An Ode to the Game Boy Advance

Summary

In March 2001, Nintendo introduced an advanced portable model to the gaming market with the release of the Game Boy Advance (GBA, codenamed Advanced Game Boy or AGB). Equipped with a modernized 32-bit ARM CPU running at twice the speed of the Game Boy Color (GBC), this small device was more than capable of playing SNES-like games—still at the price of only two AA batteries. The third major Game Boy revision indeed again proved to be a smashing hit, breaking various sales records during its relatively short lifespan. According to Eurogamer, in the United Kingdom, the GBA sold four times as much units in its first first week of release as the PlayStation 2. Although Gunpei Yoko’s “Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology” design philosophy was still applied (the system was still cheap: priced at $99.99—About $146.37 in 2020), it was clear that the technical specifications of the GBA were put into the spotlight. Why else would you name something “Advance” or put “32 bit” on the box? It almost feels like a poor apology: “We’re sorry about the GBC. This time, the model really is advanced, we promise!” It becomes even more obvious when looking at a selection of the system’s launch titles that liked to brag about the capabilities of the new Game Boy model: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. Phenomenal music, a huge castle to explore, and nimble Vampire Killing moves that were not even seen in Castlevania IV for the SNES. Super Mario Advance. Don’t dismiss this as a bleak adaptation of Super Mario Bros. 2 (which, in turn, is an adaptation of Doki Doki Panic): Nintendo R&D2 put a lot of effort in embedding rotating, popping, whooshing, bouncing, and stretching animations. The message is clear: “Dear game devs, look at this! The GBA has hardware-acceleration for this! Now go make games for it!” F-Zero: Maximum Velocity. A handheld that can do Mode-7 tricks such as rotating, scaling, and skewing background layers? Finally! No more archaic HDMA tricks are required to master. Nex...