Now is the time, my GBA brethren! With the death of the system now is the time to snatch up the old classics and games of yesteryear before they're forgotten and tossed away like so much Dreamcast. I got Metroid Zero Mission for $5, Metroid Fusion for $5, and this weekend I'm going hunting for Golden Sun 1 and 2. Kotaku really should do a GBA buyers guide or something. Or update their last-gen buyers guide with more GBA, what with the total annihilation of it from future consoles. The same goes for the Gamecube, but they did a pretty good job of covering all the bases with that, and original xbox even, but I don't remember a GBA section.
Here here to keeping the GBA alive with the Micro.
I feel that most of the 'meatier' portable games have been upgraded to the DS. FF Tactics, Advance Wars, Castlevania, Mario RPG, Pokemon, Mario Kart...all have DS incarnations.
However, there are still several smaller sized games that I love, and will play from time to time in bite sized chunks on my Micro, games that haven't gotten a DS version: the original Mario, the original Zelda, the original Dr. Mario, the original Wario Ware, Astro Boy, and Mario Golf. A lot of these games are perfect for 10 minute little 'burst' gaming sessions.
My undying love for the original Wario Ware ensures that I will be carrying around some kind of GBA compatible device until the day I die. Heres a little anecedote: On one flight from Tokyo to Chicago, I played Wario Ware the entire flight. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I didn't even stand up once to go to the bathroom.
And one more thing, hopefully since the DS cards are so small, it will ensure that we see DS compatible devices for a long, long time.
oh man max payne on gba, mario tennis- and adventures of hours spent loving my gameboy advance sd. I still remember how marvelous it was to have a handheld finally with a backlight! glorious!
The lack of a GBA slot on the DSi was what caused me NOT to trade in my DS Phat for the newer version (along with the seemingly pointless new features that come along with the DSi). I really like the GBA games I own, including the Castlevania I'm in the middle of playing right now. It was too much to sacrifice the GBA for a poor quality camera and SD card.
My other memory of the GBA was owning that exact one shown in the picture above. And how it was next to impossible to play, thanks to having no light. I remember swiveling lamps around, adding brighter bulbs to the lamps, then finding bulbs a bit duller, to take away from the glare of the overpowered bulbs. It was a nightmare. I didn't really appreciate the GBA until the DS was released and I could finally see the games I had been trying to play.
My NES-style GBA SP was bought for my trip to Europe, but rather than taking it on the plane and leaving it at that, I played Mega Man Zero 2 something like 10 times across the continent, to the point that I could beat it from beginning to end in 2 hours. What I loved about the SP was that it never felt bad in your hands, no matter how long you gripped it. Yeah, the SP was my favorite handheld of all time.
It's scares me that the Game Boy is dead. I mean, it was THE portable. Yeah, we had Game and Watch and Game Gear and all, but the Game Boy line was the Cadillac of portable gaming. I agree with McWhertor, the Game Boy Advance (personally, I think the Game Boy Advance SP) was the best of them, offering so many great games, some of my favorites being Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, WarioWare Mega Microgame$, Advance Wars, Metroid Zero Mission, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
I feel that the Game Boy name will go down as a symbol of the golden age of portable gaming, before everything else was tacked on - watching movies, listening to music, taking pictures. Yeah, they're cool, but it's leading some away from what portables were meant for - fun games everywhere.
I'm not saying the DS, DS Lite, and DSi aren't fun or original. I own an original DS, and I love it to death. But I'll always remember growing up with the Game Boy, from the green and black monochrome, to when I first saw color on a portable (Wario Land, by the way), to my first Nyko Worm Light, to back lit screens and amazing graphics.
I'll miss you, Game Boy brand. You were incredible, and will always be an icon of portable gaming.
@SolidSpider: I feel it was more like a Volkswagen than a Cadillac--it did the job, it was lovable, efficient and had an instantly recognizable look. It didn't need to be ostentatious or showoffy, because it was confident in what it was.
Other than that, I agree with everything you say. Good, goddamn solid, no frills gaming. It fulfilled everything that the original b/w gameboy hinted that it would become. For my part, I can't wait until that Saga rerelease... FFL2 on the original gameboy was such a great game and I still have fond memories of it.
