Fuchsia Game Boy Advance

Product Details

• ASIN: B00005J8EH
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,680 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Game Boy platform (which includes the original unit, the Game Boy Pocket, and the Game Boy Color) came to market when most video game consoles had a life expectancy of just a few years. More than a decade later, the system is still going strong. How did the Game Boy successfully compete--and in some cases bury--an onslaught of faster, more powerful handheld and home console systems? Let us count the ways: affordability, a huge library of games that consistently made the most of the hardware's limitations, smart power management that extended battery life, and uncluttered controls. But perhaps it was the system's ultraportable design that allowed devotees to play video games around their schedules, making it the must-have system for kids and adults alike.

Now the Game Boy Advance (or GBA as people are already calling it) comes to us with power that would have been unthinkable back in the day. The portable's 32-bit RISC CPU runs circles around the former's 8-bit workhorse, allowing it to process program instructions much faster. What that means to everyday gamers is more intricate visuals, more simultaneous movement on the screen, and better sound. In fact, the often-annoying beeps and boops of old-school Game Boy titles are being replaced with digitized stereo sound. The extra processing muscle also means you can even network up to four Game Boy Advance units together, via the communication cable, for multiplayer fun off of one shared cartridge. Only two Game Boy Color units could link together, and each unit had to have its own copy of the game.

What's not being replaced, however, is the wide selection of Game Boy games. Because the Game Boy Advance system is backward-compatible, it will play its own line of colorful games--including such launch titles as Super Mario Advance, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Army Men Advance, High Heat Major League Baseball 2002, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2--as well as all of the monochrome and color games that have already been released for the previous Game Boy systems (nearly 500 in total). Players can view the older games in their smaller, originally square dimensions, or, with the touch of the shoulder button, expand the game to fit the GBA's larger screen. We tried enlarging the screen on a Game Boy Color edition of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and found that Mr. Hawk was much easier to see.

When you first pick up the system, you'll be amazed at how lightweight it is. At fewer than 5 ounces and a little larger than a deck of playing cards, the system easily fits into a shirt pocket without any sag. The GBA's wider shape fits better into a wider range of hands. The former design too often pushed the left and right thumb knuckles together during gameplay. The new layout should be comfortable for all ages, and the center screen orientation makes it easy to see.

Game Boy Color owners will find the GBA's larger screen somewhat darker than they're used to, but that's because the screen is outfitted with antiglare technology. Like the old Game Boy Color, the color LCD is not backlit, so you need pretty good light to play by. Unlike that system, though, you won't be craning your neck and tilting the unit to see around the hot-spot reflection of the light bulb in your screen.

But you'll also notice the graphics. Sporting what's basically a redesigned SNES technology, you'll see things on the GBA that the big consoles do, such as scaling (making objects larger or smaller) and rotation effects--technological advances that will affect the look of everything from crossing a finish line to throwing a touchdown pass to crawling through a dungeon.

Some might argue that Nintendo could have tried to put even more power into this Game Boy Advance. After all, the 32-bit video game had its heyday more than five years ago. Perhaps, but after handling this new handheld, we're inclined to think that Nintendo wisely struck a balance between size, price, and power consumption. And considering how well the old 8-bit system weathered the decade's technological storms, we think the Game Boy Advance is here to stay, and we're glad. --Porter B. Hall

Unit Specifications

• CPU: 32-bit RISC CPU with embedded memory
• Screen: 2.9-inch reflective TFT color LCD
• Display Size: 1.6 by 2.4 inches (40.8 by 61.2 mm)
• Resolution: 38,000 pixels in a widescreen aspect ratio (10,000 per square inch)
• Colors: 512 simultaneous colors from a palette of 32,768
• Size: 3.2 by 5.6 by 1 inch (82 by 144.5 by 24.5 mm)
• Weight: Approximately 5 ounces (140 grams)
• Power Supply: 2 AA alkaline batteries
• Battery Life: Approximately 15 hours continuous play

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of pink, October 10, 2001

By	Bruce Aguilar (Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Simply put, the Game Boy Advance is the most powerful and has the most diverse library of games of any handheld system on the market. It's the cream of the crop. Oh, you might hear a few people complaining of a dark screen, but it's strengths far outweigh any of it's percieved weaknesses (besides you can always get an external light if you need to).

It's small (just slightly bigger than a Game Boy Color), is compatible with every Game Boy game made thus far (that's over 500 games!), and has in impressive line up of games all it's own. A few upcoming games like Sonic Advance and Kirby will feature the unique feature of hooking up to Nintendo's new home console, the GameCube. You'll be able to trade data or characters and, as is the case with Kirby, be able to flip play from the GBA screen to your TV and back again!

The horizontal configuration takes some getting used to after all those years of playing vertically, but it's a welcome change as we now have a larger screen. You'll also enjoy the two additional shoulder butttons for added depth in gameplay.

If you like videogames on the go, you can't be without the best one around, the GBA. Especially get the Fuchsia becasue it's milky, see through casing is cool and distinctive (plus that green power light looks so neat against the pink).

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Fuchsia!, November 27, 2001

By	Bruce Aguilar (Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Game Boy Advance (GBA) is the most powerful handheld gaming device on the market right now. Not only will it play the newest, most advanced games available, but it's compatible with all the other kinds of Game Boy games as well! You can even play original GB games in limited color and in a convienient streached mode that streaches the image to fill the large GBA screen. With games like Mario Cart Super Circuit, Castlevania, Harry Potter, and Tetris Worlds, GBA spans all ages and prefrences of gamers. Luckilly batteries last about 10 hours in this machine so you'll have lots of playing time. When the batteries start to fade the power light turns from green to red, then slowly fades giving you plenty of warning so you don't loose any progress you've made. There is even an adapter port that lets you attach an external light for playing in dimly lit areas (though it's best to play GBA under a lamp or in the sunshine). It seems Nintendo has thought of everything!

The only drawbacks are that the control pad can be a bit too small for larger hands and the left and right shoulder buttons take some getting used to. My hands cramped up a bit when I first strted playing, but after getting comfortable with the GBA these problems faded away.

Fuchsia GBA is the best color in my estimation becasue it's a harder color to find available. Also it's so cute and yummy looking that you just want to lick it and see if tastes like candy! I don't recomend doing that though! No matter what color you decide on though, you're sure to be enjoying it for years to come!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great, except one big strike against it., October 30, 2002

By	Anamika - See all my reviews

The new GBA is fantastic except for one glaring fault -- the LCD screen is not backlit. This makes it difficult to see what's going on. Even if you get a light to attach to it, it's still not the perfect solution because it reflects off the screen -- so you have one too-bright circle on your screen and the rest is still in the dark. So far it seems like playing in full sunlight gives the best light, but even then you still get some glare off the screen. It's a really annoying problem that could have easily been taken care of if Nintendo had just backlit the screen. There are some backlit kits you can buy yourself, such as Afterburner, but for most people, opening up the GBA and trying to solder stuff together is not an option. It also voids your warranty. If you want a backlit screen, you can find places online that sell GBAs with backlit kits already installed.