Top 10 Best GBA Games, Ranked by Our Community

The community’s top 10 GBA games

The vote had three stages. First, readers nominated their favorite games. A vote narrowed these down to ten, followed by a final round in which each participant could choose just one game. Pokémon versions competed separately, so they keep their individual places here.

• 10th: Pokémon LeafGreen
• 8th–9th (tied): Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
• 8th–9th (tied): The Lost Vikings
• 7th: Pokémon Emerald
• 6th: Pokémon FireRed
• 4th–5th (tied): Advance Wars
• 4th–5th (tied): Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
• 3rd: Metroid: Zero Mission
• 2nd: Metroid Fusion
• 1st: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

10th: Pokémon LeafGreen

Tenth place goes to Pokémon LeafGreen, a remake of the original Game Boy's Pokémon Green and part of the series' third generation. You pick your first Pokémon and head out across Kanto. Eight Gym badges, the Elite Four, and a shot at the championship await. Team Rocket needs dealing with along the way, and your rival has a habit of showing up when you could really do without another battle.

Combat is turn-based. You choose moves, switch Pokémon, and gradually put a team together. At first, catching something strong and raising its level seems to cover most of it. Then you start looking at what is happening underneath.

Pokémon have six main stats, affected by things such as nature, individual values called IVs, and EVs earned through training. Moves that match the Pokémon's own type usually receive a damage boost called STAB.

You don't need to study all of this before starting the story. But when you begin building a team to battle other players, two Pokémon at the same level can turn out very differently. Choosing moves and working out how the team fits together can keep you busy long after you've learned the basic rules.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

8th–9th (tied): Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon shares eighth and ninth place with The Lost Vikings. Here, Nathan Graves enters Dracula's castle with a whip and plenty of monsters to use it on.

The castle has branching routes, secret rooms, and passages you cannot reach straight away. Find a new ability, return to a familiar corridor, and another route opens up. It helps to remember the places where you had to turn back. Eventually, you might have exactly what you need to get through.

Circle of the Moon's particular trick is its DSS card system. You combine a card from one set with a card from another to produce a magical effect. One combination, for example, gives you a flaming whip. Finding another card means trying it with the ones you already have to see what else you can do.

There is also equipment to find, a character to level up, and some tough bosses. What I like about these games is that a familiar part of the castle can still have something useful tucked away. Sometimes a new ability is enough to find it. Sometimes you just need to pay more attention to the walls.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

8th–9th (tied): The Lost Vikings

Three Vikings are abducted by Tomator, an alien who collects living creatures for display. They would rather go home, but getting there takes all three of them working together.

Erik can run and jump, Baleog fights with a sword and bow, and Olaf shields his friends from danger. Olaf can also raise his shield over his head and use it to float gently down from a height.

Each level is a puzzle, and every Viking has to reach the exit. One clears out an enemy, another reaches a platform, and the third makes the route safe. You also need to avoid leaving someone stranded in a place they cannot escape with their own abilities.

This is one of the best puzzle games on the GBA. Some levels can leave you stuck for quite a while as you work out the right order of actions. It takes a little dexterity, too. Figuring out a safe route and actually getting everyone through it are two separate jobs.

7th: Pokémon Emerald

Pokémon Emerald takes seventh place. It expands on Ruby and Sapphire, sending you across the Hoenn region with a different set of towns and Pokémon from the Kanto games. The story also involves both rival organizations, Team Magma and Team Aqua.

One of Emerald's biggest attractions comes after you win the Pokémon League: the Battle Frontier, a collection of battle challenges with different rules. If beating the story has convinced you that your team can handle anything, this is a good place to test that theory.

Team building matters much more here. Stats, abilities, and a carefully chosen set of moves give you plenty to work on between attempts. Emerald makes particular sense if you want to keep battling after becoming Champion and watching the credits.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

6th: Pokémon FireRed

Sixth place goes to another Pokémon game, FireRed. Yes, three entries from the series made the top ten. People voted for each version separately, so their positions remain separate here too.

FireRed and LeafGreen share Kanto, its towns, opponents, and the main storyline. The most useful difference when choosing between them is which Pokémon you can catch. Some are exclusive to one version, encouraging you to trade for the ones you are missing. Certain Pokémon also evolve when traded.

Your preferred team is a better reason to choose one version than expecting a different adventure. Playing both back to back will involve a lot of familiar territory. Both also have extra things to do in the Sevii Islands after the main story, if you aren't quite ready to say goodbye to your team.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

4th–5th (tied): Advance Wars

Advance Wars and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow share fourth and fifth place. Advance Wars is a turn-based strategy game with infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft, and ships. The little units look like toys, but the decisions you make with them take some thought.

You move troops, attack enemies, and capture properties. Cities bring in money, while bases let you produce more ground units. You need to deal with the enemy army while keeping enough territory to fund your own.

Buying nothing but expensive tanks won't solve everything. Infantry is needed to capture buildings, artillery needs protection, and damaged units hit less hard. Terrain matters too: leaving troops on an open road is quite different from putting them in a forest.

