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The Nintendo DS & GBA thread


wakobi

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I managed to go to the stupid ign live event today, which for the most part was LAME, i feel sorry for anyone who paid to go(friend of mine had free tickets from his work) However the one shineing light in this puddle of crap was the nintendo ds kiosk, and mario kart DS.

My impressions? Mario kart DS is simply awesome in cartridge form, it plays like a cross between Mario kart 64 and SMK, plus the frame rate is silky smooth, drifting is a breeze. unfortunately the demo kiosk did not have the online part of it. but what i played i liked much. Mario Kart DS is essentially what Mk Double dash should have been. Nintendo you are well on your way to stealing my money once more.

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Awesome. I cant wait till Mk comes out. I will be on my wifi everynight. Anyone from MW that wants to race then send me a PM!

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OK, someone ejumacate me... what is this 8bit compatibility and why would I care? Does that mean it does not play the super old Gameboy games that you won't find anywhere outside of a thrift store or yard sale?

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Exactly.

The Gameboy Advance and GBA SP will play 99% of all the old 8-bit Gameboy and Gameboy Color games.

The GBA Micro and Nintendo DS will only play GBA games.

I think the Micro is neat.It has a killer screen(although that new GBA SP has a really nice one too!) and its small for pocket travel.

My problem with the GBA Micro is the price. Its too pricey and too soon right now. If it was 60-70 I would buy it. Till then I will be happy playing GBA on my DS.

ON a side note.

I picked up the GBA Play-Yan Micro cart. You buy this and an SD card up to 1gb and it makes your GBA/GBASP/GBAM/NDS into an MP3 and video player. Its awesome.

I recommend it if you want MP3 and video on your GBA.

http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/20...n-micro-review/

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Every Final Fantasy since has been lacking in at least one catagory, and complain about VIII all you want, Final Fantasy VII was the worst offender.  The game was ugly, most of the characters were under-developed, and the story made little or no sense.  I think most of its popularity is due to its fans' absurd obsession with Sephiroth.

I'll agree that most of the overzealous fans love the game because of an unnatural attraction to their favourite long haired, bare chested yaoi poster boy. However, I'll have to disagree with the rest. Still, I'll leave that discussion for another thread, this is all about our mutual love of the DS.

Currently, on the reccomendation of a good friend, Phoenix Wright is now second on my "to get" list only to Metroid Pinball. I'm a sucker for pinball games, and this one has got some pretty good reviews all across the board. Mario Kart will take the top spot as soon as it's released, though, and Sonic Rush will be up there, too.

I'm still waiting for Nintendo to release some information, any information at all, on the new 2D Metroid game in developement. One source, I believe it was EGM though and I don't really trust them too much, claimed the title would be 'Metroid: Dread'. Hopefully Nintendo will really push the 2D capabilities of the system with this game.

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OK, someone ejumacate me... what is this 8bit compatibility and why would I care? Does that mean it does not play the super old Gameboy games that you won't find anywhere outside of a thrift store or yard sale?

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Exactly.

It also won't play any original GameBoy and GameBoy Color games you find in GameStop and EB.

What this means to me is that I have to drag a GameBoy Color around for portable Qix, Tetris, Metroid 2, and Link's Awakening with my next upgrade. Sadly, I never got any GBC games worth owning.

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You mean they have never re-released Tetris since the original in 89/90? You'd think that would be a constant re-release goldmine.  :blink:

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Nintendo did a GBColor remake, then lost the rights.

I'm sure someone's done a GBA version since then.

But... honestly, I don't really see paying 20$ for a new copy of a game I already own 2 versions of(Nintendo NES + GBO). There's only so much you can add to the concept without making it into something else, and I quite like the original "pure" form.

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FF IV is probably the only one I really enjoy as well.

