Game Boy Advance

I've always thought that competition (not toxic or hostile competition, obviously)
it's something really useful and, when talking about video games, having several
healthy systems with relatively similar success in the same generation, can make
that said generation much more interesting overall.

If all those systems sell well, more games will be made for them, and better
support they'll receive, trying to maintain their space against their "rivals".
Something that sounds simple and logic, but that helps consumers, that is,
us, in several ways, like more games, price cuts and special offers, etc.

Although that line of thought has always been more about home consoles.
Not to mention that most of the times, one system sells really well and the others fall way behind.

In the world we live in, Nintendo rules the land of handheld consoles,
and it has been this way since the invention of the Game & Watch.

That's not to say they never had competition, of course.
Companies like Sega, Atari or Sony have tried to get a piece of that sweet,
sweet cake, with different tactics and ideas, and different levels of success,
or... Well, levels of failure, too.

Except on the sixth generation.
For several reasons, nobody wanted to try getting on the handheld
market during that time, leaving Nintendo completely free to conquer
the entire market with one of the systems that, in my eyes, had the
least competition among popular hardware.

The Game Boy Advance. 

I mean... Unless you want to count the N-Gage as "competition", of course.

The Game Boy Advance (usually shortened as "GBA"), is, like one could easily imagine, the successor of the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Color.

After the "Brick" put the world upside-down with its humble-but-reliable approach, and GBC maintained that spark alive for several years after, one should be pretty stupid not to think about releasing a new handheld system. And that's what Nintendo did, not losing much time, even, as the first rumours about the next step in this family of handheld devices actually appeared in 1996.

Several american magazines, like Electronic Games Monthly, Next Generation, or Game Informer spoke about a new Game Boy, under the secret name of Project Atlantis. Described as a "32 Bit System", it would have a longer screen, and a Cable Link input (this one wasn't hard to imagine).

But more recent info showed us that Nintendo had other designs for this new system. Designs that kept the form, for the most part, of the original Game Boy, like in the picture below.

Oh, four buttons... Could they be an early L and R buttons?
And what's that thing on the right?

But that would be the last time we would hear about Atlantis. In 1996, Game Boy would still sell lots (with Tetris "helping a bit", of course), and other studios and companies asked Nintendo for a handheld console more capable than the original model, and I think that's why, if I can speculate a bit, Project Atlantis was put on hold for several years while they developed the Game boy Color, system that would release in 1998, offering substantial improvements in comparison with the original console, while also extending the commercial life of the GB line.

When the different Game Boy models started to wind down in sales (something that took very long to happen thanks to Pokémon, way longer than anticipated by Nintendo), it was decided the old plans for the 32 Bit system needed to be brought back, and fortunately, that extra time that the GBC and Pokémon gave Nintendo helped a lot with creating a machine much better than what was originally planned, with more modern and better hardware.

I mean, it's no secret that the Game Boy Advance is a gigantic leap compared to the existing systems, both in raw power but also possibilities, compared to, as I said, the humble-by-necessity, reliable-yet-simple Game Boy.

From the Sharp 8-bit 4.19 MHZ processor, we changed to an ARM7 with 16.8 MHZ, 32-Bit. From 8KB of RAM, to 256KB. Better sound with 6 new PCM channels, instead of the 4 channels of the original GB. The screen was larger, capable of showing the same amount of colours than a Super Nintendo, in comparison with the 4 different tones of the Game Boy, not to mention the addition of L and R triggers too.

It was a complete new world, as far as possibilities about what types of games could be created for this machine. It was very exciting.

The design of the console this time comes from the hands of Gwénaëi Nicolas, a french designer with a studio based in Japan named Curiosity, dedicated to design a variety of things, like home interiors or electronic devices.

All these improvements, and almost the same size!
...By the way, best colors. It's a fact.

Talking about that, the GBA left behind the named "Form Factor" (also known as design standards, that define how a product is created based on the hardware inside it). The original GB had what it's commonly called, a Portrait design, while the GBA opted to be wider than taller, adopting a Landscape design.

This, besides of changing how the thing looks, obviously, also was a big change as far as comfortability goes. It's a much more ergonomic design, easier to hold, more respectful to your hands, with a far more natural way of handling it.

And the best news about that is that this new system was "retrocompatible" with GB and GBC games, without the need of peripherals or extra hardware, making it the definitive Nintendo handheld system of that time. Play everything, more comfortably!

