5 Best Game Boy Advance Sports Games

Pro Skater 3 came to the Game Boy Advance in 2002, a year after the home versions. It runs on the 3D engine Vicarious Visions built for the GBA version of Pro Skater 2, so it plays from the same angled view, with polygon skaters on top of the levels.

It is the sequel to the next game on this list, and players name it far less often. Most of them found the second game first, and the third one feels like more of the same. That is not much of a complaint when "the same" is one of the best handheld skating games ever made. If you finish Pro Skater 2 and want more parks, this is where you go next.

Super Dodge Ball Advance is a spin-off of the Super Dodge Ball series, licensed to Atlus by Million, the company that took over from Technōs Japan. It does not feature the Kunio-kun characters, which is a strange choice for a Kunio-kun spin-off. The teams were Japanese in the original release and were given mixed nationalities for the English one.

Each team has eight members, and seven of them are allowed to play. There are 50 super throws to find, and two of them are exclusive to only very few characters. Players remember it as a childhood favourite, the game that never left the cartridge slot. It is easy to pick up, and nobody has to explain the rules.

Pro Skater 2 was a launch title for the GBA in North America and Europe in June 2001. Vicarious Visions wanted to make something other than another Super Nintendo port, so they built a 3D engine with polygonal characters to fit the PlayStation tricks onto a cartridge. The licensed songs were too large for a GBA cartridge, so the game has an original soundtrack instead. Multiplayer was cut for time.

Players agree this port should not work and does anyway. The camera moves to an angled overhead view, and somehow it still feels like Tony Hawk. Critics called it an exemplar of how to port a console game to a handheld system, and players who skated through it in 2001 still say the same thing.

Power Tour is the sequel to the Game Boy Color version of Mario Tennis, made by Camelot. You play as Clay or Ace, a new student at the Royal Tennis Academy, and you train your way up the ranks through lessons and tournaments. On court you get topspin, slice and Power Shots, the special moves each character has. It is also the only game where Waluigi appears without Wario, which has to be lonely for him.

Players call it a tennis RPG, and they mean it as praise. Levelling your stats between matches is what keeps them coming back, along with the skill challenge minigames. IGN gave it 9 out of 10, and it was re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014.

Advance Tour is the sequel to the Game Boy Color Mario Golf and the handheld partner of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GameCube. It is a role-playing golf adventure. You chat up the locals at golf clinics and try to become the champ of every country club, with challenges like Club Slots and Go-Go Gates along the way. It is rendered in the same engine as Golden Sun, and hooking it up to the GameCube game with a link cable unlocks extra content.

Critics praised the story mode and the RPG elements. Players almost always name it in the same breath as Mario Tennis, and they recommend it more than any other GBA sports game.