[Shadow-X-]

My brother was kind enough to buy me a Gameboy Advance SP and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance over in Japan as a b-day present for me, despite me asking for nothing. I just thought it would be fun to have something that isn't released in Canada yet and loathe the fame I get when I show my friends for the time being. I hear it's in high demand in Japan right now because Nintendo made such low supplies of the GBA-SP, and FFTA was released on the same day and sold quite a few copies. Anyhow, here are some screens for you to take a look at, sorry for the shakey-cam.

I was amazed at how small the box of the GBA-SP was when I opened the package. So tiny! It's almost exactly the same size as a box of 10 3.5' disks.

[pics removed]
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Just remember, when in doubt, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes.

[-HoodZ-]

wow i think my brother is getting that once it comes out here in the states....is this backlit so the game looks like that on the TV screen. i h8 having to play a GB on a well lit room

[Fafnir]

you have very small hands, person.

i'm getting mine this month. HOE-RAY!..

i want to get the white pearl version, but i'm getting plat'

what i'm really waiting for is METAL SLUG ADVANCE, that game makes me want to pee myself.. in the good way.. and some of the bad
[/code]
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blah

[Shadow-X-]

is the pearl white ver. coming out in us/can? My bro was lucky enough to get me this black one a week after it's release date. He luckily got into line at some electronics store in tokyo, whom were giving out "tickets" to the people who came in order, and he was able to get me one.


as always, I am happy to have an older brother like him, especially right now, since I am going thu some family troubles. It's never fun when you're basically seeing your 'rents dive right into a divorce, lemme tell you that. oie.

Games I want:

Seiken Densetsu (Legend of Mana)
Mario Kart
Super Mario 3 (The one that came out for SNES)
Doom II (Im currently playing jDoom II for PC, soooooooo good)
THPS 4 (Skater games are always fun to kill some time)

but I feel that I'm gettin a little too old for games, is that possible? (at the age of 20.... well, 20 on march 7th....)


hoodz - yeah, it's got a front-lit screen, but basically, it's like having an "after-burner" mod installed onto a smaller official gameboy advance, so I can turn off all the lights, hop into bed, play in the dark with this back-lit screen and goto bed whenever I feel like it, kind asystem. It's pretty sweet. The only complaint I have about the new SP system is that is has no direct headphone port, you have to buy a cord that uses one of the GBA's expansion (basically like USB) ports that allows you to hook up some headphones. So so far, I'm pretty much stuck with this on-board speaker.
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Just remember, when in doubt, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes.

[merlyns]

I want it!
when is ff tactics coming out in europe?

-david
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[-HoodZ-]

suhweeettttt!!! a must have....i wish they had some good ol WWII turn based game tho....for those long bus drives

[egerie]

get loads of batteries then.
I was playing around with the ones we have at work the other day. The thing I prefer about it is that the speaker is FINALLY position correctly.

[Shadow-X-]

Regarding batteries, you can't really stock-pile up on batteries for the GBA-SP. Well, you can, but it comes with a rechargable Li-Ion battery that lasts a supposed 10 hours w/ the light on, and 18 hours with the light turned off. And besides, who would want to unscrew the case to change batteries on this sweet mofo anyhoo? (pic 12 shows where the battery goes, where the plastic piece w. the GAMEBOY symbol is written onto, you can see a single screw). Personally, i think Nintendo has, as always, released a great machine. They have been known to re-release new designs of old handhelds. Look at the gameboy (even though this is technically a gameboy).

Gameboy (1989)
- Gameboy Light
- Gameboy Pocket
- Gameboy Colour

Gameboy Advance (2001?)
- Gameboy Advance-SP(2003)

The funny thing is, I've boughten a lot of gameboys despite their differences, without even knowing it.
My brother bought the original Gameboy when we went to Japan back in 1990. Then around 1999~2000ish, I lost it. So when I went to Japan in the summer, I bought myself a bright yellow GB-Colour to replace it. Then I found the old gameboy, which I had forgotten in the pocket behind the driver's seat in my dad's car (lol, Gameboy = good for car trips I tell ya!). I wasnt even considering buying a GBA/GBA-SP until my bro offered me a present from Japan. And now , I have 3 gameboys. Nintendo knows how to get repeat customers (well, I guess Sony does too then, if you look at PSX sales).
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Just remember, when in doubt, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes.

[jasonN]

Wow! I want one!
What's the gameplay and graphics like for FFtactics? Is the battle system good? What would you compare it too?
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www.jasonink.net/journal

[Shadow-X-]

The graphics are just like FFT for PSX. Although I have not played through FFT, I have seen it being played, and i can say that they look almost identical (Even the divine beast cut scenes are cool). As for the gameplay, this is the first time I have really played an RPG in this fashion, and so far, i can honestly say I like the game. I've logged about 45 hours into playing it, and still completely into it. A lot of people have been saying that it isn't as good as Tactics Ogre for GBA, but I havent played that, and there are tons and tons of debate over which game is better; one has a better story line, one has more replay value, one has more depth in characters, graphics are better for blah-dee-daa-dee-dah. In short, you really have to play it yourself to figure out whether you like it or not, but for me, being a newcomer to this genre of RPG, I enjoy it. It makes me want to play FFT for PSX.

BTW, sorry for the long delay, i was in ottawa for the past few days, just got home from an 11 hour bus ride.... oie, my ass is sore, but I got some good play-time logged (hence the 40-somewhat hours) and the light is just amazing. People were lookin at me when I busted out this high tech jap toy. Mwahahahaha.

Oh yeah, i deleted the pics off my webspace. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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Just remember, when in doubt, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes.

[Fafnir]

I GOT MINE TODAY TOO!! EARLY NO DOUBT!

it is so great, it's the platinum colour. a lot more then i expected to pay (160.00)

but oh well, it rocks!

(can't wait til new pokemon, actually that came out, can't wait til next paycheque... i'm such a loser)
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blah

[hwslut]

I just grabbed a GBA SP on my lunchbreak today. The difference between it and the GBA is quite astonishing. This thing fuckin' owns.

[Khatru]

While FFTA's graphics may at first appear the same, they are in fact very different. FFT uses a 3D gameworld with 2D sprites overlayed, whereas FFTA is entirely 2D (and hence the camera cannot rotate like it can in FFT). I'm not sure about sprite resolutions but if I had to ballpark it, I'd say FFT uses 24x24 to 32x32 sprites for characters and such, which larger sprites for big bosses and chocobos, and FFTA uses ~16x16 character sprites. The isometric map graphics are anybody's guess, probably about 16x16 as well, maybe even 8x8.

If you haven't played FFT yet, stop everything you are doing and immediately take all the steps necessary to be playing it.