Golden Sun for the Game Boy Advance is the first highly anticipated RPG for the Game Boy Advance. Camelot has gained most notoriety for their Mario Golf and Tennis games on the N64 and Game Boy Color hardware. Golden Sun is a full blown classic console-style RPG, complete with side quests, magic, weapons, lots of random battles as well as a couple surprises thrown into the mix. The game was built from the ground up to take advantage of the GBA hardware making for an enjoyable RPG on the go which stacks up nicely against a lot of console RPGs.

Now I'm not going to pretend that I am the biggest role playing gamer out there. My role playing experience is spotty and yet varied. My first real console RPG was Phantasy Star III, from there I played Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, then the other Phantasy Stars. Panzer Dragoon Saga remains my favorite RPG of all time and the last real RPG I played before Golden Sun was Great Greed by Namco on the Game Boy. I am also one of three people who have never played a Final Fantasy game of any sort. So there you have it, I'm not an authority on this stuff.

Golden Sun is easily the best presented RPG on the GBA right now. Now, don't take that as the best... it's just that it's presentation is top notch. The first thing you will notice in the game when you turn it on is the graphics. They are superb, simple as that. Lots of color, detail and animation (for an RPG) combine for a very pleasing visual experience. It also benefits from being released a little bit later so that the developer could compensate for the running change that Nintendo pulled with the GBA hardware that caused a lot of launch titles to look darker than they should have been (ie: Castlevania.) There are a lot of varied towns, buildings, people and monsters, all drawn in the squat RPG style that we all have known and loved for many years now. The biggest draw would easily be the detailed magic effects that you get to unleash later in the game. Some of these effects are stunning, especially considering the quality we are used to on handhelds.

The aural experiences of Golden Sun are a matter of debate. The music I feel was quite good. The quality is there and you will actually want to check it out with headphones to really enjoy it. Gone are the days of simple bloops and beeps of the original Game Boy, thank god. Battle sound effects are the standard fare, they are solid and get the job done. The fun part is the "voices" that the character speak in. The characters "speak" in some sort of melodic mumbling that is sure to drive most gamers out there ape shit. I have seen reports of some people actually liking them. I, myself, and pretty neutral on the matter, but it would not surprise me if someone sued Nintendo tomorrow with a butter knife hanging out of their head since they wanted to puncture their own ear drums rather than hear the warbling of the townsfolk. Lucky for Nintendo, they include an option to turn the 'speech' off.

The quest is a decent length I felt for a pocket RPG. It certainly lasted longer that some RPGs I have played on a full grown console but it didn't get too overwhelming either. Again, you will hear a lot of complaints where people say this game didn't last them more than a day. I am convinced that they either don't sleep, work, or go to school or simply did the bare minimum to beat the game. Due to the friendly "save anywhere" feature, this is the perfect game to satisfy your RPG thirst while you are taking a break at work or in between classes.

The twist in the game resides in the little elemental monster you can collect called "Djinn" in the game which serve quite a few uses. First and foremost, they can aid you in battle by direct attacks or helping out with support spells. Since you can have a bunch of these little critters at your disposal at any given time, you can combine Djinn together during attacks to summon screen filling creatures which spew out eviscerating magical attacks on your foes. The other feature of the Djinn is their ability to change a character's class and abilities. Certain combinations of Djinn can add to your HP, or even grant you a new set of spells to use. Instead of being just a collectible critter gimmick, they actually lend a lot of strategy and fun to the title.

The story in the game isn't going to be remembered as the best one in history, but it does fulfill most if not all of the standard RPG clichés that we need to have a complete game. It moves the storyline along and provides a few nice twists and turns along the way. The conclusion of this chapter of Golden Sun is what garnered the title the most complaints. There just isn't a whole lot of closure going on here. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but we are used to a little bit more from our RPGs anymore, and there really isn't a reason to leave things so blatantly open ended for a new series especially.

Another complaint about the game is the amount of backtracking that you can all too easily subject yourself too. Some points in the game are a little loose as to what you are supposed to do, allowing for you to forget to do key things or get key items before moving on to the next treacherous journey. There may be times where you put the game down in disgust as you realize that you wasted the past hour getting to a place that you shouldn't even have gone to yet. I'm curious as to how 1st time RPGers would feel about this.

There are bunch of little puzzles in Golden Sun, most of them being of the maze variety where you need to move objects in and out of the way to create a path to treasure as well as the road to your next destination. The puzzles are not too difficult and provide a nice little diversion from the hacking and slashing of your standard fuzzy woodland mutants. Some of the other puzzles which I enjoyed was the tournament where you could leave members of your party at different stations to 'cheer' for you. In reality, your 'fans' could cast spells which would effect your completion of the tournament tasks. It was a nice little touch.

The battle system is a clean turn based setup which allows for plenty of magic and Djinn summons to help you out. Together with the excellent presentation, battle rarely become annoying. The random battles also occur at a reasonable pace for the most part. Too many random encounters can really kill a good RPG, and this one has a nice balance. You will have no problem leveling up and you won't be throwing the GBA out of window in sheer frustration at the amount of ass kicking that you need to unfurl just to get to a town that's a short distance away.

The Golden Sun sequel has already been announced and most gamers feel that is a good thing. Golden Sun is not a perfect RPG but it certainly is a fine quality one that should satisfy the sweet tooth of the average RPGer. Annoyances aside, the game has exceptional presentation and really does an excellent job of providing a quality adventure on the Game Boy Advance. Considering how early in the life cycle this game was released, we should have a lot to be excited about in the future.