Not my favorite Nintendo handheld, but it did very well in it's short life cycle. Also Mother 3 is the GOAT.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
GBA launched 20 years ago in North America
- Thread starter Uncle at Nintendo
- Start date
Not my favorite Nintendo handheld, but it did very well in it's short life cycle. Also Mother 3 is the GOAT.
Somehow I've yet to play Advance Wars to this day. Wonder why they let that IP die? The artstyle was so good!
The perfect system with the best games. It will never be eclipsed! If only the original model was backlit. SP and Micro hurt my hands.
This is the one I bought with Tony hawk 2. Also Minish Cap is the best Zelda.
This is the one I bought with Tony hawk 2. Also Minish Cap is the best Zelda.
It was such an awesome system, but its still crazy how short its life was. When I think back on it it feels like it lasted longer (probably due to its awesome library). I still prefer the feel of the original model, it was much more comfortable to hold.
Love the system. It's crazy how vast and great the library is, given its relatively short lifespan before the DS.
Just crazy how time flies. I remember angling it to get the light just right with my bedside lamp until the SP came along with its frontlight The original GBA has the best and most ergonomic form-factor though from the entire GBA hardware line up.
There are just too many great memories to list. It is one of my favorite systems of all time and I'm still playing my Classic NES Edition all these years later fairly regularly.
Golden Age blew my mind with its graphics, and Advance Wars + Fire Emblem really got me addicted too. Wario Ware got its start on the system and showed what fun was all about, and there were also some very impressive SNES ports at the time from the Mario and Zelda series. Metroid Fusion is also a fantastic entry in its series. And it even had portable Mario Kart and 3 freaking F-Zero games (but only two came over to the US).
But my absolute favorite memories with it were Metroid Zero Mission, Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, and Castlevania Circle of the Moon. Man, I have chills just thinking about how much I loved those three games in particular.
There are just too many great memories to list. It is one of my favorite systems of all time and I'm still playing my Classic NES Edition all these years later fairly regularly.
Golden Age blew my mind with its graphics, and Advance Wars + Fire Emblem really got me addicted too. Wario Ware got its start on the system and showed what fun was all about, and there were also some very impressive SNES ports at the time from the Mario and Zelda series. Metroid Fusion is also a fantastic entry in its series. And it even had portable Mario Kart and 3 freaking F-Zero games (but only two came over to the US).
But my absolute favorite memories with it were Metroid Zero Mission, Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, and Castlevania Circle of the Moon. Man, I have chills just thinking about how much I loved those three games in particular.
I didn't get a handheld until ds lite but man, I wish I had a gba in its prime. Beautiful handheld with some stellar games
I remember my ex at the time giving it to me for Christmas. I got a good amount of use out of it, especially when traveling.
I also remember those reading lights on airplanes being THE perfect GBA lamp.
I also remember those reading lights on airplanes being THE perfect GBA lamp.
An awesome portable that was a huge step up from GBC in terms of hardware and games. Zero Mission, Astro Boy, Wario Ware, Castlevania, Advance Wars, Dotstream, etc. kicked ass. Sequels to Gunstar Heroes, Guardian Heroes, Shinobi, and Zelda were disappointments, though.
How did this get approved:
How did this get approved:
Last edited:
WOW.
I remember lining up at bestBuy at 7am to snag one. I must've been 12 years old.
I think Tony Hawk was my first game for it...?
I remember lining up at bestBuy at 7am to snag one. I must've been 12 years old.
I think Tony Hawk was my first game for it...?
I'll always have a huge soft spot for the GBA. As someone from the UK, one of my favourite memories is my dad coming home from a business trip to Asia in April 2001, and bringing back a Game Boy Advance and Japanese copies of Super Mario Advance and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity.
I was 12 years old and I can remember showing my friends F-Zero in school the next day - they were absolutely blown away by the graphics. You have to remember at this point people were still playing Pokémon Silver on the Game Boy Color.
I was 12 years old and I can remember showing my friends F-Zero in school the next day - they were absolutely blown away by the graphics. You have to remember at this point people were still playing Pokémon Silver on the Game Boy Color.
Good news, GBA's can have backlit IPS screens now.The perfect system with the best games. It will never be eclipsed! If only the original model was backlit. SP and Micro hurt my hands.
This is the one I bought with Tony hawk 2. Also Minish Cap is the best Zelda.
The day of the GBA release, I walked the 10 blocks down the street to the local target, bought the glacier GBA, Castlevania and Rayman.
then proceeded to spend hours trying to figure out how to actually see ANYTHING in castlevania.
weird things about the GBA, GB and GBC titles were much darker on myGBA than on the original hardware, almost like a dark filter was on there. Made playing DQIII really hard.
Finally solved the visibility issue at home by playing with a lamp directly above me but not pointed straight at the screen.
