No, you’re thinking of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, also a terrific game. A Link to the Past was originally a SNES title. It was ported to GBA within the past couple years.
I definitely agree with those that suggest the Advance Wars games. Also, Fire Emblem is good stuff, particularly if you’re going to get interrupted every couple of minutes, because it auto-saves very frequently so you can just switch it off any time.
~ Isaac
Mario and Luigi is brilliant.
It’s funny, that’s EXACTLY how I felt about FFTA 
Most of the other suggestions in this thread are among the best of the best of GBA games. It’s a platform that really excels for RPG/adventure/puzzle type games. Let me say that Fire Emblem is extraordinarily fun but is really quite a painful experience if you’re a perfectionist and/or you’re used to the Shining Force games.
Legend of Mana is another fun adventure/RPG type game - it’s a remake of Final Fantasy Adventure for the original GB, with a lot of Secret of Mana -type elements.
There are a bunch of other SNES game ports that came out pretty well… again, a lot of RPG and adventure type stuff. Honestly, the selection available in those categories for the GBA is probably better than the set of RPG type games for any of the full power current generation consoles, once you get past the shiny graphics.