Features
10 Game Boy Advance Hidden Gems You Probably Missed
Drill Dozer, Ninja Five-O, Boktai, a Japan-only Compile puzzler and Julian Gollop’s pocket X-COM — ten real GBA games from the second shelf that still play brilliantly.
Author: Sal Benedetto
From the Vault columnist. Grew up feeding quarters to the Ms. Pac-Man machine at his uncle's pizza place; still owns his childhood SNES and every Nintendo Power he ever begged his mother for. Writes the retrospectives and the hidden-gem hunts.
Features
Mother 3: The Masterpiece Nintendo Never Localised, and the Fans Who Did
Twelve years in development, Japan-only on release, and carried worldwide by the most famous fan translation ever made — the full story of Itoi’s final Mother game.
Reviews
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Review: A Storybook With Teeth
Over 300 missions, five races of jobs and a story brave enough to make its hero arguable — FFTA is a vast, buildable strategy RPG in storybook colours.
Reviews
Sonic Advance Review: Hell Froze Over, and It Was Brilliant
Sonic’s first game on Nintendo hardware was a fast, faithful love letter to the Mega Drive era — Dimps’ Advance debut remains the best of the trilogy.
Reviews
Mario Kart: Super Circuit Review: The Connoisseur’s Kart Racer
Forty tracks, exacting handling and a ranking system that respects skill — Super Circuit is the Mario Kart for people who like Mario Kart as a sport.
Reviews
Pokémon Emerald Review: The Definitive Hoenn Adventure
Rayquaza descends, two teams collide and the Battle Frontier opens — Emerald is the most complete Pokémon game of the sprite era and the GBA’s essential Pokémon cartridge.
Reviews
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Review: Small Hero, Big Heart
Capcom’s storybook Zelda shrinks Link to thumb-size and doubles its world — a beautifully crafted miniature that deserves far more than its ‘overlooked’ label.
Reviews
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! Review: Five Seconds to Glory
Hundreds of five-second games fired at your reflexes — WarioWare invented a genre, satirised its own industry and remains the GBA’s purest party cartridge.
Reviews
Fire Emblem Review: The Blazing Blade That Won the West
The West’s first Fire Emblem explained permadeath, supports and the weapon triangle without softening any of them — a demanding, humane strategy classic.
Reviews
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Review: Fawful Has Chortles
The funniest game on the GBA is also one of its best RPGs — timing-based battles, paired-brother puzzles and AlphaDream’s immortal double act.