There was no need to keep your old consoles around, as it did everything the previous ones did, and you could even stretch the picture of the GB and GBC games if you desired to do so. This is because the GBA actually has inside GBC's hardware making it natively support such games.

But of course, every hardware has its weaknesses, like the cartridges the N64, the load times and texture warping of PS1, or the absolutely everything of the Hyperkin.

The biggest flaw of the system seems to be, for most, probably the Sound.

While GBA was a big, big leap forward compared to GB, many people couldn't help but feel disappointed to see that this system didn't sound as nice as a Super Nintendo could, and how the speaker of the console was seen as less than stelar.

Some were a bit too far about
the speaker thing, you know...

If you ask my opinion about this, I think there's some truth to those criticisms, but I also believe that many people just whined without having a clear and educated point of view about this stuff.

And I say this because many times such comments where specifically aimed to the console with just one reason: The amount of games ported from 16-Bit consoles to the GBA.

Either if it was Square Enix, Nintendo, Sega, or many, many others, everyone wanted to put their already created games on this new system to keep making money... And often enough, without actually putting much effort into it, and in fact some of those attempts were extremely poor.

But of course, they had to be ported, and more often than not, these games ended up being converted by studios not related to the original companies, and with budgets sometimes very, very small (although you can also find games that simply didn't have any attention or care put into them).

That's why we have things like:

R-Type III:           Example SNES - Example GBA
Sonic Genesis:      Example SMD  - Example GBA
Contra III:             Example SNES - Example GBA
Breath of Fire II    Example SNES - Example GBA

And I would look for more, but I think that many of the worst examples are not available in Youtube (imagine why). Awful stuff like Mortal Kombat: Advance or Prehistorik Man's port among others just put the awful precedent about the capabilities of the GBA sound-wise.

But the truth is this: Most of these are just mediocre ports. Games brought to the console without the care or time needed. On the other hand, many other ports sound much better. And even more importantly, those complaints don't really include the original software created for the GBA, a lot of them with great music.

Another thing that doesn't help is that most emulators are not precisely perfect in the sound department (Hi, Visual boy Advance...).

Games like Golden Sun, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Astro Boy: Omega Factor, Advance Wars, Iridion II, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow; Mega-Man Zero, and Pokémon to mention a few from the top of my head have pretty great music.

Now, the complains about the speaker... Yeah, I have to agree with them. It wasn't really up to par with the rest of the hardware, and in fact I used earphones almost every second I played with my GBA growing up, just to not listen to music through it.

While it's true that the GBA does not have the same audio capabilities of the SNES (and honestly, that would have been impossible, technically and legally speaking), the console was capable of great things.

Changing subject, and as I mentioned in the beginning, the Game Boy Advance did not have much of a rival at all.

The only three handheld devices released during the Sixth Generation were the very own GBA, the N-Gage, and the not very well known Tapwave Zodiac, and the last two were hybrid attempts to combine mobile phones and handheld consoles, in the case of N-Gage, or PDA and console in the case of Zodiac.

What a weird generation, as far as portable systems go...

N-Gage, product from the famous Nokia (or well, famous back then), was set to supposedly eat the entire world once it was released in 2003, with that mix of phone and console, attempting to call the attention of both consumer markets...

...But what it ended eating was a big amount of criticism from both sectors.

In one side, the video game consumers didn't want a device with such uncomfortable controls (after all, they were phone buttons), making it rather annoying to play with it, while also the screen of the device got complaints for being so small, specially for horizontally-scrolling games, and even more after the GBA appeared years before.

On the other side, though, it wasn't really ergonomic for a phone, and because of it's shape, many people started to call it the "Taco Phone".

In 2004, N-Gage suffered a big change in design, trying to fix all these issues (and we must be fair to say, that they actually improved a lot of them with the N-Gage QD), but it was too late and it barely managed to sell 3 million units, only to be retired in 2005. Nokia would actually lie about the amount of systems sold.

Tapwave Zodiac would also release in 2003, by a company of the same name, Tapwave. With a very limited amount of games, being 2003, and not having much marketing, it didn't work at all, to the point in which the company retired the system in 2005 (just like the N-Gage) and it even sold the rights to the Zodiac brand, trying to get away from anything related to it.

Going a bit further, Sega was in a very sad part of their life as a company, with a Dreamcast full of possibilities that were destroyed by the release of Sony's PS2; they didn't have much interest in trying again to jump into the handheld market, specially after the Game Gear didn't manage to become the "Game Boy Killer" they thought.

