When the Game Boy version trumps the console version...

[irixith]

I was thinking about more generally, how do you think SNES ports fare on the GBA?

The Mario series and Link to the Past ports I consider inferior for a variety of reasons -- one of which is the voice sample they added to the characters. Every time I swing my goddamn sword, I don't need link to go "HYYYYY-AH!" I also don't need Mario going "whoohooo! and all the other little things he says. Maybe if it was every once in a while it wouldn't have been so bad, but every single fucking time you jump and swing, it made me turn the sound off during the GBA runthroughs.

I felt it was a bit of a shame Nintendo chose to do THAT, instead of adding in some extra levels and such -- you know, more like their treatment of Super Mario Advance 4 w/e-Cards.

Otherwise, graphically and technically, the GBA makes a wonderful home for SNES ports. The F-Zero series, while not a port, was a fabulous continuation. I would have liked to see more of that.

[BEERS AND VIDEOS]

I was thinking about more generally, how do you think SNES ports fare on the GBA?

The Mario series and Link to the Past ports I consider inferior for a variety of reasons -- one of which is the voice sample they added to the characters. Every time I swing my goddamn sword, I don't need link to go "HYYYYY-AH!" I also don't need Mario going "whoohooo! and all the other little things he says. Maybe if it was every once in a while it wouldn't have been so bad, but every single fucking time you jump and swing, it made me turn the sound off during the GBA runthroughs.

I felt it was a bit of a shame Nintendo chose to do THAT, instead of adding in some extra levels and such -- you know, more like their treatment of Super Mario Advance 4 w/e-Cards.

Otherwise, graphically and technically, the GBA makes a wonderful home for SNES ports. The F-Zero series, while not a port, was a fabulous continuation. I would have liked to see more of that.

Couldn't agree more. The addition of (annoying) voices to games that were already considered classics didn't really seem like suitable "bonus material."

[noiseredux]

the voices were stupid. Yes. Though it didn't ruin LTTP for me or anything. Still a great port.

There are tons of great SNES ports also like Donkey Kong Country, Phalanx, Street Fighter II Turbo Revival (kind of a port of Turbo, eh?), etc.

[swiftzx]

I actually liked the voices; it added to the game and didn't bother me at all.

[noiseredux]

I actually liked the voices; it added to the game and didn't bother me at all.

did you try playing SMB2 as Toad?

[swiftzx]

I actually liked the voices; it added to the game and didn't bother me at all.

did you try playing SMB2 as Toad?

Why bother? Toad sucks anyways. I'll try it nonetheless today.

[BEERS AND VIDEOS]

I actually liked the voices; it added to the game and didn't bother me at all.

Guess my point is, of all the things they could have done... Not that the voices keep me from playing them at all.

[irixith]

If you play them in VisualBoy Advance, you can turn off the channel with the voices in it and still keep the music. I know a lot of people didn't mind them, but I HATED it. Every single movement had a voice sample, it drove me crazy. The games themselves are great, but I hope Nintendo never ever does that again.

Who mentioned the Donkey Kong Country series? The GBA ports are fucking awful.

DKC SNES vs GBA
DKC 2 SNES vs GBA
DKC 3 SNES vs GBA

Anyone that had their first experience with the DKC games on the GBA got hosed. HOSED!

There are a lot of changes from various SNES ports to the GBA, and youtube is an excellent place to see some of them. Some games (Link to the Past) had excellent ports, some like the above DKC games, were treated terribly.

[noiseredux]

Who mentioned the Donkey Kong Country series? The GBA ports are fucking awful.

I did. I didn't think they were fucking awful.

[BoringSupreez]

The added voice stuff is why I always buy first-party SNES games for SNES, and not GBA (even then it's cheaper on GBA). Super Mario World 2 had enough annoying voice samples as it was, it didn't need even more of them.