Handheld entries that felt as great as home console ones

[Ikagura]

Whether they're spinoffs or just a smaller budget entry that ended up being still grandiose and could easily rivalise with the AAA on more powerful hardware.

The first one that comes to mind is MGS: Peace Walker which is on the same level of quality as what we got on the PS2. The second one is probably Kirby Planet Robobot (although the series is principally on handhelds) which is easily as good as Return to Dreamland.

 

[lestagio]

Nintendo has a pretty damn solid track record on their handhelds. The Castlevania GBA trilogy as well as the 3ds games, Metroid Fusion, Superstar Saga, New Super Mario Bros, Minish Cap...

And if we're talking about remakes, OOT3D is superior to its N64 counterpart, and many of the Super Mario Advance games are great. Really the only thing that holds back games on handhelds is that... they're on a handheld.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

Mega Man World 5 rivalizes with the NES games since is a completely original game well executed on the Game Boy

 

[Ikagura]

Nintendo has a pretty damn solid track record on their handhelds. The Castlevania GBA trilogy as well as the 3ds games, Metroid Fusion, Superstar Saga, New Super Mario Bros, Minish Cap...

Yeah, even if Castlevania was made by Konami they managed to translate the SotN gameplay pretty well on a smaller screen resolution.

Zero Mission is not only a good remake but also made Metroid 1 to be almost as good as Super Metroid. ALBW was a bit easier than ALTTP but managed to be a great entry for a top down Zelda game.

I'll add 3D Land which felt original and had fun levels.

And if we're talking about remakes, OOT3D is superior to its N64 counterpart, and many of the Super Mario Advance games are great. Really the only thing that holds back games on handhelds is that... they're on a handheld.

SMA had screen crunch but I didn't mind too much.

Mega Man World 5 rivalizes with the NES games since is a completely original game well executed on the Game Boy

World I-III were a lesser scaled version of their respective NES counterparts but IV was really nice and V was impressive for the hardware.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

The Mario games on GBA are just... top-notch, man.

Even better than the originals.

 

[ThunderBoy]

Super Mario Land 2

Metroid Fusion

Wipeout Pure

Luigi's Mansion 2

 

[PSVitaForever]

KILLZONE MERCENARY on PSVita immediately comes to mind

Killzone: Mercenary (USA) VITA ROM – The Repo

Doesn't work on vita3k at the time of posting.

retrogametalk.com

 

[MorriganW0lf]

Lord Of Arcana on my beloved PSP, it's a very good looking rpg, with a good character creation, i was very impressed with it the first time i played it.

 

[Bakuma1997]

I would rather be shot than play the original Donkey Kong Country in SNES, the GBA ports are the def ways to me, adding some QOL and managing to play nicely despite obviousl screen crunch, only critic is the flashbang of a graphical dept, but nothing a patch can fix

 

[beefbowl]

GTA has some bangers. Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, Chinatown Wars are all great. VCS basically was the San Andreas 2 we never got.

 

[lestagio]

The Mario games on GBA are just... top-notch, man.

Even better than the originals.

They're impressive but I don't think they're ALL as good as the originals, at least in my opinion.

SMB2 on GBA is an improvement, but SMW and Yoshi's Island are worse than their SNES counterparts. Very similar games, but the GBA having compressed sound and a smaller screen makes them worse. SMB3 goes either way. I love the OG and GBA version. That being said, the GBA versions are really just the Mario All Stars versions, on a handheld. I'd rather play SMB2 on GBA than NES, but I'd rather play it on SNES above anything else.

 

[RageBurner]

Mega Man World 5 rivalizes with the NES games since is a completely original game well executed on the Game Boy

More than rivalizes, it has it beat, if you ask me (especially when compared directly to MM5 NES).

I'd argue the GBC version of Azure Dreams is more fun to play that the PS1 original.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

More than rivalizes, it has it beat, if you ask me (especially when compared directly to MM5 NES).

BEAT

Agree, World 5 is pretty underrated.

