Advancing to a New Era: Game Boy Advance (2001) Review and Retrospective

 So, over the past couple years I’ve been looking over all of Nintendo’s major systems. But with the Nintendo 64, GameCube and NES out of the way, I’ve pretty much run out of major Nintendo home consoles to really talk about. I will say that my review on the Switch has dated a bit now that I’ve owned the console for over a year and have gotten a chance to really get into it, but at the same time I don’t really plan to re-review the system entirely at the moment.

But it’s a good thing that Nintendo doesn’t only make home consoles. In fact, if there’s anything that Nintendo has pretty much always been the leader in, it’s definitely handheld gaming. Even as far back as the Game and Watch Nintendo’s handhelds have pretty much always been popular. And well, I have had the desire to talk about them because, frankly, I grew up with some of Nintendo’s handhelds and I really feel like they make up a lot of my early gaming memories. So, I figured now was a good chance to talk about them. I decided not to talk about the Game Boy or Game Boy Color - I don’t really have much memories with them in particular or many of their games (although my brother does own a Game Boy Color), and the Game Boy Advance is really where I started to gain interest in video games, so… let’s get straight to that.

In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy - a handheld console with the ability to change cartridges. It wasn’t the first handheld console with this ability - before this there was Milton Bradley’s Microvision, but it’s safe to say that the Game Boy was the first that really took off and really popularized handheld and mobile gaming. The Game Boy was definitely a success - selling up until 2003 and becoming the third best selling console to this day. I... think. Unfortunately every sales figure of the Game Boy I’ve found has the sales of the Game Boy along with the Game Boy Color which I’m pretty sure should be counted as it’s own system but I guess not.

Anyway, the Game Boy received a few revisions in it’s lifespan - the Game Boy Pocket, a smaller variant with a nicer screen, the Game Boy Light, only released in Japan and coming with a backlight, but as the mid 90’s came along Nintendo was in need of a new handheld. Originally the Game Boy Advance was concepted as Project Atlantis - a 32-bit handheld system with a 3-by-2 inch LCD screen, but this project was abandoned initially in 1997 due to costs and the original Game Boy still being massively popular. In the meantime, there was the Game Boy Color in 1998 which I’m not entirely sure whether is counted as it’s own handheld or not - I mean like I said it’s usually counted along with the sales figures of the original but at the same time it held beefed up hardware plus it’s share of exclusive games so I’m not really sure what to consider it.

Anyway, there were still rumors going around of a “true” successor to the Game Boy and Game Boy Color and in 2000 the Game Boy Advance was announced and released a year later. At it’s launch it turned out to be the fastest selling system at the time and throughout it’s lifespan it sold 81.51 million units, putting it among the best selling consoles of all time.

Now, when you ask me what was my “first” console of all time, that question is a bit hard for me to answer. There’s a few factors to really consider that do kind of make my final answer a bit muddy. If we’re just talking about the first console I ever really had any experiences with at all, that would be the PlayStation 1, but at the same time, I really don’t have many memories of playing it myself when my brother had it. But when it comes to the first console that I had a lot of experience with and the one I played most as a kid… it was the Game Boy Advance.

My brother got the Game Boy Advance at a young age, originally owning the first model of it which broke because he apparently dropped it in the toilet (fucking g r o s s) but then he later got a silver SP. I remember watching him play it sometimes but after getting the DS Lite - which had GBA backwards compatibility - the Game Boy Advance SP was handed down to me and it pretty much became my first console. And, well, a lot of my earliest gaming memories stem from owning the Game Boy Advance SP. I played the thing a lot. Pretty much any time where my parents made me go somewhere I would play something on the Game Boy Advance. In particular some games I remember playing a lot included Super Mario Advance, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Classic NES Super Mario Bros, Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, Hamtaro Ham Ham Heartbreak and a few licensed shovelware games like Cars and generic pet simulator games. And uh… Sonic the Hedgehog: Genesis.

But in a way I feel like the Game Boy Advance being a console I played a lot at a young age sort of contributed to me having somewhat niche tastes in games nowadays. I remember my brother owning a copy of Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World but before I had gotten the system that game supposedly got lost which led me to eventually buying it again on eBay with some Christmas money I had left over. And that game was very important to me, but I’ll explain why once I actually get into the game library. At the end of the day though the Game Boy Advance honestly really helped me get into retro gaming and Nintendo as a whole as well as my two favorite game franchises.

