Golden Sun deserves a full remake on Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 – here’s why

Today, we’re talking about Golden Sun, one of Nintendo’s forgotten RPG series, and why it deserves a remake – be it on Switch or Switch 2.

At the time of writing, Wario Land, Kid Icarus, Rhythm Heaven, and Punch-Out all have something in common: they’re beloved by fans, but haven’t received a new game in a very long time. There’s another dormant franchise that’s arguably more obscure, though: Golden Sun, a Nintendo-exclusive RPG series developed by Camelot. If you recognize that name, it’s because they usually develop Mario Sports games. They haven’t released any titles since Mario Golf: Super Rush on Nintendo Switch in 2021.

Golden Sun and its sequel, The Lost Age, are available on Nintendo Switch Online. Despite that, though, you don’t see many talking about it. It’s a very classic-feeling RPG, as you might expect, and it stars Isaac, who you may have seen as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I recently played Golden Sun for the very first time and found that it’s absolutely worth talking about in the modern day. It’s very far ahead of its time.

Golden Sun originally released on Game Boy Advance in 2001, making it a fairly early title in the system’s life cycle. If you don’t know this already, there are two Golden Sun games on Game Boy Advance: the original, and the sequel, The Lost Age. These are actually two halves of one gigantic RPG, with each half taking about 25 to 30 hours to complete. That’s an enormous run time for a Game Boy Advance game. We mentioned earlier that Golden Sun was ahead of its time in many ways. One of those ways is that the title pushed the limits of the GBA’s hardware. If you play games like Super Mario Advance, you’ll notice the colors are washed out and bland compared to their SNES originals. The Game Boy Advance’s sound isn’t so great, either – the speakers make music sound fuzzy and distant. But Golden Sun pushes both of these to their limits with extremely advanced graphics and a great soundtrack.

Let’s take a step back first, though. Golden Sun is a classic RPG set in Weyard, and the plot involves a quest to stop a team of villains from unleashing a horrible power on the world. It’s a pretty basic plot when you word it like that, but there are twists and turns along the way and it winds up a lot more complicated than our description. If you’ve seen Isaac as an Assist Trophy in Smash, you might remember that he uses giant hands to attack. Those are from Psynergy, which is the central mechanic in Golden Sun. In-battle, it’s kind of like a mana system that lets you cast spells. In the overworld, it lets you solve puzzles by moving, carrying, or lifting objects. This is where Golden Sun is unique: it’s kind of like a Zelda game in the overworld in the sense that it places a heavy focus on puzzle solving. You’ll have to push lots of logs, move blocks, and gather keys in certain dungeons.

The battle system is no slouch, either. As you traverse the overworld, you’ll come across Djinn, which are the equivalent of this game’s class system. You’ll obtain many Djinn throughout the course of the game, and each one is associated with one of four elemental powers. You can equip different party members with Djinn to change their class, which gives them different stats and different Psynergy spells that they can cast. Furthermore, Djinn can all be directly used in battle, in which they have a unique ability. For example, one Djinn revives downed allies and another creates a defensive barrier. Once a Djinn’s ability has been used up, it enters standby mode and adds a point to your summon meter. When enough Djinn of the same element have entered standby mode, you can perform a summon attack that deals huge damage. This combat system is easier to understand once you get into playing the game, and it’s incredibly satisfying once you have a grip on how exactly it works.

Like we mentioned before, Golden Sun is far ahead of its time in terms of art style, and that’s just one reason why it deserves another chance in the spotlight with a remake. Frankly, we’re not sure if there’s another game like it on Game Boy Advance. In a similar vein as Super Mario RPG on SNES, the sprites are sort of intended to convey 3D models. They’re very smoothly animated and the overworld graphics are detailed and vibrant. And this isn’t even mentioning the battle effects – it’s kind of amazing that they got these working on GBA. The battle environment is 2D, but it’s presented in such a way that it tricks you into feeling like it’s 3D. Those big summon attacks we mentioned earlier have tons of bright, explosive particle effects – so many, in fact, that the game begins to lag. Surprisingly enough, though, the lag that occurs after performing a summon attack actually helps convey its strength.

For being a 2001 Game Boy Advance game, Golden Sun is pretty good. It’s definitely worth playing in the modern day, and the rewind and save state features on Nintendo Switch Online make it much more accessible. Like any classic RPG, it does get rather difficult at times, so the ability to rewind your actions and carefully plan out your next move comes in handy. That being said, to make the case for a remake, Golden Sun is – again – a 2001 Game Boy Advance game. That means it does come with a few flaws. The menu system feels a little outdated and clunky; each character has their own inventory, which means you’ll need to spend time having characters give each other items over and over until you get their pockets how you want them. The game also has random encounter enemies, meaning you’ll randomly be pulled into battles constantly when walking around. There are items to reduce the encounter rate, but none to prevent them whatsoever, which is a huge pain when you’re backtracking to areas you’ve been before. There are also times where you’ll have a big level advantage over the enemy, but still be unable to run away.

The game’s graphics, while excellent, also sometimes make it tough to see where you can slide down cliffs or climb stairs. Those areas easily blend into the walls, so I sometimes found myself wandering around not sure where to go until I noticed a place where I could slide down a cliff. One last issue with the game is that it has very, very long cutscenes full of tons of dialogue. This is definitely a good thing for character and world exposition and the like, but it sitting through this amount of dialogue can get tiring. Golden Sun is best played in short-to-medium bursts because of this. Fortunately, all of the flaws I’ve described here could be fairly easily fixed by a remake.

To be clear, I haven’t played Golden Sun: The Lost Age just yet – and the original game is the first half of the story. If a remake of Golden Sun were ever to happen, it’d probably need to be a combination of both titles in one package. On Game Boy Advance, you can actually transfer your progress from Golden Sun to The Lost Age via a very long password system. That’s obviously a very dated method of transfer, and a remake would completely fix this. A somewhat chibi-inspired art style would work great for a remake. If it added a tool ring that let you pick Psynergy to use in the overworld plus overworld enemies (as opposed to random encounters), Golden Sun would absolutely stand up as one of the greatest RPGs of all time. As it is, the game is very good and worth remembering – it just needs some modernization to give it that little extra push.

If you’re interested in trying Golden Sun, you can check it out Nintendo Switch Online via the Expansion Pack. Would you like to see a remake of Golden Sun? If you’ve played it already, what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments down below.