Well, as a lot of you know, I plan to get a 3DS XL later this year which will allow me to play both GBA and DS games. What you guys don't know is that yesterday, I decided to buy a Gameboy Advance SP. Why? Well, it turns out a model of the system released in 2005 with a far better lighting system. Unfortunately, a lot of these in good condition can get pretty pricey and all of the colors for the brighter models are meh. Then I came across this Amazon page. This guy sells customized GBA's where he takes the skins from older models and puts it on more updated hardware. I communicated with the guy quite a bit in the last two days and his customer service is fantastic. For an extra ten dollars, I was able to get him to include a headphones adapter with my GBA SP that he's going to send today. :D Since I'm going to own both a Gameboy Advance SP and a 3DS XL later this year, I thought I'd ask you guys for game suggestions. I've compiled a list of games that interest me (as well as some of the games I already own).

It's worth mentioning that I originally got my first GBA back in 2001 but I stopped playing it in 2004 due to the lack of backlighting or any type of lighting what's so ever. As for why I own two DS games, a friend of mine was kind enough to send them to me cause she hated the games. >_>

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If you like Strategy games and Tactical RPGs then I have some recs for ya. Other then that I don't play my GBA all that much.

Advance Wars - Turn based modern warfare themed strategy game. Graphics are a semi anime style for the characters and the units themselves like kinda chibi. There's all sorts of neat units to command and special abilities the officers you play as have to spice things up. The game can also be very challenging.

Fire Emblem Series - I adore this series. They are tactical RPGs a la shining force. You level up your units and promote them to stronger types. I've beaten the 2 US GBA titles multiple times each. Good story, likeable characters. Can start off challenging but if you do well it gets easier as you progress. It is quite satisfying to see the units you've worked hard leveling up kicking enemies ass's later in the game. The 2nd game Sacred Stones, while also quite good is rather easy in comparison to the first Fire Emblem. The stories between those two are unrelated so you can play either one.

Yggdra Union - A bit of an oddball strategy game. There's a bit of a learning curve at the beginning to understand how unit placement works and making your attacks successful, but once you've learned how it works it's a rather simplistic battle system. Awesome soundtrack and humorous attack sequences make it worth a look.

Sigma Star Saga - Another oddball game but rather good. Combines Sh'mup and RPG elements. You explore dungeons searching for upgrades for your ship like different bullet types etc. You'll get summoned into random battles during dungeon sequences where you're transported into a ship and then you play the game like a shooter until all the enemies have been defeated. It sounds weird but its actually pretty cool. I only beat my copy recently though i've owned it since it came out. lol.

That's what I've got for you. Feel free to check em out on youtube, wiki or whatever and pass your own judgement.

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I looked through your lists pretty quick and I figured I'd throw in my comments regarding some of the ones I've had some experience with.

3DS

Sonic Generations: I've read that this one is pretty different from the console versions, so I can't comment too much regarding this one. I played the PS3 one, and it was honestly one of the best Sonic experiences I've had in ages (and I was a pretty hardcore fan). If it plays even remotely like the console one, I'd say try it out.

DS

Kirby Super Star Ultra: Definitely yes. It's one of the best examples of a remake done right that I can think of. It's enhanced in almost every way and even has some new exclusive stuff to do. I can't recommend this one enough.

Kirby: Squeak Squad: I feel that this was one of the weakest Kirby games I've ever played. It's okay, but it reeks of average and there really isn't anything special about it. It has some interesting mechancics, but I felt that none of them were really taken advantage of. If your a fan, I'd say try it out, but I'd get Super Star Ultra and Canvas Curse before picking up Squeak Squad.

Kirby: Canvas Curse: This was one of my first DS games and I've had a lot of fun with this one. There's plenty of stuff to do and unlock, so there's certainly some replay value. A lot of the remixes used were pretty awesome as well.

GBA

Metroid Fusion: I'm a pretty big Metroid fan, so I enjoyed this one a good amount. I won't lie though, it is a fairly difficult game and there will be a few occasions where you will get frustrated playing this.

