The best thing about the GBA SP is the front light. To enjoy playing anything on the original GBA, I had to play under a lampshade with the shade turned up, and if I wasn’t properly positioned, the light wouldn’t be focused right, and end up causing a glare on parts of the screen. Somehow I managed to get through both Zelda Oracle games, most of Castlevania: CoTM, Zelda: ALttP, and Metroid Fusion on the handheld. When I got the GB Player addon for the Gamecube, it was very enjoyable to play GBA games and see everything on my vibrant TV. The front light can be switched off, though aside from saving the battery while the GBA is on and not in use, there’s no reason to play without the light.
I like how the SP has a compact design, the handheld folds open to show the screen and protect it while not in use, so putting it in your pocket won’t damage the screen. The feel of the buttons is more clicky than the pushy feeling of the original GBA, including the d-pad which I didn’t care for at first, but it works. L and R are positioned on the top of the square design and actually feel easier to use than the original GBA’s layout.
No more worrying about buying new batteries, it uses a rechargable lithium battery thats suppose to provide about 10 hours of play with the light on, and supposedly only takes 3 hours to fully recharge. The AC adapter that plugs directly into the GBA like a rechargeable cell phone is also compact, the electrical plug folds into the plastic unit so you won’t have the two metal prongs sticking out when storing it. With the addition of the recharge port is the loss of the headphone jack, an adapter that plugs into the recharge port has to be bought seperately.
I’ve had a slight interest in getting a SP, but already having a GBA that I hardly use and a GB Player it hadn’t been worth it for me. I originally got my GBA the day it launched to play Zelda: Oracle of Seasons for the GBC, since I had skipped on the GBC’s generation, and the GB Player kinda made my GBA obsolute since I didn’t travel much. But Nintendo’s push of the nostalgic Classic NES design finally enticed me to pick it up, plus Four Swords Adventures needed GBAs. The design on the controller area looks just like an NES controller, and the outside of the unit even has a simple line design to represent the textured top of the NES.
A picture of every angle you could ever want of the Classic NES GBA SP here.
After buying my SP and eyeing the shelf full of NES Classic games, the sales clerk suggested I get a game to go along with my NES themed GBA, and game I did get. Gotta have The Legend of Zelda. The only other NES Classic GBA game I’d really consider getting is Super Mario Bros., if only because the Game Boy Color version of it tends to be frustrating and unenjoyable because of the cropped screen.
I’ve played through the first quest of Zelda so far, and the game looks and feels the same as the NES version. Because of the GBA’s resolution of 240×160 compared to the NES’ of 256×224, NES games have to be squished to fit the screen, but it doesn’t effect Zelda noticably at all. They managed to keep it close to the look of the original by squishing the background graphics, while keeping the sprites the same size, probably possible because of the top-down style of the game. The title screen music theme sounds slightly different than it did on the NES, but its only a minor instrument variation. All of the sound effects sound the same, including Link’s sword beam, where in the Gamecube version, it sounded a bit muffled. The only thing I think they didn’t need to change, as silly as it sounds, is the intro text. Sure its more coherent now and “Ganon” is spelled correctly, but it just feels kinda needless considering it made enough sense and that English text was originally from the Japanese version.
No special gold treatment for the cartridge this time. To go along with the original NES boxart style games like Super Mario Bros. they used for this GBA series, they gave the box art a black background, and made the shield art gold. Although the manual is printed mainly in black and white, it was nice to see it reproduce some bits from the original Legend of Zelda manual such as the tip story with artwork scenes and enemy and item lists.
Its been very enjoyable to play a bit of Zelda on my GBA each night. I know about most everything in the first quest of the game, except for that one heart container that always alludes me, and this game never gets old, even after 18 years or so. I still die about 10 times by the end, but I’ll get 0 on the counter someday!
With the GBA SP’s design and good lighting solution, its a great little system that can just be picked up at anytime, anywhere, to easily playing video games. This is of course what Game Boy has always been about, but for the first time since the original Game Boy, its fun for me.
Nintendo.com is running a survey to get some ideas for possible games for the next series of NES Classic games. Bring on Contra, Adventures of Lolo, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, please!
Most of my intial time on my GBA SP was spent playing Metroid Zero Mission again on hard, this time with a slightly lower item percentage of 14%… and I’m having a bit of trouble in Tourain with getting by the Metroids. I skipped the high jump boots this time, and with that the super missile in Brinstar. Last time I noticed I usually got more regular missile refills than super missiles so I opted for another missile tank. Too bad Metroids take 5 missiles when I’ve only got 4 at a time! There’s like 1/3 more Metroids in each room on hard, and they don’t stay frozen for long. Once they latch onto you, they just don’t want to let go. Compared to playing it on my Gamecube, the LCD screen of the GBA makes the graphics nice and sharp, and the GBA’s digital pad makes Samus’ movement feel more quick, but I feel that I better control using the GC controller. L and R on the SP are easy to press, so much so on the small handheld that my right finger would sometimes unintentionally press R and I’d waste my missiles. I should be able to do OK once I get past the Metroid rooms. Zero Mission’s Metroids, especially on hard, really puts Super Metroid’s to shame. Since I had played the majority of Zero Mission on my bright TV, I was used to seeing the Metroids zoom in as they appeared. Playing it on the SP was a bit darker, so in some cases I wouldn’t see the Metroids until they had come close, and I’d be standing right where they entered. Maybe the game was meant to be played in a darker tone to get this effect?
Metroid.jp has updated with some nice concept art for Kraid, Ridley, Chozos, and Samus Aran.
