My sister has a GBA SP and her birthday is coming up. She’s 8 years old. However, I’m looking for a pretty interesting and a bit more replayable game than what she has. She’s got a ton of the standard platform fare, such as The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and others. She beat the Halo campaign with me on co-op, and is going through Halo 2 right now on easy. Though she is young, she’s a pretty adept gamer. So I’m looking for a game than would suit a 14 year old boy more than an 8 year old girl, to be honest.
Now, I have zero knowledge on what’s a good GBA game. I remember eons ago I played Pokemon Red for my GBA (not even Color), and that was pretty cool. So maybe an RPG? Also, a name I do remember is Advanced Wars or something. That might be interesting.
FE is a strategy RPG (kind of like Final Fantasy Tactics), but more strategy than RPG, I guess you could say. It’s kind of intricate, but it’s mostly different layers of paper-rock-scissors, and it does a really good job of easing you into it; it introduces new concepts almost every mission for at least the first ten or so, gradually, so you can get the hang of it.
But again, I’m not eight.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is just an excellent game for any age, and it’s pretty simple, so it might be a good fit. I’d recommend Ninja 5-0, which is awesome and even more simple, but it’s also blisteringly hard for an adult, I can’t imagine what a child would make of it.
I used to play Fire Emblem when I was eight years old.
Does she Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga? That’s an RPG that’s excellent for all ages no matter what and sounds like she would have no problem with it, furthermore, its quite long and replayable and sophisticated and probably hold her attention well.
You mentioned Disney games. Lilo & Stitch is actually a Metal Slug-like action gamer with some great execution and Capcom ported their Aladdin, and Mickey & Donald platformers to the GBA as well. You could probably find those for quite cheap and its Capcom, they always make good Disney games.
But the best Disney game is obviously Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, which is a card battle RPG. You see, you get all three there: Disney, RPG, long and even more replayable than anything else I’ve mentioned while being a card game so you can further indoctrinate her dork powers.
If you’re concerned about her getting sunlight, definitely try the action RPG adventure games Boktai and Boktai 2. A solar boy named Django solves puzzles with his gun del sol that charges in the sun and brings out vampires from their manors to bring them to justice.
Also the Klonoa games, Dream Championship and Empire of Dreams are wonderful puzzle-heavy platformers they will have her thinking quite a bit.
Wario Ware Inc. and Mario Golf. Both are pretty simple to play and tons of replayable fun. Both also have the advantage of being pick up and play games so she could play in the car on the way to school or while sitting in the shopping cart with mom etc.
What an odd bunch of suggestions for an 8 year old girl: violent shooters and strategy games/platformers that even adults complain about being maddeningly difficult. Here’s my recommendations:
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - This is, without a doubt, the most charming game on the GBA. The best RPG on the Gameboy and it’s really very funny.
Warioware Twisted - I think this is due out in the States in a month, and it’s just awesome playing a game shuckin’ and jivin’ all over the place. There’s even a minigame where you have to use your GBA to dance around the room. I can’t think of a girl in the world who wouldn’t dig that.
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town - Cute little RPG where you build up a farm, tame pets, bake pies, take baths, buy stuff for your house, milk cows, brush chickens, romance neighborhood hotties, etc. Sounds almost too girly, but it’s ridiculously fun even for adults.
Minish Cap, the Pokemon Games and the Kirby platformers are also good bets. None of these recommendations are too “kiddy” - regardless of age, they are some of the best games the GBA has to offer, but they aren’t really violent or extremely difficult.
If she’s into RPGs and hooked on phonics, then the Golden Sun series is a shoo-in.
The Advance Wars series is fantastic but might be a bit too, uh, advanced. Still, the original should be fairly cheap these days if you wanted to give it a try.
I have three girls (ages 6 to 9) and one GBA. All my girls really like Golden Sun and I loved it too. They also love Zelda (we don’t have the new Minish Cap yet). My 9 year old played Fire Emblem from start to finish twice now. She loves it, but she’s a bit of a gamer (board gamer). Still, really good game (I loved that one too).
I’d recommend Astro Boy: Omega Factor, a nice game based on the new animated series. I’ve never seen more than 5 minutes of the cartoon, but the game itself is fantastic. And even has a “second quest” once you beat it, you can play through again with slightly harder enemies and a new story.
It’s basically a 16-bit era beat-em-up with some shooter elements tossed in on the side. And the best thing of all is the ungodly large use of Mode-7 effects. Coming from the creators of Gunstar Heroes probably doesn’t hurt it either.
I also second Ninja Five-0, a very underrated, very “classic” style videogame, with equal blends of Shinobi, Rolling Thunder and Bionic Commando. And like most great games of it’s kind, it’s not too long either and has a ton of replay value.
Of course, then there are the Castlevania and Metroid games. But those are a given for any GBA owner.
