The Spiritual Successor of the 16-Bit Era

The Game Boy Advance is Nintendo's 32-bit portable handheld gaming system which was released in September 2001 and was known for its ports of popular 8 and 16-bit gaming classics. (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis have truly dominated the video game industry during the early and mid 90s. The SNES is the best-selling video game console of its time, while Sega's most successful console during its time as a hardware manufacturer surprised the gaming industry when it released Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991. As the success of these two great consoles earned my respect, I was able to find a very suitable spiritual successor that would reminisce the legacy and success of the 16-bit era of video games. And that would be the Game Boy Advance.



Why I consider the last of the well-known Game Boy line as the spiritual successor of the 16-bit video gaming era? It is because some of the games originally released for both the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis were actually re-released for Nintendo's 32-bit handheld video game system, ever since it was available in gaming markets in 2001. It is like you are playing some of the best and finest games of their time on a portable handheld gaming museum. No wonder why the GBA sold 80 million copies worldwide.

The Game Boy Advance also happens to be the spiritual (and physical) predecessor of the Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable, and the 3DS as well. The DS and PSP have their own brand of re-releases of popular gaming titles released for various gaming systems, while the 3DS put retro gaming in perspective through its own Virtual Console. Still, the GBA will always have a special place in my heart not only as a handheld gaming system that can test its own limitations, but also a strong testament of what the 16-bit era of gaming is all about. I would like to end this article with this video I found years ago before I started blogging. This video features many of my favorite GBA games, and hopefully yours too.