Top 10 GBA games we want to play on the 3DS

Move over covert N64 renaissance, there’s a new reason to grab the 3DS the second it becomes available. At Nintendo’s press conference in Tokyo, the gaming giant confirmed that the console will be host to a marketplace of classic portable gaming goodies.

Games from Nintendo’s entire single-screen, pocket galleon will be available to buy, download, and play straight on your 3DS.

Here’s hoping that the service will follow Virtual Console’s lead on the Wii, where you can grab vintage classics on Turbograx 16 and Sega Mega Drive, alongside Nintendo’s own consoles.

How cool would it be to push aside Game Boy treats in favour of Game Gear, Atari Lynx or - gasp - Neo Geo Pocket Colour goodies?

But hey, that’s another (three) feature(s) for another time.

And of course, surely the service wouldn't be complete without Game Boy Advance? While Nintendo's 32-bit console is not yet confirmed for the 3DS's download service, here are ten excellent games that should convince Nintendo to give it the thumbs up.

Teaming up with his slender younger brother, our all-time favourite plumber bounces around the Bean Bean Kingdom, looking for Princess Toadstool and beating up every Goomba, Koopa and Bob-omb in his path.

It might be Mario’s third foray into the stat-heavy world of role-playing games, but it's arguably his best. Teaming up with green-bean Luigi for double-teamed attacks makes for some seriously hands-on battles, and an alarmingly good translation from Nintendo’s own treehouse filled the game with some serious funnies.

Currently the last outing for Miss Samus Aran, chronologically speaking, Fusion sends the bounty hunter princess to a parasite-infested space station. Unfortunately for her, a mutant breed of parasites picks up some of her old armour and turns into SA-X: an evil doppelganger of Samus.

This game is seriously creepy, as you’re constantly on the run from the predatorial SA-X. Did I mention that the mimicking monster is armed to the teeth?

When you’re not scared witless by the boogie-woman, Fusion is pure magnified Metroid at it’s best. A little on the short side, but packed with quality bosses, areas and ideas.

Link has braved the greatest seas, travelled across the farthest fields, and climbed the highest mountains - so where next? Turns out, he was standing on it all along.

Minish Cap is all about shrinking down to meet a colony of microscopic Minish people, living between the grass blades.

But whether you’re big or small, Minish Cap packs a brilliant, classic top-down Zelda game onto a tiny Game Boy Advance cartridge, allowing you to get a nostalgic kick in between Link’s more grand, 3D adventures.

Collecting all the figurines is addictive as all hell, too.

A deviously crafted puzzler from Puyo Pop inventors, Compile, Guru Logic Champ is a little bit Picross, a little bit Bust-a-Move, and completely charming, smart, and addictive.

While the DS has embraced Japanese quirk, from finger flexing lawyers to cuisine savants, the Game Boy Advance sometimes shied away from anything too bizarre. That’s why brain boggling Guru Logic Champ stayed in Japan.

But hey, if the Wii’s Virtual Console can get games like Sin & Punishment and Mario’s Super Picross on to UK consoles, why not the 3DS? As Captain Picard often said, “Make it so”.

Talk about a surprise. Camelot, best known for its cutesy golf and tennis games, suddenly whips out an epic RPG, complete with amazing visuals, a memorable soundtrack, and a great story. That made us sit up and take notice.

The game’s got a new DS version coming out soon, so perhaps its about time you caught up on the story of the first two games.

You can even transfer your characters and loot from the first game to its follow-up, but make sure you write down the seventeen billion character password right, or you’ll be starting the sequel in your pants.

If you think about Mario’s feisty feud with his testy ape pal, you’d probably think of novelty hammers and barrels of oil. Well how about handstands, backflips, and devilishly addictive puzzles?

This portable puzzler turned the plumber vs ape idea on its head, upgrading it from basic arcade fun to a 'just-a-one-more-a-go' timesink.

Turn-based strategy in its purest form, Advance Wars refines the complicated, spread-sheet based micro-management of its PC predecessors into a cute, manageable blob of liquid addiction.

Despite the game’s ‘Advance’ moniker, this series has been running since the '80s. Back then, it was called Famicom Wars, Alf was a hit TV character, and I was a zygote. My, how things change.

A boy can dream, can’t he? I don’t know about you, but in my dreams Nintendo calls up Tomato, creator of the rather excellent Mother 3 fan translation, and sends him a big wadge of money to chuck the game onto the 3DS store, in English.

Crazier things of happened. Then again, the game is bursting with questionable content and uncomfortable overtones. From tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms to the fate of the world being protected by overbearing drag queens, the game touches on paedophilia, homosexuality, abuse, violence, and death.

Sounds brilliant, doesn’t it?

Mega Man has got more on his CV than 'platforming Blue Bomber'. He’s been a racer, a 3D blaster, a boardgame player, a soccer superstar, and, in Battle Network, an RPG hero.

Actually, he’s the online avatar of Lan - a little kid with a penchant for ‘Jacking In’ to the interwebs. Turns out that the web is actually an isometric battleground, where your personified avatar beats up viruses and bugs by blasting them, turn by turn. Who knew?!

The original game never reached European shores, apparently due to the tilt-sensor’s mercury filled tilt switch. I guess the LGA were worried that kids would crack open the cartridge and neck the glorious silver liquid inside.

Or, that the game is so addictive it’d put the country at an economical standstill.

Either way, this is the best game in the Wario Ware series, giving you a feeling of tactility without making you blow in your DS or drop the Wii Remote on a table. Its retro-inspired games are top notch, too, turning Mario stages into giant, rotating circles.

I mean, why else would Nintendo slap a motion sensor inside the 3DS? It's all very clear now.