10 Best Game Boy Advance Hidden Gems

Tomato Adventure is a role-playing game from AlphaDream and Graphic Research, and it was released only in Japan. It takes place in a kingdom where tomatoes are everywhere. It started life on the Game Boy Color and moved over to the Game Boy Advance when the new handheld came out. The fights are where it gets interesting. You pick an attack and a target, then play a quick minigame that decides how well the attack lands, anything from button mashing to stopping a meter at the right spot. Each attack can only be used so many times before you need to rest.

If that sounds like Mario & Luigi, there is a reason: its engine was reused for the first Mario & Luigi game. Players keep recommending it, and it makes a good next stop for anyone who finished Superstar Saga and wanted more.

Sonic Battle is the second fighting game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, after Sonic the Fighters, and the first Sonic fighting game on a handheld. It came out in Japan in December 2003 and in North America and Europe in early 2004. Sonic finds a robot called the Gizoid, which bonds with him after he shows off his abilities. As the gang trains with it, the robot, named Emerl, gets stronger and more aware with every Chaos Emerald it finds. You fight as one of nine characters, and you can build and train your own partner for two-on-two fights.

Critics gave it a mixed response. Players remember it more fondly and keep recommending it. Up to four friends can fight at once, and the side games include a single-player take on Minesweeper starring Knuckles, of all people.

Sigma Star Saga is a role-playing game where the random battles are space shooter stages. Humanity is struggling to survive against the Krill. You play Ian Recker, a decorated pilot who goes undercover to dig into the Krill's secrets and ends up trapped in a moral dilemma. You explore on foot, a fight starts, and suddenly you are flying a ship and blasting enemies. Your guns are built from Gun Data, with over 15,000 combinations, and the branching story has four endings across more than 20 hours.

Some critics were put off by the pacing and by how often random battles interrupt you. Players who found it disagree, and they keep recommending it. One described it as "a gradius style shooter mixed with a metroidvania", and that is about as good a summary as you will get.

Superstar Saga is the first game in the Mario & Luigi series. Cackletta and her henchman Fawful steal Princess Peach's voice and replace it with explosives that drop out of her speech balloon whenever she talks. Mario and Luigi team up with Bowser to get it back and fly to the Beanbean Kingdom on his new airship, the Koopa Cruiser. On the map you move one brother and the other follows close behind. In battle the timing matters, with special team attacks called Action Commands.

It sold over 2 million copies, so it was never a secret. Reviewers praised its writing and its battle system, and critics have since ranked it among the best games on the Game Boy Advance. Players still recommend it to anyone who skipped it, and it is a famous game that earns its place here.

Drill Dozer comes from Game Freak, the Pokémon studio, and was directed by Ken Sugimori, the first game he directed since Pulseman in 1994. You play Jill, the daughter of the leader of a bandit gang known as the Red Dozers, who drives a mech with a huge drill on the front. One shoulder button drills clockwise and the other counter-clockwise, and you use the drill to fight and to bore through walls. Sugimori wanted an action game that does not use traditional types of combat. Jill's hair, by the way, is based on roll cakes: the artist had his wife hold one on either side of her head.

It was a commercial failure, which multiple writers blame on poor marketing and on coming out alongside the Nintendo DS. Players have been making up for that ever since and keep recommending it. Europe only got it on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2016.

Omega Factor was made by Treasure and Hitmaker, as part of a collaboration between Sega and Tezuka Productions. The game is based on Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy. It came out in Japan on December 18, 2003, and in North America on August 17, 2004. The wait was planned to line up with the new Astro Boy TV series, and Treasure used the extra time to make improvements to the North American version. The original seven-episode story pits you against Atlas, Blue Knight and more than 40 other characters.

Critics gave it strong praise for the visuals and had only a few complaints about the level design. Players keep recommending it. If you like Treasure's other games, this is the one to look for on the GBA.

Mother 3 is the sequel to EarthBound, and its development spanned twelve years and four consoles. Work began in 1994 on the Super Famicom, moved to the Nintendo 64 and its 64DD add-on as EarthBound 64, was canceled in 2000 and restarted in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. A tragedy in the village of Tazmily sends Lucas, the family's younger son, out to find his missing brother. In battle you can keep hitting an enemy by pressing the button in time with the beat of the background music, and every enemy has its own rhythm.

Nintendo has only ever released it in Japan, most recently on Nintendo Classics in 2024. Fans at Starmen.net put out an English fan translation in 2008, and it passed 100,000 downloads within a week. Players keep recommending it, and for a lot of them it is the reason to own a GBA at all.

Boktai is a vampire-hunting action game from Hideo Kojima, the man best known for Metal Gear Solid. The cartridge has a light sensor on it, and the amount of sunlight outside decides how much sunlight shows up in the game. Your gun runs on sunlight too, so the more sun you can get, the stronger you are. The people who survived the end of the world quickly became prey to dark creatures called Immortals, and you are the one hunting them. Both GBA sequels also used a solar sensor, and a fourth game reached the DS outside Japan as Lunar Knights.

It is a game that tells you to go outside and play, which must have confused a lot of parents. Players keep recommending it, and nothing else on the system plays quite like it.

Advance Wars is a turn-based strategy game, the seventh title in the Wars series and the first in the Advance Wars line. It was released in America and Europe, but not Japan. Moving units on the grid is like moving chess pieces, and the terrain changes how units move and how well they defend. Fuel matters as well: ground units that run out cannot move, and air and naval units that run out are destroyed. Each commanding officer has a CO Power, so Olaf can make it snow and slow down the enemy. There are more than 115 maps and a map editor.

Critics have called it one of the greatest video games ever made, and players keep recommending it anyway. In Versus mode the whole match runs on one GBA that every player uses. It was remade for the Nintendo Switch with its sequel in 2023.

Golden Sun is a role-playing game, and it and The Lost Age were released in 2001 and 2002 for the Game Boy Advance. You play Isaac, one of a group of magically attuned "adepts", and his friends as they journey through the world of Weyard to stop a group of anti-heroes from releasing a mysterious power called Alchemy. You fight with weapons and Psynergy magic, and you gather elemental Djinn of fire, water, wind and earth that you can combine for huge magic effects.

Nintendo Power named it the Best GBA Game of 2001, and the first two games sold over a million copies in the United States and Japan. Players still recommend it as a GBA hidden gem more than any other game, and they often tell you to play The Lost Age straight after.