Topic: The Worst of the GBA - Revisited

[Crimm]

If we're going to celebrate the best of the GBA why not excoriate its worst?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/26405

Ten years ago, Nintendo unleashed the Game Boy Advance, their second handheld system, which they would retroactively and implicitly dub "The Second Pillar." A replacement for the core Game Boy line, which had plodded along for well more than a decade, the GBA would become Nintendo's major breadwinner during the dry times of the GameCube era. By the time it was finally put to rest in 2008 (final game in Europe and North America: Samurai Deeper Kyo), 949 titles had been released throughout the world and 81.5 million GBA units had been sold.

Nintendo World Report's very first reviews were for the earliest GBA games, and as the site grew so did the system's library (unrelated, obviously). An impressive 278 reviews were written for the handheld (games, hardware, and accessories). In commemoration of the GBA's 10 years, it seems appropriate to revisit some of these reviews. However, as we all know, it isn't a whole lot of fun to read a review for a game we already played and know was fantastic. The sadist in each of us would much rather read a review for game that is awful and we smartly avoided (Hello, Fear Factor) knowing that the reviewer threw him or herself at this hostile entity in order to shield us from it.

We've already trumpeted the best of the library, so let's indulge that dark corner of our being that revels in these bad games with a leery look back.

[TJ Spyke]

Game Boy Advance was their third handheld system (Game Boy Color was their second).

[Crimm]

Game Boy Advance was their third handheld system (Game Boy Color was their second).

Games forward compatible. Same system.

[AV]

Read the review to see Mike and his girlfriend in glorious .0000001 megapixels.

how much is the 3ds camera's ??

[TJ Spyke]

Sorry Crimm, but you are wrong on this. They are different systems.

[RABicle]

Jeff Shirley, what a legend, always volunteering to take the pain for the rest of us. I remember Ben's review of that's so Raven as well, so funny.

[Bman87301]

Game Boy Advance was their third handheld system (Game Boy Color was their second).

Games forward compatible. Same system.

I'm gonna have to side with TJ Spyke on this one-- GBC had its own unique hardware capabilities, it was definitely its own system and the successor to the original Game Boy hardware.

And WTF is "Games forward compatible" supposed to mean? While most GBC games were also compatible with GB as well, there were still plenty that were GBC-only. And the ones that were compatible with both did so by containing both GB and GBC versions in the same cartridge.

[ShyGuy]

Top ten worst.

[Crimm]

If the GBC is its own system the DSi is its own system.


Also "The Game Boy Family of systems"

[Bman87301]

If the GBC is its own system the DSi is its own system.


Also "The Game Boy Family of systems"

"If the GBC is its own system the DSi is its own system."-- that's an opinion, not a fact. Where's your factual data to back it up? Here's mine:

Unlike the GB and GBC, DS and DSi share the same processing hardware. Even though there's a couple of DSi exclusive game cards, they're only exclusive because the games depend on the DSi's special add-ons for gameplay, not because of lack of processing ability. That's not the case with GBC exclusive and GB-compatible cartridges. And aside from the rare DSi-exclusive cards, DSi harware depends on the same DS library that the standard DS models depend on. In that regard, they're just as alike the DS Phat to DS Lite-- just a different model of the same hardware that plays the same games.

Secondly, look at a website like GameFAQs, look how they categorize games by system-- GBC is separate from GB, while DSiWare (as well as the rare DSi cards) are grouped with DS-- not a separate category. This is the case with at least 80% of other such websites. I'd say the general consensus clearly seems to be that GBC was its own system, while the DS and DSi are not".


Game Boy/Pocket/Light= 1
Game Boy Color= 2
Game Boy Advance/SP/micro= 3
Nintendo DS/Lite= 4
Nintendo DSi/XL=4.5
Nintendo 3DS=5


"The Game Boy Family of systems"? What's that supposed mean? If you're suggesting GB and GBC are part of the "Game Boy Family" and GBA isn't, you clearly don't know what you're talking about.

[UltimatePartyBear]

I thought that picture of a cat was a picture of Ganondorf.

While we're celebrating the GBA, I'd like to mention to my favorite review on the site, Ty's review of Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak.  Not a good game, but not bad enough for this list, either.  I just enjoy Ty's gushing about the eeeevil Spat the Hamster.

Spat is the best video game villain ever. He has long and very evil monologues while his rad theme song plays - he's seriously the hamster version of Kefka.

[Crimm]

Excuse me, I'm too busy being correct. A NEW system means its games cannot be played on its predecessor. That's forward compatibility. This is not true of the VAST majority of games branded as "Game Boy Color" games. Those black carts worked just fine on the Game Boy.


On top of that, Nintendo marketed the Game Boy Color as a revision (not a new system, but "Now in Color!").


If you're going to discuss internals, the DSi has different internal bits as well.

[ShyGuy]

I always considered Game Boy Color to be a different system because it had different games. It's kind of annoying though, it probably shouldn't count.

[NWR_Neal]

If Game Boy Color is a new system, then the DSi is a new system as well. If you're okay with that conceit, then yes, you're right. However, you can't spin one yarn with one system, and then ignore that yarn with the other one, just because DSi-exclusive games sucked.

[Sagagadeogo09]

fun fact: ign gave Hot Potato  a 8/10, hence i'll NEVER TRUST'EM AGAIN!

[JasonMaivia]

I've always though of the Game Boy systems to be all different types of the same console.  Game Boy Pocket had a sleeker design, and Color added color.  In my opinion, the successor was the Game Boy Advance, where you saw new games that couldn't possibly be done on the GBC (except for the ports).


Where the Wii is its own console, seperate from the Gamecube, the Game Boy Color, to me, was only just an upgraded, redesigned Game Boy.
My argument also goes for the Wonderswan and NeoGeo Pocket.

[Aaron Barton]

Excuse me, I'm too busy being correct. A NEW system means its games cannot be played on its predecessor. That's forward compatibility. This is not true of the VAST majority of games branded as "Game Boy Color" games. Those black carts worked just fine on the Game Boy.

Game Boy carts that were the same as the old ones except black would work in either system, and were merely enhanced on the Game Boy Color.  However, Game Boy COLOR carts were different than that.  It doesn't really matter what the proportion of games that were released is (and I don't really know it).  Game Boy Color has a very good number of it's OWN games that cannot be played on its predecessor, and those games are even in physically different carts.


I don't know hard numbers, but I don't think the disparity between enhanced Game Boy games and Game Boy Color games was that dramatic.  Thinking back I remember many, many boxes with the "Only for Game Boy Color" label on the corner.

[NWR_Lindy]

This is a seriously awesome list.  That's SO Raven is classy.  I always feel bad for the designers, artists, and programmers that have to work on games like that.  I mean, can you actually imagine it being your job to get up every day and go to work to create That's SO Raven?  I couldn't handle that.  I seriously could not handle it.  I'd rather not be in the game industry at all.

[Crimm]

This is a seriously awesome list.  That's SO Raven is classy.  I always feel bad for the designers, artists, and programmers that have to work on games like that.  I mean, can you actually imagine it being your job to get up every day and go to work to create That's SO Raven?  I couldn't handle that.  I seriously could not handle it.  I'd rather not be in the game industry at all.

Can you imagine being told you have to make a sequel?