Not unexpectedly for someone who frequents the RPG Universe, I really do like the Final Fantasy games, especially the older NES and SNES incarnations. The problem has been, though, how do I play them?

You need a bit of back-story to understand. See, typically, I try to live as simply as I can as a gamer: this means one home-on-the-couch console and one handheld at a time. It can be a hard thing to do, given the nostalgia that older games inspire. But whatever.

The 360 is a happy-enough place for RPGs, but I'll never see any of the old Final Fantasies on Arcade. I know that. Unfortunately, the PSP, which is the handheld I'm currently keeping around, isn't really a much better place for Final Fantasy. Yeah FF1 and FF2 have been ported, and they're amazing, but I'm feeling a little tired of waiting around for 4, 5 and 6 finally to make their way to that console. Probably they never will. So yesterday, mostly on a whim, I popped over to Gamestop and picked-up a used GBA. Yes, a GBA; not a DS. What was thinking, right? Well, the GBA can play GameBoy and GameBoy Colour games. DS can't. (Plus, the GBA cost me around 30 dollars -- even the used DS was four-times that.) It may not be backlit, it may not have Brain Age, but there are a lot of old school games I can relive on that little sapphire-blue clamshell.

Let it be known, then, that on Arpil Fools day 2008 I finally broke the unwritten rule of the household and bought a third console. Remarkably, the world continues to turn. Even more remarkably, though, I started playing Final Fantasy 5 for the first time. Ever. It is truly a beautiful thing. Salty tears run down my cheeks as I write. (Though maybe I just exagerate for effect -- needless to say, I'm pretty darn happy.) And to add to the nostalgic RPG bliss, I ordered a used copy of the GB Colour Dragon Warrior 1&2 cart. I'll probably get DW 3, too, but there's lots to be played for the moment. And then there's FF6, which I've also never played, and FF4, which I still remember practically photographically, given how many times I played though it when I was a kid. The moral of the story? If you're in your late 20s and you had a Nintendo or a SNES as a kid, the GBA can be a really great toy.

What games did you love?