GBA Collecting

[Megamixer]

Apologies if there is already a thread for this but the search function didn't throw anything up.

Recently, I've really gotten back into the GBA again. Playing many GBA games gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside because by and large, the style/aesthetics are very reminiscent of the 16bit era. Yes there are loads of crap kids games on the system but also a wealth of rare games, SNES/MD ports that many don't know about, interesting imports and plenty of original games that deserve mention.

For me, the GBA is the very last SNES/MD-like machine in terms of gameplay. Heck, even the boxart is reminiscent of the 16bit era when those evil cardboard SNES boxes were adorned with some lovely art.

So to kick off, my latest GBA purchases have been Konami Krazy Racers and Lady Sia. The former is a brilliant Kart game that and Konami fan should love thanks to all the classic references/characters and the latter is a surprisingly beautiful 2D adventure/platformer. I'm also eyeing up a Japanese copy of Tekken Advance...

I know Darren is into the GBA at the mo but I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others and who knows, maybe we'll unearth some obscure gems in the process

[aztecca]

Always liked the look of a nice GBA collection.There seems to be lots of fakes about though is there an easy way to spot a fake from an official version?

[IronMaidenRule]

Nokgod is knowledgeable in all things Gameboy related!

Only own two GBA games that I enjoy immensely, Advanced Wars and Zelda: A link to the past!

[RetroBob]

Ninja Cop

'nuff said.

[Lavilian]

I've been collecting GBA games again as of recently. Darran convinced me to pick up Metroid: Zero Mission (I honestly don't know why I sold it in the first place) a month ago and the other day I bought Astro Boy.

As far as hidden gems go I would suggest an SPRG called Zone Of The Enders: Fist Of Mars. I found it to be surprisingly fun.

[JazzFunk]

I love the GBA, I actually prefer playing GBA games on my Lite than I do DS games.

One thing, though, Tekken Advance is a bit naff, you'd be much better off with SF2: Turbo Revival as it feels like a 'proper' beat 'em up rather than a half-hearted attempt (also see Guilty Gear, King Of Fighters, both underwhelming on GBA). Some people prefer Alpha 3 but I never really liked it on GBA, probably because it wasn't ported by Capcom, though it's won loads of accolades and seems to have more fans than Turbo Revival.

Some obvious titles here, but some of my GBA favourites:

Castlevania Double Pack
Double Dragon Advance
Max Payne
Final Fight One (JAP!)
Boktai
Super Ghouls N' Ghosts
SEGA Arcade Gallery (ignore them not being perfect convos, great on the bus!)
Onimusha Tactics
Metroid: Zero Mission (I didn't really like Fusion, for some reason...)
Polarium Advance
Scurge Hive (like an isometric Metroid)
Warioland 4
Wade Hixton's Counter Punch (a Super Punch Out clone)
River City Ransom EX
Any of the Tony Hawk's games.

[Rayne]

So many pirate carts & so the worst boxes like, ever put me right off collecting for it great system though!

[ToxieDogg]

Always liked the look of a nice GBA collection.There seems to be lots of fakes about though is there an easy way to spot a fake from an official version?

If you were to put a fake GBA cart in front of me, I'd be able to tell you it was a fake pretty quickly, there's plenty of telltale signs....slightly misprinted label, the quality of the print on the label, the 'Game Boy Advance' logo being slightly off, the fact that it probably won't slide into the GBA cart slot smoothly etc.

The real problem is that it's often difficult to spot who's selling a fake on Ebay as you only have their (often bad) photographs to go by. General rule of thumb is to do a bit of research about prices of certain games, and if a 'Buy it now' price looks too good to be true, it usually is. Never trust a Hong Kong seller either, although that goes without saying.

As for games to get, would definitely recomment Wario Ware Twisted!

[famicom69]

Kicking myself for binning the boxes, I've got a ton of GBA games. Really love my famicom micro, easily one of my favourite consoles. I hate the fact it's getting harder to collect for what with the abundance of fakes out there

[Lavilian]

I think I actually saw a fake copy of Metroid: Zero Mission as well when I bought my legit copy. The cart just had a purple background with the Metroid: Zero Mission label on it.

[pratty]

I agree that if the price/condition etc is too good to be true it probably is. Buying/trading with other serious gamers/collectors is your best bet to avoid fakes.

I bought a "new" Minish Cap for £8 from a playtrader with 100% feedback, which turned out to be a knockoff. I sent it back but only got my refund from Play.com, not the seller who said he got his stock from a "well known internet site" (ebay).

A real GBA cart should also have a tri-wing screw and "nintendo" written on the circuit board. Sometimes the sticker colour is also not as it should be, for example the real Minish Cap sticker is green but the one I recieved was white.

