Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld was released over 20 years ago now. Featuring 16-bit graphics, the successor to the Game Boy Color could emulate SNES titles. Minus drawbacks to audiovisual quality, as well as the lack of X and Y buttons, the GBA shockingly put classics, such as Super Mario World and A Link to the Past, on the system.

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Even when compared to the SNES, the Game Boy Advance held up with some surprisingly impressive visuals. GBA titles used various art styles and techniques that looked beyond the system's capabilities. Some amazing games featured will showcase the strength of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance in terms of visual production.

Updated on March 16, 2024 by Ritwik Mitra: The Game Boy Advance is one of the best portable consoles ever made. To this day, most people attribute this handheld to be the platform that showed what portable gaming could achieve in the right hands. The expanded color palette and better hardware meant that games could look downright amazing on this console with the right level of love and care, and this can be seen in the many gorgeous titles released for the GBA that have aged like a fine wine.

16 Metroid: Zero Mission

A Retelling Of The Original Game With Updated Gameplay And Visuals

The GBA was graced with two amazing Metroid games, with one of them being a retelling of the first time. Metroid: Zero Mission is a great entry point for players who don't know where they can jump into the series.

The fun gameplay and updated segments of the original title make this one of the best platformers on the GBA by a country mile. It's genuinely impressive to see Samus exploring luscious biomes that have no business looking as good as they do on this portable console.

15 Advance Wars

A Bright, Charming Strategy Game

It's easy to see why Advance Wars received a remake that fans fell in love with once again. This GBA classic is one of the most popular games on the console, featuring some amazing gameplay with the visuals to match.

The colorful, evocative art style of this title still holds up to this day, with most people finding the original's aesthetic to be slightly better than the remake. That, in itself, is a clear indication of Advance Wars' immense visual prowess, with the use of colors being genius in some instances.

14 Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon

Another Excellent Entry In The Game Boy Advance Trilogy Of Castlevania Games With Fun Visuals

The Castlevania games enjoyed a trilogy of games on the GBA that were all pretty amazing in their own right. Circle of the Moon, in particular, is a fan favorite, and fans were less than enthused to see that the events of this game were retconned in later editions of Castlevania.

The game features the same Metroidvania goodness players have come to expect from this title ever since Symphony of the Night blew their minds. All three GBA Castlevania games have been remastered for modern platforms, and the fact that little has changed about their look and feel is a testament to how amazing Circle of the Moon looks, along with the other two games in the collection.

13 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

A Colorful Game That Reflects The Game's Lighthearted Tone

Fans of the Final Fantasy franchise would find a unique and interesting spinoff series in Final Fantasy Tactics, which showed up in multiple iterations across a variety of systems. The Game Boy Advance had its own release with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, a colorful and beautiful visual spectacle that, while rather retro by today's standards, showcased the hardware's capabilities in creating a smoother image than its handheld predecessors.

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This was most apparent in the character portraits that would show up during cutscenes and in-game actions with dialogue. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was one of the most visually bright and inviting titles released on the system.

12 Drill Dozer

Beautiful Visuals That Have Aged Like A Fine Wine

The Game Boy Advance was home to a wide array of interesting and unique titles. Some were better known than others and, unfortunately, some releases didn't get their time to shine compared to others. A good example of this was Drill Dozer, a lesser-known release that has developed somewhat of a cult following among some gamers due to its unique and engaging premise, paired with its energetic music and beautiful visuals.

Players will take control of a drill-suit-wielding protagonist as she infiltrates bases, collects upgrades, digs through obstacles, and collects upgrades along the way.

11 Golden Sun

Excellent Animations And Artwork That Makes Characters Look Like Sentient Toys

Camelot, the developer of Sega's Shining series, developed Golden Sun as a first-year release for Game Boy Advance. This JRPG featured brilliant, beautiful visuals and animations both on the map and especially in battle. The angle and animations gave it a pseudo-3D look.

The battle animations particularly went above and beyond any JRPG of the 16-bit era. Magic and summon animations featured colossal beings that unleashed devastation on their enemies. The summon animations look like they took a cue from the PlayStation JRPGs such as Final Fantasy and The Legend of Dragoon.

10 Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow

Amazing Sprite Work Coupled With Castlevania's Patented Gothic Vibes

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow continues the aesthetic originally designed in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. The bright colors compliment the eerie, gothic atmosphere of Dracula's Castle. The beautifully drawn backgrounds of each level feature exquisite levels of background design.

Along with the gorgeous enemy animations, Soma's own animations look bright and detailed. His coat flows as if the wind blows through it with every movement. While its predecessor, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, utilized even brighter colors, Aria of Sorrow did not require a blue character outline to showcase its animations.

9 The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

A Beautiful Game That Captures The Charm Of The Early Zelda Games

Following The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past featuring Four Swords, Minish Cap was Link's second foray on the GBA. Utilizing Four Swords' art style, itself inspired by The Wind Waker for GameCube, this short but sweet adventure breathed new life into the land of Hyrule.