 

[zerodayhx]

well a obvious answer is monster hunter but i actually want to include kingdom hearts chain of memories.
This is very subjective but i actually really enjoyed the GBA version of the game, was different enough to the later ps2 version to give it its own identity

 

[Stare best girl]

Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey is literally the best SMT mainline game even at this day Seg- I mean Atlus(the current Atlus is Sega Dream Corporation as the original Atlus died in 2010) didn't replicated its quality

 

[RageBurner]

Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey is literally the best SMT mainline game even at this day Seg- I mean Atlus(the current Atlus is Sega Dream Corporation as the original Atlus died in 2010) didn't replicated its quality

I agree with you heavily, so much so I consider SJ to be the true 4th entry.

 

[JayceeRX]

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (English Patched) PSP ISO – The Repo

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (English Patched) PSP ISO Game ID: NPJH-50332. Languages: English Patched, Japanese. For Sony PlayStation Portable.

retrogametalk.com

Phantasy Star Portable 2 may be on the PSP, but it was a very forward-thinking and satisfying take on 3rd-person, RPG action.

 

[Kovlak]

Silent Hill Origins wasn't a peak in the franchise, but was definitely better than Homecoming. It's mediocre, but jives well with the original trilogy.

Resident Evil Revelations is a quality action horror RE, at the time Capcom was in its Michael Bay Resident Evil phase on home consoles. It was a percursor for modern RE games.

Mario Kart Super Circuit is a quality game, and in my opinion aged better than MK 64. More content + non hideous graphics.

 

[naka_michi]

Ohh, Kurohyou 1 and 2...
Like a Dragon but made by the company that used to be AKI, the same AKI that made the N64 WWF games and Def Jam
Their stories are awesome (still liked 1 better) and the gameplay is just unbelievable, they really are fully fledged Yakuza experiences on the PSP

 

[zerodayhx]

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (English Patched) PSP ISO – The Repo

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (English Patched) PSP ISO Game ID: NPJH-50332. Languages: English Patched, Japanese. For Sony PlayStation Portable.

retrogametalk.com

Phantasy Star Portable 2 may be on the PSP, but it was a very forward-thinking and satisfying take on 3rd-person, RPG action.

To add to this, one thing very interesting is that the original portable is secretly a direct sequel to phantasy star universe

 

[Graw]

SaGa 1 on the Wonderswan Color
SaGa 2 and 3 on the DS
All 3 GBC Zelda games and the GBA ones. The DS ones seemed too gimmicky to me.
All the Etrian Odyssey games on DS and 3DS
Dragon Quest VII and Dragon Quest VIII on 3ds
Tekken 5 and 6 on PSP

Honestly there's so many games. I'm not even sure where the idea came from that handheld games are somehow not as 'full of a game' as a console game. Even on the original black and white gameboy you had games like Metroid 2 and Link's Awakening which blew away their nes predecessors. Pokemon, The SaGa series, Sword of Mana, the Mario Land games and lots more.

 

[BrawlMan]

Final Fight One (GBA), Super Ghouls n' Ghost (GBA), Sonic Triple Trouble, Shinobi GG, Ninja Gaiden Shadow, Tetris (GB), Kirby's Dreamland 2, SSFII: Turbo Revival, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, and Streets of Rage 2 (Game Gear).

 

[mrrgrrgrr]

All 3 GBC Zelda games and the GBA ones.

Came in to say this! You can say this about most Zelda games on handheld, but these ones in particular are the ones I always go back to. Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and Minish Cap are all fantastic games.

Nintendo has a pretty damn solid track record on their handhelds. The Castlevania GBA trilogy as well as the 3ds games, Metroid Fusion, Superstar Saga, New Super Mario Bros, Minish Cap...

I have always felt that Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and the Castlevania DS trilogy were all much better games than Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Don't get me wrong, I still love Symphony of the Night, but the later games streamlined the formula in a way that made them more fun to play in my opinion.

If we want to include games that were first on console and made better on handheld, I would say Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo DS fits the bill. I know there are purists out there who don't like the new translation, which I understand, but it's such a good version of the game regardless. It's got all of the content of the PS1 version without the terrible load times, and it even has more new content on top of it! I'll take the DS version over the SNES version any day.