GBA News and Announcements - Page 4

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GameBoy Successor

Nintendo developer Takeshi Kiyuna mentioned that the successor of GameBoy Advance SP will have a bigger screen.

The resolution will be at least 300 x 200 and it will have 260,000 colors.

Wow lot of colors...

Source: EAGBA.com

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Japanese Sales Update
Posted at 4:46 pm by John
Super Mario Bros. 3: Super Mario Advance 4 has been received well since it's release last week in Japan and debuts as the best selling game of the week with first week sales of 106,222 units. Meanwhile Mother 1+ 2 continues to sell well moving up the charts to #3 with weekly sales of 24,613 units. The Pokémon games continue to sell with Sapphire shifting 7,518 units and Ruby selling another 6,509 taking their total sales to 2,235,898 and 2,176,988 units respectively. Additionally, Hamtaro 4 and Wario Ware have sold another 7,133 and 6,027 units each respectively. Finally, the Japanese release of Boktai has shifted 13,142 units on its first day of sale.

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REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 29, 2003--This year Nintendo of America Inc. celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Pokemon franchise by bouncing off the bumpers in Pokemon(R) Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire for Game Boy(R) Advance, the sequel to the million-selling Pokemon Pinball for Game Boy(R) Color.

Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire is the newest installment in the video game franchise that already has sold a staggering 38 million games in North America and 110 million games worldwide.

To further commemorate the greatest kids' entertainment phenomenon of the last decade, Nintendo has partnered with Toys "R" Us to return to Topeka, Kansas on September 1 for the close of the EON Ticket Summer Tour, which has already visited more than 125 Toys "R" Us stores in 25 major markets. Better known as ToPikachu, Kansas to the locals and millions of Pokemon fans nationwide, the town hosted the introduction of Pokemon to the United States nearly five years ago.

"The return to Topeka celebrates the wildly popular games that started it all: Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue," says George Harrison, senior vice president, marketing and corporate communications, Nintendo of America Inc. "Five years later, those precious gems have evolved into Ruby and Sapphire. The release of Pokemon Pinball kicks off a line of great new Pokemon adventures that will be introduced in the coming months."

Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire features more than 200 Pokemon, most of which appear in Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire for Game Boy Advance. Released last March, those games have sold nearly 2.5 million copies combined nationwide. In Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire, players capture wild Pokemon while playing a classic pinball game with authentic ball physics. Rounding out the game with special Pokemon power-ups and bonus areas, the franchise jumps to life in entirely new ways. Launched in North America on Aug. 25, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire is available now at a suggested price of $34.99.

Pokemon USA, Inc., the New York-based subsidiary of The Pokemon Company in Japan, manages and oversees the Pokemon franchise in North and Latin America, which includes licensing, merchandising, TV animation, theatrical releases, home video entertainment, the official Pokemon Web site, the Pokemon Center NY in Rockefeller Center and www.pokemoncenter.com, an e-commerce site.

Pokemon first launched for the world's best-selling Game Boy(R) video game system in Japan in 1996 and has since evolved into a global cultural phenomenon. Since bringing the franchise to North America in September 1998, Nintendo has sold more than 110 million Pokemon games worldwide. Pokemon merchandise has generated over $15 billion in worldwide retail sales since 1998. The trading card game, fueled by organized play programs in 47 countries, has spurred global sales of more than 10 billion cards to date. For more information on Pokemon games, go to www.pokemon-games.com or www.pokemon.com.

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THQ has today announced that it has entered into a Game Boy Advance copublishing agreement with Sega Europe. The deal will see THQ publishing a number of Sega GBA games in Europe, Australia, and other international territories starting this winter. The games confirmed for inclusion in the arrangement to date include the following:

Shining Force
Shining Soul II
Sonic Advance 3
Sonic Battle
Sonic Pinball Party

"Our two Sonic-branded releases, Sonic Advance and Sonic Advance 2, enjoyed sales of more than one million units at retail in North America according to NPD TRSTS," said Tim Walsh, senior vice president of international publishing, THQ. "We are delighted that our relationship with Sega has expanded to our international territories."

"We are looking forward to working together with THQ for the release of these quality games," added Mike Sherlock, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Sega Europe. "Using THQ's unparalleled know-how with the GBA platform will help us to reach our long-term goals in the shortest amount of time. This partnership not only helps us realize our commitment to expand our overseas presence, but also gives us the opportunity to further strengthen the Sega brand name in the international marketplace."

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No Sweat GBA, Check out N-Gage's Poor Scores.


10.09.03


The Following Scores are from GameRankings.com

These scores are scores averaged from various sites.


Game Scores: (Total Possible 100%)

Puzzle Bobble VS - 20.4%
MLB Slam! - 35.0%
Super Monkey Ball - 65.2%
Pandemonium - 59.0%
SonicN - 50.4%
Tomb Raider - 47.5%
Puyo Pop - 47.5%
Virtua Tennis - 46.7%

With low quality games like this...Do you honestly think that the Nokia will N-Gage enough N-Gaging momentum to knock down or let alone put a small dent in the Giant Empire of the Nintendo GameBoy? I don't think so. Over the years, many have tried to do that, all have failed. Atari with the Atari Lynx, Sega with the Sega GameGear and many others like SNK and now Nokia. Not a chance, Nintendo has well-established their domain in this field. Nokia, maybe you'll achieve larger success if you put the N-Gage in the cell phone department.

Posted: Karthik

Quote - IGN Pocket
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October 24, 2003 - Several weeks ago in Japan, Nintendo announced its Club Nintendo promotion where players can earn points and send them away for special goodies. They can also purchase specific games that feature sweepstakes entries to win special limited edition prizes. But Nintendo has offered a little tease with its prize giveaway on its website, hinting at the availability of the original Super Mario Bros. title on the Game Boy Advance.
From November 7th, 2003 to January 15th, 2004, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the original Famicom system in Japan, Nintendo will be giving away 3000 special edition Famicom-designed Game Boy Advance SP systems along with Super Mario Bros. for the Game Boy Advance. Not Super Mario Advance, but Super Mario Bros. The original Super Mario Bros. has not been made available for the GBA yet, not even in Japan. The closest thing is Super Mario Bros. Deluxe released on the Game Boy Color several years ago.

This is pure speculation, but it's possible that the game is simply a basic emulation of the original NES/Famicom version of Super Mario Bros., as Nintendo has already proven that it has a capable NES emulator on the Game Boy Advance used in the e-Reader as well as within Animal Crossing on the GameCube. It would be a very quick and easy cartridge for Nintendo to create specifically for this promotion.

It's also possible that Nintendo has done to Super Mario Bros. what the company did with the past Super Mario titles on the Game Boy Advance: update them to GBA standards. But this would go against the "retro" style that Nintendo's going for with this Famicom anniversary. We like our first theory better.

Whether or not the game will be released to retail is another story, as it's something that's not confirmed on the Club Nintendo site. But we'll keep you informed about the possibility.

-- Craig Harris
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