Born (and still alive) on the GBA, presently on it’s 166th release, seminal homebrew roguelike POWDER has been in development for 8 years.

Creator Jeff Lait recently discussed the history of this glorious oddball on the 9th episode of Roguelike Radio.

animatedscreenshots:

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

tinycartridge:

Metroid II: Return of Samus will be out this Thursday in both Europe and North America. That’s great news for those of you who, say, have a Metroid II cartridge, but haven’t seen it in a couple of years, and aren’t sure where your old Atomic Purple Game Boy Color is anyway.

For example.

I think it would be really interesting to go back and play Metroid II after Aliens: Infestation. They’re both inspired by the same source material (Metroid and Aliens, both to varying degrees), and they’re similar in style.

Ninja Five-0
(Hudson Soft, 2003)

A guest entry by offal:

Ninja Cop in Europe. This game is So. Fucking. Good. It’s like a gorgeous Genesis action game that time forgot; Bionic Commando, Rolling Thunder, and Shinobi stewed to perfection. Not one ounce of filler. Developed by Hudson, published by Konami.

Last week I was playing (read: screaming at) this game a lot! —ed

offal:

A charming game, irresistible even to the internet’s biggest asshole.

Blizzard Classic Arcade
(2003)

offal with the 411:

Before getting caught up in the High Elf and Bald Space Marine business, Blizzard made some truly great 16-bit games. With a quirky sense of humour and a dash of brash dude ‘tude, they released experimental platformer The Lost Vikings, Tim Follin scored Twisted Metal precursor Rock n’ Roll Racing, and Jim Lee flavoured Gears of War ancestor Blackthorne. All three received loving GBA ports, 90s stylings fully intact.

Drill Dozer
(Game Freak, 2006)

In time for the GBA’s tenth anniversary, a guest post by offal!

Unconventional, overflowing with charm, and tightly designed to boot. On the downside, you’ll probably end up missing your subway stop.

thisdayingeekhistory:

March 21 - On this day in geek history in 2001 Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance in Japan. The Game Boy Advance was the fifth iteration of the Game Boy Line (1. Game Boy 2. Game Boy Pocket 3. Game Boy Light 4. Game Boy Color), and featured 32-bit graphics on par with those of the SNES. 

Nintendo would redesign and release two additional versions of the Game Boy Advance; the Game Boy Advance SP featured a ‘clam shell’ design, and the Game Boy Micro which showcased a minimalist design. Since it’s release the Game Boy Advance line has sold over 81.51 million units world wide. The best selling games for the system were Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire, selling 13 million units combined.