The Game Boy Advance was a step up from the Game Boy and Game Boy Color in terms of power, housing a 32-bit CPU, a 3-by-2 inch 240x160 resolution screen, 32 kilobytes of memory and 96 kilobytes of VRAM. Obviously this is nothing nowadays, but at the time, as far as handheld systems went this was definitely a step up from the previous Game Boy entries and was definitely a complete upgrade.

The first version of the Game Boy Advance was modeled in a landscape position which was unlike the previous Game Boy systems which were more vertical and came in quite a variety of colors and themes. The most iconic is the indigo theme which matches one of the original color variants of the GameCube but there was also an “Arctic” white theme, a “Glacier” clear blue theme and… black. And on top of these there were special editions, some with store branding. To be honest when it comes to the Game Boy Advance models I think I like the design of the original the most (the Glacier theme especially looks cool to me) but unfortunately it has one pretty massive issue. And anyone who owned it knows what I’m going to say - it doesn’t support backlighting. I mean to be fair the Game Boy and Game Boy Color didn’t have backlighting either but this was 2001, and at this point there were handhelds that did backlighting including the Game Boy’s biggest competitor, the Game Gear, and hell, the Game Boy Light, an official revision of the original Game Boy. But if you wanted to play the Game Boy Advance in the dark - y’know, in bed on a school night, doing so was a bit difficult with the original Game Boy Advance. Unless of course you had one of those light accessories that were awkward as hell. The original model also doesn’t come with a rechargeable battery meaning that you have to use two AA batteries you have to replace every so often but to be fair I don’t really feel like these were much of a thing when the Game Boy Advance came out.

In 2003, a new revision of the Game Boy Advance came out - one with a frontlit screen, rechargeable battery and clam shell design, the Game Boy Advance SP. Another version also came out a bit later on that used backlighting instead of frontlighting. I never really understood the difference between the two but alright. As I said, the SP was what I had growing up, the silver color in particular, but like the original model this did come in a number of different colors. The SP was a really good revision, introducing a few major things that became common in Nintendo handhelds later on - as I said, rechargeable batteries, screen lighting, and the clam shell design that the DS and 3DS used. Despite my preference towards the design of the original Game Boy Advance I would definitely say the SP is just a better model, arguably the definitive “Game Boy” altogether. Although it did have one issue, the system lacks a headphone jack and to use headphones with it you need to buy either a special pair that plugs into the SP’s charging port or a convertor that plugs into the charger port but has a headphone jack at the other end. Either way, you can’t use headphones while charging. Granted this was never really an issue for me - my brother did have a headphone accessory for the Game Boy Advance but I never really used it. Whenever I was playing this at a social event like church or whatever I would always just mute the console with the volume slider. Other than that, the SP was definitely a really good revision and arguably a pretty innovative one.

And in 2005 Nintendo released the Game Boy Micro, a system that no one asked for. As the name suggests the Game Boy Micro is smaller than the first two Game Boy Advance models and from what I can tell it was largely released to capitalize on the whole “nano” trend that was going on at the time with Apple devices and stuff like that. In all fairness I’ve always found the Game Boy Micro to be a pretty interesting and unique system but for some reason Nintendo completely ditched Game Boy and Game Boy Color backwards compatibility with this model which has always just left a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to this revision. Like it’s predecessor though it does come in different colors and even has swappable faceplates for a bit of extra customization, as well as some more backlighting options. Regardless though I’d probably just stick with the SP.

One odd thing I remember noticing about the Game Boy Advance a few years ago was that there wasn’t a “core” Mario game on the system. There were ports of older Mario games and spin-off games, but not a complete original Mario platformer, which is fairly… interesting to me. Considering that the Game Boy Advance was such a major release you would think that Nintendo would release a new game with their main man yet that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The Mario games that the Game Boy Advance is probably the most known for are definitely the Super Mario Advance games - ports of Super Mario Bros. 2, 3, World and Yoshi’s Island for the system that came packaged with the classic Mario Bros arcade games. And for some reason released completely out of order. Seriously, Super Mario Bros 2 was the first Advance game, but then the second was World, the third was Yoshi’s Island and the fourth was Super Mario Bros. 3.

But I remember in particular that my brother had Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario World (or Super Mario Advance and Super Mario Advance 2) on the system. As a kid I never really understood how to play Super Mario Bros. 2 - truth be told as someone who was used to the other Mario games I wasn’t really sure that I was supposed to pick up enemies and throw them and stuff, but I do think the Game Boy Advance version is a really good port. Both the NES games in the “Advance” series build off of their SNES All-Stars versions, but the GBA port of Super Mario Bros 2 also adds an entirely new boss and a Yoshi egg mission after you beat the game.

