With SpaceWorld 2001 only moments away, Nintendo is set to finally reveal how the GameCube and GameBoy Advance are to work together. Many have been speculating as to what Nintendo has in the works, myself included. Just before E3, I took a look at what has already been done with console-handheld connectivity and suggested a new utilizing connectivity for the GBA and GameCube. Now I’ll take a look at some possibilities for using the GBA and GameCube in real-time.

Nintendo has repeatedly said that the GameBoy Advance can act as a controller for the GameCube. It’s certainly an interesting idea but Nintendo hasn’t expounded on the idea other than to offer the example of choosing football plays in private with the use of the GBA’s screen. So, with Nintendo’s typically silent stance, we’re left to speculate off of the limited facts that are available and fill in the rest with our imagination.

So what is known? Well, the GBA has now been released worldwide and is readily available for inspection. It has a D-pad, small Start and Select buttons, 2 face buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, a nice (but non-illuminated) color screen, a slot for a cartridge, 32-bit ARM processor, a speaker and headphone jack, and a link cable port (though this will be used for connecting to the GameCube). That’s the GBA controller in a nutshell. Now let’s look at the GameCube controller. It has 4 face buttons, 2 analog shoulder buttons (with digital click) along with a 3rd digital shoulder button, 2 analog sticks, a D-pad, a Start button, and built in force-feedback.

Clearly, the GameCube controller is superior when it comes to the ability to input commands with its greater number of buttons (a couple of which are analog) and its additional control sticks. The GameCube controller also offers force-feedback to give players a tactile response in addition to the audio and visual that comes from a TV. The GBA does have a few things going its way though. The color screen, cartridge slot, 32-bit processor, and to a lesser extent the speaker and headphone jack are things that have never been found in a console controller. It makes little sense to offer a GBA as a controller if some of these features are not utilized. Why only use a GBA’s buttons when a GameCube controller is superior in this area? If the GBA is to be used as a controller, it is only logical to play to that controllers strengths.

I’m sure many of you have already figured this out (particularly the focus on the GBA’s screen), so let’s try to determine how these features may be used in a game. First, though, it also would be useful to note potential problems for utilizing the GBA’s assets. While the GameBoy Advance screen is capable of displaying colorful pretty graphics, the excellent display is only visible from certain angles. This means that a player is more likely to have to divert a fair amount of attention towards the GBA screen in order to see what is being displayed. Quick glances from a TV to a GBA screen may be possible, but the GBA will likely need to be set up at the proper location before hand. As for the cartridge slot, the only downside to using it is that a cartridge would be required in addition to the GBA so the potential audience for using this feature is dependent on the number of people who buy both the necessary GameCube game and GameBoy Advance game. Meanwhile, the 32-bit processor (and all the other hardware inside the GBA) may be a powerful tool in utilizing the GameBoy Advance and GameCube for simultaneous gameplay, but it may be troublesome to get the GBA processor to work smoothly with the GameCube processor so that gameplay is properly synchronized. I will be the first to admit that I am not a technical wizard, but at least one developer has suggested that this may be a significant problem. Nintendo may have answers for this and other technical issues but they have publicly said nothing as to the simplicity or complexity of utilizing the GBA processors in tandem with the GameCube’s.

Okay, now that the major strengths and weaknesses of the GBA as a controller have been noted, let’s finally get to the fun part and look at what this may mean in terms of gameplay possibilities.

1. Players can switch from one controller (GCN) to another (GBA) at a designated time. This would be quite natural in a turn based gameplay system and is probably most appropriate when there is competitive multiplayer gameplay where secrecy is useful. Otherwise, the actions on the GBA could simply appear on screen while pausing or accessing some sort of menu screen. This sort of interaction minimizes the potential awkwardness of switching controllers since there are natural pauses for a player to put down the GameCube controller, pick up the GBA, and adjust to looking at the GBA’s screen while making use of one of the GBA’s unique features (the aforementioned screen). Examples of this include the ever popular selection of plays in a football game, aligning fielders or setting defensive plays in a baseball game, making strategic commands in a turn based war game (e.g. adjusting troop formations, modifying inventories, using items), or making car adjustments in the pit on a racing game. On the whole, utilizing the GameBoy Advance in this manner seems easy to implement and fairly practical, though it is somewhat dependent on providing natural pauses in gameplay to switch between controllers.

2. The GameBoy Advance could also act as the sole controller so that no switching is necessary in any type of game where a large number of buttons or analog control is unnecessary is less important than having private information. Here, the advantage of having a screen on the GBA is utilized and the lack of switching controllers makes it even easier to keep the GBA screen in a viewable position. A de-emphasis on the number of controllers minimizes the GBA’s relative lack of buttons or analog sticks that would otherwise be available from the GameCube controller. One example would be a casino game where the number of cards a player has is known by all but exactly what cards a player has is private. A better application of this could be used in a videogame version of any popular collectible card game. Of course, the best example of this would be a Pokemon Stadium type game where Pokemon, moves, and items are all selected/used on the GBA display allowing the TV to continuously show the Pokemon in the battle arena. In fact, with this set up, the battles could be more similar to the Pokemon anime series where battles take place continuously in real-time on the TV while strategic decisions are chosen from the GameBoy Advance screen. Taken one step further, this could actually open up a new style of indirect gameplay where actions/strategies are chosen on the GBA while the TV displays constant action. The loss of control could be off-set by the ability to present the action in a more stylistic/cinematic manner as well as opening new gameplay possibilities where the character that you command is semi-independent and can act on its own without a player’s input. The main problem with this is that a means of playing the game via the GameCube controller would be required as that is the standard controller that comes with a GameCube, not the GBA. A picture in picture box on the TV that simulates the GBA display could be a solution, though only for a single player mode. Despite this shortcoming, using the GBA as a sole controller in this manner could provide some interesting new gameplay experiences.

