Game Boy Advance

Leave it to Atlus to deliver a relatively unknown title to the US shores and amaze us with the incredibly smooth and undeniably fun Riviera: The Promised Land only on the Game Boy Advance. While the Game Boy Advance is still one of the best selling consoles of all time, it is nearing the end of its life. Fewer and fewer titles are coming out that are worth purchase. Riviera is the late life exception to that rule adding to the lengthy list of Role Playing Games that makes Nintendo's little handheld worth playing.

Back when Nintendo was the dominate player in the game industry, several big name Role Playing Games were not released in the US market. Did you know that the NES missed out on two Final Fantasy titles? The biggest crime was when the SNES was not given several big titles. Two of these titles were Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. We covered Nintendo's re-release of Fire Emblem shortly after it came out and awarded it a high score. Does the follow-up deserve the same praise?

Klonoa is one of the franchises Namco first started on the PlayStation. They continued it on the PS2 several years later before moving the series to the Game Boy Advance. Klonoa 2: Dream Champ looks and plays just like the first one. In fact, the game has been out for a long time in Japan. For some unknown reason Namco has been sitting on this title just waiting for the right opportunity to release it. Apparently the time is right now and GBA owners can finally play this magnificent puzzle title.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is, at first glance, exactly what many of us hated about Wind Waker: a progression to a more cartoonish, less fun Zelda. When I picked up and played the game for a couple hours, though, I found that not only did the newest Zelda in the series have all the classic elements that made 2D Zelda great, it enhanced and polished some of the best aspects of the game and did away with the ones fans like me reacted negatively to (if I have to sail another boat ever again in a Zelda game, I'm pulling out my razor blade item and end Link's misery right there).

Back during the NES days, Nintendo enjoyed the company of one of the greatest RPG developers of the time. Square helped shape the console RPG into the big business it has become today on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, after issues Square had with Nintendo and the lack of willingness to change media formats on the Nintendo 64, Square made history with Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation. Since then, Nintendo has yet to see another great Square game on its console.

Although there have been many Donkey Kong games since his 1983 debut, many people have been asking if we will ever see Mario and Donkey Kong in a game that has the same type of gameplay as the original Donkey Kong. While Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3 may be considered sequels, they both had very different gameplay elements than Donkey Kong. Well, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is the sequel to the original that people have been hoping for. It is a true sequel to the original gameplay where Mario is the hero and Donkey Kong is the villain. Like the original Donkey Kong, each level is fairly small, and Mario's task is to get from start to finish, mostly all on one screen. What many people do not know is that there was a game also called Donkey Kong for the original Game Boy that was released in 1994. Donkey Kong '94 took the basic concept of the original Donkey Kong and expanded it with more elements in the gameplay. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a sequel to this game.

Having exposed players to the world of Metroid Prime (GameCube, 2002) and Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance, 2002), the developers of Fusion thought that it would be a good idea to go back and explore the roots of the Metroid franchise to those who may have never known it. Metroid: Zero Mission is not just a port or mere graphical upgrade of Metroid which first appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. In fact, the first Metroid game has truly been remade to provide a brand new experience in Zero Mission. While Zero Mission follows the same general structure of the original Metroid, Samus has been given new abilities, new areas to explore, new puzzles to solve, and new enemies to defeat. Even those who know every virtual inch of the original Metroid will enjoy the new experience found in Zero Mission.

One of the best Nintendo 64 games was Banjo-Kazooie. This title took what Miyamoto did with Mario 64 and further perfected the genre. A sequel was later released but it was closer to the end of the N64's life-cycle. By then, people were growing tired of the console and ready to move on to different types of gaming experiences. So Rare sat on the franchise and it has not been seen since. The time without a new Banjo title has caused me to realize how great the series has been and what a great developer Rare is. Although Rare is now away from Nintendo and making Xbox titles, they have a few GBA games they are still working on. In a publishing contract with THQ, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is the first game to appear under this new relationship. While it is hard to make a ground-breaking title with such old technology, Grunty's Revenge is a solid title.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is the best selling video game of all time. Well if you want to get technical, it's the best selling stand-alone game. The original Super Mario Bros. actually has the most copies sold, but it had the advantaged of being packed in with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Anyways, Mario 3 has finally arrived on the Game Boy Advance in the form of Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3.

Fans of Square will probably have fond memories of the Strategy RPG they released on the PlayStation. Final Fantasy Tactics became one of the most popular games they released during the PSX days. Since the game was released, Square has not developed a follow-up even though it has been sought after by fans. However, in a surprise move, Nintendo and Square announced that Final Fantasy Tactics Advance would be the first Square developed title published by Nintendo since the days of the SNES. While we have had to wait a long time for a follow-up to FF Tactics, it was well worth the wait.