If you live in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington D.C. and are interested in getting into the game industry, The Game Intiative is having its “How to Break into the Game Industry” conference next Saturday. Sounds like fun.
The Minibosses finally update the music of their site with the addition of a live version of Ninja Gaiden and it is good.
I like how the SP has a compact design, the handheld folds open to show the screen and protect it while not in use, so putting it in your pocket won’t damage the screen. The feel of the buttons is more clicky than the pushy feeling of the original GBA, including the d-pad which I didn’t care for at first, but it works. L and R are positioned on the top of the square design and actually feel easier to use than the original GBA’s layout.
No more worrying about buying new batteries, it uses a rechargable lithium battery thats suppose to provide about 10 hours of play with the light on, and supposedly only takes 3 hours to fully recharge. The AC adapter that plugs directly into the GBA like a rechargeable cell phone is also compact, the electrical plug folds into the plastic unit so you won’t have the two metal prongs sticking out when storing it. With the addition of the recharge port is the loss of the headphone jack, an adapter that plugs into the recharge port has to be bought seperately.
I’ve had a slight interest in getting a SP, but already having a GBA that I hardly use and a GB Player it hadn’t been worth it for me. I originally got my GBA the day it launched to play Zelda: Oracle of Seasons for the GBC, since I had skipped on the GBC’s generation, and the GB Player kinda made my GBA obsolute since I didn’t travel much. But Nintendo’s push of the nostalgic Classic NES design finally enticed me to pick it up, plus Four Swords Adventures needed GBAs. The design on the controller area looks just like an NES controller, and the outside of the unit even has a simple line design to represent the textured top of the NES.
A picture of every angle you could ever want of the Classic NES GBA SP here.
After buying my SP and eyeing the shelf full of NES Classic games, the sales clerk suggested I get a game to go along with my NES themed GBA, and game I did get. Gotta have The Legend of Zelda. The only other NES Classic GBA game I’d really consider getting is Super Mario Bros., if only because the Game Boy Color version of it tends to be frustrating and unenjoyable because of the cropped screen.
I’ve played through the first quest of Zelda so far, and the game looks and feels the same as the NES version. Because of the GBA’s resolution of 240×160 compared to the NES’ of 256×224, NES games have to be squished to fit the screen, but it doesn’t effect Zelda noticably at all. They managed to keep it close to the look of the original by squishing the background graphics, while keeping the sprites the same size, probably possible because of the top-down style of the game. The title screen music theme sounds slightly different than it did on the NES, but its only a minor instrument variation. All of the sound effects sound the same, including Link’s sword beam, where in the Gamecube version, it sounded a bit muffled. The only thing I think they didn’t need to change, as silly as it sounds, is the intro text. Sure its more coherent now and “Ganon” is spelled correctly, but it just feels kinda needless considering it made enough sense and that English text was originally from the Japanese version.
No special gold treatment for the cartridge this time. To go along with the original NES boxart style games like Super Mario Bros. they used for this GBA series, they gave the box art a black background, and made the shield art gold. Although the manual is printed mainly in black and white, it was nice to see it reproduce some bits from the original Legend of Zelda manual such as the tip story with artwork scenes and enemy and item lists.
Its been very enjoyable to play a bit of Zelda on my GBA each night. I know about most everything in the first quest of the game, except for that one heart container that always alludes me, and this game never gets old, even after 18 years or so. I still die about 10 times by the end, but I’ll get 0 on the counter someday!
With the GBA SP’s design and good lighting solution, its a great little system that can just be picked up at anytime, anywhere, to easily playing video games. This is of course what Game Boy has always been about, but for the first time since the original Game Boy, its fun for me.
Nintendo.com is running a survey to get some ideas for possible games for the next series of NES Classic games. Bring on Contra, Adventures of Lolo, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, please!
Most of my intial time on my GBA SP was spent playing Metroid Zero Mission again on hard, this time with a slightly lower item percentage of 14%… and I’m having a bit of trouble in Tourain with getting by the Metroids. I skipped the high jump boots this time, and with that the super missile in Brinstar. Last time I noticed I usually got more regular missile refills than super missiles so I opted for another missile tank. Too bad Metroids take 5 missiles when I’ve only got 4 at a time! There’s like 1/3 more Metroids in each room on hard, and they don’t stay frozen for long. Once they latch onto you, they just don’t want to let go. Compared to playing it on my Gamecube, the LCD screen of the GBA makes the graphics nice and sharp, and the GBA’s digital pad makes Samus’ movement feel more quick, but I feel that I better control using the GC controller. L and R on the SP are easy to press, so much so on the small handheld that my right finger would sometimes unintentionally press R and I’d waste my missiles. I should be able to do OK once I get past the Metroid rooms. Zero Mission’s Metroids, especially on hard, really puts Super Metroid’s to shame. Since I had played the majority of Zero Mission on my bright TV, I was used to seeing the Metroids zoom in as they appeared. Playing it on the SP was a bit darker, so in some cases I wouldn’t see the Metroids until they had come close, and I’d be standing right where they entered. Maybe the game was meant to be played in a darker tone to get this effect?
Metroid.jp has updated with some nice concept art for Kraid, Ridley, Chozos, and Samus Aran.
If you live in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington D.C. and are interested in getting into the game industry, The Game Intiative is having its “How to Break into the Game Industry” conference next Saturday. Sounds like fun.
The Minibosses finally update the music of their site with the addition of a live version of Ninja Gaiden and it is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment