sorpotel's forum posts
a gaming system only dies when people stop playing it's games,and from my point
of view everyone likes gba games like yoshi's island,supermario advance,goldensun 1 and 2,mal:superstar saga and
loz:minish cap,so the gba is not really dying
all those who think it is dead should stay out of the gba board instead of clogging it with such messagesLast week (4/16/07-4/20/07) I decided to visit the local retailers and check out their used GBA selections, while also keeping an eye out for the TMNT game. I also have a mental list of about ten other games I'd buy new if I saw them, but consider that unlikely due to how old they are. I thought I'd share my findings to show why I believe the GBA is dead.
The stores aren't listed in the order I visited them. Also I refer to "interesting games" which for me is mostly strategy RPGs, side-scrollers (castle, metroid, sonic, mario, etc), and puzzle games.
GameStop - Prudential Center, Boston, MA
They had about two dozen used GBA games and about the same number of new games. No interesting new games and only a few interesting used games. I didn't notice any GBA SP's for sale when I looked. I didn't ask though to confirm. The fact they didn't have them out like other systems says enough.
Strawberries - Downtown Center, Boston, MA
Dozens of new games and used games, but mostly due to multiple copies of the same games. The impression I got was the same as I got from other places. It seemed like leftovers they were waiting to run out of and weren't ordering any new stock/games. I didn't even look for new GBA SP's, but knowing the store I'd say its 50/50 shot they have one or two.
EBX - Copley Plaza, Boston, MA
No longer there. Moving on...
Newbury Comics - City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA
I didn't see any GBA games for sale. But even when GBA was current system they only carried a small number of games. No GBA SP's for sale.
Target - Cambridge, MA
They had a bunch of new games and a few GBA SP's for sale. Nothing that really interested me though.
KB Toys - Cambridgeside Galleria, Cambridge, MA
They had six games, which they keep underneath the counter where nobody can see them. All Spongebob and Barbie. No GBA SP's for sale, but I didn't see other systems either really.
Sears - Cambridgeside Galleria, Cambridge, MA
They had a few dozen games. Nothing much interesting, but their "leftover" games were different than what other stores had so I'm glad I checked. No GBA SP's for sale.
EB Games - Cambridgeside Galleria, Cambridge, MA
They had about a dozen new games (but again mostly unpopular older games), and a couple dozen used games. They only had used GBA SP's for sale and didn't know when/if they'd get any new ones again.
Best Buy - Cambridgeside Galleria, Cambridge, MA
They had a few dozen new games. The only retailer to have the TMNT game (more than ten copies even). No GBA SP's for sale, but they recently re-opened after months due to water pipe damage and were low on stock for other systems as well.
Other notes:
I didn't see any Castlevania or Metroid games.
I saw very few RPG games.
I saw very few Super Mario games.
I saw only one Wario game (Twisted, new).
Every store had Pokemon games.
Out of the games on this site that have 9.0 or higher (15 of them) I only saw one copy of four different ones available.
I saw no Advance Wars or Fire Emblem.
Only two places had any Final Fantasy's (VI if I recall correctly).
That's it. The overall impression I got was the stores are pushing the GBA games into corners to make room for DS and such on the more obvious shelves and that they stopped ordering new games a while back or at least didn't order many. The almost complete lack of highly rated or popular games as new or used was kind of sad.
Even if the GBA is dead, which is still up for debate of course, its not ever going to be obsolete in my eyes anyways. 2d games never get old and I prefer simpler graphics on a handheld screen size. These are the ones I picked up in my travels, in case your still reading this and curious.
TMNT
Mario vs Donkey Kong
Golden Sun 2
Namco Museum
lifepawn
dude,ifu think it's dead then why are u on this boardThere was an announcement from Nintendo a little while ago saying that they have officially pulled the plug on all first-party support and manafacturing of the console. There's only like a couple more games coming out for the GCN before games stop being developed for it. And they aren't even good games.
Face it, guys. It's dead.
I've had my enjoyment with my Cube, but the time comes for all consoles. I don't care if it's not "officially" dead, there's only a couple budget games coming out, so it's DEAD.
HyperMetaDragon
Log in to comment