Search
Search
Sign on Options
Theme: [Light Selected] To Dark»
GameSpotting


 Miguel Lopez
Assistant Editor, Video Games
Now Playing: Maximo, JSRF

 I Hope You're OK!: Metroid Prime, Metroid 4

Your Pocket Will Explode

The original Game Boy saw a whole bunch of incarnations, so we should expect the Game Boy Advance to continue to evolve as well. While the motivations for "upgrading" existing hardware (as opposed to releasing altogether new stuff) is definitely questionable, it's hard to argue that the GBA isn't in need of some essential tweaks. I'm talking about its lack of an internal light. But gaming's collective gripe over this has already been well documented, and there are already people working on a remedy so that we don't kick that horse any longer. Nintendo will hopefully see fit to implement that kind of thing into the next GBA version's display--but if it doesn't, then there's no doubt that enterprising grassroots technologists out there will make it so, as they appear to be doing already.

screenshot
You've come a long way, baby.
Aside from more overall processing power, the next logical step for a handheld platform would be the implementation of some kind of network adapter. People are definitely working on that now--first off,nReach is working on a version of Bluetooth for the GBA, and various amateur groups on the Net have been talking about a GBA-to-PC gateway for a while. But it's my feeling that this will take off in earnest only once Nintendo itself implements the hardware and the infrastructure required to support it. In the case of Bluetooth, users are required to be somewhere where they can access a wireless connection via their Bluetooth adapter--be it in their room with their PC or Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or some commercial "hotspot" set up by nReach itself. This is the route that Nintendo itself is likely to take--although to be honest, I could see this happening in the US only when (or if) wireless networks become as entrenched as they are in Japan and Europe.

 
 Would you be into network gaming with your handheld?

Yes.
No.
What's network gaming?
What's a handheld?

 
The question of whether or not games will support it also arises. Any type of matching service will definitely make it so that any multiplayer GBA game is playable through its service, but wouldn't it be rad if games were designed with this sort of thing in mind? Even console gamers, at this point, are very well familiar with online gaming, and surely everyone would agree that the games that work best, in that context, are those designed around massive throngs of gamers. I wouldn't be adverse to remote, one-on-one matches of Street Fighter Alpha 3, no doubt, but I'd definitely rather see online handheld RPGs, massively multiplayer 2D adventures, and that kind of stuff. How fresh would a pint-sized version of Final Fantasy Online be? Imagine customizing your own character sprite, messing with the job system, and forming parties with other players for intense rounds of turn-based combat against behemoths on the moon? Lag could be a nightmare, but who would complain about FF1-style art if it helped the game run smoothly?

screenshot
This would be more than enough.
But regardless of how cool it would be, something that large-scale simply won't happen until there's an officially supported infrastructure in place to make it happen. We'll definitely be able to get a taste of it, thanks to upcoming independent developments, but I'd be surprised if many of the major publishers throw down cash to develop stuff with the types of features we're talking about. I hope I'm wrong, in any case--I'm as anxious as you are to see this stuff. One thing's for sure: If Nintendo isn't the first to implement it, you can be sure that some other console manufacturer will. The GBA sales charts aren't something the industry's newly minted powerhouses will likely ignore for long.
 
« Previous Page Next: GameCube Logging More Time Than My PC? Say It Isn't So! »