Sony wouldn't either try to jump into this market until the next generation, with its PSP; and Atari was a mere shadow of their former selves, not to mention Atari Lynx was rather disastrous.

Basically, all those factors piled up to create a landscape in which the GBA would rein supreme, with no one to even try do anything. It ended selling 81 million units, and while it wasn't the 110m+ from the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, it was a very nice amount.

And of course, as time went on, any company worth its salt (and appreciative of money) would end up making revisions of the hardware, and the GBA saw two different designs, called GBA SP, and GBA Micro.

Overall, pretty good revisions, with jut a few weak points.

The first one, the GBA SP, had a "clam" design, going a bit back to the Portrait design of the original Game Boy, with difference, of course, of being able to be closed to protect the screen and take less space. The most important changes, though, were its back-lighted screen and internal batteries that this new model had, making possible to play anywhere, and with less worries about batteries.

It's probably the most popular version of the console for good reasons, but it's not absent of problems (big or small, depend on you).

On one hand, the first wave of GBA SPs did have a rather mediocre back-light implemented, and would later be changed for a better screen, so if you want one of these you must first inform yourself and get the good model.

The other problem, and one that I don't understand, is that it doesn't have an audio jack input, and you were forced to buy special earphones, or maybe an adapter for the console. This is probably the biggest design flaw of the SP for me, and it's pretty damn disappointing if you like to use earphones while playing. Lastly, some people found to be uncomfortable to go back to the GB "cramped hands" posture after the more natural design of the original GBA, but that's more subjective.

The GBA Micro, though, it's pretty darn small, making honor to its name, and the games were shown in a screen that's half the size of the original GBA, so it wasn't for everybody. It was also unable to play GB and GBC games.

On the other hand, it was extremely portable, very compact, and with a very bright and back-lighted screen, and you can even regulate the brightness. It also had an internal battery, the audio jack input was back, and while small, the screen also was pointed to be more defined and sharp, something that people from the time liked.

Also, and this is a very "Nintendo" thing, the front plate of the console could be exchanged to customize your console. Overall, for some it was too small (specially people of today, with our gigantic smartphones), but it was a pretty good revision all things considered.

Lastly, the GBA would also enjoy of a variety of accessories and experiments that Nintendo likes, oh so much.

Stuff like the E-Reader, a LED reader that could read special cards with codified data, that by passing them through the peripheral, that stored data would become a variety of thins, like extra content for games, like a "Key" to unlock something, or even unique software like mini-games, and NES emulated games. The information was stored in the GBA until you turned it off.

It was far from perfect, though. Depending on what would you wanted to do with this accessory, you needed a lot more stuff to have it working. If you just wanted to play some mini-games or stuff like that, with the E-Reader and the GBA you were ready. Pass the card, and play.

The idea behind the E-Reader is one that I find intriguing, but maybe too early...
In fact, I can't help it but see it as some sort of prototype Amiibo.

But if you wanted something more substantial, like cards that were used with actual GBA games, you were required two consoles, one with the E-Reader, another with the game, and a Cable Link connecting everything up. As you may imagine, it wasn't simple, it wasn't cheap, and that's why it only had a moderate success in Japan, with America abandoning the accessory a little after a year it was introduced, and Europe receiving a few units, for later never to be seen again.

Those cards, that as of today are a collectionist item, can be really expensive, and they were separated in several series depending on the sagas they were created from.

Some of these, were, for example:

Classic NES Series: NES 8-Bit games. 13 games, and among those, Donkey Kong, Balloon Fight, Mario Bros. and Excitebite. Later, these would be used as playable furniture in Animal Crossing, for the GameCube.

Animal Crossing-E: This series was formed by cards for Animal Crossing, and did things like adding new jingles for when you talk to characters, new cloth patterns, things for the village, and such.

Pokémon Battle-E: These cards held information with Special Trainers with which you could fight (for Ruby and Sapphire and Red Fire and Leaf Green). If you played the Hoenn games, you may remember certain door that was always closed in certain city. It was set to be opened after inserting these cards, as that room was a place for battling. Other cards would give you berries, like Enygma Berry that was the subject of many rumours. Another one would give you the Eon Ticket.

Two of the mini-games you could play with the E-Reader... and the specific cards.

Super Mario Advance 4: SMB3-E: It is probably the game with the biggest amount of content existing through these cards, which sound exciting until you remember how annoying this thing could be to work with.