Beyond the campaign, there are separate War Room maps and an editor for building your own battlefields. You can even play against a friend on a single GBA, passing the system over at the end of each turn. It is a handy way to play a strategy game together without needing a second console.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

4th–5th (tied): Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

For me, Aria of Sorrow is the best Castlevania on the Game Boy Advance. You play as Soma Cruz, who finds himself in Dracula's castle and discovers that he can absorb the souls of defeated monsters.

Those souls give him their abilities. Some provide new attacks, others improve his stats or help him move around the castle. That makes a fight interesting for more than the experience points: the enemy might drop a useful soul. Getting it can take more than one attempt, though.

Soma can also change weapons. Swords, spears, and other finds vary in reach, speed, and damage. Combine them with different souls and you have plenty of ways to change how he fights. A new ability gives you a reason to try a different setup on the next group of enemies.

The castle is huge, with secrets and places you will return to later. It looks lovely, the bosses are varied, and collecting equipment and souls provides plenty to do along the way. There is a lot here to keep you occupied beyond simply reaching the last boss.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

3rd: Metroid: Zero Mission

Third place goes to Metroid: Zero Mission, a remake of the original NES Metroid. Samus Aran arrives on Zebes to explore its underground passages, collect equipment, and deal with the Space Pirates.

Its world has something in common with Castlevania: new abilities let you reach places that were previously blocked off. Samus can turn into a ball to fit through narrow passages, for example. As her weapons and movement options improve, more of the map becomes accessible.

Zero Mission also adds quite a bit to the original adventure, including areas, bosses, and a whole sequence in which Samus is left without her Power Suit. You have to treat encounters rather more carefully when you no longer have your usual equipment.

I personally prefer Castlevania, but the community placed Metroid higher. There are plenty of secrets to look for, and returning to an old area with new equipment often reveals something you missed.

There is a small extra for owners of both GBA Metroid games. Connecting Zero Mission and Fusion with a link cable unlocks a gallery of Fusion's ending images in Zero Mission.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

2nd: Metroid Fusion

Metroid Fusion finished second. Samus is infected by an X parasite during an expedition and nearly dies. After treatment, she heads to a research station where the parasites have already caused plenty of trouble.

You explore the station, fight bosses, and gradually regain Samus's abilities. The story gives you more direction here: your ship's computer assigns objectives and tells you which sector to visit. There are still secrets and extra upgrades to look for along the way.

The station's nastiest surprise is the SA-X, a parasite that has copied Samus in her powerful suit. While you are still recovering abilities, it already has the weapons you would normally rely on. Early encounters call for hiding or running away.

That gives the station a tense atmosphere. Alongside the shooting and searching for passages, there is the thought of meeting the SA-X again. The game does a lot with its 2D graphics and sound to make those encounters unsettling.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

1st: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

And first place, drumroll please, goes to The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Vaati turns Princess Zelda to stone, and Link sets out to lift the curse. Helping him is Ezlo, a talking cap who can shrink his wearer down to the size of the tiny Minish.

That change in size is the game's most enjoyable idea. A puddle becomes a serious obstacle, while a tiny opening leads somewhere full-sized Link could never fit. Familiar ground needs a second look when you are only a fraction of your usual height.

There is plenty of classic top-down Zelda here too: dungeons, puzzles, bosses, and useful new items. The game keeps finding ways to put those items to work. The Gust Jar, for instance, can suck in objects and enemies.

It looks lovely, has a fun cast, and makes good use of shrinking in both puzzles and exploration. One ability changes how you approach a surprising number of everyday things. It is easy to see why this adventure won the community vote.

Cartridge listings on AliExpress:

How the list began

The vote was held in our Russian-speaking community. The idea for it came from a purchase. We found an interesting lot on Italian eBay with Game Boy Advance hardware and accessories.

At the top left of the photo is a rare Flash2Advance Ultra cartridge. It had two buttons for saving and loading during a game, a neat feature for an old flash cartridge.

Later, while sorting through the consoles in a drawer, we found a leaflet from the same lot with a Mario Club Europe top ten.

That made us curious about which games our own community would choose. The vote above grew out of that question. I prefer Castlevania to Metroid, for example, but the voters put them in a different order. That is part of what makes a community list interesting.

Other lists from the original article

The original article also included lists labeled Metacritic and IGN, without dates or links to the original rankings. They are kept below for comparison with our community vote, rather than presented as those sites’ current rankings.

List labeled Metacritic

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
3. Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
4. Mario Kart Super Circuit
5. Advance Wars
6. Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
7. Metroid Fusion
8. Final Fantasy VI Advance
9. Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
10. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

List labeled IGN

1. Golden Sun
2. Mario Kart Super Circuit
3. Advance Wars
4. Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
5. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
6. Super Mario Advance
7. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
8. Sonic Advance
9. F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
10. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

More game lists

Those were our community’s choices. If your favorite is missing, let us know in the comments. Which games would you add, and which places would you swap?

10 Game Boy favorites from a player with 25 years of experience.