X-Entertainment | The GBA SP Classic, reviewed.

The GBA SP Classic, reviewed.

Remember that gigantic inflatable Spider-Man I picked up in the carnival article? I still haven't found the correct spot for it. Amazing, I know, it being a 7' bulky inflatable Spider-Man and all. Looks like it'd make a great pool raft. I don't have a pool. The preceding was an obvious lead-in to this article on the Game Boy Advance SP Classic, the retro-themed portable system complete with a nice library of classic NES titles. I'm definitely down with this one, even after blowing so much cash on games I'll play 1-3 times. Judging from the Amazon-100 poll in the last entry, I'm not the only one who likes licking this machine. More stuff coming to the blog tonight...

Posted by Matt on 07/18/2004. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 211 comments

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First comment woot!

btw the thing is nice and there are many more games on the way ^_-

Chestnuts roasted by gamersource @ 07/18/2004 1:04 PM

oh and Matt, good luck with the job and keep the articles coming between your condiment fetish…err, I mean your desk job… ;>

Chestnuts roasted by gamersource @ 07/18/2004 1:06 PM

Damn, makes me want to go out and buy one, I need a job!

Chestnuts roasted by JakeofJustLeft @ 07/18/2004 1:17 PM

Matt, you may not have noticed, but the GameBoy Advance screen is relativly wider than a TV screen (with the exception of widescreen TVs). The games have been altered to fit the screen. Yes, that’s right, I just wanted to have a very early post. Oh, and of course an obligatory congratulation on your totally tubular new job. Make us proud!

Chestnuts roasted by Tougi @ 07/18/2004 1:22 PM

I’ve had the NES hooked up to one of those off-centered old TVs where the screen doesn’t show the tail left or right. I would never have noticed that.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/18/2004 1:27 PM

I so need one of these machines. My current GBA is just a regular one, and the L and R buttons don’t work as well as they used to.

Chestnuts roasted by Freezair @ 07/18/2004 1:41 PM

Hmm…but it doesn’t seem to replace the old bulky NES. It’s cool, but not really old-school.

Chestnuts roasted by Walks @ 07/18/2004 1:46 PM

I bought one of those a while ago, and they’re definitely awesome! If you’re looking for Super Mario Bros. 2-3 and Super Mario World, they’re out there already somewhere, albeit in re-make form rather then retro form.

Chestnuts roasted by Lone_Psycho @ 07/18/2004 1:53 PM

Here is the http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/be3f81a8-5397-4fde-b88b-db5b00bd6dad.mov">commercial

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 07/18/2004 1:54 PM

The second, I tell you, the damned second Mike Tyson’s Punchout is released for that little bastard, I’m on board.

Chestnuts roasted by Teh Travo @ 07/18/2004 1:54 PM

I can’t be the only one who thinks this whole thing is a massive ripoff, right? There are so many cheaper alternatives to play the games:

- Go on eBay or find a garage sale.
- Unlock them in Animal Crossing for the Gamecube.
- Buy them for about $5 for the e-Reader, also for the GBA.
- Suck it up and download some ROMs.

I will admit that the NES SP is damned cool, and there’s no reason not to buy one if you don’t already have an SP (Which is a lot better than the old GBA thanks to the light and compact size).

Chestnuts roasted by Behonkiss @ 07/18/2004 2:09 PM

BTW: Best Easter egg ever, Matt.

Chestnuts roasted by Behonkiss @ 07/18/2004 2:11 PM

There is an absolutely insipid ad running somewhere that keeps locking my browser while it downloads something.

That said, that stuff is way too expensive. I know tiny color LCD screens don’t grow on trees, but then $20.00 each for games? I figured they would come bundled at least.
My NAMCO 6 in one is on sale at Wall Mart for $13.00 and plays an absolute perfect arcade rendition of PAC-MAN (and some other crappy Gallaga knockoffs) all the way down to that glitch that occasionally lets you pass through the red ghost "Shadow/Blinky."

The Atari one is on sale too, but I have resisted it mostly because I didn’t much like the games when we had our 2600. I need one with Pitfall and Choplifter.

I got to thinking about your Spidey problem and realized that I don’t know what the hell I’d do with that either and I have a house. I suppose you could put it in your passenger seat, then you could drive in the carpool lane. If you have a car, that is. Or carpool lanes.

Chestnuts roasted by klatubaradanikto @ 07/18/2004 2:15 PM

The e-reader stuff looked fun, but I’d rather just pay and have it solid than deal with all those little breakable things. Plus, mega manuals. I tend to think the price of the games will go down, though…maybe by round 3 or so. There’s gotta be more money made in selling a shitload of ten buck games than selected twenty buck ones. I wouldn’t by, say, Ghosts N’ Goblins for 20, but I’d definitely buy it for 10. Not sure how much these things cost to produce, tho.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/18/2004 2:16 PM

Klat: I’ve got the Atari 10-in-1. It’s cool, but seriously lost its appeal within half an hour. It’s the kind of thing that’s better to give as a gift than buy for yourself, if that makes sense.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/18/2004 2:18 PM

Why pay for NES games portable when I can play them for free on a better quality handheld with a bigger screen, Better controls, better audio, and for free with savestates?

