GBA's last UK Christmas ends with a whimper
Couple of releases still to go but no one seems very bothered about selling them
Considering one of the early stories written on Pocket Gamer was titled 'Nintendo signals death of Game Boy', the little handheld has actually done remarkably well to make it thus far. But Christmas 2007 seems likely to mark the time it finally goes gently into the darkness that faces all game consoles: commercial obsolescence.
Nintendo has made it known it has no new GBA games in development. The last GBA game internally developed was 2006's Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team although the handheld was kept on life support thanks to Square Enix's reissuing three of its Final Fantasy games in updated Advance versions.
Since then, however the release cupboard has been remarkably bare, with the only titles now scheduled being kid-focused movie or TV licences such as Bratz: The Movie, Bee Movie; The Game and Avatar: The Burning Earth.
The odd thing, however, is UK online retainers such Play, GAME, or even Tesco no longer list any new GBA games within their Coming Soon sections. Even Amazon's UK site only contains two games: The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (November 2nd); and Bratz: The Movie (October 26th).
By comparison, Amazon's US site does offer a few more options, including titles such as Bee Movie: The Game (October 9th), Avatar: The Burning Earth (October 16th), Spongebob Squarepants: Atlantis Squarepants (October 23rd); and Cars: Mater-National (November 6th).
Still, we shouldn't get too disheartened about our American chums getting extra slices of last-minute GBA choice. All those games should be available in the UK in DS versions.
And if you shop around, you'll also find some decent bargains as stores continue to run down their GBA stocks. For example, GAME currently has Final Fantasy IV for £10.
But the harsh reality is that we're unlikely to still have the GBA around this time next year. This Christmas really is it. But don't be sad – celebrate the format's remarkable endurance instead.
Of course, that's assuming you're not too engrossed in the Phantom Hourglass to notice the passing of one of the great handhelds of our time.
