The best GBA games of all time

Believe it or not, there was a time when the Game Boy Advance was thehandheld gaming system to buy. The best Game Boy Color games kept the system going, but it was long overdue for a real upgrade in power. With the GBA, we could now play games on the same level as the best SNES games on the go.

The best GBA titles boasted familiar gameplay and thoughtful level design, rendering them more than a nostalgic cash grab. Don’t believe us? Take a look at our list of the best video games of all time and see how many GBA games made the list. Or, go ahead and check out this definitive list of the best games for our favorite handheld.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

84% Platforms Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U Genre Role-playing (RPG), Adventure Developer Capcom, Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Release November 04, 2004 The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap tops our list for a number of reasons: Endless charm, brilliant overworld and dungeon design, smart puzzles and even smarter puzzle mechanics make it. The Minish Cap told the backstory of Vaati, the main antagonist and important figure in Four Swords. After Vaati petrified Princess Zelda, Link rescued a magic sentient hat with a bird head that, when worn, lets him shrink down to a microscopic size just like the Minish, the tiny creatures that have worked tirelessly to help remove darkness from the world. The hat, the game’s central quirk, made exploring Hyrule a much different experience than before. It opened up new places and offered new perspectives, illuminating just how majestic the world of Hyrule truly is. The Minish Cap had all of the prominent features of a successful Zelda game, from excellent dungeons to whimsical townspeople to the sheer delight provided when opening a treasure chest. And did you know The Minish Cap was developed by Capcom, not Nintendo? It remains one of the best Zelda games of all time. Look, before you get mad that we placed Minish Cap above A Link to the Past, we wanted to prioritize