Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (Game Boy Advance, 2005)

For me, this member of the Fire Emblem games is truly a joy to play. You get to work with a large variety of characters, from mages and monks wielding spells and magic, to paladins and archers flinging swords, lances, and arrows.

The graphics are of superb quality for such a compact system as the GBA, and the flow of the game runs smooth, though allowing you some choices on where you'd like to advance next.

One element of the games that can be both frustrating and challenging is the fact that when a character loses all of their hit points, they die, and can never be used in combat for the rest of the game. The good news is that you can restart the level over, thus saving your character, but you also lose whatever items and experience points you earned yourself from the previous try. This can be frustrating, but I'd rather redo a level than lose a character for the rest of gameplay.

There's a balance between weapons, some being strong than others. Also, the stronger the weapon, the lesser amount of times you can use it before it breaks, thus forcing the player to carefully consider what types of items to buy and equip their characters with.

My favorite part of this Fire Emblem installment is the fact that when your character is about to change classes, you have choices on what type of unit they can turn into. Many have special abilities or have an added weapon that they can use. It makes the game more complex and interesting.

Overall, I feel this is one of the best GBA games I've come across, and it's one I'm certainly addicted too.