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Yep that is right the Gameboy Advance disappoints me, again! It isn’t lack of any new innovative titles that disappoints me; it is lack of new and innovative titles from Nintendo that disappoints me. Nintendo’s second parties are great; RARE’s Saberwulf looks incredibly promising as does Gruntilda’s Revenge and Camelot’s Golden Sun series is shaping up nicely. Now my problem is that Nintendo themselves are letting the console down so far, it has been out a year and so far on Wario Land 4 is a totally new from them and that could have been done on the SNES. Nintendo said the console cannot do 3D and despite ID Software, SEGA and even Nintendo’s own second parties proving them wrong Nintendo are adamant it cannot do 3D and so therefore will not. So what do we get? Super Nintendo updates, Nintendo know the carts can fit more that the old SNES games so they remade F Zero with a few new tracks, they did make a new Mario kart but again in the SNES version’s image. They have re-released 2 Mario games with a few extra are as well, but it doesn’t matter. Despite this cruel start from Nintendo, Pokémon Advance will be released by the end of the year and with Kirby Tilt and Tumble planned it looked like Nintendo may be getting their act together. How wrong as I.
Starters lets look at Pokémon Advance, although graphics never bother me they are poor. Golden Sun was 10 times better and that is Nintendo’s second parties showing them up, yes its more superior to the colour versions, but not much. And Kirby Tilt and Tumble is only in development to advertise the Gamecube-GBA link up. And now I move onto E3, the final nail in the coffin for the GBA, three new Nintendo games were announced, Metroid Fusion, Mario Advance 3 and Zelda Advance. Zelda advance is, surprise surprise, the remake of the SNES classic with a 4-player mode and Metroid Fusion looks depressingly similar to the old SNES outings. And Mario Advance 3 is just Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. And so why is this the final nail in the coffin, did I not say 3rd and 2nd parties are being innovative? Well yes I did but the sad fact is these recycled Nintendo classics are the best games on the system, despite Super Monkey Ball Advance and Saberwulf being promising the remade Zelda and Mario are the best, because they are the greatest games in the world. The Gameboy Advance is the perfect opportunity for Nintendo to return to the glorious 2D gaming era, imagine Super Mario World 3 on the GBA! You can imagine all you like, because Mario Advance 4 is bound to be the Yoshi Story’s demo shown a good while ago.
A waste, the SNES era relived yes, but what did we want? The SNES era recreated or the SNES era continued, I know what I’d prefer.
Here's to the Future.
Dringo.
It's actually looking pretty awesome (even better than Super Metroid on the Snes - Samus' looks, animations and moves have all be polished up).
Still, I guess it takes more than one great game to make a show.
> A new Starfox game titled 'Star X' has been released, only to recieve
> poor and dissapointing reviews and scores.
> People were expecting Starwing from the SNES, or at least something
> reminisant of Lylat Wars, but this game falls too short of that.
That "star X" game is nothing to do with Starfox. It may be in a similar style to a starfox shooter but this aint no starfox game.
But games like that have longevitity, and you'll still be playing them this time next year!
But it is really dissapointing when you look at the new games coming out.
A new Starfox game titled 'Star X' has been released, only to recieve poor and dissapointing reviews and scores.
People were expecting Starwing from the SNES, or at least something reminisant of Lylat Wars, but this game falls too short of that.
There are games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom around, but they're nothing THAT special, as we saw them before 10 years ago. Sure, it's nice to be able to re-live them again, but it's just not the same on such a small screen.
Mario Advance 2 may be Mario World, but we've seen that before too. So again, we get the same problem, but it still sells due to the original's popularity.
I think that with the GameCube now being avalable, Nintendo are now tryng to come up with the link-able games we have been promised in the future.
I think we only have Sonic Advance and Adevnture 2: Battle at the moment, where-as Kirby and co. are all still to come in the future.
The GC link-up is one brilliant feature that is yet to be experienced by all gamers.
Everybody keeps telling me how great Zelda was on the SNES. Finally I'll get to play it on the GBA :)
The fact is Zelda and Metroid are huge franchises that have been innovated.
Roll a Rama, Animal Crossing, Eternal Darkness, Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion, Wario's world etc... original enough?
What are Ninty doing with their time? They haven't got any really, truelly, massively revolutionary games to warrant pushing out so many francises...
The only answer I can think of is that their "one game per month" policy is just a complete waste of time. Sure the Animal Forest is good, but does it warrant wasting franchises on? I think not.
Miond you, if it means we can see Starfox, Metroid, Zelda, Mario, F-Zero et al on one console at one time it can't be bad. After all, since the SNES days, development time has got so high that no one company could seriously make ALL these games!
Sonic
Anyway, yeah, the GBA games should focus more on continuing the SNES era, not remaking it. Ninty must still be able to create 2D masterpieces surely?
Why should their GBA departments bother to spend a few months on making some excellent new GBA game when, instead, they have an almost unlimitted supply of ports to make? In the time it takes them to make a totally new GBA game they could make plenty of SNES ports (assuming the dev kits allow easy porting, which I suspect to be true). This will generate just as much money for the GBA....
Which is exactly what Ninty looks like it is after- the GBA, with its guaranteed massive sales, is being used as a way to make money with which Ninty can push the GC through advertising, buying exclusive games, and putting more money into development.
Indeed, Ninty's GC strategy is bursting at the seems- just name the games that Ninty has "hired out". Everything from Starfox and Metroid right through to F-Zero. Their big goal is to make a massive killing in the console sector, bringing them back in line with Sony for the next console race.
So, for gamers like us, E3 is a massive disapointment on the GBA front. A lack of innovation, revolution and excitement makes you wonder what Ninty are doing. However, such losses in the GBA front are being made up in the GC front, which is the sector that Ninty needs to focus on.
Sonic