Game Boy not so Advanced

[ZeroAX]

I was going through my game boy drawer earlier today, and as I searched for a game to play, Advance Wars came through my hands, and I decided to boot it up, on my DS lite.

I watched the cool intro, and then continued a saved War Room game, from who knows how many years ago, and while I enjoyed beating the crap out of Drake, with Max's imbalanced brute attack force, I remembered all the fond times I had when I first got this game, and the GBA as a console.

Do you remember what a golden year it was, for portable gaming, the first year of the GBA?

Finally after 12 years, of 8 bit gaming. We had upgraded to a 32-bit processor (which many people thought meant 3d graphics), with a cool slick design, very comfy on the hands, and cool graphics. Now as any new console at the time (see PS2) all we expected in the first year, were crappy games with good graphics.

But this was not the case. Instead every game publisher in the world, seamed to go into overdrive, to make excellent games for nintendo's new baby.
Just look at some of the games released in the first year of the GBA's lifespan.

Golden Sun
An epic RPG, with behind the character's camera that reminded us all of FF on the PS1, with magic, summons and with excellent graphics. A game we all loved, and which received excellent reviews.

Advance Wars
For me this game was something else. You see I always liked strategy games, but unfortunetly by that time, the TBS was all but dead, on the pc, so I never really got to experience the genre. With the exception of Civilization, which at the time I thought, wasn't really strategic when it came to the actual battles. And then comes Advance Wars. A game with bright visuals, and very very very very very very.......very very........very very very addictive gameplay. Really if I could find people that play this game a lot, I'd actually give up chess, as my favorite strategy game. I loved playing through the campghain, and the various war room, missions. I loved the COs and their powers, and I played this game for years. Too bad the 2 sequels were so disappointing, and they had to use pastel graphics, which I always thought was a poor decision. Also they killed the formula by introducing unbalanced units.

Sonic Advance
You can guess from my avatar that I'm a huge mega drive Sonic fan. In 2001, when this game came out, it had been 7 years, since the last 2D sonic game, and this was a blast. I loved every stage of it. I even liked it more than Sonic 1 and 3 on the mega drive (but not as much as 2 and S&K). Too bad that it was the only sonic game on the nintendo portables, that played like a MD sonic game. After dimps NAILED the franchise, with this game, they went and made sonic advance 2 which was a speedfest, and sonic 3 which was.... :S.

Kuru Kuru Kururin
ok this one didn't come out in North America, so I don't think most of you here will know it, but it's an excellent puzzle game, where you control a duck like thing, that rides in a strange, helicopter like vehicle, and you are supposed to guide it, through stages filled with traps, with out it touching the walls. The vehicle keeps rotating so you have to time it right to get through the narrow spaces. It was another original and cool game, in the GBA's lineup but it suffered the fate, of not coming out in NA at all, and also being released in the same year, with much more high profile games. But it still remains a cult classic, which every self respecting, Racketboy member should atleast try as a rom.

Megaman Battle Network.
Now I know this series was run to the ground, with capcom's milking it, every year, with 2 version of the same game (like pokemon), and the refusal of capcom to change ANYTHING about the game. Really it's like playing the same game again and again, with the SAME problems.

But it was not always like this. When the first MBN game out, it was actually pretty original and fun. The battles were intense, the trading card aspect of the game, where you build your own deck of attacks, and you could duel a friend through link cable which was really fun (you could also trade these attacks with each other). The setting of the game (a world where EVERYTHING is connected to the internet) was really original at the time, and as every megaman game it had kick ass music. Like advance wars, it's a shame this series was run to the ground. But if you are going to play a single one, it might as well be the first.


In the first year of the GBA's life, Mario Kart, and Castlevania for the GBA also came out, but while I've heard the best things about both games, since I haven't played them myself I can't comment on them.



So these are just some of the kickass games the gba had during it's first year in the market. Do you remember any other system, having so great games come out for it, in only it's 1st year? None that I can think of.

And here's where my problem witht he console is (thus the title)
GBA in 1 year, had some of the most original, fun and well made games, of all of gaming. I really can't remember any other console achieving that in it's first year. But after such a productive year, the GBA fell to the trap of SNES ports, milking of popular franchises, and as a dumping ground, for any second rate game, or game developer who wanted to make a quick buck, from the relatively young demographic.

Which is quite a same, and Nintendo is the first who should be blamed. I remember waiting for a new 2d mario for the entire of the GBA's lifespan. Can you really tell me than any of the gba ports, expect from yoshi's island, was worth porting? Or what about the DKC series, where they managed to make a better version of donkey kong country 1 for the game boy color, than they did for the GBA.

After a stellar first year I was really disappointed from the machine I loved so much. The only game I remember ever getting me excited about it again, was FF tactics advance, which was a new experience for me (strategy rpgs)

I feel sorry for my beloved gba, a console which so much potential, which was wasted on mostly SNES ports.

