by Lara Roberts

Created on: August 18, 2009

The GameBoy Advance, colloquially known as the GBA, is a handheld gaming console created by Nintendo. As an upgrade to their previous handhelds - namely the original, chunky, black-and-white GameBoy, and the slimmer, more stylish GameBoy Color - the Advance had very high expectations upon its release in 2001. Gamers waited with bated breath to see what the pioneers of handheld gaming had created. And they were not dissapointed.

To many GameBoy veterans, Nintendo's decision to throw out the simple, rectangular block shape favoured by the original GameBoy and the Color was totally unexpected. Far longer sideways than it is tall, and curved around the two sides to make it fit better into the player's hands, the GBA made a surprising, but pleasant change from having to clamp your fingers around the brick that comprised the original consoles.
Along with this was the fact that despite the complete image overhaul, the GBA used the same buttons, in almost the same places, as the GameBoy, making it much easier for those who had been playing handhelds for years to make the transition up to the next generation of console. Similarly, the design is such that even young children could easily pick up on the control system and play - a big bonus if what you're looking for is commercial success.

Having noted the looks, what is the next thing a gamer will look at? Nothing else but the games available for the console. And right from the start, the GBA had great games in buckets. Unlike most new consoles, the GBA had the joy of new games for some of gaming's most well-known series' ready to go almost as soon as it was released - this gamer in particular remembers receiving a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance with her own GBA. Combine that with such games as Super Mario Bros. (and the hundreds of spin-offs that entails, including Golf, Tennis, Party and Dr. Mario) The Legend of Zelda (a classic), and the newbie RPG Golden Sun, and you're on to an instant winner.

And let us not forget - not only did the GBA have all of these new games, but it was backwards-compatible. So all of those games you enjoyed so much could now be played on your shiny new handheld, albeit looking a bit ridiculous as the cartridge would stick out over the top of the machine (all GBA cartridges are about 1/3 the size of a regular GameBoy one). And even better, all you needed for roughly 14 hours of gaming were two AA batteries!

Quite simply, the reason the GBA was so successful was because it was good. Admittedly, it helped that there were no real competitors at the time - Nintendo pretty much had the market cornered as far as hendhelds went. I mean, does anyone really remember the Nokia N-Gage? Or the Neo Geo Pocket Color? If you were to ask pretty much anyone what handheld they remember from the early 2000s, it would more than likely be the GameBoy Advance. And with good reason - good games, a comfortable console, backwards-compatibility, long life ... what more could a gamer ask for?

And if you don't believe me, check out the figures. Nintendo sold no less than 81.48 million units of the GBA and its eventual image overhauls, the GameBoy Advance SP and the GameBoy Micro. That's a lot of GameBoys.

Learn more about this author, Lara Roberts.
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