Golden Sun (2001)

Genre: Role-playing | Players: 1-2 | Developer: Camelot

I'll give Doc's style a shot.

Golden Sun is a role-playing game for the GBA that is very reminiscent of old school SNES rpgs. In a sprite based cartoon art style, players control silent protagonist Isaac and his friends as they journey across the continent in pursuit of the villains who have not only stolen mystical and dangerous artifacts from the village, but have also kidnapped 2 of Isaac's friends as well. They must recover their friends and the artifacts before they can be used to unseal the ancient force of Alchemy.

Battle against monsters and humans alike with the usual swords, axes, etc. and this game's form of magic called Psynergy. Each character has an innate element based on the four classical elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Wind) that they can use to cast spells both in and outside of battle. These can also be modified using Djinn; elemental familiars you can capture to equip and modify spells and stats. Mixing elements will make new spells such as adding a water djinn to an earth innate will give him plant based spells that outside of battle can grow climbable vines to access hidden areas. Djinn also have unique abilities that can be used in battle like one turn invulnerability and enhanced attacks. Or they can be unequipped at the cost of stat boosts to be summoned in battle. The more Djinn used (max of 4) summons more powerful creatures. All this adds more layers of strategy to the standard RPG battles. Two GBA's can be linked to battle other players as well outside of the single player game.

The game does fall a bit on the easy side. While this eliminates level grinding it also makes all the strategy options they give you all but unnecessary. You can go through the whole game without once mixing Djinn or summoning if you're not a complete idiot. But it is still a fun game full of detailed animation, hidden areas and bosses, special weapons, light puzzle solving and a lighthearted adventure.

Buyer's Guide:
Can be found used and new for between $10 and $20.

4 One eyed magic rock monsters who seem powerful enough to do this shit themselves out of 5