We're all looking forward to the launch of Nintendo 3DS this weekend, but the timing of the system is an interesting coincidence: It falls within a week of the Japanese debut of the system's"grandfather,"the Game Boy Advance. The 3DS is pretty clearly derived from the the DS, which was initially presented as an alternative to the Game Boy rather than a replacement. But Nintendo retired the GBA a couple of years ago, and it's pretty clear that the Game Boy line -- which kept the company in the black for a decade and a half -- has been retired, never again to see the light of day. The GBA, we're sorry to say, was the end of that particular family tree.
In retrospect, the GBA fits somewhat oddly into the history of Nintendo systems -- a fact reflected by its unusually short lifespan. The GBA was barely around for more than three years before the DS arrived; Nintendo's hand was likely forced by Sony's announcement of the PSP, which made the GBA -- essentially a portable Super NES -- look painfully dated. Nintendo kept the GBA on life support for a while longer with a few interesting games and the so-tiny-it-was-cool Game Boy Micro, but once it became clear that the DS was a hit, the GBA was dropped with a quickness.
When it launched in 2001, the GBA had been a long, long time coming. Rumors of a 32-bit portable Nintendo handheld were circulated as early as 1996, and in fact a prototype of that system --a huge, chunky box called Project Atlantis-- was shown off at Game Developers Conference 2009. The enduring popularity of the original 8-bit, four-color Game Boy (thanks largely to Pokémon) allowed Nintendo to hold off on launching the GBA until it could be produced cheaply and in a far more compact form. In fact, both the Game Boy Micro and folding Game Boy Advance SP represent two of the most compact portable systems ever made: small, sturdy, simple, and fun.
The SP also addressed the single most crippling flaw of the original Game Boy hardware: the screen lacked any sort of integral light and was, frankly, awful. In fact, the dimness of the screen wasmemorably lampooned by Penny Arcadeand, more famously, addressed by enterprising hardware hackers, who created an aftermarket mod called Portable Monopoly (later renamed Afterburner after the owners of the Monopoly board game bitched about trademark violations). And even the SP bungled things; Nintendo may have added a light, but they forced people to buy an adapter in order to use headphones.
But despite its design flaws, and even if it goes down in history as a sidenote -- a momentary distraction between the classic age of Game Boy and the blue ocean of DS -- it was crammed with great games. And perhaps more importantly, it's where Nintendo perfected its tricks. Annual incremental hardware updates? Yep, the SP opened the door for moderate tweaks and a far greater array of collectible colors than the company could possibly have dreamed in the Play It Loud days. Selling our memories back to us at a premium? Absolutely: the NES Classics series proved to Nintendo that it could rake in a fortune with imperfect ports of 20-year-old games sold for the cost of some new releases. Yeah, the GBA was quintessential Nintendo, for better or for worse. But considering it gave us games likeBoktai,Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow,WarioWare,Ninja Five-O,Mega Man Zero, and more... well, it's hard to be bitter, you know?
Here's what 1UP's staff has to say about the GBA:
Jobert Atienza, MyCheats Contractor:The Game Boy Advance was the first handheld gaming system I ever owned, and I bought it at a time when I was into things that looked retro. I purchased a GBA SP NES Edition off eBay just because I thought it looked cool, and though I was a late-comer to the GBA party, it had its benefits: there was already a great library of games available that I could choose from. The GBA introduced me to titles likeAdvance Warsand WarioWare: Mega Microgame$, and even re-introduced me to franchises likeCastlevania,Final Fantasy, andMetroid. To this day, I continue my own tradition of buying or making my handhelds look"retro."I bought a Famicom-style GBA Micro, and each iteration of the Nintendo DS I've owned I purchased an accompanying NES-style skin or cover so they can match that GBA SP on my shelf.
Frank Cifaldi, News and Features Editor:The GBA SP was the first portable system I wasn't embarrassed to be seen with in public, and it's still my favorite aesthetically. When I first started getting paid to write about games as a freelance writer, my main gig was to review GBA games, which I did enthusiastically from my favorite bar. I'm getting paid a lot more now than I was back then, but in many ways my career has gone downhill! Protip: if you playWarioWare Twisted!in a bar, everyone will like you.
