Best puzzle games on GBA?

icruise

icruise

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I happened to get an extra Game Boy Micro at a good price recently and I mentioned it to my mom. She's in her 60s now, but she enjoys some kinds of games. She played the Atari 2600 back in the day and was addicted to Tetris on the original Game Boy. Recently, she's been playing a lot of Bejeweled on her PDA, as well as a lot of word games online. Anyway, she acted like she might want to get my extra Game Boy Micro as a Christmas present, but I was unsure if there were enough games of the type she likes to make it worthwhile. I tend to play more platformers and RPGs while she's pretty much a puzzle/word game person, I'm not really sure what's out there. I'd like to know what people's favorites are. Any help is appreciated.
 
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 is pretty awesome. After that, Puyo Pop, Columns Crown, Wario Ware (Dr. Wario son), and Dr. Mario/Puzzle League are all worth buying in that order.
 
Dude, for the Micro? Polarium Advance was just released and was made specifically for the Micro.
review1
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buy it here for $25 shipped

It is also available at TRU for $20

For GBA I also like the Japan and Europe only Kuru Kuru Kururin titles.
review Kuru Kuru Kururin
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Also, the Bit Generations titles from Japan are fun on that system.
buy Bit Generations at PlayAsia

Here are a few others:
It's Mr Pants
Denki Blocks
Puyo Pop
Columns Crown
Wario Ware Inc
Wario Ware Twisted (not good for micro)
Puzzle Fighter
Mr Driller 2
Chu Chu Rocket
Pinball of the Dead
Ultimate Card Games
Ultimate Brain Games
Chessmaster
 
[quote name='icruise']she's pretty much a puzzle/word game person,[/quote]

Keeping that in mind, I'd go with:

Polarium Advance
Scrabble Blast
It's Mr. Pants
Denki Blocks
Dr. Mario/Puzzle League
Bookworm

Scrabble Blast and Bookworm are both tile-based word games. I like Bookworm better, but it's not easy to find. Scrabble Blast is fun and has a number of different modes.

Denki Blocks may not look like much, but it's a great little game and it plays wonderfully. It's Mr. Pants is also clever. Both of these games take block puzzles in new directions and are unlike anything out there.

There's one I'm trying to remember. Gem something-or-other. Gem Smashers. IGN loved it. I hated it. Only GBA puzzly-type game I traded away.

Kuru Kuru Kururin is not hard to import and cheap, but it is hard to play and can be irritating.
 
Mentioned this in another thread recently, but Nonono Puzzle Chai-Rian (@ Play Asia) is an excellent puzzler for $18 and change shipped. Cheaper if you use a coupon of course.

Yes, it's an import, but you don't need to be able to read Japanese to figure it out. Hey, if she likes puzzle games so much this is an added bonus. Very unique.

The addictively fun gameplay and colorful graphics surprised me when I took a chance on it after seeing a trailer clip. YouTube has two if you want to see.

It's simple to grasp, but hard to explain. Basically three main games with multiple offshoots with different objectives for added variety. It's basically moving this [ ] to rotate panels/paths/colored & numbered balls to create the right combo for the cute alien thing to get to the other side or matching numbers in sequences to cause chain reactions that rids them.
 
I second the suggestion of the bit generations games... More specifically, Coloris and Dialhex. To me, Coloris plays a lot like Bejeweled if she's into that. They're imports though, but almost completely in English. They oughta be about $20 each.

You can check out the gameplay videos here:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bit_g/index.html
 
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 is a good game, but the gba port is very sloppy. There are slowdown that should not be there
 
[quote name='Hibiwa']Mentioned this in another thread recently, but Nonono Puzzle Chai-Rian (@ Play Asia) is an excellent puzzler for $18 and change shipped. Cheaper if you use a coupon of course.

Yes, it's an import, but you don't need to be able to read Japanese to figure it out. Hey, if she likes puzzle games so much this is an added bonus. Very unique.

The addictively fun gameplay and colorful graphics surprised me when I took a chance on it after seeing a trailer clip. YouTube has two if you want to see.

It's simple to grasp, but hard to explain. Basically three main games with multiple offshoots with different objectives for added variety. It's basically moving this [ ] to rotate panels/paths/colored & numbered balls to create the right combo for the cute alien thing to get to the other side or matching numbers in sequences to cause chain reactions that rids them.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the tip, picked up Nonono!

Also, on the bit Generations, they are really quite artistic and retro feeling. The sounds and music are great. For puzzle I would do Coloris and Dialhex followed by the excellent Orbital.

They are all $18.99 with Free shipping over $25 at YesAsia

link to bit Generations at YesAsia

Cool boxes too!
 
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Anyone that reccomends any other game over Dr. Mario/Puzzle League is clearly trying to trick you for some reason.

I hate Dr. Mario, but Puzzle League is a bare-bones version of Tetris Attack, which, as we all know, is the best puzzle game ever made.
 
Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone. In a way, I'm surprised that there aren't more puzzle games for the GBA, since I seem to recall there being a huge number for the original game boy, but I'm glad to see that there are is a still good selection of quality titles.
 
Based on the recommendations here, I ordered Orbital from YesAsia and Nonono Puzzle Chai-Rian from Play Asia.

Orbital is amazing and has displaced Elite Beat Agents from my DS. It's a crime that this game hasn't been released here.
 
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