Metroid: Zero Mission: This is a unique reinterpretation of the first Metroid. Quite unlike the original game, this one is easily the easiest Metroid game I've ever played. I suppose it's a good starting place for newcomers, and it's worthwhile to play through once I think to see some of the story and new stuff, but I'd personally put this on a little lower tier because of how easy it is.

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror: This game's okay. It's got a unique exploration element to keep you playing for a while, but unfortunately, once you have found all of the treasure, there is little reason to play this game again. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Nightmare in Dreamland, although it's certainly not a bad game.

Wario Land 4: I really enjoyed this platformer. It mixes up some fairly challenging platforming along with some unique puzzles to spice things up a bit. The boss fights were fun, requiring a specific strategy to defeat. I recommend.

Castlevania Double Pack: Move this to your top tier. No, seriously. They are both at least solid Metroid type games. Harmony of Dissonance is an solid game. It has pretty impressive looking graphics, although in exchange the sound had to take a hit; the music quality is more like what you would expect from a NES game (not that it's bad, it'll sound much different from what you may be used to on a GBA game). Aria of Sorrow though is easily one of the best Metroidvania games you can get, second only to Symphony of the Night, in my opinion. It has a very interesting weapon mechancic were you can capture a enemy's soul to use as one of three types of abilities: there's your Bullet type, which functions as an alternate weapon; Guardian, which can offer some different abilities that must be activated to use, such as shield or a high-speed dash; and finally you have the Passive abitilies that's always in effect as long as it's equipped. The music, like most other Castlevania games, is really good. So move Double Pack into your top tier, I can almost assure you that Aria of Sorrow alone is well worth it, although Harmony of Dissonace is also an alright game.

Some of my own recommendations include.

DS

Castlevania: All of the DS Castlevania games are very good. Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin are pretty good Metroid type games with similiar gameplay. Dawn of Sorrow is a lot like Aria of Sorrow in gameplay mechancics, since it's a direct sequel, and Portrait of Ruin is pretty similiar as well. Order of Eccelsia is a pretty difficult game, since you can't just grind and expect to win, it actually requires some level of skill to beat. It's more like the classic Castlevania games in that fashion.

Mario Kart DS: A very good Mario Kart experience, probably my second favorite only behind 64. Plenty of stuff to do, so there is a good number of replay value. May not be as worthwhile to you though, since I see you have the 3DS version on your list of lower tier wants.

GBA

The Mario Advance games are pretty good remakes of classic Mario games. If you haven't had a chance to play any of those, the Advance games are pretty good alternatives.

WarioWare Inc. Mega MicroGames: This is a video game, pure and simple. It's one of my favorite games to play when I'm bored and don't know what to do. The premise is simple enough, get as far along playing a series of 3-4 second minigames for as long as you can. The speed and difficulty go up as your progress, so it stays challenging for a long while. Ridculiously fun.

Castlevania Circle of the Moon: The second best GBA Castlevania game. This one is actually fairly challenging and has a very unique magic system in the form of mixing and matching one of two sets of cards, a element card and a effect card. Certain combos would merely change the element of your whip while some would change it into an entirely different weapon, some would create shields, projectiles, you get the idea. Music is awesome, much like the rest of the games. The only real complaint I have is that the graphics are on the dark side, but since you will be using a console that has backlight, this won't be as much of a problem.

I may add more when I have more free time to kill.

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The Local Video Gaming Lunatic

Recent stuff I'm into:

Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing

I had a GBA but the only game I played for a significant amount of time was Megaman Battle Network 3, which was excellent. Best one out of the six or however many there were.
Harvest Moon - Friends of mineral town is decent too, and its starting to rise in price for some reason. Not sure why, its not rare.