There was an interesting article in the last game-informer about whether or not videogames could make you cry.... it was mentioned that during the polling, many people brought up Aerith's death as a defining moment in video-game pathos. Supposedly the beauty of the graphics had a way of projecting the moment with total emotion... I fail to see why??? She was a piss-poor character from the beginning, and 3D polygon graphics had a LONG way to go before becoming what we see today. As I recall, Aerith's facial expression didn't even change when Sephiroth ran her worthless ass through (he should've beheaded her... THAT would've been dynamic!).

I nearly cried at the end of Terranimga; let's face it, you get the shaft at the end. :( But then I remembered I was a man and stopped myself.

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I picked up the GBA Play-Yan Micro cart. You buy this and an SD card up to 1gb and it makes your GBA/GBASP/GBAM/NDS into an MP3 and video player. Its awesome.

I recommend it if you want MP3 and video on your GBA.

How's the quality? When I think of video on the GBA, I can't help but think of the horrid GBA Video carts. I heard it uses MP4... you wouldn't happen to know if it comparable to to PSP quality (home-encoded vids for the Memory Stick, not the UMDs)? Also, how big is the Play-Yan? I'd never really considered this before, but this might be a way to smuggle a few eps of SEED Destiny to work...

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I'm actually more happy with my old GBA. I like the size of the shoulder buttons. It makes me feel like I'm holding an old snes controller.

And a smaller screen doesn't interest me. Nintendo deserve whatever criticism they get for not advancing thier tech enough between handheld releases.

It's one of the reasons why before the psp came out pretty much everyone was hoping for a company that would release a new more advanced handheld that wasn't underpowered for its time, and wouldn't die due to nintendo having a total monpoly on the handheld market. (eg NGPC whose best games I loved to death - such a shame it died :( )

Don't get me wrong and please don't take this as a nintendo bashing post, I love nintendo's software and games, but when they have an iron grip on a market, there is barely any incentive for them to push forward thier tech to a reasonable level for us tech and hardware freaks to get excited. And no other company that was in the same position as them would behave any differently. It's why we saw good advances in home console wars because of the competition to outdo the other guy. But pre-psp times, nintendo have had it easy for too long. I hope the psp eats through some of thier marketshare and we get some kind of balance of upgrading when good and better tech comes along, and not upgrading too often just to milk the people with too much disposable income on thier hands who hate the colour of thier old handheld and just want something new for the sake of it. (ie the girls who want a pretty new keychain :D )

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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It's one of the reasons why before the psp came out pretty much everyone was hoping for a company that would release a new more advanced handheld that wasn't underpowered for its time, and wouldn't die due to nintendo having a total monpoly on the handheld market. (eg NGPC whose best games I loved to death - such a shame it died :( )

Yah. I've got an NGPC too.

NGPC might would've toughed it out had SNK not been going through financial problems at the same time.

The Wonderswan DID last for a while, but there wasn't much effort expended on making it competitive past the GBColor.

On the upside, it ended the reign of the monochrome GB, and got us to the GBA.

Don't get me wrong and please don't take this as a nintendo bashing post, I love nintendo's software and games, but when they have an iron grip on a market, there is barely any incentive for them to push forward thier tech to a reasonable level for us tech and hardware freaks to get excited. And no other company that was in the same position as them would behave any differently.

Exactly why I drag the Gameboy out every time someone says "I wish everyone else would just quit making hardware and do Playstation games instead."

Monopolies are good for nobody but the person holding them.

I hope the psp eats through some of thier marketshare and we get some kind of balance of upgrading when good and better tech comes along, and not upgrading too often just to milk the people with too much disposable income on thier hands who hate the colour of thier old handheld and just want something new for the sake of it. (ie the girls who want a pretty new keychain :D )

The DS is the system to fight the PSP.

And I think it's a bit early to be upgrading it, unless you like cheesing off your existing users. Not quite a year old yet.

It can't thwomp a PSP, but it can hold it's own. I'd leave it be for another year or 2.

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IMO, the GBA should be dead now. The GBMicro shouldn't have been made, and they should've focused on the DS their exclusive portable system.

