captaind's Full Review: Nintendo Game Boy Advance Console
I knew my wife had been after a Nintendo Gameboy Advance for quite a while so I got her one as an anniversary present – and guess what? I can’t stop playing the damn thing now…
It’s not the newest handheld games machine on the market by any means, but even today it’s not too shabby. I’m not going to bore you with technical details however as they’re largely irrelevant (I could tell you that it uses a 32-bit RISC processor but how many people would know that RISC stood for “Reduced Instruction Set Chip”, or that it was first used in the Acorn Archimedes… and even then, how many people would really care?!?). What I will do is give you a pros and cons list, which I think will be far more helpful. (If you really must have the technical specs. Visit http://www.nintendo.com/techspecgba.)
Pros
Readily available and cheap, I saw it on Amazon for about £65 new, though availability of the GBA new will no doubt reduce as Nintendo try to promote their newer models. I got mine (er… my wife’s, I mean… of course…) second hand for £60 including 3 games (Mario Kart Super Circuit, Road to Westlemania – well it was thrown in for free, I didn’t actually want it – and the Gameboy Colour version of Super Mario Bros). Which leads me to another two pros…
1 - Backward compatibility – if you have a load of Gameboy / Gameboy colour games already you don’t need to throw them away – you can still play them on GBA. They won’t be enhanced in any way of course but you can still play them.
2 – There’s a thriving second-hand game market out there for GBA, which is just as well since new games range from about £15-£35, which I think is a bit steep for a handheld game.
Multiplayer option – up to 4 GBAs can be connected.
Massive selection of games available, first or second hand.
Proven technology that works and has had the bugs fixed.
Decent control system (I found the extra buttons on top a little fiddly to use but otherwise it’s quite intuitive.)
Surprisingly good battery life (quoted in the manual as 10 hours for a rechargeable battery but we tried it on a normal AA battery – it takes 2 - and got about 20 hours life out of it).
Cons
Not exactly the cutting edge of technology these days.
You have to get the GBA in exactly the right position to be able to see the screen properly.
Some of the games will of course be rather rudimentary by today’s standards.
Sooner or later companies will stop developing new games for it.
You can’t plug it into the mains.
There are other options that might interest people, for instance I think you can plug it into a Gamecube, but I can’t comment on that feature as I’m never going to use it myself. Overall it’s a robust little machine and is a lot of fun for those odd few minutes travelling or whatever. Getting a decent pair of headphones (ours cost £5) is a must if you want to avoid annoying the life out of everyone around you, and it really does enhance your game playing experience no end. The GBA is very lightweight and can at a push fit inside a typical jacket pocket.
The actual GBA cartridges fit snugly into the machine but the older ones for Gameboy and Gameboy Colour protrude over the top. Not a great problem or anything but worth mentioning. The GBA isn’t perfect, but it’s a solid handheld games machine that is recommended for all the those who must have the latest piece of equipment.
Update 9th January 2005
I’ve decided to downgrade my rating to 4 stars for 3 reasons:
1/ The lack of backlighting is really a pain in the neck (and becomes so quite literally) as you often have to crouch over it to get in a position where you can se it properly. Obviously the SP doesn’t have this problem, but I haven’t got an SP…
2/ Though there is a large number of games readily available, I have yet to come across many I’ve really enjoyed. (Mario Kart Super Circuit and Lady Sia are the two notable exceptions to this so far.) Granted I haven’t played a huge number of games, but so far the overall quality doesn’t look as good as I’d at first thought. (If I change my opinion again I will of course update this review again.)
3/ It’s not as easy to get hold of games cheaply as I’d thought, either.
I still think the GBA is a good machine, but perhaps not quite as good as I’d thought. 4 stars and still recommended, just not quite as highly recommended.
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