Then one day Bands began playing, birds began singing, gamers began dancing in the streets; Nintendo had released the Game Boy Advance. This was something more than a 16 bit SNES in your hands. The GBA was 32 bits, which made it more like a SNES on steroids.
       And you didn't hold it in your hands, it was more like with your fingers. What you have here is what feels to be a very sturdy solid strong quality built system from Nintendo. The unit is a total redesign. It is no longer vertical, it is horizontal. the screen is pushed down in-between the button controls. You have a feel, somewhat, of holding a game pad. The cart slot is still located at the topside.
     One thing about this unit is, I find it awkward to hold. I have always had a hard time trying to decide where to put my fingers. I end up resting the bottom of the unit on my pinkies, two middle fingers on the back and my pointers ready for the shoulder buttons. Maybe it is because of it being so thin.

     Backward compatibility is great! Nintendo placed the necessary circuitry and chips needed to play the entire Original Game Boy and the Game Boy Color game library into the Game Boy Advance. This is an added feature of the GBA. This circuitry is only in use when playing those games. This gives you the same features for color as you had in the GB Color system. This means you have all those old games that are still playable plus the newer GBA games. This gives the gamer a very large library to choose from. On the bad side, the older Game Boy carts, whether it be color or original, stick up beyond the unit's housing, no longer do they fit snug and integrate into the system's appearance. This is because the GBA game carts are so much smaller and they blend in with the system's appearance giving you that clean integrated look. Another thing about the older games is they do not fill the whole screen of the GBA. This is because there is a  big difference in the aspect ratio of the two screens. Using the left shoulder button will stretch the game to fill the screen and the right shoulder button will put it back to normal. The stretching does distort the graphics a little. Without the stretching, the games may seem tiny in appearance on the GBA screen.
     The GBA game library has some really great titles to choose from. Whether it is platforming (Super Mario World, Yes!). RPG with titles like Final Fantasy, Zelda, or Fighters (Street Fighter Alpha 3, King of Fighters), Arcade (Bubble Bobble) or Puzzle (Chu Chu Rocket) or just plain craziness with Wario Ware,inc, anyone can find something here to like. And yes you can get your Pokemon fix from its library too. But when it comes to shumups, the Game Boy has always found itself a little sparse in this category. I have my Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, now where is my Star Fox? I mean the "Star Fox" from the SNES. I am still waiting for it! I know the graphics are now dated, but I don't care. The GBA hardware is powerful enough to do it Nintendo. Why haven't we seen it? I guess I will just have to be content, for now, with "Star X" and continue to hope. While I am hoping, I wouldn't mind seeing my Metroid from the SNES too. For those who love 8 bit NES, this system has a "Classic NES series" with many of the old NES titles. Although we see a few of the Nintendo SNES first party games ported over, I would like to see a "SNES Classic Series" released for the GBA. And when it comes to the RPGs, I'd like to see direct ports and not a cut down butchered version for the GBA. I will take a complete game over improved graphics any day, Lunar: Legend is a good example of this butchering.
     There is still available, though now you may only find it used, an adapter, or converter unit that plugs into the bottom of the Game Cube to allow the ability to play the GBA games on your TV. (I don't think it sold that well) I have never ventured to purchase one of those things myself, so I can not give any opinion as to how well they work.
     The library of GBA games continued to grow even after some six years later. It started to slow to a trickle with focus being made more towards the DS, it abruptly stopped. Which is understandable. I have been expecting it to come to a halt. A company can get too many systems out there to support you know. (cough, Sega, cough)