Favourite GBA game(s)?

[Matthew]

Pokemon Leaf Green does it for me, haven't played much of the other Pokemon games on GBA.

Crash Bandicoot 2 is also a great game, but I've ragequit it countless times.

[Galyo]

Hmm... This is actually a pretty good question!

Although I do have to say that pretty much all my GBA favorites are SNES ports, besides Pokemon.

In random order:

Yoshi's Island: one of the best games in general, IMO.

Super Mario Bros 3: I know it's called Super Mario Advanced, but I can't remember for the life of me what the cartridge is titled.

Donkey Kong Country series: I actually like the GBC port of the first DKC game the best, because of well the developers utilized every last bit of the GameBoy Color's resources, but I have to mention it on the GBA list as well since it's such a great series.

There are also a couple of GBA games that I'm forgetting about, but I might remember later.

[King Malachite]

Great question!  I actually most of my GBA games in front of me.  I have:

Crash: The Huge Adventure

Monster Bass Fishing

Dragonball Z: Super Sonic Warriors

The Urbz: Sims in the City

Crash Banditcoot: N-Tranced

Super Mario World: Super Mario Advanced 2

Mario Kart Super Circuit

Shrek: The Hassle of the Castle

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Out of those, I'd say my favorites are the Crash Banditcoot games, Urbz, Chronicles of Narnia, and Mario Kart.

[Matthew]

Never knew there was a Shrek game for GBA - gonna have to look that up!

Will also check out Yoshi's island, sounds cute:3

[King Malachite]

Never knew there was a Shrek game for GBA - gonna have to look that up!

Yeah, the Shrek game was pretty cool, and very fun to place.  I had never seen Shrek beforehand, but I learned of the story while playing that game.

[Galyo]

Never knew there was a Shrek game for GBA - gonna have to look that up!

Will also check out Yoshi's island, sounds cute:3

Yoshi's Island is one of my favorite games of all time! It was also one of the first games my mother bought me for my SNES when I was a kid. Most people say they like Super Mario World more, but I like Yoshi Island a lot more because of its more complex gameplay.

The GBA port remains faithful to the SNES version, and even includes a few small bug fixes. The only thing I really noticed was that it uses Yoshi's Story (N64) sounds for Yoshi instead of the sounds used on the SNES.

Oh, and the music! XD It's just fantastic.

[Jera]

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story - The 2nd is a better game, and it's not necessary to play both to understand it. But I love both.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Way easier and more user-friendly than the original PSX game, but still highly rewarding. Still strategic, but less punishing of mistakes, and more rewarding of forward planning.

[JenSquid]

Looking at my GBA collection, I'd recommend:

All three Castlevanias are excellent. If I had to rank them, I'd say Aria > Circle > Harmony, but you really can't go wrong with any of them.

Sword of Mana. This was a fantastic remake of the first Seiken Densetsu game, and probably the last game to feel like old Squaresoft. It was also the first GBA game I bought.

Golden Sun. Loved the first, never finished the second. Good RPGs with interesting puzzles, and I love the camera movement during battle. Very good use of limited resources.

Yggdra Union. Really good strategy game, with a wonderful art style. Kind of hard to describe, and perhaps a little obtuse, but once you figure it out, it's really good. Maybe think Ogre Battle meets Fire Emblem with chained, multi-part battles. It's also on the PSP.

The only thing I really noticed was that it uses Yoshi's Story (N64) sounds for Yoshi instead of the sounds used on the SNES.

Ugh! How could they!? The SNES sounds were SO much better! N64 Yoshi just sounds constipated.

[Jera]

Ugh! How could they!? The SNES sounds were SO much better! N64 Yoshi just sounds constipated.

This is so much better for you?

+1 for Golden Sun though. Great game, that.

[Galyo]

Both versions have the baby Mario crying sound... x3

Honestly, I think people like to exagerate how annoying it is. It's not THAT annoying. Some people even say it's a game-breaker for them... Now that's just silly.

And yes, I'm also not a big fan of the Yoshi's Story sounds, but considering some of the other changes Nintendo made to their ports (like having Mario talk in the Super Mario 3 port), it's not that bad.

