Handhelds had their golden age in the 2000s because you could still have small teams making games for the GBA, the DS, and to a lesser extent the PsP.
As much fun as I had with the gameboys in the 90s as a kid, I probably agree. Maybe. Do you have a top 5 handheld games? We never talk about those, so should be interesting.
Rules: no ports of SNES, PS1, even PC (Doom!) etc games. Quite a lot of ports on GBA.
1. Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening (1993 - Action-Adventure)
2. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2006 - Metroidvania)
3. James Bond 007 (1998 - Action-Adventure)
4. Pokemon: Gold/Silver/Crystal (1999 - RPG)
5. Golden Sun 2 (2002 - RPG)
6. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001 - Metroidvania)
7. Mario Land 2: 6 Gold Coins (1992 - Platformer)
8. Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 (2001 - Sports & different to the console versions)
9. Warioland (1994 - Platformer)
10. Advance Wars (2001 - Turn-Based Strategy)
I didn't explore the PSP too much, drifted away from handheld around that time, as while good they are in most cases inferior to what you get on PC & console. Of what PSP I did play, they were largely just gimped PS2 games. Technologically impressive, but lacking soul. It was the mid 2000s after all. As for the NDS, again only a little exploration. Seemed like the start of the decline for handheld though.
Wow, haven't thought about handheld gaming much in such a long time. A challenge to remember all the games I played and form a list.
Lyric Suite mentioned having played some handheld, so even he can join the fun!
Edit: fuck it, lets make it top ten!