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Nintendo Gameboy Advance, In Advance
IEEE1394 writes "The Gameboy Advance is due to be released in North America on June 11, 2001. Many reviews of the Japanese units have been done, but I haven't seen one of the North American unit. Futurelooks has snagged a unit and some games recently and has done a thorough review of the unit. Hopefully this will help some of you folks figure out if you should run to your closest Circuit City in the U.S., or Futureshop in Canada to buy it. For a hundred bucks, it's a steal, so you know I'm there! Check it out!" Now if only that screen was touch sensitive;)
I respectfully disagree. As far as the market for portable consoles goes, Gameboy has been a bigger success than anyone anticipated. It was introduced in 1990, and shortly after it had competition from Sega and Turbografix, neither of which sold well despite having color screens.
The Gameboy has survived for 10 years with only one upgrade (color) since it was introduced. That's better than any console in the history of video games. I think this says something fundamental about the handheld console market - people don't always want the best hardware as long as they can play games with high replay value (I suspect bundling Tetris with the Gameboy had a lot to do with its early success).
If all people want is a game that they can play riding in the car, or between classes, or sitting in a doctor's office, they don't want to carry around 3d goggles, custom input devices, etc. They want to carry as few items as possible and buy stuff like light guns and goggles for their powerful home console.
You suggest that the GameBoy will lose the market if they don't provide these add-ons. I'm curious who you think they'll lose the market to: Sony or Microsoft? The Gameboy's marketshare makes Windows look like it's at death's door. If the GBA doesn't catch on, it won't be because of competition providing a better product, it'll be because people don't want the GBA.
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Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
I was able to preview one w/ the Super Mario game at Best Buy. The unit looks heavier than it feels. Even with the security cage and wire on it it felt VERY light in my hands.)
:-)
Standing there, under the warehouse high Flor. Lights the display was viewable and playable but it lacked contrast. I guess at that pricepoint, what can you expect. Maybe GameBoy Advanced TfT is in our future? With LithIon Batteries... hmmm... an organizer cartridge and some flashram...
As for the game itself, Super Mario was definitely NES / SNES Quality. So, step back in time and enjoy the 2D Graphics and Gameplay as you remembered them.
I did NOT like the placement of the DPAD controls and buttons in relation to the display. I only used it for a few minutes, but maybe they'd grow on me after a while. The problem was holding the unit at the right angle to light/see the display made the buttons seem out of place (and vice versa).
I sure wouldn't. Having to stick a CD player on the back would make it a lot bulkier and decrease the battery life.
Although having it double as a CD player (or even VCDs or -dare I say?- DVDs?) would be kinda cool, I think backwards compatibility with old Gameboy games is a nice touch. I still have fond memories of playing that Legend of Zelda game where he gets stuck on the island...
Actually, it just occurred to me that what would be *really* cool would be if Nintendo released "memory stick"-type cartridges that you could load with mp3s. Now THAT I would put down $100 for!
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
For a month or two now Electronics Boutique has had a special offer for preordering the GBA. "We don't want your money, we just want your business" or some tagline like that.
Instead of the usual $10 deposit for a game/system, you just signed up that you'ld like a GBA, a rechargable battery pack, and three games of your choice from the launch titles. So they got dozens of people 'signed up' for pre-orders.
The reason they're doing it without charging, from what I've read, is because Nintendo's trying their usual 'supply issues' speech like they've done with every system.
This will probably be said several times here, but I'll say it anyway. Nintendo may not have the highest game count, but the games they do have are always great with good replay value. Take F-Zero for instance, I was considering buy a SNES from eBay just to play this game again (and a few others). For the GB Advance, they just made it portable (F-Zero : Maximum Velocity or something like that). A game that is what, 10 years old? They didn't have to spice it up or add guns and blood, they just shrunk it down for their new system. That's why Nintendo rules.
Anyway, for some good eye candy (both GBA and Game Cube), check out Nintendo's E3 site:
http://e3.nintendo.com
-ictatha
"... the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy" - Janov Pelorat
What I want is for nintendo to lower the barrier to entry for individual developers and small software shops. It's stil an extremely painful process to acquire a license for developing gb/gba games together with the SDK. If there was a handheld gaming console with a lower barrier to entry maybe we would see a lot more Open Source 2d games and lots more small game shops specialising in games for handhelds. I think Nintendo are stifling the market by making it so hard for enthusiasts to develop and distribute games on their platforms.
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.