Top 10 Lists: The Top 10 Best Handheld Games Ever

Yep, that crazy music/puzzle game you've been hearing about, Lumines, is just as good as everyone says it is. Lumines integrates music into Tetris-style gameplay, making a very, very, very addicting game. How addicting? Posters on the boards have complained of seeing falling Lumines blocks in their sleep or on the bus or whatever. That's pretty addicting. Reviewers have called Lumines "the best Tetris game since Tetris", and that's pretty accurate. Lumines is my tenth-best game of all time.

After an absence of what seemed like a million years, the Metroid series returned in 2002 with Metroid Fusion for the GBA. Fusion was a little different from past Metroids in its presentation: it really tried to tell a story, and it did that well. There is a plot twist or two, and it's pretty cool. Fusion is also a little more linear than past Metroids, but it works pretty darn well. Oh, if you get the Japanese version, there's even a freakin' hard mode. Wow. Lucky Japanese.

Sure, I know I said no ports, but A Link to the Past for the GBA really does a good job at adding something new. Along with the classic game, the game cartridge includes a new multiplayer mode, The Four Swords. Now, the single-player game is incredible enough, but the inclusion of The Four Swords really makes this one worth getting, even if you've already played the SNES original a million times. The Four Swords does a wonderful job at mixing competitive and co-op gameplay, which adds up to one awesome game. The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords (oh, and freakin' A LINK TO THE PAST TOO) is the eighth-best handheld game in history.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the youngest game on this list, with its release occuring only a month ago. It features standard Castlevania gameplay, a mix of RPG, platform, and shooter elements, as well as Aria of Sorrow's soul system, allowing the user to steal the souls of defeated enemies and gain assistance from them. Just like past Castlevanias, Dawn of Sorrow has multiple endings and the ability to play through the game with a different character after you've beaten single-player once. Dawn of Sorrow also introduces competitive multiplayer to the series. All this combines to make a Castlevania that finally lives up to Symphony of the Night, and the seventh-best handheld game ever.

Possibly the most graphically impressive game on the GBA, Golden Sun: The Lost Age is a very, very good turn-based Japanese RPG. Not only does it have incredible graphics, it features very rich and mood-fitting music and sound. Where the earlier game, Golden Sun, lacked in story and length, The Lost Age excells. Yes, Camelot decided to include an excellent story this time around. Also, the difficulty and length is very, very good. There are sidequests, including one with an EXTREMELY hard boss (That battle alone took me around an hour). Also, there is some pretty good multiplayer fun to be had with other players of The Lost Age. All in all, The Lost Age is incredible in nearly every category, which makes it my sixth-best handheld game of all time.

Fire Emblem is a strategy RPG that topped the strong SRPG crop of the GBA. Its campaign consists of thirty missions that can actually get pretty hard in spots, especially considering the fact that you can't just powerlevel at will like you can in other RPGs. The campaign has a very good story with its share of twists. There's also a Hard Campaign, adding to the replayability. This might not sound like much, but Fire Emblem is an incredible game. It really deserves to be called the fifth-best handheld game of all time.

The Wars series has been alive in Japan for ages, but only recently did Nintendo decide to give non-Japanese speakers some love and release the Wars games over here. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising is the second Wars game to escape Japan, and boy, was it good. Advance Wars 2 is a turn-based military strategy game. It essentially takes the original Advance Wars and and builds on it, adding more maps, units (well, unit), and COs, a new (and more realistically beatable) campaign, and the Super CO Power, while losing nothing but AW1's campaign. For fans, this adds up to hours of time spent trying to 300-pt. S-Rank that last War Room map. Oh, did I mention the multiplayer showdowns? Speaking of multiplayer, Advance Wars allows full multiplayer capabilities with only one GBA. Factoring in the ability to make your own custom maps, Advance Wars 2 could practically be an incredible game if it was entirely multiplayer. But it isn't, and that makes it truly awesome, and the fourth-best handheld game ever.

Yep, here comes my list's big controversial pick: Nintendo's Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga at number three. Mario & Luigi managed to continue the Mario RPG line while being practically nothing like previous Mario RPGs. M&L's biggest claim to fame is its awesome battle system, which featured timing-based attacks and blocks, much like past Mario RPGs. The twist comes when you find out that you'll control both Mario brothers at once, with the A and B buttons. Aside from that, Mario & Luigi contains strong gameplay variety and suprisingly funny dialogue. Oh, and there's a ton of stuff to do, too. Overall, I think all that justifies placing Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga as the third best handheld game ever.

It's Tetris, dammit. I shouldn't have to say anything else. Okay, I will. Tetris is possibly the most addicting simple game ever. In the history of gaming, few games have ever wasted gamers' time as much as Tetris has. Besides, it came packaged with the original Game Boy. How cool is that?

Few games have revolutionized gaming as much as Pokemon. Heck, few games have revolutionized culture as much as Pokemon. The series may have started on the Game Boy with Pokemon Red and Blue, but it truly peaked with Pokemon Gold and Silver. The two games added 100 Pokemon, an entirely new world, and numerous new abilities. In addition to the new world of Johto, they featured the original world, giving it a huge amount of gameplay time. Of course, that was nothing compared to the millions of hours levelling up your team so you could wipe the floor with your best friend in multiplayer. Admit it: you know what I'm talking about. Overall, Gold and Silver truly defined the Pokemon series, adding a bunch without adding too much. That, in my mind, makes it the best handheld game of all time.