3. A third possibility for using a GameBoy Advance as a controller lies in using the GBA and the GameCube controller simultaneously for a 2-player (or multiplayer) mode. Two-player simultaneous gameplay would simply eliminate the need for any sort of controller swapping as both controller types would be used at the same time. The 2 players could collaborate their efforts in real-time through simple conversation, a very natural method of teamwork. Of course, there’s no reason why there couldn’t be a competitive relationship between each user (counter-op instead of co-op). The player with the GameCube controller would likely take the main role (playing on the TV) while the GBA player would take a supporting role but could still have a great influence on the overall game. Examples of this include taking the role of a gunner while the GameCube player pilots the vehicle (e.g. manning the belly guns on the Millennium Falcon), mission director in strategic/stealth based FPS (i.e. real-time Rainbow Six like planning though your buddy would be taking the bullets), or a real-world hacker who helps players in a virtual world (e.g. Tank opening doors or dropping in equipment for Neo in a Matrix game). Besides probable technical hurdles, putting this sort of gameplay in GameCube games requires players to have a GBA to get the most out of a game, although a picture in picture solution could also be applied here but that could be awkward. Hopefully, the new gameplay experiences offered would compel GameCube owners to get a GameBoy Advance so that this would not be a problem so that the main problem would be the technical skills required to create simultaneous gameplay. Given that multiplayer split screen gameplay (running the same game multiple times) has been done for some time now, doing simultaneous gameplay on the GameBoy Advance should be feasible as the GBA game is likely to be simpler than the GameCube’s game.

Using the GBA to display data that could otherwise be shown on the TV screen (e.g. radar, map) would seem like a gimmick more so than an actual gameplay enhancement. Glancing down to the GBA screen or even worse, switching between GameCube controller to GBA seems like it’d be more a hassle and not very fun.

There’s the assumption that the screen will be used in the GBA-GCN interaction, but will this really be the case? There is no reason why only the buttons would be used on the GBA, but doing so would seem to disregard the 1 advantage that the GBA has over the normal GameCube controller rendering the usage of the GBA as an ineffectual fancy. The only other exclusive quality that the GBA has is its ability to read cartridges. Perhaps this could offer an interesting idea where the GBA-cart combo works in a dynamic way that sends info from both the buttons and cartridge in the GBA to interact with a GameCube game.

What is the point of the using the GBA in gameplay if there is not simultaneous action? If there is a complete stoppage of action on 1 unit while the other proceeds, why not just have the action take place on 1 unit (the GameCube)? Why make the user switch from the GameCube controller to the GBA if the action on the GameCube stops while the GBA gameplay occurs? In other words, if playing an RPG with combat that takes place outside of the regular map, it doesn’t make sense to make the user switch from the normal controller to the GBA just to fight on the smaller screen. This is stupid! If this was done, the action should still occur on the TV, but the GBA should work like an enhanced controller (see use #5). A battle would be triggered on the main map and during the transition to the combat map, the user could switch from GCN controller to the GBA. Here the GBA’s screen can be useful with an at-the-ready menu screen. This sort of interaction makes full use of the GBA’s unique features as a controller while also providing the user with an easy point of transition from one controller to the other.

If the interaction between GBA-GCN is not simultaneous, couldn’t the actions on the GBA just take place on the TV? The GBA would be nothing more than a gimmicky menu, sub-screen, mini-game or whatever that could just as easily be done on the TV and the GCN rather than a handheld gaming device. When looking at GBA-GCN real-time interaction, one needs to compare the GBA not with the GameCube itself, but rather the GameCube controller. The GameCube Controller, after all, is what the GBA will be substituted for, not the console itself. Unlike the GBA-GCN non-real-time game interactions (where the nature of the 2 consoles should be considered), the GBA-GCN real-time interaction focuses on the units as controllers, so the nature of data input/output should be considered. Non-real-time interaction focuses on games, the types of data they can swap, and how they can affect one another. Real-time interaction changes the equation. In this case, the GBA is more likely to act purely as a controller relative to the GameCube game.

Ideas #s 3-5 offer the more interesting possibilities for real-time GBA-GCN interaction. Ideas 1 and 2 seems to be gimmicky or limited in their practical applications. The later 3 ideas have the potential to create many new and diverse types of interactions for users.

The main problem with outputting game critical information on the GBA screen is that it forces the player to divert attention from the TV where the actual gameplay takes place. Forcing the player to look at a secondary display seems like it is more likely to detract from a gameplay experience than enhance it. Where is the fun in looking down at a GBA just to see a map or radar? While there may be some novelty to having to focus on 2 displays, the actual entertainment value of such a system seems dubious to me. If such a system was to be used, it would be critical to make the information displayed on the GBA very easy to read and understand. Ideally a player should just have to glance quickly at the GBA display so that all attention is not completely diverted from the main gameplay on the TV. Should closer inspection of the GBA or actual manipulation of the GBA be required of the player, gameplay on the TV should change to accommodate the player’s shifting focus.

After having examined some possibilities closely, it seems that simultaneous gameplay on the GBA and GameCube is the most rewarding type of interaction.