Game Boy Advance is a 32-bit handheld console which is manufactured by Nintendo and it was first released at the launch of March 21st 2001 in Japan, while it was released 3 months later for the US and EU release. It is a successor of the two of the successful 8-bit handheld such as Game Boy and Game Boy Color from the 90's era. It was well known for having excellent varieties of game libraries, 32-bit graphics, using link cable for GBA multiplayer and Gamecube, and ability to play older GBC and GB games is what made GBA so great in early 2000's. It sold over 81.51 million units worldwide as being the most popular handheld systems of sixth generation console era.
I really enjoyed playing many games on the handheld system where I can play anywhere in outside of my home, so that means I can take this system with me and play over to friend's house, holidays, buses and more places to play there. Game Boy Advance is a fantastic handheld system for my video game collection and I still have the two GBA's in my room, so I decided to make 5 reason why GBA is Awesome.
1 - Games library
GBA has many of the great game's titles to play. GBA was known for having memorable titles like Mario Kart Super Circuit, Sonic Advance, Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, Wario Land 4, Fire Emblem, Metroid Fusion, Golden Sun, Advance Wars, Mario vs Donkey Kong, some Pokemon's titles and many of the excellent games that has impressive graphics, stunning soundtrack, great presentations and primitive gameplay style, so these are the games titles that really defines the GBA's hardware system.
2 - Plays GB and GBC games
I still have the Game Boy Color in my late 90's just before I got the original GBA in around 2003. What made me so surprised about the GBA is the system can able to play older GB and GBC titles as backwards compatible which is sounds absolutely amazing that the newer console can able to play all the classic titles from the past, even the Sony did a same thing with the PS2 and PS3 consoles can able to play the older PS1 games libraries.
Backwards compatibility is the most useful things in the gaming that people, who owns the newer system that plays backwards compatible software, doesn't have to buy a older game console in order to play game. For example, if you have already have the GBA hardware that can play all of GB and GBC games then you won't need to get GB and GBC hardware in order to play these titles unless you're the video game collector that loves spending time collecting games and hardware consoles.
I really love spending time playing both classics GBC and GB games on my GBA hardware like Super Mario Land, Legend of Zelda: link's Awakening, Tetris, Contra, Castlevania Adventures, Street Fighter Alpha and Game and Watch Gallery 2 are really fun to play.
3 - Link Cables
Like the good old GB and GBC system that uses the local link cables that connects both handheld systems for multiplayer modes, Nintendo did a same thing with the GBA for some of the games titles that you can play up to 2 or 4-player modes. For example some games like Mario Kart Super Circuit, Sonic Advance, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Final Fight One, and some Pokemon titles like Ruby and Sapphire that features multiplayer modes which is quite awesome and what really surprised me the most is the Gamecube's GBA link Cable where you can plug GBA systems to the Gamecube systems, so you can use GBA systems as the second screen or separate controller for certain GC titles. For example some games like Metroid Prime for GC does have unlockable content which requires the Metroid Fusion for GBA and GC link cable to unlock content such as NES version of Metroid and Fusion Suit to use in Metroid Prime. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for GC does have a transfer options in Chao's Garden, so you can able to store Chaos into the GBA's Chao's Garden from Sonic Advnace by using the GC link cable which is sounds pretty innovative for sixth generation console era.
4 - Hardware models
The original GBA models was first released in 2001 and it is the most comfortable handheld system to hold. It has nice button layouts, classy handheld design and it has some great features like headphone jack where you can plug in with headphone and volume control to tune the volume level. Nintendo was later making another GBA models called GBA SP which was released in 2003 and it has flip-in clamshell where you can close the game down to protect the screen from dust and scratches. It has rechargeable lithium ion battery where you can charge it with AC adapter and it has the back-lit screen which has the back light on the screen, so the players can able to see the game properly while playing the game which seems to be lot easier than using the original models. The GBA Micro was released in 2005, which is the last model of the GBA's line. It's slightly look smaller than the previous GBA's models, but it's lacks several features such as backwards compatible and link cable ports which is quite shame for GBA owners, but it's quite cheaper to purchase the system.
I really prefer the GBA SP lot better because it has back-lit screen and rechargeable battery, while the original models are comfortable to hold and headphone jack are seem pretty awesome, so I still have these two handheld systems in my home for long time.
5 - Region Free
Like a classic GB and GBC hardware does allow every games titles from around the world to be played on the system, GBA are also region free which means you can able to play any of the US and Japanese software titles. It's pretty strange that Nintendo did put a region lock on their home consoles like NES, SNES, N64, GC, Wii and Wii U that prevents gamers playing games that brought from different countries. I was really surprised to see older handheld consoles that can play all of the games titles. For example I have the game called Wario Ware Twisted which never got released in EU, but it is one of my all time favourite GBA game that features lot of wacky mini-game modes, weird sense of humour, colorful graphics and creative gameplay that introduce gyroscope motion controls are very innovative for handheld systems.
It is cool to collect some of the great exclusives games that never brought release outside of the Japan or the game that were also released in US, but not in EU.
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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging everyone.
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