[fast]

I want to write a big response, but I have to run so I will just say this for now. If you are a fan of Kuru Kuru Kururin, you have to play its sequel Kururin Squash! on the Gamecube:

It is awesome and four player.

[HellHammer]

"I remember waiting for a new 2d mario for the entire of the GBA's lifespan. Can you really tell me than any of the gba ports, expect from yoshi's island, was worth porting?"

As far as portable Mario games are concerned, I've read several times over the years that Nintendo had a really hard time making Mario games feel like legitimate or 'real' Mario games on such a small screen. The original Mario Land's focus was on the level design. But because of the amount of detail and size, Mario had to be very small in comparison. In Six Golden Coins, the opposite appears to have happened. Mario is much bigger and more detailed, but the levels, especially the visibility, was terribly limited. Apparently this type of issue was fairly problematic for other developers and is also evident in the GameBoy versions of Metroid II and the Mega Man series. Anyway, I'm sure that's why GBA only got Mario ports and we've only had three original portable Mario games since 89'.

Also, I think it's important to note that even after the GBA fell into being the SNES port default console, the GBA also helped continue several classic SNES titles.
Super Metroid - Metroid Fusion
Mickey's Magical Quest - Mickey's Magical Quest 2 & 3
F-Zero - F-Zero MV
Mario and Wario - Mario V.S. Donkey Kong (arguably)
EarthBound - Mother 3

[ZeroAX]

"

Also, I think it's important to note that even after the GBA fell into being the SNES port default console, the GBA also helped continue several classic SNES titles.

yeah of course, I don't want to be absolute, but the thing is, the first year had so many great original games, you'd think every year from now on would be so much better, oh god the irony

[crux]

That's not irony. It's just unfortunate.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

The GBA had the best lineup of games for a handheld ever PERIOD.

[fast]

Nintendo Handhelds will always become a dumping ground for bad ports and cash ins, it just comes with the territory. While the GBA did have an awesome first year, and an amazing launch, it did continue to pump out great games that were not just SNES ports and sequels. Some of my favorites:
Napoleon – a neat RTS title
Mech Platoon – a good RTS where you can take parts from your destroyed enemies to make your units better
Saberwulf – an exquisite platformer, my favorite game on the system
Car Battler Joe – Pokemon meets Twisted Metal with four player multiplayer
Ecks Vs Sever series – not the best titles mind you, but solid FPS titles that actually worked – unlike Metal of Honor Underground and Dark Arena
CT Special Forces series – Metalslug light
GT Advance – it is Gran Turismo on the go, stay away from the sequels though
Its Mr Pants – a Rare puzzle game, quirky as all get out
Karnaaj Rally – RC Proam for a new generation
Lady Sai – somewhat difficult platformer
Lord of the Rings TT and ROTK – Baldurs Gate like hack and slashs
Magical Vacation – ok it was Japanese only, but damn it was an awesome RPG.
Motocross Maniacs Advance – take a great Gameboy series, add polish and more stages, release
River City Ransom EX – updated port
Shining Soul I&II – excellent rpg hack and slash titles, good fun in multiplayer aswell
Super Dodge Ball Advance – possibly the most balanced and polished version of the series
Tactics Ogre – the best game on the console. No other game, let alone SRPG comes close.
Zone of the Enders Fist of Mars – the second best SRPG on the console

Sure that is only 20 some odd titles, but if you add in the worthwhile ports (Chu Chu Rocket) and more well known games, you will have a healthy list.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Ecks Vs Sever series – not the best titles mind you, but solid FPS titles that actually worked – unlike Metal of Honor Underground and Dark Arena
multiplayer as well

Too bad the movie sucked.

[ZeroAX]

As far as portable Mario games are concerned, I've read several times over the years that Nintendo had a really hard time making Mario games feel like legitimate or 'real' Mario games on such a small screen. The original Mario Land's focus was on the level design. But because of the amount of detail and size, Mario had to be very small in comparison. In Six Golden Coins, the opposite appears to have happened. Mario is much bigger and more detailed, but the levels, especially the visibility, was terribly limited. Apparently this type of issue was fairly problematic for other developers and is also evident in the GameBoy versions of Metroid II and the Mega Man series. Anyway, I'm sure that's why GBA only got Mario ports and we've only had three original portable Mario games since 89'.

Really? Mario Land 2, to me seamed pretty perfect, as far as Mario gameplay goes. And the level design must have solved the problem of visibility, cause I don't remember dieing from things I couldn't see, or having to do leaps of faith.


Also if the problem is the screen size, it makes even less sense, to port over games, that were build for different size screens (the nes and snes mario games) than it is to make new games, specially made with that problem in mind.

nintendo just got lazy with the gba. snes ports sold (I bought 3 of them myself, yoshi's island, super mario world and donkey kong country 2), so why bother putting some effort into it?








and Fast I have never heard even 1 of the games on that list. I'll try them out, when I have the time. And if indeed they are all great games, it's sad that they didn't sell.

[Hatta]

What about GBA homebrew? Was there any excellent GBA homebrew besides the obvious emulators?