The DS however, I play tons and recommend the following regardless of whatever price you find it at:

Bomberman DS 2 - We've been through this
Wario Ware Touched - My favourite WarioWare, superb minigames
Mario Kart DS - Great fun, and not as gimmicky as MK7
Yoshis Island 2 - My favourite platformer on the system. The game is big, the visual style is lovely, the music fitting and the whole thing plays great
All of the Ace Attorney games - Preferably in the correct order
Rhythm Paradise - You need a sense of rhythm for this, watching my Ex fail repeatedly at it was amusing. Some of the songs you have to tap along to are crap but its very fun nonetheless
Mario & Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story - The dialog is superb. I would say this is the second funniest Nintendo game ever, behind Paper Mario 2.


If you can get it at a decent price, maybe also consider the following:

Anno: Create A New World - A good strategy game that works well with the controls
Space Invaders Extreme - Awesome visuals, great soundtrack, tried and tested gameplay with power-ups thrown in. Classic stuff
Metroid Prime Pinball - Accurately themed to MP1, good solid pinball fun
Tetris DS - Tetris on the DS
Scribblenaughts - A clever puzzle game allowing lots of variation in how you solve things

I can't believe I forgot to mention this one. I second this, since it's a pretty good variant of Tetris with cool NES game remixes with some interesting game modes (I like the Classic one, of course, but I also liked the, what I believe was called, Catch mode (it's the one with the Metroid theme) that was really fun).


How did I forget those too?! Put me out of my misery. I've only played the first two, but they are awesome visual novel kind of games. The characters are quirky in a funny way, and there is quite a bit of good writing in there that will make you laugh despite the rather dark premise (you are trying to defend your clients in what are all pretty much murder cases). The only real bad thing about them is that, since they are visual novel type games, once you've finished all of the cases, there's nothing left to do on them. Well worth checking out, though!

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The Local Video Gaming Lunatic

Recent stuff I'm into:

Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing

Skip the third and fourth (the characters start getting a bit stupid) and go straight to the Miles Edgeworth one

I'm something of a completeionist, so I plan on getting them all at some point. I heard that the third game was just as good as the first one though from Hardcore Gaming 101. I guess I would have to just try them out and see for myself.

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The Local Video Gaming Lunatic

Recent stuff I'm into:

Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing

On Tuesday night, I played Bomberman Tournament, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and Wario Land 4 with an emulator. From the little I played of the Kirby and Wario games, I was disappointed but Bomberman Tournament and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap were better than expected. I decided to play both of those games until the first dungeon to get a decent look of the games. I bought Bomberman Tournament on Tuesday night through eBay in "like new" condition for less than $7 and I bought The Minish Cap in "very good" condition for $20 on eBay last night. Very much looking forward to owning both games. My Gameboy Advance SP arrived last night (arrived two days after the guy shipped it) and the system works great. The screen is so damn bright and the system itself handles and looks great. Worth every penny.


I've heard great things about both games but I've never had much interest in tactical RPG's. I might look into them since they're so well received though.


Never heard of it, but I'll give it a decent look at some point.


Ohhhh I love shmups. It looks interesting. I'll be sure to look more up about that game soon.


Oh, I will.


Sonic Generations for the PS3, 360 and PC is probably the most well received 3D Sonic platformer since Sonic Adventure 2 and for good reasons. It's easily the best Sonic game to come out since the mid 90s and I just love that game. However, the 3DS version is by Dimps who also made the Advance and Rush games. While I love the Advance games, they went in an inferior direction with the Rush games and their version of Sonic Generations is the most poorly received Dimps led Sonic game yet. Or at least it was until Sonic 4: Episode II came out. :/ I thought Episode 2 was way better than Episode 1.


It seems like so much was well done in that remake except one thing: controls. The original Kirby Super Star had some of the best controls of any SNES game I've played and has always been example to me of how to pull off superb controls. The DS versions *beep*s that up with idiotic button mapping that isn't changeable at all. If they didn't *beep* that up, it would be an easy purchase. I really *beep*ing hate jumping with the A button and attacking with B in an SNES styled button layout. It feels so awkward and poorly thought out. If I never buy that game, it would entirely be because of that. It just infuriates me that they would take a game with such amazing controls and *beep* it up.


