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Which handheld had the better library? Gameboy Advance vs Nintendo DS

Have a soft spot for GBA but it's not even remotely close compared to DS, the DS library was stellar but i guess it depends on if you imported or not as a lot of the best games stayed in Japan.

off the top of my head there was

From Nintendo...

ouendan 1 & 2
chibi robo rich happy osouji
sakasete chibi robo
2 Tingle RPG's YAAAY (bless you Nintendo)
Card hero
Sujin taisen


3rd party was even better

Game center CX 1 & 2
Nanashi no game
Nanasho no game me
Solatorobo
Okamiden
Ninokuni
Keroro RPG
Taiko no tatsujin 1 2 & 3
Zombie daisuki

plus a load load more.

Lets put it this way i have about 35 GBA games & about 300 (ish) DS games, although to be fair to the GBA there's probably about 20 more that i want,
 
The worse third party support argument doesn't strike me as particularly convincing. The GBA was no slouch in that department.

Capcom: a half dozen Mega Man Battle Network games, 4 Mega Man Zero games, 3 Phoenix Wright games, 2 Street Fighter games, 2 Breath of Fire games;
Konami: 3 Castlevania games, 2 Boktai games, Contra, Gradius, Zone of the Enders, a dozen or so Yugioh games;
Sega: 6 Sonic games, Puyo Pop, Chu Chu Rocket;
SquareEnix: 5 Final Fantasy games, 2 Dragon Quest games, Mana;
Namco: Tales, Klonoa, Mr. Driller, Tekken
Atlus: Tactics Ogre, Riviera, Yggdra Union, Shin Megami Tensei, Lufia, Shining Force/Soul, Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom;
Banpresto: 6 Super Robot Taisen games;
Treasure: Astro Boy, Advance Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Super Heroes;
EA: 4 Lord of the Rings games, Sim City;
Activision: 7 Tony Hawk games, 5 Spider-Man games.

Considering the short life span of the system, that's pretty damn impressive.
 
Nintendo DS. Not even a contest.

Much as I enjoy the likes of Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and a sparse amount of worthwhile third party titles, the Nintendo DS trumps it in terms of quality and quantity, both for first-party and third-party games. The Nintendo DS is a contender for the best video game library of all-time, chock-full of traditional titles in classic series like New Super Mario Bros. and Okamiden alongside unique titles made possible by the developer's system's dual screen like The World Ends With You, to say nothing of the RPG heaven composed of the likes of Radiant Historia and Bowser's Inside Story.

As for ranking Nintendo's handhelds, from best to worst:
1 - Nintendo DS
2 - GameBoy/Colour
3 - GameBoy Advance
4 - Nintendo 3DS

Do we even count the Virtual Boy as a handheld?

EDIT: Also, the Nintendo DS has this:
Elite_Beat_Agents.jpg

Does the GameBoy Advance? Point to the two screens.
 
gba was a personal letdown after the game boy, and the ds was a huge step up over its predecessor. 3ds is back to being a letdown after the ds (still better than the gba though).

i'd argue that nintendo's first-party stuff on the ds, while lacking in some areas (no metroid game at all whatsoever, minish cap is better than phantom hourglass and spirit tracks, and the two fire emblems i played were more fun that the only one on the ds i played), made up for it in others. stuff like elite beat agents, the two advance wars ds games, kirby mass attack, mario kart ds, and yoshi's island ds.

the third-party situation isn't even comparable. the gba was a safe haven for developers of 2d games, but the ds was system that studios took serious consideration. you can try and compare the 3d castlevania games and the three sonic platformers on each, but the gba doesn't have a 999 or an infinite space.
 
If you only buy Nintendo games, GBA. Otherwise, DS. Nintendo did a really poor job with their output on DS; Mario Kart DS was arguably the best in the series at the time, and they made some greater newer IPs like Ouendan + EBA, but a lot of their games were disappointing (Phantom Hourglass, New Super Mario Bros., Metroid Prime: Hunters, DK Jungle Climber, Wario: Master of Disguise, Yoshi's Island DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, etc.).

Like, as far as great Nintendo games go? IMO, of course:

GBA: Mario & Luigi, Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, The Minish Cap, Four Swords, Wario Land 4, WarioWare Inc., WarioWare Twisted!, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, Fire Emblem 7, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, Mother 3, Rhythm Tengoku, Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2, Mario Tennis, Drill Dozer, Mario Golf, Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Pokemon Emerald, Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak

DS: Elite Beat Agents, Ouendan, Ouendan 2, Fire Emblem 3 remake, Mario Kart DS, WarioWare DIY, Pokemon Platinum, Kirby Canvas Curse, Kirby Mass Attack, Advance Wars DS, Days of Ruin, Rhythm Heaven, Meteos, Bowser's Inside Story, Picross DS, Hotel Dusk, Last Window
 
Ingueferroque said:
It's a fucking crime that I can't buy DS/GBA classics on the 3DS eShop, in my case Nintendo is leaving a LOT of money on the table.
Click to expand...
Yep. Lately I've been playing/replaying a lot of great DS games that I hadn't finished or missed back then and I would be willing to pay more for digital versions instead of being stuck with all those cartridges.
And I would love to be able to get GBA titles on my 3DS as well, I don't understand why they're only available on the Wii U at best.
 
