Super Robot Taisen A is one of those GBA games that just gets mecha fans. You start off picking your squad from a ridiculous lineup of anime robots—Gundams, Mazinger, even some deep cuts I didn’t recognize at first. The first mission throws you right into grid-based battles where positioning matters way more than I expected; one wrong move and your fancy robot becomes scrap metal.

What really got me were the animated attack sequences. They’re pixelated but full of personality—like watching a compressed version of your favorite anime fights. The story’s this wild crossover where characters from different universes actually react to each other (ever seen Amuro argue with a Getter Robo pilot? It’s weirdly great).

Fair warning: the difficulty spikes hard around mission 8 if you don’t grind a little. I learned that the hard way when my underleveled Gundam got wrecked by a random mook. Still, tweaking your team and finding broken combos is half the fun. If you’ve got a soft spot for tactical games or 90s mecha anime, this one’s worth dusting off the GBA for.