Wednesday, 29 March 2017

The Sensual Experience of the Game Boy Advance


So, FireRed is the only game I'll be playing in this marathon on the Game Boy Advance. I'll be using the DS and 3DS remakes for Gen II and III. This, as it turns out, will be a bit of a shame. This is because the GBA has a feature the DS and 3DS lack: rounded sides for holding comfortably in your hands.
How is it that Nintendo, the market leader in handheld gaming for almost thiry years and not learnt to design the things to be held in human hands? Why has every other generation of the Nintendo handheld been a rectangle? A particularly hard-edged one in the case of the DS, on which I have four of these games to look forward to.

Okay, admittedly the screen is terrible and the slightest direct sunlight makes the image indeciperable but it is really comfortable to hold. I think the reversion with the DC to the brick design has more to with physical Game Boy branding than any practicality, which is a pity. 

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