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Minish Cap's pretty colors fall under titles like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Mother 3, which bring vibrant detail to enemy designs, dungeons, and even deliver clever lighting effects. Minish Cap's animations and varied landscapes bring a gorgeous design to the Game Boy Advance.

8 Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories

A Unique Kingdom Hearts Game With Amazing Art Direction And The Impressive Integration Of FMVs

The midquel title following the PS2's Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories featured Sora, Donald, and Goofy in a sprite-based handheld title. The gorgeous sprite work and animations featured Disney characters as well as Final Fantasy ones. Cloud Strife was even a summon.

But perhaps the most impressive feature of Chain of Memories was its ability to use full FMV. These cutscenes were animated similarly to the PS2 title. That the Game Boy Advance was capable of something like this impressed many players back in the day.

7 Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

An Excellent Platformer With Endearing Visual Design Across The Board

Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario World preceded Yoshi's Island on the GBA. Built with the FX2 Chip, on the SNES, Yoshi's Island never had a 1:1 port re-release. The GBA version, however, substituted it and still animated well. The Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy stages didn't push the GBA to the same limit that the SNES did. Without the FX2 Chip, the backgrounds would not rotate.

However, to still emulate a gorgeous title like Yoshi's Island took nothing short of professional craftsmanship. All the well-animated bosses, Yoshi's facial expressions, enemies, and background art all became faithfully recreated in Nintendo's ambitious handheld title.

6 Metroid Fusion

A Classic Metroidvania Title That Looks Amazing To This Day

Super Metroid, on SNES, was among Nintendo's most ambitious titles. The vibrant animations of Samus, the ever-changing landscape of Planet Zebes, and the enormous monsters she fought were a cut above most games. Metroid Fusion delivered all that and then some.

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The game opens up with a largely animated cutscene. Some of the most impressive effects come from the heat waves of Sector 3. Plus Sector 5 even changes its background entirely once a boss, Nightmare, destroys it.

5 Rhythm Tengoku

A Deceptively Simple-Looking Game That Makes The Most Of The GBA Hardware For Its Eye-Catching Visuals

Exclusive to Japan, Rhythm Tengoku featured simplistic designs in a Japanese rhythm game. This quirky title offered much in the way of music. But at first glance, it didn't seem to value visuals as much.

Yet, if you play the Spaceball, Samurai Slice, and Night Walk mini-games, you'll notice nothing in common with them. Rhythm Tengoku utilizes a variety of art styles in every one of its mini-games. The Baseball game, in particular, uses some of the best-looking pseudo-3D effects on the GBA. Note that the Rhythm Tengoku series would eventually come to the west labeled as Rhythm Heaven. Rhythm Heaven Megamix, for 3DS, features mini-games from all titles in the series including the Japanese-exclusive GBA title.

4 WarioWare: Twisted!

A Collection Of Minigames With Endearing Artwork To Match

Much like the Rhythm Heaven series, WarioWare features charming, simplistic visuals at first glance. Also much like the former, you'll see various art styles used throughout the mini-game list.

What separates WarioWare from the rest is its use of realistic objects and even people. WarioWare's gorgeous aesthetic comes straight from real life itself along with the cartoonish visuals. As a bonus, WarioWare Twisted allows you to play the game by rotating it. This includes renditions of three stages straight from Super Mario Bros.!

3 Wario Land 4

Vibrant Colors And Fun Character Designs Help This Game Stand Out Quite A Bit

WarioWare: Twisted wasn't the only adventure featuring the dastardly "villain." He also had his own Super Mario-esque adventure in the continuation of the Wario Land series. The fourth installment on the Game Boy Advance took full advantage of the upgraded graphics, giving players a veritable feast for the eyes while still maintaining the Wario Land charm that gamers had come to know and love over the years on various other handhelds.

The end result is one of Wario's prettiest-looking adventures, featuring vibrant colors and some really entertaining character designs.

2 Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

A Beautiful-Looking Game That Placed Fire Emblem On The Map

While the visual style originated from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the title was never released outside of Japan. All three Fire Emblem titles used the same art style and animations. However, Blazing Blade introduced Western fans to the series. The animations for each class were carefully detailed with flashy animations.

Particularly, the Critical Hits used featured afterimages or destructive magic. When promoted, Lyn offered the best-looking criticals in perhaps the entire series. Blazing Blade separates itself from the other titles for this feat alone.

1 Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

A Fun RPG That Stands Out Courtesy Of Its Fun Visuals

The third Mario RPG title was developed by Alphadream. Serving as a separate entity from Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario, Superstar Saga brought Mario & Luigi together on an adventure to Beanbean Kingdom.

The GBA handled its beautifully-colored cartoonish art style remarkably well. The animations from cave waterfalls, bubbling lava, and even the hellish landscape of the final boss battle look gorgeous today. The memorable boss design and their variety of facial expressions contribute heavily to Mario & Luigi's adventure. It's a remarkable visual design.

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