one of the most unique, quirky and charming Zelda titles to have been...
Review Fire Emblem (Wii U eShop / GBA)
So much to love Lyndis game
Before Fire Emblem: Awakening started the Year of Luigi off with a bang, there was a great deal of concern at Nintendo regarding its future viability as a franchise. Sales were at an all-time low, and series producer Hitoshi Yamagami was given an ultimatum: at least 250,000 copies of the latest entry needed to be sold in...
Review Mario Party Advance (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Party of One
Given the palm-rending popularity of the Mario Party series on Nintendo 64, it was only a matter of time before Nintendo brought the festivities to a handheld venue, and in 2005 Mario Party Advance arrived to fulfil the dreams of on-the-go party people everywhere. Developed by the busy bees at Hudson Soft - best known as the house of...
Review F-Zero: GP Legend (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Dare you to blink
The F-Zero series has often dished out a steep challenge to players, and in GP Legend the uninitiated will be given no quarter unless they dig in their heels and learn the ropes. Players will be expected to tame every brutal hairpin, memorize each risky shortcut and etch sweet boosting spots into their brain if they are to succeed...
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 Kuru Kuru Kururin (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Brill Brill Brilliant
Kururin's siblings have wandered off and got themselves lost, and now he must hop into his Helirin (a spinning blade with a cockpit stuck in the middle) to fly around a number of worlds to rescue them. There are tutorial levels available in Kuru Kuru Kururin, but the game is straightforward enough even if the gameplay is quite...
Review DK: King of Swing (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Shouldering the effort
Between 1999's Donkey Kong 64 and 2010's Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nintendo's great ape served a cool-off period of sorts when it came to straight-up platforming adventures. He had no huge releases to his name, but that didn't mean he was on the backburner entirely. The 2000s were a time to utilise Donkey Kong as a...
Review Mario Kart Super Circuit (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Good for another lap
When the Nintendo 64 hit the market and suggested that 2D games had gone the way of the dodo, many of us that were fond of fancy sprite-work were forced to dust off elderly hardware to scratch our itch for the classic genres we held dear — until the Game Boy Advance came along, that is. Often reflected upon as the second...
Review Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Wii U eShop / GBA)
The Return of the Prodigal Sun
Back in 2001 (2002 in Europe) some players were left feeling short-changed when Golden Sun reached its abrupt ending. Developer Camelot – perhaps better known for the Shining Force series – had to split the game into two parts due to the Game Boy Advance’s hardware limitations. Those who’d already invested in...
Review Namco Museum (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Does it deserve to be exhibited on your Wii U?
Originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001, Namco Museum is part of a long-running series (which goes by the same name) that saw regular releases over a 15-year period all the way up until 2010. This game is a compilation, featuring five classic arcade games: Ms. PAC-MAN, Galaga, Galaxian,...
News You Need To See This Amazing Hand-Sculpted Donkey Kong GBA SP Case Mod
Good luck trying to play a game on it, though
If you follow the hardware modding community then the name Vadu Amka will be instantly familiar to you. A seasoned pro when it comes to taking existing systems and making them even more attractive, Amka has recently released another new creation: a Game Boy Advance SP which is based on the model used in...
Review Super Mario Ball (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Balls to the wall
It's no secret that Nintendo's iconic red-wearing plumber has had a number of vocations. From referee to painter to kart racer to hotelier, Mario's been through a lot and shows no sign of actually doing some plumbing. Keeping that in mind, let's take a look at a game where he becomes a pinball. Super Mario Ball's plot revolves...
News Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival Is Dragon Punching Its Way To The Wii U Virtual Console
Australian classification rating gives the game away
Capcom's Game Boy Advance port of its classic Super Street Fighter II: Turbo arcade machine is headed to the Wii U Virtual Console. The source of this news if the good old Australian OFLC, which has recently rated the game. Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival
News One Classic Mega Man Game Is Coming to Wii U Every Week in August
A Mega Man in every North American home
Update: The Capcom Unity blog has now confirmed the titles that will be included in this August promotion (thanks to Ryan Millar for the heads up). The release order is remaining a mystery for now, but the following four games are all coming to the Wii U eShop in the next month. Mega Man 5 (NES)
Review Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Full of promise, or just hot air?
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is in fact a remake of Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's first outing on the NES from 1993. While it isn't his original adventure (that honour goes to Kirby's Dream Land), it is the first instance in which he was able to use his now classic copy ability. The remake — which originally...
Review Mario Power Tennis (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Raising a racquet
Originally released on Game Boy Advance in 2005, Mario Power Tennis is unusual in that it takes the tennis simulation genre and embeds it into a role-playing game experience. It’s a combination that works surprisingly well, with the biggest success being a player progression system which allows you to level up your character and...
News Aussie Rating Outs Wii U Virtual Console Release Of Capcom's Onimusha Tactics
Game Boy Advance strategy spin-off is getting a second chance
Thanks to a rating on the Australian Board of Classification, we can reveal that Capcom's 2003 Onimusha spin-off Onimusha Tactics is coming to the Wii U Virtual Console. Based on the popular Onimusha series of action titles, this Game Boy Advance release takes place on a grid-based...
News You May Need This Super Famicom or SNES Game Boy Advance System in Your Life
Deep breath...
Well constructed mods of retro systems are among our favourite things here at Nintendo Life, and we recently featured GameBoyMods.uk's Shaun Jones, who unsurprisingly specialises in modding the original 'brick' system. We also interviewed Matthew "Wiggy" Wiggins of Rose Colored Gaming last year, a company that specialises in gorgeous...
