The 20 Best Games on the Game Boy Advance

In addition to its strong foothold in the home console business, a major pillar of Nintendo’s success has always been its understanding of how to make great handhelds, as evidenced by the Game Boy Advance. The original Game Boy and Game Boy Color had managed to outdo numerous competitors despite them having more advanced hardware, proving that the handheld market was about more than just pure performance. So when it came time for Nintendo to make the next generation of Game Boy, Nintendo knew it needed to have the games to back the handheld up. Boy, did it ever. The best games in the Game Boy Advance library are a who’s who of classic titles, many of which helped endear fans to brand-new franchises and teed up the later successes of the DS, 3DS, and Nintendo Switch.

• Release Date — February 14, 2003
• Developer — Square Product Development Division 4
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Genre — TRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)

A lot of the best games on the Game Boy Advance would end up being ports of beloved SNES titles, but the handheld just wasn’t quite ready to handle the demands of a PS1 game. So rather than attempt to port the PS1 version of Final Fantasy Tactics to the Game Boy Advance, Square Enix built a new game from the ground up that featured a brand-new story and characters, simplified job selection, and the same great turn-based tactical gameplay players knew from the original. Unsurprisingly, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is the greatest tactics game on the GBA to not come from the Fire Emblem series.

• Release Date — September 20, 2002
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 2
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)

The Super Mario Advance line of games for the GBA are some of the best titles on the console (evidenced by the fact that all but one are on this list), and Super Mario Advance 3 gave players a crack at a game that initially passed many by. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island had the unfortunate position of releasing at the tail end of the SNES’ lifespan, right as 5th-gen consoles were starting to arrive, but it’s every bit the great platformer that you’d expect. Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 gave the game a second lease on life and helped endear it to a whole new generation of fans ready to recognize its brilliance.

• Release Date — December 14, 2001
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 2
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)

The original Super Mario World is one of the most iconic platformers ever made and maybe the best 2D Mario game, so of course it would get a port to the Game Boy Advance. Super Mario Advance 2 does a commendable job of porting the SNES’ pack-in title, adjusting the difficulty to make it more accessible while keeping just about everything else intact. It’s one of the greatest games on the SNES, and it’s one of the greatest games on the GBA, as well.

• Release Date — November 17, 2003
• Developer — AlphaDream
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)

Long before Nintendo would remake Super Mario RPG, it delivered a long line of similar games starring Mario and his brother Luigi, the first of which was Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga on the Game Boy Advance. These RPG/Puzzle-Platformer hybrids are some of the more unique and enjoyable games on the GBA, and the first is a standout as one of the best in the entire subseries. If you like real-time button commands in your turn-based combat, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a must-play that still holds up.

• Release Date — October 7, 2004
• Developer — Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — TRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)

Out of the Fire Emblem games released for the Game Boy Advance, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones takes the cake as the best on the console. It also happens to be the final game in a trilogy of titles developed for the handheld, making the most of Intelligent Systems’ expertise with the system to deliver an incredible TRPG. Considering the two games were developed side-by-side, you can look at Sacred Stones as a companion to Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and they’re both essential titles in the wider Fire Emblem canon.

• Release Date — June 6, 2002
• Developer — Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)

The trilogy of Castlevania games on the GBA is the reason we even have the term “Metroidvania”, with the portmanteau coined by a game journalist when describing the series’ first entry on the handheld, Circle of the Moon. For its follow-up, Konami brought back the original mind behind the series’ Metroidvania pivot with Symphony of the Night, Koji Igarashi, who did a commendable job on Harmony of Dissonance. While it is the weakest of the three GBA Castlevania games, it’s still an excellent Metroidvania and an important part of the series’ legacy.

• Release Date — December 12, 2005
• Developer — Square Enix, Tose
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Genre — JRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)

The ability of the Game Boy Advance to handle SNES games opened it up to a deluge of incredible ports, with the three Final Fantasy games on Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse eventually making their way to the GBA. Final Fantasy IV Advance would end up being the second Western re-release of the game, replacing the original SNES Final Fantasy II and joining the version of Final Fantasy IV that appears on PS1 compilation Final Fantasy Chronicles. Final Fantasy IV Advance would end up being, for years, the best port of the game, and many players still consider it superior to the more recent Pixel Remasters version.

• Release Date — June 23, 2003
• Developer — Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Turn-Based Tactics
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

The original Advance Wars was one of the GBA’s surprise sleeper hits, helping to introduce Western players to the long-running Wars series that Intelligent Systems had been developing since the Famicom. The sequel, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, is every bit as good, introducing new maps, new unit types, and a fantastic local multiplayer mode that greatly extends the title’s replayability. It’s no wonder that both Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2 are still looked back on as some of the best tactics games of the era.

• Release Date — November 4, 2004
• Developer — Capcom, Flagship
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

It seems like just about every console generation has at least one underrated or underappreciated game in the Zelda franchise, which, for the 6th generation, is The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. This GBA-exclusive title takes Link back to a top-down, overhead perspective akin to Link to the Past, and it features some of the most inventive puzzle design and combat across the entire franchise. Plus, The Minish Cap is the last game in the series to be co-developed by Capcom, closing off an iconic era that began with the excellent Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.

• Release Date — March 21, 2003
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 1
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Minigame, Compilation
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

Why play one game when you can play more than a hundred on a single cartridge? That was the basic premise behind Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Microgame$, which was both one of the Game Boy Advance’s best games and the start of a brand-new franchise for Nintendo. The addictive nature of hopping from one offbeat and zany mini-game to the next in an effort to beat your own high score was a thrilling chase that seemed to never get old, and while the Wario Ware series would only continue to evolve, there’s a strong case that it peaked early with this GBA classic.