That would have been an *extremely* bad idea. The GBA is still and very viable, and more importantly profitable.

Sega learnt the hard way what happens when you prematurely an older system to focus on it's successor.

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IMO, the GBA should be dead now. The GBMicro shouldn't have been made, and they should've focused on the DS their exclusive portable system.

That would have been an *extremely* bad idea. The GBA is still and very viable, and more importantly profitable.

Sega learnt the hard way what happens when you prematurely an older system to focus on it's successor.

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Atari learned the hard way what happens when you have too many products in the same market.

They turned the 2600, XEGS, and 7800 all against the NES at the same time, and where one of them may have actually met with a degree of success, all 3 at once served only to subdivide their marketshare and confuse customers.

And the DS is ready.

This isn't like killing the Genesis for the Saturn here. It's like killing the NES for the SNES.

...

Actually, it's not even like that, as the DS can play ALL GBA GAMES, so even if the DS had no software, there'd still be GBA titles coming out.

So it's more like killing PS1 for PS2.

Edited by JB0
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I think what he means is software support will dry up because developers will assume everyone likes to upgrade.

There are those who only own a gba and will want constant stream of new gba games being made and not just rely on a legacy of back catalog stuff. The feeling that you still own an abandoned system because all the developers now want to make for the newer hardware.

The result is that it splits userbase up into chunks and developers are left to decide who is more important.

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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I think what he means is software support will dry up because developers will assume everyone likes to upgrade.

That was part of what I meant.

I also think it's absurd to continue to churn out new versions of the old system a year after introducing a replacement*.

Not that Nintendo's any stranger to this. They did the NES2/AVFamiCom well after the SNES. Sega at least can claim that Majesco did the Genesis 3 and they weren't involved.

But I don't think ANYONE has maintained two diffrently-named identical pieces of hardware at once alongside the replacement. If nothing else, they should pick A GBA, instead of maintaining the SP AND Micro at the same time.

* "ZOMG DS AM THIRD PILLAR!1111"

Right, and the Micro is the next-gen GameBoy. Sure. Uh-huh. Even at the height of their arrogance Nintendo wasn't that stupid.

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One thing nintendo do is surprise people alot. When the SP came out it fixed all the lighting probs from GBA. But it raised the question amoung critics: "Should GBA have been allowed to be released in its current state?"

Would kids unaware of a newer version of gba around the corner be mighty pissed at nintendo for not having things like lighting probs fixed from the start, and the world would be happier had they not been so eager to keep upgrading hardware?

If I were that little kid who got a GBA and then realised the new one just came out I would feel a little pissed too.

It would be like dvds, you just got what you thought was the latest release of your fave movie, but a more "ultimate edition" just came out yesterday with extra features you are interested in, which you also want but woud have bought over the older one, had you known about it earlier. As soon as you find out about the better version you are ready to sell what you already own to buy it. But it can be damn annoying knowing that the older version's weakness could have been fixed from the begining in the first release (ie consult the customers and ask for suggestions like what microsoft did when designing xbox) rather than remedied later.

This is similar to all those who were disapointed by rushed xbox software. The developers if given time to tweak a game know that they can make something move at a smoother framerate if allowed to delay release, but due to market demand it is rushed forward and only has a 30fps framerate and is less refined than what it could have been given a little more time. One thing I regret about buying my gba was that it wasn't so great with dark games. But when sp came out I could totally understand and sympathise with all those other early adopters and see how they felt, because these were the very people who complained about the little flaws of gba screen in the begining, but were bashed by nintendo fanboys as trolls just for complaining about it, and finally along comes a new version, but only after enough time has passed so everyone gets the old model which is milked as much as possible.

:rolleyes:

This is why I am much more relaxed about console releases and have a more laid back attitude now. Because being an early adoptor and buying on launch or being the first isn't necessarily the best.

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One thing nintendo do is surprise people alot. When the SP came out it fixed all the lighting probs from GBA. But it raised the question amoung critics: "Should GBA have been allowed to be released in its current state?"