Yeah, seems like the game wasn't that greatly received.


Looks well made, but I'm not a big fan of games that put a huge emphasis on touch controls hence a major reason I never bought a DS.


I love Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission. I played those games on an emulator back in 2007 and had a blast. I definitely plan to get those games at some point but I'm currently more focused on games I've never played.


Biggest problem I had from the little I played of it on Tuesday night was half-assing of the abilities. You often could do so much with one ability in KSS yet in KatAM, it's completely random. Many abilities will only allow you do to one thing, yet some will allow you to do as many as four abilities. It makes a lot of the one type of attack abilities feel really shitty in comparison and the whole game feel really uneven. Worse is that a lot of these one type of attack abilities were awesome in KSS yet feel shitty in that game.


Seemed like a fun game, though I got Wario Land: Shake It! at some point and haven't gotten around to playing it yet. I'll definitely play through that before getting Wario Land 4.


Only reason the double pack is a lot lower on the list is because I want to play through Castlevania 4 and Symphony of the Night before tackling any other games in the series. I'll look into the handheld games after playing through those games.


I have a hard time wanting to get Mario Kart DS when Mario Kart 7 is out and every single Mario Kart game I've played has been a disappointment compared to the amazing Crash Team Racing. I might not even bother with Mario Kart 7 at all.


Played all of the SNES versions of those games many times and I hope Nintendo will do 3D Classics editions of those games someday. I'm not interested in any ports for the GBA unless the versions on the GBA are a massive improvement like Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland.


I'm not much of a mini games person.


Cool.


The Battle Network games never interested me personally.


Yeah, I'll probably get that game at some point since its often considered the best game in the series. I want to the first game for the SNES before playing that though.


Yep. Looks great.


As I mentioned earlier in this post, not that into mini-games or Mario Kart.


I've heard mixed reactions from the game. Some people really liked it a lot where as many thought it was nowhere near as good as the original game. The first Yoshi's Island is one of my favorite games of all time so I'll definitely look at this game in an emulator or something to get an idea if I want to buy it.


I know barely anything about the games, but they never looked very interesting to me. What do you do in those games?


Huh. Never heard of this game. I probably wouldn't care for it though.


Definitely a high consideration someday. I thought the first Mario & Luigi game was pretty great but stopped playing it largely because of my issues with the GBA at the time. When I play through the original game again from beginning to end, I'll definitely look into the DS Mario & Luigi games.


Doesn't look like my type of game.


I never really was much of a fan of the original Space Invaders.


I dislike pinball games. Only pinball game I ever bought was Sonic Pinball and that was the biggest waste of money I ever spent on a game.


Not a big fan of Tetris. The gameplay usually gets boring for me after a few rounds.


Not that into drawing based puzzle. >_> You can probably see why I chose to not get a DS. I wish Nintendo made a Gameboy 4 instead.


Glad to hear they did interesting things with the formula at least.


Is there much to the actual gameplay though?

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The Ace Attorneys see you thinking laterally and piecing together clues. I guess to fully enjoy it you need to get onto the story and enjoy solving mysteries. There is no action scenes so perhaps you would find the gameplay lacking but there is a demo available online that Capcom did, its the first trial of the fourth game. Give it a shot, you can decide if the series is worth your time without spending money or bending the law - http://www.court-records.net/gs4demo.htm


Scribblenauts doesn't involve any drawing. You type the objects in with an on screen keyboard and manipulate them with the game's character. ^_^


And Yoshis Island 2 is every bit as good as the first game and then some. The one problem is the screen sizes on the DS, (not its resolution), so it might be nicer on a big 3DS.

I played Gunstar Super Heroes's first level, a few levels from Rayman 3, and Metal Slug Advance's first level. Gunstar Super Heroes was immediately moved to the top tier. That game is super awesome and is definitely the next game I'll get for the GBA.


I'll give it a try at some point.


Huh.


I'll give it a try on an emulator at some point.

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Explaining Super Scriblenauts would take some time, therefore watch a video.