GP32 is a retro gamer’s wet dream.

http://www.gp32x.com for more info people.

Chestnuts roasted by PsychoJ @ 07/18/2004 2:25 PM

God, I love Excitebike. My original cartridge crapped out on me sometime in the early 90s, and everytime I’ve bought a repackaged cartridge, it’s been a dud. When I found it as a rom, I could have peed my pants with excitement. So even if it is a cynical cash-in on nostalgic old games, it’s kinda cool that the games have been reissued.

That said, I’m not sure I’d spend the cash to buy the retro GBA SP, with or without the rom. I like my classic NES, but I’m not one of the purists who turns their nose up at the new-fangled games like GTA, either. I’d probably spend the cash on GTA: San Andreas and live without portable Classic NES.

Chestnuts roasted by Molten @ 07/18/2004 2:27 PM

Oh Matt, the reason weird games like Xevious and junk are part of the series is because they were voted on by readers of the japanese version of Nintendo Power, and those games were much more timeless & popular over there. Trust me, the second & third batches of the "Famicom Mini Series" have even weirder titles than the first (which was turned into the Classic NES Series).

Just to help with the confusion.

Chestnuts roasted by Evin @ 07/18/2004 2:34 PM

It would be pretty cool, if it had Castlevania and Metroid, but it doesn’t. What classic NES series doesn’t have Castlevania and Metroid?

Chestnuts roasted by Jason @ 07/18/2004 2:35 PM

Thanks, Evin. I had Xevious for one of the Atari systems. I remember blowing up gray things in a desert zone, but that’s about it.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/18/2004 2:37 PM

No problem.

In case anyone was interested, the other games that have been released in the series on their side of the pacific are:

Adventure Island
Balloon Fight
Bomberman
Castlevania
Clu Clu Land
Dig Dug
Dr. Mario
Famicom Mukashibanashi: Shin Onigashima
Famicom Tantei Club: Keita Koukeisha
Famicom Tantei Club Part II: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shoujo
Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Douchuu
Ghosts ‘n Goblins
Kid Icarus
Mappy
Metroid
Mobile Suit Gundam: Z Gundam Hot Scramble
Nazo no Murasamejo
SD Gundam World: Gachapon Senshi Scramble Wars
Star Soldier
Super Mario Brothers 2
TwinBee
Wrecking Crew
Zelda II: Adventures of Link

There’s Metroid & Castlevania for you, Jason.

Chestnuts roasted by Evin @ 07/18/2004 2:41 PM

OH, and I forgot to mention: Remember that the Japanese Super Mario Brothers 2 is what we know as "The Lost Levels" that came with Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES. What we know as Super Mario 2, they know as "Super Mario USA."

See, when Nintendo made Super Mario 2, they realized that it was very, very different than the first. Instead of risk complete failure in North America, they first released it in Japan (with different sprites and less impressive graphics [as it obviously came out earlier]) as Doki Doki Panic!, just to see if a large gaming market would accept such a strange game. When it sold well in Japan, they retooled it, updated it a bit, and released it stateside as Super Mario 2, giving Japan a rehashed & more challenging Super Mario 1 style game instead (which explains why, despite it being packaged here as ‘lost’ levels from the original, it had fundemental differences, such as the ‘poison’ mushrooms.)

Most people think that Super Mario 2 as we know it was just Nintendo being lazy and ripping off someone else’s game that no one here would ever see, but that’s not the case. Neat, huh?

Chestnuts roasted by Evin @ 07/18/2004 2:48 PM

this just makes me wish i had a TV to plug my old skool NES into. fuck the new school.

Chestnuts roasted by DannyHavok @ 07/18/2004 2:59 PM

Holy shit, Matt. I just bought an NES Edition GBA SP like 3 days ago, now I find you reviewing it??? GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by A-wel Cruiz @ 07/18/2004 2:59 PM

BTW, sweet easter egg. I love 80s music. Incidently, Yaz is Yazoo in Europe, since Yazoo was the name of an American record label at the time.

I’ll certainly be buying Legend of Zelda, and possibly Excitebike (you can save your custom tracks now. YAY!), but I won’t be buying Pac-Man. Not when Pac-Man Collection is available on GBA for the same price as NES Series Pac-Man, and features four different Pac-Man games. Or Namco Museam, which has 5 games including the vastly supperior Ms. Pac-Man, and costs even less. Ya gotta be a smart shopper.

Chestnuts roasted by A-wel Cruiz @ 07/18/2004 3:19 PM

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