April 3, 2014 – This week, the Game Boy Advance arrives on the Wii U, Batman swings back onto the Wii U, and Rusty is out to prove that he's the real deal on the 3DS eShop. Be sure to check out your favorite digital storefront at noon eastern to see all of this week's updates!
Never played Superstar Saga so I should definitely pick that up in the future. I heard that these ports are well done... what exactly makes them stand out? Or are they just faithful ports without any of the shortcomings? I know the GBA games on 3DS are pretty dark in color.
Basically the colors have been corrected for the TV screen (a lot of the 3DS ambassador games look washed out because they were originally made for an unlit screen). You can check the manual for the game on the GamePad without interrupting gameplay. And there are various resolution options.
Personally, I'm not sure I'll pick any of these. I still have all the Advance Wars games and the means to play them, and the Ambassador version of Fusion is just fine. I guess maybe Mario & Luigi if the girlfriend wants to play it, since I don't have that anymore.
I still have Mario and Luigi and Metroid Fusion. I might get Advance Wars, but I'm still finishing DCKTF (and for some reason I can't put down Pokemon X....filling up my Pokedex every night).
It's actually a bit bizarre to me that Nintendo is kind of notorious for slowlyyyyyyyyy releasing stuff on VC and today they're just like BAM, THREE HUGE GAMES AT ONCE. All 3 of those GBA games are some of the best handheld games out there, or... let's not qualify this with "handheld", some of the best games period. If you have never played them, DO IT.
I still own all 3 on GBA though, no real reason to buy them again.
I went on the eShop just to check out the screenshots and videos, and they looked mighty fine! The Metroid trailer almost made me want to get it, even though I've already got two copies. I'll definitely get Superstar Saga at some point, and possibly Advance Wars. Problem is, I've got Advance Wars: Dual Strike, and suck at it, so getting another game in the same series before I master the one I've got seems like a bad move.
Advance Wars is the result of someone (IE Nintendo) understanding that strategy games should be super easy to get into and still have tons of depth and awesomeness. I'm not sure what your past experience with strategy games is but Advance Wars to me is a different beast precisely because it takes that Nintendo "everyone can play this" approach into strategy games. It's not as accessible as Mario or anything, but it's pretty darn accessible.
@r_hjort The first game is more simple by virtue of having less features and units, so a reason you might want to pick it up before beating the game you have is that it would probably be easier for you to learn how to play the game well from playing the first one in the series. If you already know you like the gameplay, it seems like a safe bet.
Like @Mop it up said, the first game will help you nail the basics. IIRC, the "problem" with Dual Strikes was that with two COs you could massively swing the tide of battle, or the enemy could, so you weren't ever really preparing a strategy to win, but to basically outlast a massive burst of hurt that could come in a few turns. The first game does away with that (simply by it not even being thought of) so you are more worried about how to plan your moves to the end. Even if the other guy throws out a power in a turn, it won't cripple you like later games could.
@Mop it up That's a very good point. There was definitely a point in Dual Strike where I felt things got complicated, and forced me to learn new stuff before I had mastered the previous tactics, so maybe I'd avoid that with the original. Part of why I suck is that I'm not very good at war strategy in general -- I'm more of a Sim City kind of guy -- but that didn't keep me from like what I played of Dual Strike.
EDIT: @missypissy Yes, that's the exact type of scenario that got me feeling things got too complicated too fast! It felt as if I made strategies for scenarios that sort of turned into something else rapidly, and I had a hard time compensating. Almost like trying to button-mash my way through a finely tuned fighting game match.
I'll definitely get Superstar Saga at some point, and possibly Advance Wars. Problem is, I've got Advance Wars: Dual Strike, and suck at it, so getting another game in the same series before I master the one I've got seems like a bad move.
