GBA Collecting

[Neilos626]

GBA has some great titles. I have

Demi kids dark version
sword of mana
zelda minish cap
zelda link to the past
zelda 1
zelda 2
mario kart super circuit
riviera
sf2 turbo revival
shining soul
final fantasy 4
f-zero
hajime no ippo
stafi star saga
and many many more I can't think of right now

[GigaPepsiMan]

Got a good load of GBA games, shame the boxes are becomming harder to find.

[batman877]

Final Fight One (JAP!)

Why specifically the Japanese version? I have the UK PAL version. Is the Jap version different?

[bensonrad]

I play my GBA daily on my long commute to London, Super Mario Kart and Millipede (which is on one of those arcade comp's with breakout) both massively consume my time. I was doing so well this morning and the blooming ticket inspector came along just as I was on the starting line for the 3rd race. His interuption ruined my start, bah!!.

The Sega Arcade pack is good with outrun, castlevania double pack too.

[ShadowMan]

Final Fight One (JAP!)

Why specifically the Japanese version? I have the UK PAL version. Is the Jap version different?

Censoring mostly. The Japanese version keeps the original names for a few of the characters (Damnd, Sodom) and Poison and Roxy are still women while the USA and UK one changes Sodom to Katana and the girls become boys.

[firebreather]

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?

One good way is to look just above the contacts of the cart, it should have the word nintendo above it, most fakes dont, i also notice on fakes that the label on the cart is usually overly shiny, and sometimes not 100% straight.

[AlleyKat]

I've got a lot of affection for the GBA and still make a point of picking up the odd cool title when I come across it. I avoid e-Bay and amazon like the plague though- far better to pay a bit more to reliable sources. I've got the following:

UK-

Advance Wars
Astro Boy
Bubble Bobble Old/New
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Gunstar Future Heroes
Legend of Zelda- Link to the Past
Metroid Zero Mission
Pacman Collection
Wario Ware
Yoshi's Island

Jap-

Final Fight One
Ghouls & Ghosts
Gradius Generation
Hajime No Ippo
Metroid Zero Mission
Super Mario World

Jap Famicom anniversary mini-

Donkey Kong
Ghosts & Goblins
Legend of Zelda
Pac Man
Star Soldier

(and a Famicom Micro GBA, which is one of my favorite machines- really lovely)

All the above are complete and mint/NM. I'll pick up a few more of the anniversary mini's and the Bit Generations titles at some point.

[harlequ1n]

So GBA, huh! My absolute favourite handheld console (yes even more than the bloody DS) but very hard to collect for due to the already commented bootleg problems and the fragility of the cases.

My complete collection so far:

Astro Boy: Omega Factor Amazing game, got all the Treasure beat 'em up vibe to it!
Metroid: Fusion A very nice addition to the franchise if only a bit too easy and linear sometimes.
Metroid: Zero Mission The best Metroid game, even better than Super Metroid I'd say.

Games I'm desperately after:

• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
  Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
  Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
  Drill Dozer
  Final Fantasy VI Advance
  Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
  Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
  Ninja Cop
  Wario Land 4

[Roo]

Most of my collection, listed here: http://backloggery.com/games.php?user=r ... onsole=GBA

Fairly happy with it. There's a few more games I'd like, but overall I can't complain.

[Megamixer]

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.

Well I just bought a sealed Japanese copy of Tekken Advance anyway. Looked alright from Youtube vids and I'm not expecting something comparable with Tekken 3 (which the game is obviously based on) anyway.

I've got Alpha 3 and while it was an amazing achievement, the lack of buttons on the GBA plus compromises on the sound/speech samples let it down. Don't get me wrong, it's very playable but when I have an arcade-perfect PSP version, I never play it.

I'll get SFII at some point but like all my GBA fighters, I prefer the Japanese versions and for some reason, it seems really rare while EU versions are easy to come across.

I keep all Game Boy paraphernalia in a shoe box.

Me too. All my boxed games are lined up in one which keeps them in perfect condition

I think the rarest and most prized of my GBA games is a mint Final Fantasy VI Advance which I bought sealed from an Italian playtrader on Play.com. Genuine EU release with Nintendo seal strip. Played it to completion (which took some time!) and it's a brilliant game.

The Castlevania games are b*stard hard to find complete though. Makes me want to grab the DS versions now while they're easier to come across.

