Hands On: Game Boy Advance

Remember when Tiger redesigned the bulky and useless Game.Com handheld system into a less bulky, but still completely useless unit? The Game Boy Advance looks startlingly like that redesigned Game.Com, but luckily for us, it already has much better software.

The unit is quite simple. There are two buttons on the face of the unit, and two trigger buttons on the top of the unit. The GBA carts are about the same width as standard Game Boy carts, but they are only about half as tall. The larger screen of the GBA is an extremely nice touch, and the games are definitely more colorful.

Like any new piece of portable hardware, the Game Boy Advance initially feels a bit awkward in your hands, and people with larger hands may have a bit of trouble properly holding the unit. Getting used to the top triggers on the system will likely take a few hours of dedicated play.

Aside from the ability to link up to four Game Boy Advance units together for multiplayer games, you will also be able to attach the GBA to cellular phones for online gaming and connect it to Nintendo's GameCube console - during Nintendo's announcement, Shigeru Miyamoto remarked that such abilities could be well implemented in a football game.

Overall, the unit is impressive - even if it does look a bit like Tiger's abysmal handheld. Look for updated hands-on impressions of GBA software as Nintendo's Space World continues.