As a proud owner of one of the brighter GBAs, I think they should've just exercised more control over what LCDs they accepted as usable.

There's nothing wrong with the design, excepot that they accepted a much wider range of LCDs than they did on the GBColor.

And the SP didn't do a very good fix. It was a sloppy retrofit that added 2 issues for the one it fixed. They COULD have taken their time and done it right, but the GameBoy name isn't about taking your time and doing it right. GameBoy is all about rushed, sloppy, half-assed products.

Would kids unaware of a newer version of gba around the corner be mighty pissed at nintendo for not having things like lighting probs fixed from the start, and the world would be happier had they not been so eager to keep upgrading hardware?

People were annoyed that they had a GBA since launch and a new model came out.

...

Actually, I saw people bitching about the GameBoy Color when they owned an original gray brick. "You're mad they upgraded after a DECADE? Boy, are you in the wrong hobby."

If I were that little kid who got a GBA and then realised the new one just came out I would feel a little pissed too.

I prefer my original to the SP for the most part. My "ultimate" GBA would be the display and buttons of the new SP in the case of the original GBA.

...

Of course, I just described the bottom half of a DS. Too bad it can't play my 8Bits.

But it can be damn annoying knowing that the older version's weakness could have been fixed from the begining in the first release (ie consult the customers and ask for suggestions like what microsoft did when designing xbox) rather than remedied later.

Microsoft solicited suggestions? Than how did the XBox make it out with that Althena-forsaken brick they dared to call a controller?

Anyways... no one complained about the GBColor. They were using the same display tech as that system(and hte NGPC, and the WonderSwan Color), so why solicit commentary on a proven tech?

Had they kept the same standards for display quality, it would've even been a fair assumption.

...

As for Circle of the Moon, I strongly believe it was never playtested on actual hardware.

One thing I regret about buying my gba was that it wasn't so great with dark games. But when sp came out I could totally understand and sympathise with all those other early adopters and see how they felt, because these were the very people who complained about the little flaws of gba screen in the begining, but were bashed by nintendo fanboys as trolls just for complaining about it, and finally along comes a new version, but only after enough time has passed so everyone gets the old model which is milked as much as possible.

I think the SP release hit more than early adopters.

2 years later is well into a system's expected 5-year lifespan.

Anyways... those same Nintendo fanboys that bashed people for calling out GBA flaws bashed me for pointing out the little flaws with the SP.

Rough paraphrasing:

Washed-out display? Tough, it's what we have, so it is perfect. Especially since original GBAs only project a gray rectangle and not a picture.

Ghosting issues? See above. Now find something worth complaining about besides image quality problems.

No headphone port? Who cares? Stereo sound from half-decent speakers is inferior to a single crappy-ass buzzer!

...

Actually, they may've had a valid point with this one, as the GBA has really lousy sound quality and headphones just serve to emphasize the fact. Moving on...

Too small? Hurts your hands? Whaa-whaa. Being really cool and tiny is more important than being really comfy and playable. And you're a freakish ape-man if your fingers are longer than the SP is wide.

Non-standard proprietary batteries? Batteries never die on people, so being able to change them doesn't matter, and you are silly for liking the idea.

Battery expected to fail in 10 years under optimum conditions, and less than half that under real-world conditions? Replace it. If replacements aren't around, that means there's a new Gameboy, so no big deal.

As we've since seen with the DS and Micro, backwards-compatibility is NOT as assured as people were claiming. And I still play my NES and 2600 so you'll excuse me if a system with a maximum expected life, and thus maximum guaranteed software usability, of a single decade is less than appealing to me.

This is why I am much more relaxed about console releases and have a more laid back attitude now. Because being an early adoptor and buying on launch or being the first isn't necessarily the best.

I've never owned a launch system, and quite likely never will.

Paying twice as much for a system with very little software isn't my idea of a good plan.

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Has anyone heard when they're releasing the DS's USB Wifi adapter? Is it getting a simultanious release with Mario Kart or is it comming later?