• Release Date — February 9, 2004
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 1
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

As influential and important as the original NES Metroid is, going back and replaying it in a modern context can be a bit rough. Thankfully, Nintendo knew this as well as anyone, deciding to go back and remake the game for the Game Boy Advance as Metroid: Zero Mission. While the additions that Zero Mission makes to the main campaign are sort of “take it or leave it” changes, the core gameplay loop of getting to explore planet Zebes, collect upgrades, and venture into new areas is just as fun as it was back in 1986. In a lot of ways, Metroid: Zero Mission laid the groundwork for how a video game remake can and should be done.

• Release Date — August 1, 2001
• Developer — Camelot Software Planning
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — JRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)

After previously working exclusively for Sega on some of the greatest RPGs of the 4th and 5th console generations, Camelot Software Planning jumped ship to Nintendo to craft a long line of great Mario Golf games. But the studio wasn’t done with the RPG genre, getting a chance to develop a system-exclusive JRPG for the Game Boy Advance that harkened back to the classics. That game was none other than Golden Sun, and it’s every bit as essential for genre fans as any of the best RPGs on the SNES or Camelot’s classic Shining Force games.

• Release Date — March 21, 2001
• Developer — Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)

The Game Boy Advance launched with a fairly strong lineup of games, one of them going on to be one of the system’s all-time greats — Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. Circle of the Moon is the reason we have the term “Metroidvania”, even though it’s far from the first game in the genre (or even the first Metroidvania in its own series). But what Circle of the Moon does best is innovate, striking a more careful balance between “new” and “old” Castlevania gameplay and hooking players with the addictive Dual Set-Up System of collecting cards from defeated monsters. Just make sure you’re playing it with a lamp nearby to compensate for the insanely hard-to-see visuals.

• Release Date — July 11, 2003
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 2
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 94% (Universal Acclaim)

The best of the Super Mario Advance games is Super Mario Advance 4, which ports Super Mario Bros. 3 to the Game Boy Advance. Super Mario Bros. 3 may very well be the greatest platformer ever made, so it follows that the game would end up being one of the best titles on the Game Boy Advance. Even though the GBA never got its own original Mario title, it didn’t need one — not when you have the likes of Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, and Super Mario Bros. 3 all available on a single handheld.

• Release Date — November 30, 2006
• Developer — Square Enix, Tose
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Genre — JRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)

Final Fantasy VI is certainly a contender for being the absolute best game in the series, and its Game Boy Advance port is often considered the best version of the game. What makes Final Fantasy VI Advance stand out from other ports and re-releases of the classic 16-bit RPG is its additional content, revised script, and rebalanced encounters, presenting a challenging version of one of the SNES’ best RPGs that stands the test of time. Even if you think you’ve mastered everything Final Fantasy VI has to offer, Final Fantasy VI Advance will throw you for a loop with the challenging Soul Shrine dungeon.

• Release Date — September 10, 2001
• Developer — Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Turn-Based Tactics
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)

Intelligent Systems’ Advance Wars isn’t just a great tactics game on the Game Boy Advance. It’s arguably the tactics game on the Game Boy Advance, helping the genre to establish a foothold on the system during its infancy and paving the way for several other like-minded games to follow (including Intelligent Systems’ own Fire Emblem games). That Advance Wars is just as good today as it was almost 25 years ago is all the proof needed to cement it as one of the Game Boy Advance’s best games and a certified classic in its genre.

• Release Date — July 21, 2001
• Developer — Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Driving/Racing
• Review Aggregate Score — 93% (Universal Acclaim)

For a first attempt at a handheld Mario Kart game, Mario Kart: Super Circuit knocks it out of the park, acting as both one of the Game Boy Advance’s greatest and best-selling titles. While later handheld iterations would blow it out of the water, Super Circuit was impressive for its time, and it does a great job of translating the feel of Mario Kart 64 into the palm of your hand.

• Release Date — May 6, 2003
• Developer — Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)

For the Castlevania series’ final game on the Game Boy Advance, Igarashi pulled out all the stops to deliver the true spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night and a game that many consider to be the best of all Castlevania titles. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is about as close to a perfect Metroidvania as you could get, and it sits, along with Metroid Fusion, as one of the genre’s exemplars on the Game Boy Advance. The Tactical Soul System is such a brilliant mechanic that it appeared again in the DS sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, which is basically just Aria of Sorrow 2.0. After all — if it ain’t broke…

• Release Date — December 2, 2002
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 2, Flagship
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 95% (Universal Acclaim)

Out of all the ports that found their way into the Game Boy Advance library, none was more profound than the console’s version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which takes one of the greatest games in the franchise and finally makes it portable. At the time of LttP‘s release, it was the only way to play the game outside tracking down a physical copy and a working Super Nintendo, making it a hugely important step for game preservation as much as it’s a killer port of one of the SNES’ best games. Throw the multiplayer Four Swords on top as a bonus, and you have one of the GBA’s most essential titles.

• Release Date — November 18, 2002
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 1
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)

At the time of Metroid Fusion‘s release, one of the last things anyone expected Nintendo to do was release a direct sequel to Super Metroid. But it did, and that’s precisely what Metroid Fusion delivers, almost surpassing that SNES classic in many ways and setting up the series’ thrilling climax 20 years later with Metroid Dread. There are a lot of great Metroidvania games on the GBA, but not even the best of them can hold a candle to Metroid Fusion, earning its place as the best game on one of Nintendo’s best handhelds.