Pros: 32bit, High color, Wide screen, Great games, Great sound
Cons: No AC port, Some games are dark due to faulty devkits
The Bottom Line: The Gameboy Advance is the handheld people have been waiting for. The first Gameboy lasted 12 years, this one will last forever. Simply put, it is amazing.
duz's Full Review: Nintendo Game Boy Advance Console
Nintendo's new handheld is out in Japan and so of course I grabbed one. First off the new screen is much better then the GBC's screen. If you look at the GBC the GBA screen is from the far left of the black border to the far right of the black border and only a hair taller. This gives it a look more reminiscent of a wide-screen television or maybe a Sega Nomad. The colors on the GBA games are very bright and vibrant compared to the colors of a GBC game on a GBC, but the colors of a GBC game on the GBA are a bit distorted. Blues are more blue then they should be and reds are more red then they should be but its not a hindrance.
Next is the GBA's sound. Gone are the bleeps and bloops of the GBC and in is speech. From Mario and the gang talking while pulling up vegetables to singing in the intro to Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, the GBA has a mighty fine sound system and an excellent speaker. If you slip on a pair of headphones you will be in for a real treat, not only does it sound better but you can hear what side the cars whiz past you in F-Zero: Maximum Velocity in full stereo sound. You can hear your footsteps on the castle floor in Castlevania. The sound on the GBA is simply amazing.
The controls on the GBA have been improved greatly. The buttons are no longer "mushy" but are stiff and responsive. Nintendo has also added a Left and Right shoulder button that fit seamlessly into the design of the GBA. There is one downside to the shoulder buttons though. It takes some time to figure out how to use them, the D-Pad and the Action buttons without hurting your thumbs. For games like F-Zero that require constant use of the shoulder buttons I recommend putting your thumbs flat against the surface of the GBA and then wrapping your index fingers around the shoulder buttons.
Only a few of the accessories for the GBA are out and most are in limited quantities. For the first time Nintendo is making a rechargeable battery pack for the GBA. This battery pack slips into, not onto, the back of the GBA making it fit seamlessly. It comes with a quick charger that should charge the ten hour batter in under two hours. One glaring omission on the GBA is an AC adapter port. Nintendo has made instead an adapter that fits into the battery compartment, like the battery pack, that has the port of the AC adapter. The GBA is also missing the infrared port that was on the GBC and so Nintendo will release an add-on for it later. But the most popular accessory is the new GBA link cable. This new and improved link cable has a port in the middle of the cord allowing up to four GBAs to be linked together for multiplayer fun. Since the GBA is not backlit it uses a highly reflective TFT display like the GBC. This of course means that it is harder to see in low light conditions. This is where the lighting accessories come in. Nyko is making a newer version of their famous Worm Light for the GBA and SEGA is making their own light peripheral. There are also several other light accessories that also magnify the screen.
The games are the true beauty of any system and the GBA has great games in spades. The GBA had 25 games with it at launch plus it is fully compatible with all previous Gameboy and Gameboy Color games, aside from some small sound problems that will be fixed in time for the North American launch. I received three games with my system. The first was Mario Advance which is Super Mario 2 plus the old arcade game Mario Bros.. The next was Castlevania: Circle of the Moon which is an all new 2D Castlevania game by Konami. And the third one was F-Zero: Maximum Velocity which is a sequel to the hit SNES game of the same name.
Mario Advance is an improved version of the one that was in the Super Mario All-Stars game for SNES. Its main differences are some of the enemies and vegetables are larger to show off the GBA's rotating abilities and secondly the game is full of speech. The four main characters have dozens of voice samples from when they pick up vegetables to when they die. But its not just the heroes that talk, the bosses will talk back at you from Birdo saying "This is as far as you go" to FryGuy saying "I'm too hot for you!".
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon that mixes Dracula X for the SNES with Shadows of the Night for the PSX and then adds some RPG elements such as experience points and equable items. This game is also full of wonderful sound. You can hear every foot step and every monster roar and the intro has the same singing as the PSX game. The graphics are so good that you could confuse this game for a SNES game instead of a GBA game if you didn't know.
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity is the game that shows of the GBA's Mode 7 like abilities. If you remember Mode 7 on the SNES is what allowed great games such as Mario Kart and the original F-Zero to come about. It is simply a trick with a very large picture and rotating it as if it was the floor, except the GBA can do four of them at once. This allows for the track in F-Zero to hover over the ground below and for the background of building to scroll back and forth. F-Zero is a fast and furious racing game that requires using the new shoulder buttons on the GBA. This is great unless your holding it wrong because then your fingers will cramp up.
Make no mistake, this will be the must have system for this year and the next.
NINTENDO GAME BOY ADVANCE SYSTEM/CONSOLE (Rare Platinum Limited Edition) US/Canada (NTSC) Version, 100% BRAND NEW/FACTORY SEALED! Description: Get set...More at eBay
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