I do not recall a lot from 25 years in the past. I am unable to bear in mind my first day in school, the place I went on trip that summer season, or my sixth birthday celebration. What I do bear in mind, although, as if it have been yesterday, is tearing the present wrapping off an unassuming field below the Christmas tree and discovering a Nintendo Recreation Boy Advance inside. My Recreation Boy Advance. That, expensive readers, was the second that began all of it, my love of handheld gaming, and two-and-a-half many years later, I am trying again to see what makes the GBA one of many very greatest retro handhelds of all time.
First, although, a little bit of context. The Recreation Boy Advance launched in Japan on March 21, 2001, earlier than arriving in North America, Europe, and Australia in June of that yr. It was the follow-up to the Recreation Boy Colour, going from the comparatively restricted 8-bit gameplay to 32-bit gameplay. Over the subsequent decade, the hand-held would go on to promote over 80 million copies earlier than Nintendo discontinued it globally in 2010. That makes it the eleventh best-selling console of all time, on the time of writing, beating out the PSP, 3DS, and Xbox One.
Whereas it arrived in 2001, work on the hand-held technically began years earlier, within the early Nineties, below the guise of ‘Mission Atlantis.’ That prototype featured a coloration display screen and a 32-bit processor, however the staff behind it, led by Satoru Okada, one of many creators of the Recreation Boy, shelved the thought in 1997. As an alternative, Nintendo carried out the colour display screen within the Recreation Boy Colour. Whereas it could be seen as a traditional handheld now, the GBC wasn’t precisely an enormous success for the corporate, so the Japanese large went again to the drafting board, utilizing Mission Atlantis’ 32-bit chip as a foundation for what would change into the Recreation Boy Advance.
The very first thing most individuals observed in regards to the Recreation Boy Advance was that it did not appear to be the Recreation Boy or Recreation Boy Colour. Somewhat than lengthy, the GBA was huge, with a 4:3 show and buttons on both aspect. If that sounds acquainted, it is as a result of that is now the default handheld kind issue, with a fairly clear by line from the GBA to the PSP, Nintendo Change, and Steam Deck OLED. Whereas it wasn’t the primary to undertake this horizontal orientation, I would argue that it made it extra mainstream than a few of its contemporaries, together with the Neo Geo Pocket Colour, Atari Lynx, and the Sega Recreation Gear.
On the subject of design, one other factor the Recreation Boy Advance had going for it was the sheer variety of colorways it was out there in. I had the traditional Indigo model, however I bear in mind feeling only a bit jealous that my step-brother ended up with the semi-transparent Glacier mannequin, which, again in 2001, appeared like one thing despatched again in time from the long run. Once more, this abundance of choices helped differentiate the GBA from its contemporaries and has, within the years since, made amassing all of them, Pokémon-style, a ceremony of passage for retro recreation fans.
Children born within the 2010s would seemingly take a look at a GBA and surprise how you could possibly even play video games on a console with so few buttons. It had a d-pad, A, B, Begin, Choose, and energy buttons, and a shoulder bumper on all sides. You wish to transfer diagonally? Properly, you technically can, however good luck discovering that candy spot between two instructions. This {hardware} limitation, mixed with the GBA’s restricted processing energy, dictated the form of video games that arrived on the console, so we ended up with a number of platformers, puzzlers, and RPGs. Not too many FPS video games, although.
Talking of video games, the Recreation Boy Advance had no scarcity of choices, with over 1,500 titles launching throughout its lifespan. The most effective-sellers by far, although, have been Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, shifting sixteen million models mixed, with Pokémon Fireplace Crimson and Leaf Inexperienced in second place with twelve million in gross sales, and Pokémon Emerald in third to the tune of over six million gross sales. Trying again now, it is virtually unbelievable to assume how we acquired a few of the greatest Pokémon video games ever in such a short while.
Whereas the likes of Pokémon and Mario have been already very talked-about earlier than the GBA’s launch, the hand-held did function a means of introducing the world to some new IP. Golden Solar and its sequel have been each Recreation Boy Advance exclusives and went a protracted option to proving that GBA video games might supply simply as a lot depth and gameplay nuance as any residence console recreation. Then, there was Advance Wars, the collection that first made me fall in love with tactical gameplay, which nonetheless feels contemporary all these years later.