Enjoyed every second of it, such a fun little console.
then proceeded to spend hours trying to figure out how to actually see ANYTHING in castlevania.
weird things about the GBA, GB and GBC titles were much darker on myGBA than on the original hardware, almost like a dark filter was on there. Made playing DQIII really hard.
Finally solved the visibility issue at home by playing with a lamp directly above me but not pointed straight at the screen.
Enjoyed every second of it, such a fun little console.
I remember being impressed with the "32 bit" marketing. Like wow this is just as powerful as a PlayStation! And it's handheld!
and then Nintendo launches it with an NES port
and then Nintendo launches it with an NES port
I realized after making this post in the Nintendo general thread that this thread existed, so I'm going to quote my thoughts on bringing GBA games to Switch here:
I'm ready for Nintendo to start capitalizing on GBA & Gamecube nostalgia instead of NES & SNES. Put out a backlit GBA Classic Edition with 25 games on it already.
I'm trying to remember... I think it was outdoors on a cloudy day.
None of the attachment lights worked. Direct sunlight didn't work. Normal office lighting didn't work. Normal house lighting didn't work. Bedside lamps didn't work.
Needless to say, the SP's backlight was an absolute revelation.
I couldn't believe Nintendo released the GBA in that state after 2 seconds of using the SP.
One of the best systems ever made.
I played so much Pokemon, Advance Wars and Golden Sun on that little screen. Damn I miss those times.
I played so much Pokemon, Advance Wars and Golden Sun on that little screen. Damn I miss those times.
One of the best systems ever. Still remember the day I got mine and a copy of Sonic Advance. It felt like such an upgrade at the time and it was. So many good games that still hold up to this day. Fond memories of playing Sacred Stones on it too
Cheers!
Cheers!
I loved my Advanced and SP. I remember playing Ruby and Sapphire with friends, going back to old classics like the Terminator 2 games, Super Mario land. Obi Wan Adventures, the Doom port, and of course Metroid 2.
But I probably spent most of my time with it playing Metroid Fusion.
I remember jumping ship when they went to the DS and it being this large handheld with this tacked on screen... that was when I jumped off Nintendo handhelds.
But I probably spent most of my time with it playing Metroid Fusion.
I remember jumping ship when they went to the DS and it being this large handheld with this tacked on screen... that was when I jumped off Nintendo handhelds.
I just sold most of my GBA collection on eBay (for crazy prices) and it was definitely bittersweet testing each cartridge out before putting it up for sale. Had to stop and play quite a bit along the way. One of my favorite consoles ever
I remember walking to Target and buying the glacier unit with Fzero and Castlevanvia. I think those were the only games I ever bought.
As a kid I was disappointed that the game boy advance didn't have 4 face buttons and that the cool metallic/neon colors from the announcement were changed for boring ones. But overall I loved the game boy advance and love reading about it, here is an article that pays tribute to the GBA
miscrave.com
MiscRave & the Game Boy Advance » MiscRave
Resouce to the rule of cool whether it's Music, Tech, Games, Animation or Continuity, if it's odd, it's here.
miscrave.com
Such a huge upgrade from Game Boy in both hardware and games. Ultimately I didn't get around to playing that many games on it, I guess because it had a relatively short lifespan, but Castlevania, Yoshi's Island and Astro Boy was excellent stuff.
Edit: Not even four years in Europe before the DS was released 😐
Edit: Not even four years in Europe before the DS was released 😐
Last edited:
Loved my GBA. Only ever had the original model rather than the SP.
I wanted the glacier color, but my parents got me the arctic white. Was so excited to get it, I didn't care that the color wasn't my preferred one lol. The first games I had for it were Wario Land 4 and Konami Krazy Racers. This song from the latter is forever ingrained in my mind.
The GBA introduced me to Fire Emblem and tactics games as a whole, along with my still-#1 favorite Final Fantasy game: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. And I had some good times with it when using the GBA as a controller for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles with my sisters for multiplayer.
Unfortunately, my GBA had an incident where the back battery cover got messed up and has to be held on with tape (the tab just snapped once when I was changing batteries), and the screen has a weird burn-in issue that eventually fades, but it takes a LONG time. I keep it for the memories more than anything, since I can play GBA games on the Gamecube Game Boy Player thing or my DS Lite.
I wanted the glacier color, but my parents got me the arctic white. Was so excited to get it, I didn't care that the color wasn't my preferred one lol. The first games I had for it were Wario Land 4 and Konami Krazy Racers. This song from the latter is forever ingrained in my mind.
The GBA introduced me to Fire Emblem and tactics games as a whole, along with my still-#1 favorite Final Fantasy game: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. And I had some good times with it when using the GBA as a controller for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles with my sisters for multiplayer.
Unfortunately, my GBA had an incident where the back battery cover got messed up and has to be held on with tape (the tab just snapped once when I was changing batteries), and the screen has a weird burn-in issue that eventually fades, but it takes a LONG time. I keep it for the memories more than anything, since I can play GBA games on the Gamecube Game Boy Player thing or my DS Lite.
