Gaming Target - Game Boy: Golden Sun

Written by Daniel Ekman on August 13, 2001

First Impressions: Will it be the game to make RPG fans flock to GBA?

When I first bought my two Game Boy Advances there was only one game that I truly wanted: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. If one visits my humble abode today, though, no Tony Hawk can be found. Essentially, it all came down to a lack of money, and the fact that Tony Hawk wasn't yet released when I bought the handheld(s). Instead, Kurukuru Kururin was the first game unfortunate enough to find its way into my games collection.

Strangely enough, after an initial optimism about Game Boy Advance and everything that surrounded it I began to sin: I started buying Game Boy Color games instead of Advance ones. After looking at the line-up of great GBC titles and comparing it to ones on GBA, I realized that I had missed out on something huge when neglecting to acquire a handheld earlier. There were so many great Color games out there, and more to come! In my own mind, The Zelda: Oracle games just proved the point further: GBC titles can be better than their GBA brethren. Of course, this is yesterday's news for most of you, but to me it was like waking up from a deep slumber.

So, understanding that the new batch of GBA games weren't necessarily any better than old Game Boy games, I was a bit disheartened when looking upon upcoming games for Game Boy Advance. However, after seeing Golden Sun, my portable videogame life finally became advanced. With colourful graphics and a classic RPG-style theme, Golden Sun would bring the era of wonderful SNES experiences back into existence for me, and even into the palms of my hands.

If the story remains unchanged from the Japanese version, we will see four heroes set forth to save the world. A mysterious plague has broken out and it's up to the youngsters to get things back to a normal order. The heroes aren't completely helpless either and have been blessed with an ability to channel four different forces: wind, water, earth and fire. How the four protagonists have planned to bring about the world's restoration isn't completely clear, though.

Upon embarking on this grand adventure one will yet again randomly encounter enemies, a common solution for console RPG games that I must admit that I've grown a bit tired of. When it comes to fighting the screen switches to a pseudo-3d perspective that looks very impressive, though. The action in battles is viewed from the side and if it weren't for the mode 7-esque effects the whole thing would play out very much like Final Fantasy III on SNES. Physical attacks have taken a backseat to magic in battles, and magic even plays a large role during normal gameplay. For example, various powers must be utilised in order to solve certain puzzles, something that sets the game apart from the standard mould of RPG games today.

With a top-down viewpoint and vast outdoor expanses to explore, the game follows in the footsteps of many games before it. Several aspects of Golden Sun are still unknown, however, and who knows which kind of goodies have been crammed into this little cart? A rumoured four-player mode might be somewhere in there, and we're still trying to figure out what УBattle ModeФ is all about. Apart from secret facets of the multiplayer mode, however, there are many other things to be thrilled about. How about multiple paths and 40+ hours of playtime?