I don't know if I would agree that the GBA was the beginning of handheld memories - some of my favorite memories with a game boy involved Super Mario Land 3 and Wario Land II on the the original giant grey brick (not even the sleek and sexy red Gameboy Pocket I had later).
I do fully support the great castlevania/metroid/Advance Wars games that sucked my free time in bed and in airports.
@Jordan Buller: Super Mario Land 2 was so exciting. It was actually better than SMB3 on the NES in some ways and it introduced Wario, probably the last Mario universe character to gain any real traction.
That was actually the one thing that I disliked about SML3... I wish they'd done one More true mario game on the platform, instead of switching to Wario right then and there.
Does anyone remember the weird Double Dragon 2 that they put out on the gameboy? It wasn't like the NES double dragon. You didn't jump kick... instead you did something that looked a lot like SF2's dragon punch... and you had to hit the button twice to do it.
05/19/09
05/18/09
05/18/09
05/18/09
Just 'cause they're selling doesn't necessarily mean it's alive.
05/18/09
05/18/09
05/18/09
05/18/09
05/19/09
Sure, a game comes out for it occasionally (that ISN'T a multiplatform title)...but is that really "life"?
04/08/09
04/08/09
I feel that most of the 'meatier' portable games have been upgraded to the DS. FF Tactics, Advance Wars, Castlevania, Mario RPG, Pokemon, Mario Kart...all have DS incarnations.
However, there are still several smaller sized games that I love, and will play from time to time in bite sized chunks on my Micro, games that haven't gotten a DS version: the original Mario, the original Zelda, the original Dr. Mario, the original Wario Ware, Astro Boy, and Mario Golf. A lot of these games are perfect for 10 minute little 'burst' gaming sessions.
My undying love for the original Wario Ware ensures that I will be carrying around some kind of GBA compatible device until the day I die. Heres a little anecedote: On one flight from Tokyo to Chicago, I played Wario Ware the entire flight. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I didn't even stand up once to go to the bathroom.
And one more thing, hopefully since the DS cards are so small, it will ensure that we see DS compatible devices for a long, long time.
04/08/09
04/08/09
04/08/09
My other memory of the GBA was owning that exact one shown in the picture above. And how it was next to impossible to play, thanks to having no light. I remember swiveling lamps around, adding brighter bulbs to the lamps, then finding bulbs a bit duller, to take away from the glare of the overpowered bulbs. It was a nightmare. I didn't really appreciate the GBA until the DS was released and I could finally see the games I had been trying to play.
04/08/09
04/08/09
I feel that the Game Boy name will go down as a symbol of the golden age of portable gaming, before everything else was tacked on - watching movies, listening to music, taking pictures. Yeah, they're cool, but it's leading some away from what portables were meant for - fun games everywhere.
I'm not saying the DS, DS Lite, and DSi aren't fun or original. I own an original DS, and I love it to death. But I'll always remember growing up with the Game Boy, from the green and black monochrome, to when I first saw color on a portable (Wario Land, by the way), to my first Nyko Worm Light, to back lit screens and amazing graphics.
I'll miss you, Game Boy brand. You were incredible, and will always be an icon of portable gaming.
04/08/09
Other than that, I agree with everything you say. Good, goddamn solid, no frills gaming. It fulfilled everything that the original b/w gameboy hinted that it would become. For my part, I can't wait until that Saga rerelease... FFL2 on the original gameboy was such a great game and I still have fond memories of it.
04/08/09
I do fully support the great castlevania/metroid/Advance Wars games that sucked my free time in bed and in airports.
04/08/09
That was actually the one thing that I disliked about SML3... I wish they'd done one More true mario game on the platform, instead of switching to Wario right then and there.
Does anyone remember the weird Double Dragon 2 that they put out on the gameboy? It wasn't like the NES double dragon. You didn't jump kick... instead you did something that looked a lot like SF2's dragon punch... and you had to hit the button twice to do it.
04/08/09
But I think the SP is probably the sexiest piece of technology, I have ever owned.
04/08/09