You may’t discuss in regards to the greatest GBA video games with out highlighting the incredible third-party assist Nintendo acquired from numerous builders. Sega chipped in with the Sonic Advance trilogy; Sq. Enix introduced genre-defining Remaining Fantasy VI Advance and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Recollections to the hand-held; and my private gaming icon, Spyro, even acquired a style of the motion within the type of 5 completely different video games over the GBA’s lifespan. That is to not point out Rayman, Mega Man, and numerous others.
It is also price highlighting, whereas we’re feeling nostalgic, that it was through the top of the GBA’s reputation that Nintendo began trying again by itself historical past, ensuing within the Traditional NES Sequence. This line of video games felt like a set of gaming historical past classes for these of us born after the NES’ heyday, serving as an introduction to the origins of a few of Nintendo’s most iconic characters, together with Mario, Hyperlink, and Samus. This strategy to honoring the previous become a development for Nintendo through the years, finally evolving into the huge assortment of GBA video games you may entry on Nintendo Change 2 through Nintendo Change On-line + Growth Pack.
Equipment have been additionally an enormous a part of the Recreation Boy Advance period, most notably the hyperlink cable, the very factor that made it attainable for nine-year-old me to idiot my naive childhood greatest buddy into swapping me his shiny Whiscash for a run-of-the-mill Dustox on the playground. Sorry, Daniel. Plus, there was the Recreation Boy Participant for GameCube, which, technically, wasn’t a GBA accent, however as Advance video games saved save information on the cartridge, not the console, it expanded the methods you could possibly play your favourite video games.
All this is not to say the Recreation Boy Advance was good. The shortage of any form of backlight made it virtually not possible to play at nighttime, forcing seven-year-old me to contort and twist my days away attempting to make out what was occurring in WarioWare earlier than the timer ran out. It additionally relied on AA batteries, which have been the usual on the time. Nevertheless, that did not make me really feel any higher when the battery mild began flickering from inexperienced to purple midway by a protracted journey whereas I sat behind my dad’s automotive attempting to beat Wario Land 4 once more.
As has change into the norm within the years since its arrival, Nintendo launched some variations on the GBA all through the ’00s, together with the Recreation Boy Advance SP, a clamshell handheld with a backlight, and the Recreation Boy Advance Micro, which, as its identify implies, was an much more compact model of the gadget. I will be sincere, I used to be one in all many who upgraded to the GBA SP and by no means appeared again, primarily as a result of it did not depend on batteries and its backlit display screen made it simpler to play in any atmosphere.
In the end, it is laborious to separate the cultural legacy from the place it holds in my coronary heart. In each cases, although, you may’t say that it wasn’t a game-changer for the trade. It solidified Nintendo as a pacesetter within the handheld enviornment, a place it is hardly faltered from ever since, leaving Sega, SNK, and others in its wake. It additionally served as a option to information the model’s IP to new heights, most notably Pokémon, but additionally Zelda, Kirby, and, in fact, Mario.
Nonetheless, to me, the Recreation Boy Advance will at all times be the hand-held that began all of it. I would not be right here right this moment, writing this text, with out its affect. I did not totally understand it till now, however it was an intrinsic a part of my childhood. As a toddler of divorce, I spent every weekend going backwards and forwards from my mother’s place to my dad’s, and all through, the GBA was my solely fixed. If, on that wonderful Christmas morning, I would have been greeted by a pair of soccer boots or a brand new bike as an alternative, I do not know who I would be right this moment. And, regardless of my self-deprecating nature, I fairly like who and the place I’m.
So, there you’ve it, my tribute to the Nintendo Recreation Boy Advance on its twenty fifth anniversary. When you’re nonetheless feeling nostalgic, we have additionally acquired a Nintendo DS retrospective you may take a look at, plus guides to the greatest PSP video games and the greatest PS Vita video games. Or, when you’d reasonably stay sooner or later, see our record of the greatest Change video games.