But Super Mario Advance 2… man. I remember in my Super Nintendo review I had stated Super Mario World was one of if not my favorite games of all time and that I’ve always held a soft spot for it, and while I do have faint memories of playing it on my grandfather’s Super Nintendo, my first time owning the game myself and beating it was on the Game Boy Advance. Although the copy my brother originally had got lost at some point so I ended up asking my mom to order a new one off of eBay with Christmas money I had. But regardless, this game has always been important to me. Not only for being one of my favorite games since I first played it, but also because I credit it with getting me into more “core” gaming and into Nintendo and retro stuff as a whole. It was a game that felt like a whole adventure to me as a kid and I remember going back to it constantly. In early 2011 I spent so much time looking around for hidden levels and secrets in this game and since playing it back then Super Mario World in general is just a game I’ve really loved going back to. I will say between the two I kind of prefer the Super Nintendo version on a presentation level - I don’t think the Game Boy Advance version’s music sounds quite as good and the visuals of the port do look a bit desaturated to me, but regardless… it’s Super Mario World. And without the Game Boy Advance port I probably wouldn’t have played one of my favorite games of all time and I feel like my tastes in gaming would be a lot more different today.

And then there was Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi’s Island. This was another game I actually got off eBay when I was about 10 years old. My brother didn’t have it growing up but I did want to play it after hearing about it and the GBA version was my first time playing the game. Although a couple years after I got it I found out that the copy of it I got was a bootleg, but I mean… it was still Yoshi’s Island. I don’t have quite the same love for Yoshi’s Island as I do for Super Mario World, and like SMW I do prefer the SNES version on a presentation level, but still, Yoshi’s Island is among my top 10 favorite games of all time (when not counting the “1 game per series/franchise” rule) and the GBA version was where I played it for the first time.

And last but not least, there’s Super Mario Advance 4, Super Mario Bros. 3. Like Super Mario Bros 2 this is a port of the All-Stars version but this is probably the most interesting of the Advance ports in my opinion for a pretty simple reason. Not only does Super Mario Advance 4 carry over the entirety of SMB3, but with the eReader attachment for the Game Boy Advance you can gain access to a number of custom levels that were added to the game that still build off the SMB3 level design but also add elements of Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and World as well. It was basically a way they did DLC without internet access. Granted, trying to hunt down and set up the eReader as well as all the extra level cards might be a pain in the ass nowadays, and you can just buy Super Mario Advance 4 on the Wii U Virtual Console which comes with all the levels, but this was still something I still thought was pretty cool for the time.

Spin-off wise, there’s Mario Kart Super Circuit, the third Mario Kart game in the series and the first one to be on a handheld console. I do think that this was a solid entry for the time, especially considering it was the first one on a handheld, although at the same time, I don’t exactly feel this has held up well especially compared to the later handheld Mario Kart games - Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Still, I did have fun with it as a kid when the Game Boy Advance was the only console I really had and I actually do enjoy going back to it for nostalgia from time to time. Unfortunately I think I lost my original cartridge when I was moving from Kentucky to Colorado but now I have it on the Wii U Virtual Console. Maybe someday I’ll get another GBA copy of it.

But the GBA also was the start to another Mario RPG series and probably my favorite Mario spinoff, the Mario and Luigi games. Superstar Saga was the first one released for the Game Boy Advance. Although I didn’t play it on the original Game Boy Advance, in fact my first time playing it was the 3DS remaster released in 2017. I still have yet to actually beat it (it’s another game lost in my giant backlog) but from what I played it’s a damn good game. I’d still say Bowser’s Inside Story was the best one though, but we’ll get to that when I review the DS.

But outside the Super Mario Advance series, there were other ports of SNES games. A lot of people refer to the Game Boy Advance as a “portable SNES” and it isn’t too far from the truth. The GBA had ports of major SNES titles such as Donkey Kong Country 1-3, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Contra III, a shitty port of Doom and some others. If you liked the SNES, you probably liked the Game Boy Advance. Or if you’re like me, if you liked the Game Boy Advance you probably liked the SNES.