Review Klonoa: Empire of Dreams (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Wahoo!
Starting life on the PlayStation in 1997, at a time when Super Mario 64 had just brought the gaming world triple-jumping headlong into the era of 3D platforming, Namco's Klonoa series has always done things differently. Klonoa's first outing, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, was a pioneering foray into 2.5D, mixing polygonal backgrounds with...
Review Wario Land 4 (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Someone should write a 600-page book about this game!
Wario Land 4 has seen a revival of sorts lately. Although Wario's core platforming series has been overshadowed for years by the surrealist microgames of WarioWare, last December journalist Daniel Johnson published Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4, a staggering 600-page...
Review Golden Sun (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Magic Hands Make Light Work
The more formulaic counterpart to RPG oddball Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Golden Sun expands on proven genre archetypes to deliver an experience that both pays tribute to and refines the classic role-playing adventure. It also gives some Wii U owners, potentially, their first experience of a franchise that has a...
News Animal Crossing and Metroidvania GDC Talks Now Available For Your Viewing Pleasure
New Leaf and Castlevania devs discuss the intricacies of game development
Many of the presentations at last month's Game Developers Conference are now available to view for free on the GDC Vault website, including Animal Crossing: New Leaf producer Katsuya Eguchi and co-director Aya Kyogoku's "How to Turn a New Leaf at the Animal Crossing" and...
News Nintendo Shows Off Upcoming Golden Sun and F-Zero GBA Wii U Virtual Console Releases
Next week's offerings on show
The early Game Boy Advance releases on the Wii U Virtual Console seem to have been rather popular with keen download fans, and it's certainly helped that some of the finest games of the portable's entire library have already arrived. The initial confirmed lineup is into its latter half, however, and Nintendo has...
Review Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Kirbytroid
For the most part, not much has changed about the Kirby series — many of its titles are fairly straightforward platformers in which your main ability is to suck up enemies and acquire their powers. It's not until somewhat recently that the development teams started trying different things, and one can certainly make a case saying that...
Review Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Double trouble
Back in 2003, Nintendo had already released two excellent Mario RPGs; Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Paper Mario. Rather than immediately making a Paper Mario sequel, the company decided to add a third completely different game to the line-up. While the previous games were developed by Squaresoft and Intelligent...
Weirdness LEGO, Game Boy Advance and Transformers Together at Last
With instructions to build your own!
New York Lego builder Baron von Brunk has already built a giant, working NES controller and a series of Nintendo console transformers like the N64 and the original Game Boy, which is currently a Lego CUUSOO submission. Now von Brunk assaults us with VANTAGE, a transfo
Review Advance Wars (Wii U eShop / GBA)
War has never been so much fun
Mention Advance Wars to a seasoned gamer and they're almost guaranteed to have heard of it. One of the earliest major Game Boy Advance titles, it's now also one of the earliest titles from the handheld on the Wii U Virtual Console, giving veterans another chance to pick it up and newcomers an ideal opportunity to see...
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and F-Zero: GP Legend appear eShop-bound
The Australian government's Classification Board is infamous for its censorship of violence in games, hindering the release of dozens of highly-anticipated titles over the years. But sometimes its ratings bring us good news: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and
Talking Point The Logic Behind Game Boy Advance on the Wii U Virtual Console
Business needs trump the natural order
When the Virtual Console was an innovative new platform on Wii, it excited gamers and followed some relatively simple rules. Any consoles that hooked up to TVs or even arcade cabinets in the past were fair game, as owners of the diminutive little system could enjoy access to a broad range of iconic classics. As...
News Game Boy Advance Games On The Wii U Virtual Console Are Single Player Only
Going solo
Game Boy Advance games are hitting the North American and European Wii U Virtual Console very soon, and Nintendo has posted some fresh details up on its Japanese site. The biggest news is that all of the launch batch of titles are all listed as being single player only — even those which had multiplayer capability in their original...
News Koji Igarashi, Best Known for the Castlevania Series, Departs from Konami
"I've decided to break out on my own"
It's possible that gamers relatively fresh to Nintendo hardware won't know much of Koji Igarashi's work, but Castlevania fans that enjoyed the terrific series entries on the Game Boy Advance and DS — in particular — may mourn the formal passing of an era today, even if it's been on the cards for a...
News Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Soundtrack Now Available On iTunes
HM-Surf rock Hoenn
The poké-occupation of iTunes continues this week as the digitally remastered soundtrack from GBA titles Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire hits Apple's music store. The album features 109 tracks from the games, composed by series icons Junichi Masuda, Gō Ichinose and Morikazu Aoki. Every single musical cue is included, so it makes...
News Game Boy Advance Titles To Hit Wii U Virtual Console From April Onwards
Metroid Fusion and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga are early highlights
Whether it's the desired platform for the portable's games or not, Nintendo today used its latest Direct broadcast to provide an update on progress bringing Game Boy Advance titles to the Wii U Virtual Console; after a fairly lengthy delay, we know they'll start to arrive in...
Hardware Review Retro-Bit Super Retro Trio & Super Retro Advance Adapter
One clone to rule them all?
We've covered quite a few clone consoles here on Nintendo Life over the past few years, and it's clear that these systems have carved out a healthy niche in the market. Retro-Bit and Hyperkin are two of the leading lights in this particular field, with the latter looking to release the eagerly-awaited RetroN 5 at some...
