Number 1 Son's Video Game Review: Game Boy Advanced Tribute

Well, I'm back, and ready to do something that I intended to do two weeks ago, but due to insanity the past two weekends (and a fair amount of forgetfulness) I am just getting around to it. "It" is a tribute to the Game Boy Advanced. You see, on March 27, Nintendo released its newest hand held system, the Nintendo 3DS. Unlike its predecessor, the 3DS is not reverse compatible with Game Boy Advanced games, meaning that at long last, the Game Boy line of systems, a great line of systems that ushered in the age of hand held gaming (making long car trips far more tolerable), is dead, and has gone the way of the NES, now only to live on in the hands of collectors (and those of us who still have access to Game Boy-compatible systems).

The Game Boy Advanced was one of the greatest systems ever, and is largely responsible for getting me back into serious gaming, as well as introducing me to a number of new series and rekindling my interest in other series. So, in this tribute, I am going to talk about the games that made the Game Boy Advanced special for me. I will not be ranking them, or talking about how horrible certain games were. This is for the games that were good, and all of them are amazing. Now, this is by no means a complete list of games, and some might think that there were better games on the system, but this is really a personal list, about what the system meant for me. So, let's get talking about some games!

Super Mario Advanced
This series of games was my first introduction to the Game Boy Advanced. They were nothing new, simply ports of old Mario SNES games, largely the ones I grew up with and enjoyed playing. These included Super Mario World, by far my favorite 2D platformer (only rivaled by New Super Mario Bros Wii; I never have been able to decide which I like better, so I'm calling them both my favorite), Yoshi's Island, a game I played endlessly on the SNES (the only game I have spent more hours on is Super Mario 64, the greatest game of all time), and Super Mario Bros 3, considered by many one of the greatest games ever, and one that I never got to really play until this series. There were few changes from the original games (mostly they added the much-needed option to save). They were not perfect, of course, but they allowed me to play some classic and truly great games, and really started me back into gaming during a time when I didn't play as much.

Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Versions
While Super Mario Advanced started me back into games, these games really dragged me fully back into the realm of gaming. The only series of Pokemon games that I played all versions of, these games were the center of the Third Generation of Pokemon. They introduced a number of new Pokemon (some of which are among my favorites), and got me interested in Pokemon again after I lost interest in Gold/Silver. These games gave me hours of enjoyment (although I still think that the Safari Zone should be named after me for how much money I gave them over three months; not one of my finest hours, or several hours). These games also improved on the story. Now, instead of simply stopping a criminal organization, you fought a desperate battle to prevent an organization (or two in the case of Emerald) dedicated to awakening an ancient Pokemon to dominate the world. Naturally things got out of hand, and you are forced to save the world from destruction (you might remember this moment from my Pokemon countdown). Overall, great games, and I don't regret the time I spent playing them (although I could have lived with spending less time in the Safari Zone).

Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land/Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
The second of these games was my first experience with the Kirby series of games, a series that has since given me much pleasure (the latest game Kirby's Epic Yarn was very good, if easy). Nightmare in Dream Land gave me an experience with a more normal Kirby game, and cemented my love for the series. Admittedly, the series is a bit on the easy side (Nightmare in Dream Land was both so easy and so short that I beat the entire game three times in one day, and still had time for homework), but it's Kirby, and the music, gameplay, and charming art are enough to keep bringing me back (and without these games I never would have played Kirby Superstar Ultra for the DS).

Pokemon Fire Red
Another game out of Generation III, Fire Red was a remake of the original Pokemon game, Red Version. It was a very good remake, with a number of welcome advances (such as the ability to run), and a great design. Overall, this game was amazing, and especially welcome to me, since I never really played the original game seriously (I had a copy, but I was only 5 or 6 years old and not willing to put in the time necessary), and this game gave me the opportunity to play through a truly great game, and have some truly great battles (even though Misty proved to be the bane of my existence).

Fire Emblem
There aren't many people who know about the Fire Emblem series (and most who do know of it only because of Super Smash Bros), but it is a recent addition to my repertoire. Actually, my first game was for the DS, and the next one I beat was on the Wii, but this game (commonly known as FE7) is definitely the best in the series. Fire Emblem is a cross between an RPG (role-playing game) with an RTS (real-time strategy), with you conducting large scale battles using a handful of unique characters in turn-based combat (truly one of the strangest concepts in video games, "I will crush you with my overwhelming army of dragons, as soon as it is my turn!"). This game has near-perfect gameplay, with certain aspects, such as Support Conversations (which are unlocked when certain characters spend enough time near each other), which not only can provide combat bonuses but give insight into the characters. Speaking of which, these characters are great, and you really care about them, as well as the story they take part in. It is an epic game, and definitely one of my top 10.

Well, that's all of the games I could think of, although there were certainly many, many more (according to Wikipedia, there were 949), but I wanted to focus on the ones that I enjoyed the most. As I said before, the 3DS cannot play GBA games, and with no Nintendo system in production that is capable of playing these games, the system is once and for all dead.

May it rest in peace.