Justin Haywald, Editor:Growing up, I never had the opportunity to play a handheld that wasn't from Nintendo. So while I might've been jealous of my friends with their high-powered Game Gears, I felt vindicated when Nintendo released their own high-powered handheld. I didn't actually lay down the money for one until the backlit, clamshell version came out (did you try playing it without a backlight? It's one of the few handhelds thatrequiresdirect sunlight glaring off the screen to see). I still keep that one around in my closet, since it's the most modern console that's still compatible with my regular Game Boy library.
Sam Kennedy, Editorial Director:Ah, the GBA, a platform that definitely holds a special place in my heart. While I never viewed it as significant as the original Game Boy or the radically different Nintendo DS that followed, the two things that really stick out in my mind about it today are the ergonomics and designs of different models -- I still think the flip-top version is one of the most comfortable handhelds ever, and the mini version (I'm proud to own the special edition Famicom design from Japan) is so handy to take with on trips -- and, of course, the games. Similar to how people view the Dreamcast as a true gamer's system, the GBA was all about fantastic"hardcore"games to me -- from 2D action games likeMetroid Fusion,Metroid: Zero Mission, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, to terrific 2D platformers likeYoshi's Island. While I loved all of the new experiences its successor brought, I still regularly find myself going back to the GBA catalog.
Matt Leone, Senior Executive Editor:I remember importing a GBA because I wanted to playSuper Dodge Ball Advance, and I didn't feel like waiting three months for the U.S. release. Maybe it's not the funniest/quirkiest/most memorable story on this list, but I played that game for a couple days nonstop, then played very little else before the system's U.S. release. And thus began my attraction to shiny things that I then discard two days later.
Mike Nelson, MyCheats Editor:Since the system was (essentially) a portable Super Nintendo, and I have many fond memories associated with that console, every time I would play my GBA SP with the NES 8-bit styling I would get a flood of memories of my youth spent indoors during the summer months tolling away atA Link to the PastandSuper Mario World. So just playing the system itself is one of the best memories for me.
Thierry Nguyen, Executive Editor:The game that really made the GBA click for me was Advance Wars. Probably because at the time, I was working atComputer Gaming World, and it was somewhat ironic that perhaps the most elegant and playable turn-based strategy game was on Nintendo's new portable. While most gamers were gawking at how the system was a portable SNES, I and other PC gamers bought the system because it was basically a newPanzer Generalunderneath its anime aesthetic. That, and the other thing that I remember most about the GBA was how, working in media, Nintendo was insistent that the official initialism was"AGB,"but I guess enough people, both consumers and media, used"GBA"that Nintendo personnel quietly gave up sending emails asking us to shorten the system's name to"AGB."
Jose Otero, Editorial Intern:The GBA was amazing, even if Nintendo didn't add a backlit display until future iterations. I remember playingCastlevania: Circle of the Moonand spending hours under a hot lamp trying to finish the game. Sure, the incredibly dark graphics in that game almost hurt your eyes, but as a system the GBA was so compact, light and affordable that I didn't mind spending my money and time indoors instead of running around outside with my friends. Plus, the GBA gave us a pretty diverse software library with games like WarioWare, Metroid: Zero Mission, and even the e-reader, but the thing that stood out to me most was how Nintendo delivered on the promise of putting the power of an SNES in the palm of your hands.
Jeremy Parish, Executive Editor:I have fond memories of the GBA, but I also have a lot of really unhappy memories associated with it, too; much of my time with the system was concurrent with grim unemployment (or, at the very least,under-employment). I picked up an early import unit and a handful of games a few weeks before throwing caution to the wind and moving across the country in search of fortune and romance in New York City. Once NYC decided it was having none of that, my GBA kept me company through a few years of fruitless job-hunting elsewhere. Games likeWario Land 4,Mega Man Battle Network, and Metroid Fusion kept me going during lean times. When I landed a job at 1UP a couple of years later, I immediately poured my efforts into making sure GBA was well-represented on the site; I figured I owed the system for keeping me going when things looked rough. And so began my ongoing tradition of being the only person at 1UP who consistently takes portable games seriously.
Source
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