"The SNES of handhelds? Could be."

The Game Boy Advance was released to the world on June 11th 2001 and since then has quickly become one of my favorite systems ever. The GameBoy Advance is the second update of the Nintendo GameBoy and it clearly stands alone as the best. At a whopping 32 megabytes, the GameBoy Advance is the most technologically advanced portable system in history. The GameBoy and GameBoy Color are nothing compared to this thing, it's liking comparing the NES to the N64. But will it do the same for portables as the Super NES did for consoles? read on.

HISTORY OF GAMEBOY ADVANCE:

The GameBoy Advance (GBA) is a true testament to the commitment Nintendo has made to the portable market and represents possibilities never before seen. The system was in development for nearly three years and the GameBoy Color (released in 1998) was designed to be an intermediate system between the GameBoy and Nintendo's true successor GameBoy Advance. Although it is too early to tell exactly how well things will turn out it seems very clear that Nintendo's bold ideas of revolutionizing portable gaming with the GameBoy Advance could very well become a reality in the next few years. For one thing they have no competition now that SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color is out of the picture but then again even before then the competition never really stood a chance against Nintendo. For those of you unfamiliar with the history of the GameBoy here is a quick run through. Originally released in 1989 the first GameBoy was an 8 bit, black and white only, and for the most part technologically sub par system even for the time. Yet it succeed over tough competition like the Sega Game Gear because of it's excellent first and third party support and the little system soon made Nintendo the Microsoft of the portable market. Over time though Nintendo realized that if they were to remain competitive they had to upgrade their hardware and so the GameBoy Color was born. But Nintendo was not finished yet and so began the development of the GameBoy Advance. Meanwhile the GameBoy Color did for Nintendo exactly what the first GameBoy had, it kept their monopoly strong. And now finally we have the fruits of Nintendo's labor the GameBoy Advance. Let the games begin.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND:

The graphic and sound capabilities in general are about halfway between a Super NES and a PlayStation and so as you can imagine this system has by far the best graphics and sound ever seen on a portable. The system has great 32 bit graphics and although 2D seems to be it's specialty it can also pull off some very good 3D graphics. But if you were a fan of the Super NES you should feel right at home playing the GameBoy Advance. The sounds that the speakers put out are quite loud which is great because you will want to hear the the great music in these games (that's right at long last we finally have a portable with good sound quality). The games available right now are only first generation titles but already the GameBoy Advance has amazed nearly everyone who has played one. In the case of GameBoy Advance great graphics and great sound equals great system.

CONTROLS:

The GameBoy Advance is a handheld so all the buttons are on the actual unit itself. The GameBoy Advance has for the most part the same control scheme as the two previous GameBoy's (which incidentally was taken from the NES) but this time around Nintendo reworked the formula a bit. Once again you have the two action buttons, start and select buttons, and control pad on the front of the system but the placement of the buttons is a little different then before so it may take you a while to adjust if you are accustomed to the GameBoy or GameBoy Color. But this time around Nintendo cleverly decided to add two extra action buttons. The two buttons are top mounted (similar to the ones on the Super NES or PlayStation controller). All in all an excellent design.

GAMES:

Despite only being out for about five months the GameBoy Advance has managed to obtain an extremely impressive library with much more to come. Because the GameBoy Advance has capabilities similar to the Super NES, Nintendo and many other companies have re-released improved versions of many of it's best games. This is good for new comers to video games because it means they can play many of the great classics of the 16 bit area and veteran gamers can relive them. Already we have seen some great GameBoy Advance games such as Super Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Golden Sun, Castleania: Circle of the Moon, Advance Wars, Bomberman Tournament, Chu Chu Rocket, Final Fight One, Rayman Advance, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival, Doom, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Konami Krazy Racers, Fire Pro Wrestling, and many more. And with titles like Mega Man Battle Network, Wario Land 4, Sonic the Hedgehog Advance, Breath of Fire, Tekken Advance, and Shining Soul just around the corner the future looks bright indeed.

SYSTEM DESIGN:

It's durable, fits conveintly in your pocket, is comfortable to hold, has a longer battery life than any other GameBoy, only uses two batteries, and has a very appealing look to it. What more could you ask for.

FEATURES:

There aren't a lot of accessories out for GameBoy Advance yet except for link cable which will allow you to play with up to four players co-operatively on certain games. Apparently you can also hook a GameBoy Advance up to a GameCube system and use it as an extra controller, although I have yet to see this for myself.

FINAL EVALUATION:
(as it would have been at the time of it's release)

GRAPHICS: 10/10
SOUND: 9.5/10
CONTROL 9/10
GAMES: 9/10
SYSTEM DESIGN: 9.5/10

Overall 9.4/10
Rounded to 9 for Gamefaqs

CLOSING STATEMENT:

The GameBoy Advance is the ultimate portable system, there just simply isn't anything else like it and I would highly recommend buying one. It's too soon to say for sure if GameBoy Advance will become the Super NES of portables but things are definitely looking good and if they GameBoy Advance continues at this rate there will no stopping it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/19/01, Updated 11/19/01