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Nintendo Game Boy Advance Guide
Written by Modojo Staff on Monday, January 31, 2005
The workhorse that is the Game Boy Advance keeps chugging along with some of the best content the portable market has to offer, and we break it down here!
For years when it came to handheld gaming dominance, Nintendo was the company to turn to. They launched the revolution back in the late 80s with the release of their standalone handheld system Game Boy, a lime-green screen system that gained great appeal thanks to such games as Tetris and Super Mario Land. The system then evolved years later with the release of the Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance.
Each evolving brought something new to the experience, either with a back-lit screen or with games that became better looking and playing with each attempt. Nintendo finally perfected on the 16-bit handheld with the release of the Game Boy Advance SP, complete with a fold-away layout, a strong battery life, and a backlit screen with no worries regarding glare.
Who is the Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP for?
The Game Boy Advance is all about the classics, though original content like Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga surpasses the best of what home consoles can offer. This is the old standby; a strong system with a stronger library and significant support from one of the most impressive publishers in the world.
Did You Know?
Nintendo was in the handheld game long before they introduced the Game Boy to the market. Back in the early 80's, the company introduced a line of devices known as Nintendo Game & Watch, allowing players to take part in a number of mini-games, like Luigi's Cement Factory. The games got such a following that, years later, Nintendo would release Game & Watch Gallery packages for the GBA.
Believe it or not, the Game Boy Advance SP was not the first 16-bit handheld system to utilize a backlit screen. NEC manufactured the Turbo Express to follow their success with the Turbo Grafx 16, allowing gamers to play their TG-16 games on the go with ease. The second was Sega's Nomad system, which allowed gamers to play their Sega Genesis games wherever they wanted, even being able to hook it up to a television with the necessary cable. Both are now collector's items in the gaming market- and pretty notorious on battery life as well.
Don't care to play your GBA games on the go? Nintendo has created a Game Boy Player that allows you to play them on your Nintendo GameCube. The player sells for $50 and is available at retail locations everywhere. This isn't a first for them, as the company released the Super Game Boy for the SNES back in the day, allowing gamers to play old-school Game Boy games on their 16-bit system.
posted October 31, 2005