As for gameplay in Ace Attourney, there is more or less none, it's a visual novel, not so much a game, it's still quite entertaining. Absolutely zero branching path either, so you basically you choose the correct thing a (long) list and don't choose incorrectly in a court case 3 times, or you restart the court case. Still awesome, I'm quite excited for Layton vs Wright, too bad I doubt I'll be picking up a 3ds.

I won an eBay auction for Gunstar Super Heroes last Sunday. I should receive it brand new for less than $15 soon! ^_^ Minish Cap also came in the mail today and Bomberman Tournament should arrive soon.

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I'll keep this short for now, and get to a few others later, since you mentioned Contra 4. I think it should be on either top or medium tier. It was one of the best games in the Contra series, aside from Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES). Despite that it didn't exactly sell well, WayForward Technologies did a good job on behalf of Konami before they got on with the "Mighty" series, and Shantae: Risky's Revenge as well.

However, the fact that Contra 4's action takes place with two screens at the same time, it does take getting used to -- whether you're going solo or partnered up with someone.

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"I'm-a Wario! I'm-a gonna win!" ~Wario

"It is GOOD day to be giant man!" ~Heavy Weapons Guy

"What is Bill Rizer? It is just the name of a single entity who has been gone for centuries." ~Master Contra

Yeah, the dual screen setup seems like a pain in the ass. I honestly hate the dual screen aspect of the DS. I wish Nintendo just made a Gameboy 4 instead and put extra effort into making one great screen instead of two inferior screens. They could've still implemented touch screen controls so not much would've been that lost if they went that route.

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Yeah. However, there were no Touch Screen controls during Contra 4's gameplay beyond the main menus (which you probably already know by now). All you got to rely on were the buttons, and your wits.

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"I'm-a Wario! I'm-a gonna win!" ~Wario

"It is GOOD day to be giant man!" ~Heavy Weapons Guy

"What is Bill Rizer? It is just the name of a single entity who has been gone for centuries." ~Master Contra

So I now have a 3DS XL and got Kirby Super Star Ultra yesterday. My god, the button placement in that game is so horrible that it completely ruined the game for me. It's absolutely impossible for me to hold the game comfortably.

How I would hold the buttons if Y was attack and B was jump:



How I don't hold it because this really hurts my hands:



How I usually hold it specifically for this game because the button mapping is retarded:



I hold the right side completely differently all because of the retarded button mapping. :/ Sucks too because I placed some of the same sections in an emulator last night (with the buttons mapped non-retardedly) and really enjoyed it. I'll never buy another platformer on the 3DS or DS again that doesn't allow me to jump with B. If I can't tolerate retarded button mapping in a remake of one of my favorite games of all time, why would I be able to tolerate it in another game? This is probably pretty obvious from the pictures, but I have really long fingers. The system often hurts my hands even if I hold it in the most comfortable position so trying to play it with awful button placement is barely tolerable.

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Can't you just hold it like you would on panel A? You know you can jump with Y or A, right? I hate to sound like a complete prick, but that just sounds like nitpicking to me.

I just played a little bit of Super Star via Kirby's Dream Collection (using the Classic Controller, of course) and then a little Super Star Ultra, and I didn't really have any problems. It took me all of five seconds to get used to the slightly different button layout for each one. Maybe it's because I played both the original and enhanced games to death and beyond, but I don't recall having any real problems playing either or back to back.

Shame to hear you didn't care for it though, as it's easily one of the best games on the DS's library.

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The Local Video Gaming Lunatic

Recent stuff I'm into:

Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing

When I try jumping with Y instead of A, I frequently do the wrong actions I.E. attack when I mean to jump and jump when I mean to attack. It really sucks they didn't allow control customization options because I would absolutely love this game if it did. :(

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I've booted the game up on my DS to see how I hold it, I don't use Y at all. the right side of my thumb jumps with A and the left side of my thumb deals with the attack

I honestly don't see why they would've mapped the controls like Super Star, seeing it is, and the controller is identical.