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but the WiFi adapter is basically a USB wireless card for your computer, so your DS can play WiFi games over your home net connection, riught?

I do know that some wireless cards are compatable with the DS and if you download some homebrew drivers you can download game demos onto your DS.

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what 2 issues your talking about ?

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Ghosting and washout.

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Im assuming your talking about the old sp, I read they did the front light since the backlight tech of the time sucked up power like a psp. My only prob is they took them too long to get the more effient backlighting into it, think it would have oled screen by now. I don't mind they put out the gbm just gives us more options not like they are forcing you to buy it and if your children is complaining he/she wants one then the parent needs to spank their ass with the good ole military boot like my old man did to me back when I was young.

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Has anyone heard when they're releasing the DS's USB Wifi adapter? Is it getting a simultanious release with Mario Kart or is it comming later?

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but the WiFi adapter is basically a USB wireless card for your computer, so your DS can play WiFi games over your home net connection, riught?

I do know that some wireless cards are compatable with the DS and if you download some homebrew drivers you can download game demos onto your DS.

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correct, its for those who doesn't have a wireless network and doesn't want to follow a bunch of steps to get your ds to connect to it.

Edited by Zentrandude
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Ah. Well, I suppose I'll see how the price compares to DS compatable WiFi cards. I don't mind downloading some drivers if it means shaving some dollars off the price, and so long as there isn't any issues with how well it works.

On a side note, I picked up Metroid Prime Pinball, and I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. The rumble pack, as noted by Penny-Arcade, IGN, and others, does tend to make a small amount of noise, and while curious it hasn't bothered me at all.

The split screen view of the table is kinda disconcerting when things cross between the screens, however there seeems to be a short delay, as the game counts that space as actual board space. You can even shoot creatures while they're between screens, when in the combat mini-games. I'm not entirely certain if that delay helps, or make the split screen play even more disorienting, but I'm enjoying the game none the less.

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And I still play my NES and 2600 so you'll excuse me if a system with a maximum expected life, and thus maximum guaranteed software usability, of a single decade is less than appealing to me.

You're not joking? You really play your 2600 to this day? OMG. Sorry I just think that is funny. As a little kid even I thought the games were way too primitive to enjoy. hehe They were good for thier time, but man what on earth are you doing playing stuff that old? That would be like me still playing my old Donkey Kong Jr. Game and Watch over halo 3. :D What addictive game be that good that you'd still be playing it on such an old legacy system after so many years?

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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You're not joking? You really watch 80's anime to this day? OMG. Sorry I just think that is funny. As a little kid even I thought the shows were way too primitive to enjoy. hehe They were good for thier time, but man what on earth are you doing watching stuff that old? That would be like me still watching old SDF Macross over Macross Zero. biggrin.gif What addictive show could be that good that you'd still be watching such old anime after so many years?
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I know but there is a huuuuge jump from gaming systems of that era and today (computers tend to double in power every 2 years) compared to there not being much of a huge jump in quality or massive change in anime from the 80s to today.

Take shows like yugioh for example. Macross looks good next to it, and story wise I would much rather watch this than that.

No seriously I'm not making fun of him or anything, I honestly find that amazing that someone can enjoy really ancient games on old systems. No offense was intended - more power to him if that is what he likes. I mean usually for me what happens is I play a game to death, get sick of it, and never return to old stuff. (for example when I think back to old classics on the snes, I know I can never enjoy them the same way I used to when they were new because I know too much about them. Like in super metroid there is no element of surprise anymore if I were to play it again)

Once in a while I do play old emulated games like from 10 years ago, but what happens is I realise that stuff around the 8bit era and anything prior to that has limits due to hardware. Everytime I think back to the 8bit era I am reminded of things like choppy scrolling, tiny flickering sprites, slow speed, simple sounds, games that are 64k in size, graphics that look like a memory map, barely any animation to speak of, waiting 10 mins for a tape deck to load the game into memory on my c64 and the wait not being worth it, etc :D I don't know...I can never go back. I'm so grateful to be living in a more high tech era.

