Gameboy Advance is Still Insane in 2025

In 2025, the Gameboy Advance still holds a special place in my heart. Watch as I explore why this classic handheld console is still so beloved today.

[vDomMusic]

By the time the GBA came out, developers had managed to master sprite based 2D games. It's a special console with its large collection of masterpieces, both underated and mainstream in pretty much any genre you can think of.

The GBA has to go down in history as one of the greatest consoles of all time. Its library of games can go head to head with any other console, I fully believe that.

[malcolmar]

Well said brother. Well said. You brought me back and for that, I thank you. Modern gaming sucks but we have access to all the old games like we never had before and there are many passionate indie developers who are keeping the essence and fun of retro games alive with new experiences. Old is gold because the way forward is backward. Bring on 2025!

[ThomatoSauce]

It’s kinda funny how I had almost NONE of the actual heavy-hitters of the GBA. Aside from Pokémon, the most I played on my GBA were tie-in games like Chicken Little, Brother Bear, and Lilo and Stitch 2. It wasn’t until later in life that I discovered classics like Metroid Zero Mission and Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land.

[Coey]

Been playing my GBA SP daily for a little over a month now. I built custom ones for my siblings last year too buying all of the parts separately and assembling them. It makes me so happy to see how much we all enjoy the system, and it's really a testament to it's quality that they were such a hit. Definitely a contender for my personal favorite system of all time.

[ruggerprogavlar]

Ive got nearly 1000 gba games on my steam deck oled and they look and run glorious.

[Souleman_X]

We were eating good in the 2000s. Your stories of gaming nostalgia are inspiring me to make another attempt at video commentary.

[chaoslord]

The GBA was very much a portable SNES, with full color, widescreen, and even some 3D capability. The only real shortcoming was being short two buttons, which really didn't matter too much, even in some of the bigger SNES remade titles like Super Mario World and Link to the Past (I still have both of these GBA games, LTTP/Four Swords is in my DS right now).

The GBA also introduced some of the best, if short-lived, new Nintendo IPs with Advance Wars and this game at 5:05 (the name escapes me at the moment). Between all four titles, I've put more hours into Advance Wars then any other game franchise by a massive margin. I still have both AW DS games and an original DS that works great. It's not one of those flimsy DS Lites either. These things are built just like the SP (even the same battery and power plug), and if it were any older, it'd be one of those awesome DS prototypes that I still want so badly.

[PhilippeSymons]

I wish it had a link cable port though. Imagine it being able to connect to the gamecube like the real thing.

Anyway, I'm waiting until the price of retro handhelds supporting PS2 and gamecube Drops a little bit more. I think 2025 may be the year in which I might buy a retrohandheld.

[PKSuperStar]

Due to my fascination with the GBA and a certain popular 32-bit home console, it caused me to discover quite a few hidden gems within both of these consoles. Some of which may have either had games on both consoles, or had ports between both of them.

[BeerZombieRob]

Dude you didn’t miss a single nostalgic note of that era! I was going to comment something about DBZ and you hit that with 10 more classic vibes. Gonna spend the day on my modded SNES and GameCube today!

[preservinglight]

the leaks show switch 2 is even BIGGER too, they need a PSP size for pockets

[manterprise]

Thank you very much for what you are doing!

[DBTGAMER]

So much good footage plenty of game variety. Good video.

[mertcanius]

bought a rg40xxv myself and its SO fun to replay these masterpieces
playing pokemon sapphire rn and its so much fun its crazy

[Charsept]

I got a miyoo mini a couple years ago and it woke up my nostalgia. Every since then I've been collecting and modding original Gameboys. It's nice to play on the real thing after emulating for so long.

[mizatthekizat]

Make a video about Parsec. A friend can connect to port 2 and play with you.
My brother and i took turns beating metal gear solid together. To me, it's a revolution in gaming

[Jack-njpi]

Hard to finish video with the style of monolog but gba is still goated to this day

[JuhoSprite]

crazy how big the jump from the gameboy advance till the wiiu/switch era is, yet now almost the same amount of time passed and we still are stuck with the switch, and even then the games don't really look at much better. of course graphics isn't everything but I have a feeling we are close to peak right now. because the better the games will look the more detail it needs and the more development time it will need aswell. that's why Nintendo likes to stylize most of their games.

[georgewilliams]

Last year I started to emulate GBA games on my phone. And after losing my saves a few times and then also having the emulator corrupt my save file, I had to restart my run of Pokemon Emerald. That was when I started looking at handheld emulators.
At the end of October, I finally made the decision on the Anbernic RG40XX H. And I must say that it exceeded my expectations. The best was that the emulator I was using on my phone used the same save files as the Anbernic does. And after a bit of playing around, I was able to get my save loaded to the Anbernic and just continue with my Emarald game.
I really hope they do make a dual screen variant, which would be epic for DS and 3DS games.

[coloncrusador]

I wasn't as strong as you, I bought the 34xx the day it dropped without hesitation. Wish I never lost my clear pink gba I picked up at a value village for 5 bucks in 06. I can't get that back, but honestly, the 34xx is 100x better anyway. Glad to see someone loves GBA as much as I do.