[Shinobi]

I have a nice collection 10 mint boxed GBA games apart from the Wario Wario box the girlfriend wrecked.. My collection Jap


Pal
Wario Ware
Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls
Pac Man
Space Channel 5

Used to own a boxed Ninja Cop but sold it

[mainvein]

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?

i used to work in a game shop and we used to get lots of pirate carts in, there is a very easy way to tell a fake as all the originals have the nintendo logo printed on the board just above the connectors at the bottom of the cart. also the label is usually wonky and always have the american ratings on too.

my gba collection began with getting all the first batch of nes classics, after that not much tho. got boxed original wariowave twist from japan and boxed rhythm tengoku and about a million carts on there own.

love the gba sp, one of the best systems in my book (but need it in a grip other wise hands cramp like buggery)

[ShadowMan]

Well I just bought a sealed Japanese copy of Tekken Advance anyway. Looked alright from Youtube vids and I'm not expecting something comparable with Tekken 3 (which the game is obviously based on) anyway.

I've got Alpha 3 and while it was an amazing achievement, the lack of buttons on the GBA plus compromises on the sound/speech samples let it down. Don't get me wrong, it's very playable but when I have an arcade-perfect PSP version, I never play it.

I'll get SFII at some point but like all my GBA fighters, I prefer the Japanese versions and for some reason, it seems really rare while EU versions are easy to come across.

Tekken Advance is OK. It was kind of impressive on release as cramming T3 onto a handheld (with a tag team mode) seemed like an impossibility. It does play pretty basic though against the CPU, not very challenging and the lack of characters does bring the game down in my opinion. Still, its nowhere near as bad as KOF EX Blood (terrible music and collision detection) and GGX (midget fighters and no difficulty in beating AI opponents).

I was really impressed with SF2 though. I got lucky and got the Japanese import from a shop in town when they still sold imports. The presentation is lovely and some of the new BG's are nice (and conversely some are awful). Controls always seemed OK to me and I remember putting many hours into unlocking everything. Well worth tracking down if you can find it.

The 3 F-zero games are worth tracking down if your a fan. Maximum Velocity is basically a spiritual successor to the Snes original with crafts, courses and gameplay much closer to the Snes version and gets brutally difficult in the higher difficulties.

GP Legend is closer to X and GX in terms of gameplay and has courses, characters and music much closer to the 2 above games. Its also much easier (too easy?) compared to Maximum Velocity but don't let that put you off.

The best of the 3 in my opinion is the Japanese exclusive F-zero Climax. Again its based closer to X and GX and features better track designs, music and a more balanced difficulty curve than the other 2 GBA games. It also features loads of courses, mission modes and even a course editor which makes it a real shame that the game never saw a release outside of Japan.

[AlleyKat]

I think the rarest and most prized of my GBA games is a mint Final Fantasy VI Advance which I bought sealed from an Italian playtrader on Play.com. Genuine EU release with Nintendo seal strip. Played it to completion (which took some time!) and it's a brilliant game.

FFVI goes for silly money already, especially on Amazon, which is why I treat my minty copy like blown glass. I suspected it would end up being stupidly expensive when it proved near impossible to get on the high street because of shops phasing out their GBA sections.

And youre right, it is a brilliant game.

I keep all Game Boy paraphernalia in a shoe box.

Me too. All my boxed games are lined up in one which keeps them in perfect condition

Yeah, all my carts are neatly lined up in a plastic ferrero roche box (try it!) and my boxes are all carefully lined up in a drawer. Keeps everything spankingly perfect and its nice to flick through all the carts without having to go through the hassle of grappling with Nintendo's fragile cardboard game boxes (see also the SNES).

[GigaPepsiMan]

My GBA collection looks like this:
Boxed:
Advance Wars (I paid £3 for this at game, get in)
NES Classics: Xevious (Got this at game too for 98p)
Final Fight One (got it off someone here)
Golden Sun the lost age (got in a job lot at a carboot, I think I paid around £20 for the lot all but one game was boxed)
Mario kart Super Circuit (Came with the lot)
Metroid Fusion (Got back in the day £15 pre-owned)
Metroid Zero mission (Same deal as Fusion, even got it at the same shop forbidden planet)
Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire (Got new at wolworths in a sale years ago)
Pokemon Ruby (Same as above)
Sonic Advance (came with that carboot lot)
Super Mario Advance (Carboot lot)
Zelda: Link to the past (New £30 at game back when it had just come out)
Yoshi's Island Super Mario Advance 3 (Carboot lot)

The full collection can be seen here:
http://www.playfire.com/GigaPepsiMan/ga ... oy-advance