One year later, where do you rank the Switch in the history of Nintendo’s handhelds?

The Game Boy Advance tops the list for two reasons. One, it has a lot of wonderful, original games that are still fun to this day. However, before we get to those, we need to talk about the second and main reason this console was a success.

There is no question about it, the Game Boy Advance was huge because it was essentially a Super Nintendo in the palm of your hands. The Game Boy Advance cranked out 16-bit games, or at least those stylized to look like them, like no other handheld before, and it backed this image with a healthy selection of classic ports. Before the Game Boy Advance, playing Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, or Link to the Past on a handheld console was just a pipe dream, and while I don’t like to prioritize ports when praising a console, they are a little too important to the Game Boy Advance’s success to ignore.

Thousands of gamers gained access to Final Fantasy IV and VI for the first time on the Game Boy Advance, and more importantly, Final Fantasy V Advance remains the definitive Western release of the lost classic.

In terms of design, the original Game Boy Advance model proved a bit rough, but once Nintendo finally installed a backlight in the Game Boy Advance SP, its original library could finally live up to its potential. And what a library it is!

Nintendo easily tops the list with its own games: Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero Mission, Wario Land 4, Wario Ware, Mother 3, Mario Luigi Superstar Saga, Pokémon Fire Red Leaf Green, Advance Wars, Rhythm Heaven, Golden Sun. True highlights of Nintendo’s offerings on the Game Boy Advance are Fire Emblem, the first game in the series to make it to the Western world and still the best it has to offer, and none other than The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, which we just recently discovered is the most underrated and one of the best games that the series has to offer.

Thank Capcom for that one. You can thank them for two solid Mega Man spin-off franchises as well. Both Mega Man Zero and Mega Man Battle Network got their start on the Game Boy Advance, and while, like most Mega Man franchises, they got stale after a while, their initial impact was huge for breathing new life into the beloved franchise.

Konami reinvented Castlevania on the Game Boy Advance using Symphony of the Night as a model. The handheld entries in the series also peaked on the Game Boy Advance with Aria of Sorrow, the best in the post-Symphony of the Night world. I’m also a fan of Konami’s Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand if I can get the sun function to work.

The heavy players of the gaming world weren’t all that made the handheld great either. Oddballs like Drill Dozer from Pokémon developer Game Freak helped define the Game Boy Advance, and we also were introduced to a little company called Sting, which put out a handheld of great RPGs, Riviera: The Promised Land being the biggest and best among them.

Square Enix sadly came up a little short on the Game Boy Advance, but the ports of its older games were all many really needed. Again, you can’t underestimate the power of portable classics, and being able to play those old games anywhere in the world was a true game-changer in the gaming world. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance still has its place in many gamers’ hearts though.

Like all the best consoles in history, it’s clear that the Game Boy Advance thrived where it matters the most: in its selection of memorable games. The technological advances it introduced where fine, but when I look at my handheld collection, no competition, the Game Boy Advance takes up the most space.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2018/03/11/one-year-later-where-do-you-rank-the-switch-in-the-history-of-nintendos-handhelds/