With a total of 36 cards, these game had its own E-Reader Menu once you start inserting card data, and that's because there are several dozens of stages to unlock through cards, and other stuff like adding Power-Ups to your inventory, adding radishes from Super Mario Bros. 2 to stages, or even given yourself the Magic Cape of Super Mario World to use in the main game and the extra levels.

It's incredibly frustrating to see that as of today we can't have a version of this game with all the content, although at least SMA4: SMB3 was released on Wii U as a Virtual Console download with all the E-Reader levels added to it, which is at least pretty good.

Besides those, there were cards for Pokémon Colosseum, F-Zero, Megaman Battle Network, Megaman Zero, and standalone stuff like mini-games about Pikmin 2, Air Hockey, and even 64 cards for Mario Party mini-games (my god, so many...).

It's a very interesting subject to talk about, but I personally am kinda happy that it never caught on world wide. They're for the most part annoying, expensive and even quite limited physical DLC pieces... Not to mention they were fragile, being cardboard that you needed to scan every time.
Kinda like Amiibos, although at least you get a decent figurine, I suppose.

To play with more people, you connected another cable into the central box.
You could create an impressible chain of GBAs, but they were also kinda fragile,
with all these cables and people moving around.

Another aspect that improved was Multiplayer capabilities. While the system still used a cable to connect systems, now up to four players could play together by chaining more Link Cables, but more interesting than that, was the fact that a good chunk of games would let you play Multiplayer with a single cartridge shared among all the players, by sending data to the other consoles. With this, you could, for example, play Mario Kart: Super Circuit along three friends. This is something that would be passed on the DS, thankfully.

Games like Bubble Bobble, Bomberman, Advance Wars, Chu Chu Rocket and others gave the possibility to play with friends with only a single cart (although with some games you didn't have all the options available unless everyone had a cart).

Other games, like the Kirby series, Mario Advance series (and Mario & Luigi) used this to play mini-games with others, or in the case of the Mario games, an improved version of the original Mario Bros. which can be quite fun with a friend.

There was also a cable that connected the Game Boy Advance and the GameCube, but that's something I'll talk about when I write about the GC itself. I already talked enough about the hardware, don't you think?

So let's go to the important part: The Games!

It has such an extensive and awesome line of games... This is but a handful!

What to say about the GBA's library? Well...

Just like Final Fantasy Adventure or Mario Land were amazing jumps forward as far as we thought back then what were "portable video games" with the Game Boy, offering experiences that really felt like games you could play on a home console like the NES, the Game Boy Advance was a similar jump, bringing the real possibility of having much bigger and complex experiences akin to those from 16-Bit (and sometimes 32-Bit) without the disadvantages like, let's say, the Atari Lynx could have, back in its day.

So take a look at what the Super Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive, and TurboGrafx-16 offered, and think of the GBA as a sort of continuation of those, only adding years upon years of refinement in game design and video game philosophy.

Because of being the only real option for portable gaming during its generation, it possesses a very long and varied library that combines many new games with also a huge bunch of conversions from earlier generations (and even great Arcade ports like Sega Arcade Gallery). Long games, short games, Arcade-like experiences, or more home console styled games.

It really has something for anyone. In fact, one of the most extensive and interesting genres in this system is in fact the RPG, with not only classic RPGs, but also tactical RPGs, and strange hybrids like Car Battle Joe, Advance Guardian Heroes, Riviera: The Promised Land, and others.

But of course, it's not the only thing; you only have to look the image above.
The only thing that weirds me out is the fact that there wasn't a new, original Mario Platformer created specifically for the system. There's a Mario VS Donkey Kong, but that's far from what I'm talking about. What it got, though, is four ports of previous Mario games, which are all good. And I have to say, I actually ended up liking the versions of Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island on the GBA more than their original SNES versions. They added content and improvements to both, in case of Yoshi's Island, they added eight new, super hard stages, which I found to be a great addition myself. Although that seems to be a very "controversial" opinion by some people...

Something I've come to appreciate about the GBA library is that, every time I look at it I find a new game that may hold some interesting stuff. Sadly, many games never left Japan too, and the GBA Fan-Translation scene is pretty small and... Let's say, rather quiet. Thankfully, some of those games don't need much knowledge of Japanese, like Guru Logic Champ, Hatena Satena, or the bit Generations games.

And I think that's more than enough to know about the GBA, as first impression, I suppose.
It's still relatively popular, with a bit of talk in different circles still, which is quite nice indeed.

I hope I'm able to show you many games from this awesome system!