[Punzie]

Oh boy, the GBA made my childhood much more enjoyable more than most things I can remember.

Some of my favorite games to play were Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Pokemon Sapphire, LeafGreen, FireRed, Emerald, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, Super Mario Advance, Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros 3, Frogger's Adventure, and Kirby's Amazing Mirror.

[Toddin3D]

Hmm...

I only remember playing Link to the Past, Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen & Emerald, and Yoshi's Island. Out of those four, Yoshi's Island was definitely my favorite since it was the most fun and challenging (some of those levels were HARD but yet so fun to pull through).

Funny thing about Yoshi's Island:

Someone on Tumblr mentioned that it would be great to have a horror game where the main goal is to carry a baby around as we try to find safety from demons/monsters/whatever, and if we drop the baby, it would be game over. Then they realized that we already have a game like that: Yoshi's Island. LOL

[King Malachite]

I used to have Tekken Advance, and that was an awesome fighting game for the GBA.  Very "advanced" for it's time in my opinion.

[Frae]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Way easier and more user-friendly than the original PSX game, but still highly rewarding. Still strategic, but less punishing of mistakes, and more rewarding of forward planning.

This and Tactic Advance 2. They dropped the ball on the story (at least compared to FFT) but both where superior in pure game play. Beautiful sprites, art direction and all of those job classes!

I also really enjoyed the Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages games and ofc all of the Pokemon

[Tristyn]

1) Fire Emblem

2) Mother 3

3) Pokemon Crystal

4) Sonic Advance(whole series)

5) Sonic Battle

6) Mario vs. Donkey Kong

Its more but can't remember.

[Shanade]

Pokemon Silver
final fantasy advance tactics

[Mermaid]

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story - The 2nd is a better game, and it's not necessary to play both to understand it. But I love both.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Way easier and more user-friendly than the original PSX game, but still highly rewarding. Still strategic, but less punishing of mistakes, and more rewarding of forward planning.

This! Noone knows of Swordcraft Story, but it's one of the best games I played on GBA... Along with FF6.

My favourites however are the Castlevania titles... Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. Love them to death! The atmosphere, the soundtracks, the gameplay... Writing this kind of makes me want to play them all again...

[CalmRage]

Pokemon Silver
final fantasy advance tactics

that was for GBC, but playable on GBA.

I still have the golden edition, it was my first edition. Heartgold is better in many aspects, but it doesn't have that special feeling the original had.

erm, my favorites:

Rayman Advance
Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World
Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (SMA1 is good too, just not AS good)
Pokemon Emerald
Pokemon LeafGreen
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Team Red

and now for GBC:

Super Mario Bros Deluxe (wish i knew where that one got off to, it just vanished)
Pokemon Gold
Wario Land 2-3 (only have them on VC though)
Links Awakening DX (only have it on VC though)

and now for the original grey brick OF DOOM, i mean OF GLORY:

Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (one of my favorite installments, have it on cart and VC)
Pokemon Yellow
Metroid 2: Return Of Samus (one of the best installments, only have it on VC)

[King Malachite]

that was for GBC, but playable on GBA.

I still have the golden edition, it was my first edition. Heartgold is better in many aspects, but it doesn't have that special feeling the original had.

erm, my favorites:

Rayman Advance
Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World
Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (SMA1 is good too, just not AS good)
Pokemon Emerald
Pokemon LeafGreen
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Team Red

and now for GBC:

Super Mario Bros Deluxe (wish i knew where that one got off to, it just vanished)
Pokemon Gold
Wario Land 2-3 (only have them on VC though)
Links Awakening DX (only have it on VC though)

and now for the original grey brick OF DOOM, i mean OF GLORY:

Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (one of my favorite installments, have it on cart and VC)
Pokemon Yellow
Metroid 2: Return Of Samus (one of the best installments, only have it on VC)

Super Mario Advance 2 is awesome! 

[Jamie_06]

Well I'd have to go with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past myself. I somehow missed out on it during the SNES era, and I was glad as a major Zelda fan that I was eventually able to play it. It's held up very well over the years.

Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen as well. Always loved the classic gems, and getting them updated to the new standards was great.

Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald were well-done and better than a lot of people give them credit for.