Golden Sun

Few games on the Game Boy Advance could take your breath away like Golden Sun – and all it took was a single summoned spell that filled the entire screen with sweeping animation nobody would have expected from a handheld. In 2001 it was literally a technical calling card of what the GBA could do.

Golden Sun is a classic JRPG with turn-based battles, but it excels at two things. The first is the Djinn system – spirits of the four elements that you collect, equip and activate. Djinn change the stats, spells and entire classes of your characters, so to a large degree you assemble your own combat style. Their summoning also triggers the aforementioned magnificent Summons, some of the prettiest effects of their era.

The second pillar is Psynergy – psionic magic that serves not only in battle but permeates the exploration of the world as well. With it you move objects, raise pillars, freeze water or light lamps, and thereby solve a great many environmental puzzles. The dungeons are thus not merely corridors to the next battle, but clever logical challenges that make exploration a form of entertainment in its own right.

Behind the game stands the studio Camelot, otherwise known mainly for the Mario Golf and Mario Tennis series. Here it showed a completely different face – the ability to tell a sprawling fantasy story and build it on solid RPG foundations with tuned pacing and surprisingly mature themes.

It is important to know that Golden Sun is the first half of a larger whole. The story continues directly in the second entry, The Lost Age, with your progress and data transferable via password or a link cable. Together they form a single epic saga and belong among the absolute peaks of the Game Boy Advance library.

Why play it: A gorgeous, technically astonishing JRPG whose Djinn system and psionic puzzles rank to this day among the best on the entire platform.