Before you buy always read a seller's feeback, including postive as well as negative. Once I saw somebody who left postive feedback saying "game doesn't save properly but I don't care, I just love this game so much." It was Pokemon so they didn't even care that it didn't work properly!

Sometimes you also see people mentioning that they recieved the USA box which also suggests a fake. Also beware of people selling multiple copies, especially of games in "new " condition.

I've been lucky buying cart only games lately, but I ask the seller lots of questions before I order. You should always ask something anyway just to get a reply, from their reply to can begin to gauge what sort of person they are. If they type in chav-speak then forget it. If they don't reply at all, don't buy.

To be fair some sellers won't even know that their copy may be fake but you can always ask them to confirm the "nintendo" on the circuit board. Explain that you're checking it's legit because you've recieved fake games before, which will tip off any dodgy dealers that you know how to spot a fake, in which case they'll probably be too ashamed to reply and admit it's not genuine.

As for collecting, I haven't pushed my luck too much for fear of fakes, I have a modest collection of quality over quantity :

Minish Cap (a legit one!)
Link to the Past
Mario 3
Yoshi's Island
Superstar Saga
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror

I'd recommend them all, though I haven't actually finished any of them yet.

[JazzFunk]

Kicking myself for binning the boxes, I've got a ton of GBA games.

I haven't binned my GBA boxes but they're a bloody liability, I keep all my carts loose in a plastic 'chicken in a basket', without the chicken, obviously, it's like it's full of 'sweets' and they're all GBA carts!

[QuantumCrayons]

I keep all my carts loose in a plastic 'chicken in a basket

I keep all Game Boy paraphernalia in a shoe box.

[JazzFunk]

^I don't have quite enough GBA carts to fill a shoe box yet but must agree that shoe boxes are great, I have many filled with all kinds of weird and wonderful crap.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Ooh, the GBA - it was my "main" console for a while, a few years back. A mate of mine had one with Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure, and that sold it to me - went out the next day and got a GBA SP Classic NES version with a handful of games from CEX.

Games I have, currently, are:

Advance Guardian Heroes - Utter crap.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor - One of the best games I've ever played!
Banjo-Pilot - Nice Kart-y racing game, with Banjo-Kazooie people.
Breath of Fire - The SNES game, pocket-sized.
Castlevania [NES Classics] - It's Castlevania, came with the machine, lovely.
Castlevania Double Pack - Contains Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow, nice.
Columns Crown - It's Columns, but with more menus.
Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure - Amongst my Top 5 GBA games, and the main reason I bought one in the first place.
Duke Nukem Advance - A lot better than the game.com version, that's for sure.
F-Zero: GP Legend - Like the SNES game, but with more talking. Why do all GBA games have tons of dialogue?
Godzilla Domination - The game that King Of The Monsters always wanted to be.
Golden Sun - RPG thing, came with the machine. Haven't played it much, because it's and RPG.
Gunstar Future Heroes - Utter censored. Looks nice though.
Hot Potato! - Manic puzzley-shooter thing.
Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland - Almost exactly the same as the NES game, but with nicer graphics.
Klonoa: Empire of Dreams - A colour version of the Klonoa game that was on the WonderSwan. Very addictive.
Konami Krazy Racers - As mentioned above, great racing game.
Lady Sia - As mentioned above also!
Metroid: Fusion - Best Metroid game of the lot, for certain. Gets scary in places
Metroid: Zero Mission - Very good, but it's no Fusion.
Micro Machines - Didn't know this existed until buying it at Eurocon, and it's fantastic!
Pac-Man Collection - Loads of Pac-Man stuff.
Rebelstar: Tactical Command - Julian Gallop game, so obviously very addictive.
Riviera: The Promised Land - An RPG that plays more like one of those adventure game books.
Sega Arcade Gallery - After Burner, OutRun, Space Harrier and Super Hang On in miniature form, lovely!
Sega Smash Pack - Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe, Sonic Spinball, lots of fun.
Sigma Star Saga - RPG/Shooter hybrid, fun enough.
Sonic Advance - Kind of alright, but not amazing.
Sonic Advance 2 - Terrible, can be played with eyes shut on most levels.
Sonic Advance 3 - Better than the first two - ALMOST as good as that one on the Neo Geo Pocket Color.
Sonic Pinball Party - A bit more traditional than Sonic Spinball, with NiGHTS and Samba de Amigo tables as well.
Super Dodge Ball Advance - Another from my Top 5, unexpectedly good.
Super Monkey Ball, Jr. - Ultra-compact version, compulsive.

Most of these I got from the "retro" cabinets in GameStation, so only around a dozen of them have boxes. Great stuff all round, someday I'd like to get Advance Wars and Yggdra Union. Drill Dozer's on the way via Canadian eBay, looking forward to that one.