Golden Sun is the only JRPG I own, and while I'm not much for the genre, I remember liking it well enough and it getting rave reviews. It might be the Paul Haggis's Crash effect, but for a video game: everyone loves something that is critically acclaimed, then a few critics turn around and say they didn't like it, then everyone follows suit and pretends to have never liked it in the first place. 

It was the first major JRPG I got for the GBA system and I was just blown away by the technical acheivments. It was a long game and I liked the puzzles in the dungeons and mixing pokemons for magic abilities. It was just amazing. I will love it regardless for nostalgia. I'm glad to have it on the WiiU gamepad.

The Djin thing actually kinda confused me, but we'll see when I restart it. 

The thing is that you have to find them all I think in order to be powerful. 

The RPG that got me in the genre, funny, as a kid I didn't read much and this game was text heavy

As a kid it blew my mind!

As an experienced RPG lover, Golden Sun was a nice revelation for me. It was great having a full-featured and graphically pleasing RPG on a handheld gaming system. Before that, handhelds didn't sport a whole lot of RPGs other than Pokemon, and the ones they did have were very bare-bones by comparison. After Golden Sun, the handhelds seem to explode with RPGs, This was true of both Nintendo and Sony handhelds.

In any event, I did download Golden Sun for my Wii U and will be playing it today.

Good on you for downloading! I've been playing all night. Ah the memories are rolling back.

Believe it or not, I've never played this game.

Nooooooo! 

I loved this game when it first came out.  It was one of the reasons that I really wanted to pick up a GBA at the time.  Sadly, I never got around to any of the sequels...  Just another reason that I want to pick up a Wii U.

I havent played the sequels either. Im hoping VC will add the direct sequel for GBA soon. The story picks right up after Golden Sun 1.

If they really are bringing DS games to the Wii U, then they can bring the other sequel as well.

But the trickle out. Dear Lord!

Oh yeah, I do remember seeing that Golden Sun add. Long time ago man.

I want to play Golden Sun so badly. I really can't wait to get a Wii U.

As for the backlash, every game with positive acclaim or that has a sizeable fanbase gets backlash, from Bioshock Infinite, to The Last of Us, and like Joe said, it's just the ones with the negative opinion being vocal about it or just going to the hatewagon just because.

I think the backlash is due in part that there are so many JRPGs to play nowadays that for some, Golden Sun doesnt stand up to those standards or whatever. It isn't really that deep, but it is hella fun though. Pretty linear story and basic action gameplay. I love it though.

I still have my Golden Sun cartridge but it's good to know it's getting a new lease on life being on the Wii U Virtual Console. It's one of the few games I can still remember a lot of stuff from even though it's been years since I last played it.

That commercial was pretty memorable, and it was nice to see it being sort of given a shout out in the third game on DS.

I remember the game being pretty tuff actually. Maybe cuz I was a kid? Hmmm?

I have GS and GS: Lost Age on GBA in my backlog. Can't wait to dive in.

They are pretty lengthy and texty or textie? Lotta text!

I hadn't played a Golden Sun game yet.  I've been told many times that they are good.  I don't think I own any of the games. 

You don't misremember, the two GBA titles are tough! I loved them. I bought my GBA when I had to go away for a three week law enforcement class and I was missing my PS1. Golden Sun was one of the first games I bought and I was hooked. I searched and searched and finally found a copy of the sequel. The cool thing about the sequel is that you can import the save data from the first game and continue playing with those characters, or you can play with the new characters. If I recall, if you import your data, you continue Isaac's story, and if you don't, you play Felix's story. I also liked Dark Dawn, which was much easier and shorter than the two GBA games.

I remember the game being hard. I think there are points in the game where if you save and arent leveled up, you cant go back and you get stuck. I think that happened to me in one of the boss battles. I kept wiping out and I was like, but this is a Nintendo game? They put a hard game on the GBA? It's so good. Im enjoying it. I havent played the sequel and need to Dark Dawn too. 

Same thing happened to me in regards to the leveling up part. The more I think about it, the more I think I actually had Golden Sun: The Lost Age first, realized it was a sequel, and then went looking for the first game.

I can understand that happening. Mix up between the two games. I prob missed out on the sequel because the sound the same and I realized I already had it.