AniHawk said:
gba was a personal letdown after the game boy, and the ds was a huge step up over its predecessor. 3ds is back to being a letdown after the ds (still better than the gba though).

i'd argue that nintendo's first-party stuff on the ds, while lacking in some areas (no metroid game at all whatsoever, minish cap is better than phantom hourglass and spirit tracks, and the two fire emblems i played were more fun that the only one on the ds i played), made up for it in others. stuff like elite beat agents, the two advance wars ds games, kirby mass attack, mario kart ds, and yoshi's island ds.

the third-party situation isn't even comparable. the gba was a safe haven for developers of 2d games, but the ds was system that studios took serious consideration. you can try and compare the 3d castlevania games and the three sonic platformers on each, but the gba doesn't have a 999 or an infinite space.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind Nintendo forcibly killed the GBA early to artificially prop up the DS. Not really fair to compare them 1:1.
 
I just can't see how people are disappointed with the 3DS. Strong 3rd party output just just being an atlus machine and strong first party output. Then again I by handheldd for RPGs.
 
Grief.exe said:
Keep in mind Nintendo forcibly killed the GBA early to artificially prop up the DS. Not really fair to compare them 1:1.
Click to expand...

the gba had a good five years on the market. nintendo even gave it drill dozer, rhythm heaven, and the bit generations games in 2006.
 
DS had tons of original content and types of games that were never done before.
That, plus tons of solid core games.

DS.

GBA had a few solid titles and tons of excellent ports, but the DS changed the industry and electronics in general.
 
AniHawk said:
the gba had a good five years on the market. nintendo even gave it drill dozer, rhythm heaven, and the bit generations games in 2006.
Click to expand...

I still need a sequel to Drill Dozer. I still don't know how I wound up with a copy of the game but I am not complaining cause it's really good.
 
DS was fantastic, but how can you compete with

Metroid Zero Mission
Metroid Fusion
Mega Man Zero 1-4
Mega Man Battle Network 3,5,6
Mario & Luigi SSS
Warioland 4
WarioWare Mega Microgames
WarioWare Twisted
2 Great Fire Emblem games (3 if you import)
Mother 3
Advance Wars (OK, I like DS better but still)
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
Kurukurukururin & Paradise
Boktai 1,2
Mario vs Donkey Kong

That's not counting the ports of some of the best games ever made, like FF4,6, Pokemon Red/Green, SMB3, Yoshi's Island, LTTP, etc.
 
DS for me, but it's very, very, VERY close.

1. DS
2. GBA
3. Game Boy
4. 3DS
5. PSP

Don't care enough about the others to even rank them.
 
GBA, by far.

The DS is one of my biggest gaming disappointments. It was shit if you don't like RPGs and visual novels. I can't name a single game on the system that would appear in my top 50 games of all time.

GBA, on the other hand, had plenty of great platformers and action games.
 
I like them both but for different reasons. GBA is like having a portable SNES (disregarding the lack of four face buttons). The DS gave me new expreriences that I'd never imagined before, but it also had its share of gimmicks and shovelware.
 
Tough call. I have spent much more time on DS since I got my GBA very late in its lifecycle and right between PSP and DS, so I spent much more time on the next gen, and I never got around going back to a lot of games I was interested in, while I played almost everything I wanted to play on it. The GBA always looked more interesting but until I'll actually have played those games, and assuming they'll live up to my expectations then, DS will be my choice.


Nudull said:
They didn't call the DS the PS2 of handhelds for nothing.
Click to expand...

Actually I hoped so. The two libraries are not even comparable, come on.
 
GBA felt more like a portable SNES, with an inferior screen. At a time when the change to 3D had been completed it was not in favorable conditions.

NintendoDS on the other hand felt like what the Wii should have been from the start, with original games and controls.

Though the PSP had the best library for all tastes
 
The GBA is one of my favorite systems ever (probably nostalgia) but the DS library kicks the living shit out of it.

999 and The World Ends with You themselves put the DS over the top.
 
Honestly, I personally would have to go with the Gameboy Advance.

A lot of my favorite franchises started or had significant entries there, and though some of them continued to the DS, the DS entries weren't as good as the GBA versions (though still good in their own right) in my opinion.
 
I'll go with DS because it has its own library in addition to the overall fantastic GBA library.

OK, that's cheating. Yet I still go with DS. Soooooooo many unique games on that system, it's not even funny.
GBA is a close second though.
Both cannot hold their own against the SNES though, imo.
 
The GBA library has some of my fav Mega Man games and I'll always have a soft spot for it. The DS is when I started to notice "shovelware" titles so I don't have as many fond memories of it.

The thing about the GBA is even if the pool of good games is less, I did enjoy playing my GBA more than the DS. The original GBA will forever be my ideal handheld. It fit in my hands so well. Made games more enjoyable to play.
 
Grief.exe said:
Keep in mind Nintendo forcibly killed the GBA early to artificially prop up the DS. Not really fair to compare them 1:1.
Click to expand...

I thought they killed GBA because the system was cracked wide open on release (I remember playing the launch titles on PC a week after the system debuted)...
 
Definitely the DS:

-Radiant Historia was lightyears beyond any of the original RPG offerings on GBA (sorry Golden Sun fans)
-You had the 3 fantastic DQ remakes, plus 9 (which wasn't really my favorite entry in the series but I digress), plus Rocket Slime and the 2 Joker games. For an English-speaking DQ fan this system was heaven, you wee bairns.
-999 and The World Ends With You used the DS's capabilities to the absolute fullest
-Better sound output (the GBA was extremely disappointing in this regard, everything sounds so muffled and I can barely remember a soundtrack from it)

GBA does have the awesome FF5 port (probably the best English version), Ninja Five-0, Metroid Zero Mission and CIMA: The Enemy though.
 
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