Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure (Crash Bandicoot: XS).

In all its portable glory!

Ah, crate puzzle! Expect to see a lot more of these!

The "3d" level. There is no denying that they look great.

Dingodile, complete with derivative Australian accent.

Ah Crash Bandicoot. I have many memories wrangling this little bugger through perilous bridges, hazardous creeks and derivative "native temple" levels. Unoriginal though it was, the first three games were challenging and fun. The later games have just screwed up everything, they're that godawful. Old Crash Bandicoot must be spinning in his grave.

On the GBA, however, the designers have stayed true to the original three 1990s games. Crash: XS is terrific fun. The traditional levels are there (i.e. snow level, derivative "native temple" etc) and many enemies make return appearances, albeit in excellently rendered sprite form. The game is a side-scrolling platformer, but the variety of levels (and the occasional "fake 3d" polar bear escapes) keep a good level of variety and therefore hold interest.

The primary issue is the game's length. But it is so much fun that this ceases to be an issue. Plus there are the time trial relics that encourage replayability. Crash rules on the GBA, and is worth finding on whatever auction site you fancy.

Metroid Fusion Review

Open wide! Here comes the blue aeroplane!

Ah, the gravity monster. Come for the lack of gravity, stay for the melting faces!

The SA-X. A true challenge to beat.

Ah Metroid Fusion. Us GBA lovers got treated to a whole new Metroid adventure! This game is fantastic. Great story, beautifully rendered spaceship, action packed boss battles and one of the best GBA soundtracks. However, the game falters in two aspects; length, and the linear design.

Metroid Fusion revolves around the X virus, which has infested the ship. The best aspect of this is the SA-X, a mutant clone of you. The parts where you are forced to hide while your evil clone eerily paces around are about as intense as you will see on the medium. Other boss battles are just as excellent, especially the ultra fast monster, and Ripley returns, with his strange, melting faces. The soundtrack is incredibly atmospheric; you won't find better!

The game, however, is reasonably short. It won't take longer than eight hours to complete. There is a tiny bit of backtracking, in order to acquire missile tanks and power bombs etc, but this is hard to do in some spots due to the linear design, which forces you to keep on the designated track. Nonetheless, Metroid is a blast of quality storytelling and bizarre, frightening and hilariously deformed aliens. This is worth the price of admission!

Doom 2 Advance Review

The Cyberdemon, in all its pixelated glory! 

See that small, circular demon? Most annoying in the game, easily. 

Ah,the humble Doom. It caused a stir of controversy in the early days of its release, with its blatant satanic imagery and flood of highly pixelated gore. Does the old boy, which has been ported to literally hundreds of systems, hold up on the small screen?

The answer is mostly yes. Incredibly, Doom 2 Advance retains all of the original levels, and even the bigger demons, the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, which are very impressive to see. It scared the bejeezus out of me when the Cyberdemon rose from his pit in the penultimate level. The levels, although repetitive, usually have some pretty interesting puzzles to occupy one's brain, including multi-colour key romps and "find the switch."

This being said, the GBA version does have some drawbacks. It certainly is not as scary playing on a dimly lit screen as, say, a giant computer monitor. I also have noticed some slowdown in certain congested areas. Nonetheless, Doom 2 Advance is a lengthy, rewarding shoot 'em up with a host of weird and creative monsters. Get this one!

Review: RaymanAdvance

Like a small child, Rayman enjoys torturing insects. However, he does it in a charming way that makes me laugh with the sheer ridiculousness. Originally released for the PlayStation back in 1995, it has received  ports to various consoles, including Atari Jaguar (remember that? Because I sure don't!) and Sega Saturn (co-sign!).

In Rayman, you control a colourful, limbless Frenchman as he side-scrolls through bizarre, pastel levels. Rayman sets itself aside from other side-scrollers with its sheer creativity. The Bandlands is a good example of the creative high this game emanates. Rayman slides down crotchets, swings from quavers, and stomps on saxophones. The Dream Forest is also a hilarious romp. Has anyone else noticed that the mushrooms on the ground happily bounce on top of one another, in a sort of weird poison pyramid?

Rayman also features a terrific soundtrack and a challenging level of difficulty. The difficulty would be annoying, if the levels weren't so damn re-playable. The soundtrack is one of the better ones on the GBA, and is, as I understand it, relatively loyal to the original Playstation version. The music is always peppy, although the tonal shift is done well by Ancel and his team in some of the darker levels towards the end.

Michael Ancel is one of the only game developers today who, to quote the Notorious B.I.G., "keeps it real." Creativity is not compromised in this game for anything. While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, everybody should experience this wonderful little creation, and get inspired.

Welcome to GBA World Lives! The purpose of this blog is to give exposure to the magical world of Game Boy Advance, which, in my opinion, is the best Nintendo release to date. It's games are varied and full of creativity and artistic merit. The Game Boy Advance came out before the DS and the 3DS. These latter two consoles, while good, seem to have a wave of horrible, pointless games being shat out of them, such as Catz, Dogz, Elephantz, Spider Monkeyz, and mostly all movie tie-ins. I will eventually endeavour to scan in my old Australian GBA World magazines, a cancelled series of kids magazines from Australia that have seemed to develop a cult following in certain circles. Remember the beauty above? Sure, it had no back light, and the screen got grazed very easily, but pwhoar! Could this baby pur.