Why I Miss the Nintendo Game Boy Advance

I still miss my Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It was the perfect spot for simple fun and great concepts. Handheld gaming when the GBA first hit the market was a personal, simple experience. You can simply insert a cartridge and play! That's not how gaming is today, and for that reason, I still think a lot about my GBA.

Another aspect of Game Boy Advance that I also miss is the quality and quantity of awesome-ish games available for that console. Games such as Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion, or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance were not copies of their PC or home console counterparts; rather, these are fully developed and well-created games that were designed and crafted for one sole purpose—to play while gaming on a portable console. Many of such games are still awesome even today when it comes to their designs and gameplay.

The design of the Game Boy Advance made it stay cool as well. It was small enough to carry with you everywhere, and the buttons felt really good when you pressed them. It may seem silly that the first one did not come with a lighted screen, but it was pretty cool trying to find where the best place to play was with a lamp and a window. Pressing the Game Boy this way made gameplay seem really real.

I miss the fact that the GBA allowed you to become immersed in your own world without the need to be connected all the time. There was none of that social media stuff, there were no achievements that popped up all the time, nothing that could take your eye off the game. It's just you vs. the game, and that allowed you to care about the stories too.

The Game Boy Advance gives me such strong nostalgia because it reminds me of things that I was going through in my life. It reminds me of the road trips where I used to play this, the afternoons where I used to play this, and the nights where I used to stay up late and try to get through this or that section of this particular game. It was like having a friend in this device.

I have many affectionate memories of the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It is almost like it is from a period in gaming history where games were simply good to go, you didn't have to have loads of updates to keep playing, nor did you have people bothering you all the time to send them more cash so you could keep gaming. The GBA simply brought forth games in a fabulous design.