Well, the Game Boy Advance launch is just around the corner and Majesco was kind enough to let members of the gaming media take a peek at what's in store. Of the games shown, 3 were fully playable: Earthworm Jim, Iridion 3D, and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventures. The others (Fortress, F-14 Tomcat, and Dark Arena) were briefly demoed but still needed some work before they were fully playable.

Since this was my first hands-on experience with the GBA and thus have no other games to compare with Majesco's, it's hard to make a good assessment of the games' graphics. However, if all GBA games look this good, gamers should be in handheld heaven. I've seen screens and movies online like most readers, but actually seeing the bright, crisp graphics running on a compact handheld before your eyes is very impressive. On the whole, I'd say the games looked at least comparable to high-end SNES games. Of the 3 playable games, Iridion 3D was the prettiest, though the other 2 looked nice too.

The sound in the games was a mixed bag, though. Admittedly, the sound in Earthworm Jim and Pitfall weren't done yet, so they offered a very limited sample of what to expect on the audio front. Iridion 3D had some nice techno beats to accompany the frenzied shooting action, though I found some of the firing noises to be a bit too generic for my tastes. They didn't sound bad per se, I'd just prefer sounds with more depth. Another thing to consider is that the room wasn't exactly quiet. If I'd had headphones, I'd feel better about judging the overall sound quality. As it stands now, it's certainly well above GBC quality, but I don't know how it matches up with the SNES.

As far as gameplay is concerned, they all played pretty well, but Earthworm Jim was the clear winner. It's a solid port of the SNES platform/adventure classic, so you've got the same great gameplay in handheld form. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventures played like an old-school 2D platform/adventure game, but the experience wasn't as compeling as EWJ. I felt the same about Iridion 3D, too. The controls were solid and the game played pretty well, but the overall feeling wasn't much different than an old-school 2D shooter.

In defense of the gameplay, these launch games are likely meant to harken back to the good old days of SNES 2D gaming while the developers cut their teeth on the new handheld. One man's "tired gameplay" is another's "classic gameplay". I guess Earthworm Jim is the most "classic" of the bunch to me which is probably why it was the most compelling.

Overall, I'm even more eager for the Gameboy Advance than ever. Majesco's games certainly show-off nice graphics and it seems like they're quickly getting the hang of working with the GBA. Of the launch games, I expect to buy Earthworm Jim from just a brief 15 minutes of gameplay and I'll keep an eye out on the other 2. They're certainly pretty and Iridion kicks out a cool beat. If the gameplay improves a bit (or maybe if I just play them a little more to uncover more gameplay), they could be keepers, too.