What Games Pushed The Limits of the GBA?

Post by **racketboy** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:16 am

I'm revising and adding to the "Pushed The Limits" series and I thought the Gameboy Advance would be a cool one to tackle next, but I know there are a lot of games out there.

Gunstar Super Heroes comes to mind first.
Can anybody else think of some games that really maxed out the GBA's hardware capabilities?

See these for examples on other systems:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/limits.htm
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2007/07/ ... sound.html

Post by **marurun** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:29 am

I think the Golden Sun games pushed the musical limits. They sounded gorgeous. The first Castlevania game, the one most people don't like, also had great music. Warioland 4 pushed the system in almost every way, stretching and warping and looking crazy all over the place.

Post by **kinn** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:55 pm

There was an Astro Boy game by Sega/Treasure. Was meant to push the GBA a lot which led to the game having a lot of slowdown. There was also that Guardian Heros game, although I have not played it. But since its a Treasure game I assume it did some things that made the GBA sweat!

Post by **marurun** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:53 pm

I had Astro Boy for a while. It was less fun than I wanted it to be and didn't seem to push the system all that much. Maybe I missed something.

Post by **gradualmeltdown** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:18 pm

Iridion 3D was nuts.

Post by **nightwalker** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:58 pm

hey and what about the double dragon that atlus made?
Ive got it and find it very well done the new characters and all the new moves and stages.

Post by **marurun** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:03 pm

Double Dragon was lots of fun, but again, I don't think it really pushed the system. I can't read Racketboy's mind, but I think the point here isn't just to list awesome games, but to look at the ones which pushed the system's hardware limits or made incredibly stylistic use of limited resources.

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:08 pm

AstroBoy
Doom 1 (Not Doom 2!)
Drill Dozer
Jet Grind Radio
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
Metroid Zero Mission
Need for Speed series
Payback
Super Gunstar Heroes
WarioLand 4
WarioWare Twisted
Yggdra Union

Post by **GSZX1337** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:04 pm

YuYu Hakusho (or however it's spelled) seemed like it would push the limits of the GBA. It's in 3D for one. It could however, be badly coded.
I think the Sonic Advance games are a good choice as well. The animations are smooth, even at fast speeds.
The Mega Man Zero games for their pseudo-3D graphics. (like the bosses)
Top Gear Rally
of course Gunstar Super Heroes and Astro Boy
I'll post some more games when I think of them.

Post by **racketboy** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:59 pm

marurun wrote:Double Dragon was lots of fun, but again, I don't think it really pushed the system. I can't read Racketboy's mind, but I think the point here isn't just to list awesome games, but to look at the ones which pushed the system's hardware limits or made incredibly stylistic use of limited resources.

You are correct

Also thought of a couple others...

Ecks vs Sever is supposed to be a good 3D FPS that runs surprisingly well.
Also, the Crazy Taxi game taxes the GBA a lot, but in a bad way...