There are however more games for the Game Boy Advance aside for SNES remakes. While Mario didn’t get a full original main series game, many of Nintendo’s other franchises did. Pokemon of course made an appearance - obviously after being so successful on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Considered the “third generation” of Pokemon games, Game Freak released Ruby and Sapphire on the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2002 and the rest of the world in 2003, plus Emerald in 2004 and 2005, also in Japan and the rest of the world respectively. Not gonna lie, I’m not a huge Pokemon fan - in general my experience with the series was sort of limited growing up and I feel like as a series it’s harder to get into if you’re older and don’t have nostalgia for it - but my brother says Emerald is the greatest game in the series and I’ll just take his word for it. There’s also FireRed and LeafGreen which I had more experience with - these being remakes of the original games, Pokemon Red and Blue. To be honest I’ve wanted to get copies of these games since I pretty much let my brother give them away but unfortunately for me they’re expensive as hell now going for around $40 to $50, which I can’t really justify when I can buy a new game for that much.

But a new spin-off series of the Pokemon games also got it’s start on the Game Boy Advance alongside the DS - this being the “Pokemon Mystery Dungeon” series with Red Rescue Team being released on the system. I remember having this game as a kid but I didn’t really understand how to play it and again like the other Pokemon games I pretty much let my brother give them away (although on the bright side they aren’t as insanely expensive as the main series/remakes for the system), but now that I’m a bit older, I gotta say after playing the “Rescue Team DX” version for the Switch I really found myself enjoying the game, even moreso than the “core” Pokemon games, for a… certain reason, but I do want to try out the rest of the games at some point.

The Zelda series also got a couple entries on the system. I mentioned that Link to the Past was among SNES games that got a GBA port, but the GBA version of LTTP also came with another game titled “Four Swords,” a co-operative multiplayer game that is similar to Link to the Past. But in addition there’s also The Minish Cap. Don’t have anything to say about either of these (ultimately just haven’t played them), but from what I’ve heard they are solid titles.

Metroid also got some representation with Zero Mission and Fusion, the former of which being a remake of the original Metroid game. As did Kirby with Nightmare in Dreamland and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.

But there were also a few exclusive Sonic games for the system, technically making for the first time that Sonic appeared on a Nintendo system. These are the Sonic Advance games. The first one I played through last year, and thought it was a solid Sonic game that really resembled the classics. The second one I didn’t enjoy quite as much though, and I haven’t played the third one although did obtain it recently. Since I am doing a Sonic retrospective series though, I’ll probably save my thoughts on these games for that.

Oddly enough though, probably my favorite game for the Game Boy Advance was Hamtaro: Ham Ham Heartbreak. I don’t really remember watching the show it was based off - I think I might have caught it a few times on Cartoon Network at a young age, but for some reason Ham Ham Heartbreak really enticed me as a kid and considering all the shovelware licensed games on the system, this honestly is a really well made licensed game for the console that really feels like a complete adventure of it’s own, and technically was not only one of the first games I ever beat but also one of the first games I ever 100% completed. It really is just a fun adventure game in general and kind of a hidden gem for the console. There also are a couple more Hamtaro games released for the GBA - Rainbow Rescue and Ham-Ham Games… neither of which I’ve played, but I mean, if they were to re-release Ham Ham Heartbreak at some point I would greatly appreciate it.

Outside of these, other GBA titles worth mentioning include of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, WarioWare, Inc., Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow, Fire Emblem (marking the first release of the series worldwide), Wario Land 4, Golden Sun, Advance Wars and Mario vs Donkey Kong. But even with these aside, you can also of course play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on the original model and the SP, pretty much making for the best way to play those games.

But in conclusion… well, the Game Boy Advance was honestly a pretty damn good system. I don’t exactly think it has the strongest library of any system I’ve played, but it did have a lot of it’s own really good offerings and the fact that it can play both Game Boy and Game Boy Color games gives it probably the biggest library of any handheld that I can think of. Generally with these reviews I do find it a bit hard to recommend retro systems for one reason or another - obviously buying used systems is a bit risky and games for those old systems can be expensive. But to be honest, I probably would recommend the Game Boy Advance. Granted you could probably emulate a lot of these games on smart phones, but for the original experience, well, the Game Boy Advance still does offer a lot of solid titles and is honestly the best way to experience older Game Boy titles. The system and games have risen a bit in price - I swear that just a few years ago the GBA itself was going for about $30 but recently it seems to have climbed a bit to $60 and gotten more expensive, especially in the case of the SP and Micro models, the latter of which I’ve seen go upwards for $100, but still. To be honest I do want to get another Game Boy Advance at some point, although with the pandemic and everything I do kind of feel like Game Boy Advance systems themselves are a bit harder to come across. Still, if you are able to get one, I’d say go for it.

Although, there is… one particular handheld I love even more. And I’ll be talking about that next time.