The anime comparision isn't the same. I think there is good stuff now and good stuff then, but people just haven't looked hard enough. It's all BS imo. For example I just went back to watching ghost in the shell and paid attention to the cg fx used for the tachikomas and paid attention to thier color and to look for any signs of them sticking out and looking fake and unnatural, (as in not looking hand drawn) and I couldn't find any sign that there was anything different to the cg compared to the hand drawn stuff. The celshaded model looks handdrawn and there are as many colors and shading on these cg celshaded 3d models as there would be if these were done in the old style and painstakingly hand drawn.

But nevertheless there will always be people claiming that somehow cg is bad, and it looks cheap, and how it is only a cost saving thing (which is true, but if done right can look just as good as hand drawn stuff) and all other things. As long as the fx do not stick out I'm happy.

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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Dude, even I still play the old Atari games. You can download them off the net with an emulator. Really takes you back to the days when you didn't care.

As far as replaying a game, I guess it depends on how much time I devoted to a game. For instance, SOCOM and SOCOM II are games that I played to death, and I probably won't play either of those anymore (especially since SOCOM 3 is in the system now). Final Fantasy 7 was the game I devoted the most time to (over 65 hours in the first week I had it), and I can't even think about playing it again.

However, Super Metroid (I know there aren't any more hidden items) is still fun to play every now and again. Zelda is another series that really doesn't get old and is usually always fun to play.

Edited by Metal_Massacre_79
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I tried to recently play zelda: ALTTP on gba. Completed again, but didn't get that feeling of joy I had when I was a kid when playing for the first time. I considered this to be one of the best games of its time.

It's because I spent so much of my youth into it, that I have slowly been put off it. The game was brilliant, but I guess its time to move to new games, because there is only so many times I can replay something before it gets routine. (apart from multiplayer games like fighters or something)

Once in a while I take out super mario kart and super punch out. My skills have gotten worse at those, but meh, I feel too jaded and old to really get into it deeply again.

For now my mood is to get heavily into old arcade games. Things like raiden and raiden II which I never really got the chance to totally master and loop due to not having time to be able to study boss patterns. I have not seen or played the third raiden game, but for me certain genres are timeless due to there being not much improvement in gameplay with tech advances.

I guess when new games come out, (looking forward to oblivion - a rpg with freeform gameplay) my attention is totally diverted to these so I never want to look back at the past much. Especially if it was something I was a huge fan of and have played out. Some games stand the test of time and don't lose thier charm (take ghouls n ghosts for example even after winning the difficulty is ther that it is so replayable) but for me to get into things like FF7 (I found this tedious) that is waaay too epic to worry about again.

Edited by 1/1 LowViz Lurker
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Gunstar.

Its back. Its incredible and it will make you see that 2d is far far from dead. I played the original when it first came out and loved it.

Gunstar Super Heros takes that same formula. Revs it till it is way past the redline and cranks out 1000hp on your GBA. This game puts most other GBA action games to shame. Treasures programming skills are at full speed here. Huge bosses,paralax scrolling,hughe scrolling sprites,creative boss designs. Crisp animated charicters and explosions. Great play mechanics. Its everything Gunstar fans have ever wanted. If there was one negative point is that its not 2 players...but what are the odds you and a buddy both have the game and the same GBA(I use a DS)

Other than that this game easily gets a 9 out of 10.

Overall it is the most technically impressive and fun GBA game yet.

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If I still had my 2600, I'd be playing it. There were plenty of games back then that would still be worth playing now (back when almost every game for the system was a measure of the gamers skill, not a graphics-fest...

... I guess I missed something on the way here... my DS can connect via wireless internet? I knew it could connect with other DS systems within a limited range, but I didn't realize I could, say, take it to the nearest starbucks and fire up some online gaming...

Edited by Skull Leader
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