61 replies to this topic

[bergbros]

I was playing Super Mario World 2 at GameSpot and I have to admit I was impressed with the graphics, the game play and the efficient design of the system. I know, no backlight (If they can put men on the moon why can't they make a portable that has a backlight that you can turn off and still play the game?), but the system is not the power hungry hog that the Lynx is. Is the Lynx still a better system for the money? How are the games on the GBA as a whole compared to the Lynx? I know Super Mario World 2 and Tony Hawk 3 are tremendous on the GBA, but are the games worth it (They are priced in the $30 as a whole) compared to the Lynx. Does the GBA provide superior capabilities and can you get more gameplay as a whole compared to the Lynx?

[CrazyImpmon]

There are still many great games on Lynx that GBA still don't have. But GBA can play just about any older GB and GBC games so when you get a GBA, you have an access to a library of over 2000 USA games. (I don't know how many Japanese title exists but could be in the 4K range)

There's no region lockout so GBA can play anything from anywhere in the world.

[CPUWIZ]

A GBA with an Afterburner is better than the Lynx any day !

[RJ]

Hey cpuwiz, are you some sort of Nintendo mole or something? Anyone knows Lynx rocks over ANY version of Game Boy hands down, even though it is 10+ years old!

[liveinabin]

Oh come on, the Lynx is a great system with some brilliant games. But you have to take off the rose tinted spectacles for a minute. Of course the GBA is a better system - it's had a little more development time:)

[CPUWIZ]

RJ said:

Hey cpuwiz, are you some sort of Nintendo mole or something? Anyone knows Lynx rocks over ANY version of Game Boy hands down, even though it is 10+ years old!

Nope, not a mole and don't get me wrong, I love the Lynx too. I have both versions.

[Gunstar]

cpuwiz said:

A GBA with an Afterburner is better than the Lynx any day !

If you think so, then you have NEVER seen the Lynx and BLUE LIGHTNING, which blows away even the ARCADE version of Afterburner...

[eric_ruck]

I think we're back to the game design issue. After a fairly long run the Lynx has some very well designed games. After, what, a little over a year, the GBA has had, well, The Olson Twins. Different audience.

But the GBA has some really wicked hardware inside. It certainly has the potential to do some games far superior to the Lynx, if someone would care to design and write them.

Meanwhile, I'll still stick with my Lynx. I have a GBA but haven't bought anything since the original 2 games I got, Iridion 3D (pretty but game play suck) and Castelvania (ok but I'm not crazy about it on the small screen).

Eric

[oesii]

I've had lots of fun with my Lynx, Rampart is probably a game I'll still be playing 10 years from now. But some excellent games can only be handled on a GBA. My two favorite are Advance Wars and Super Mario Kart. And if you like sports games, Mario Tennis and Golf are topnotch GB games which can be played on the GBA, I can't wait until they update these for the gba.

So again it all depends on the games you like to play, if you're a big sports nut like me the GBA is much better with the Mario games and cool baseball games like Power Pro Baseball 3, don't even get me started on the Lynx's Baseball Heroes

[Ze_ro]

Although the GBA looks like a great system, there's just one fact that keeps me from getting it:

Sonic Advance is priced at $60 (CDN).

I don't care how good the system is, there's no way in hell I'm paying that much for yet another Sonic game when I already have half a dozen of them (Including Sonic 2 for the Game Gear, so portability isn't a selling point). and only paid a couple of bucks for each of them. Consider also that most GBA games around here are at least $50, if not $60. Compare that to this:

About 85% of Lynx games can be found for less than $10 on eBay. Often less than $5 even.

Lynx games may not have as much replayability as Gameboy Advance games, and they're obviously aren't many new games coming out for the Lynx, but when you consider the price, you can't afford NOT to get a Lynx. It's totally worth the money. If you still want a GBA, get both.

Sorry Nintendo, but you're not getting my money this time. I don't care how much you lower the price of the system, the games are still too damn expensive

(On a related note, remember when CD's were supposed to reduce the price of games? I'm still waiting...)

--Zero

[Harry_Dodgson]

Gunstar said:

cpuwiz said:

A GBA with an Afterburner is better than the Lynx any day !

If you think so, then you have NEVER seen the Lynx and BLUE LIGHTNING, which blows away even the ARCADE version of Afterburner...

That's not "Afterburner", the game but "Afterburner", the GBA lighting system.

[CPUWIZ]

Yup, that's what I meant, the front light system.

[Ze_ro]

I assumed Gunstar was just being a smartass...

--Zero

[SmileyDude]

Here's my take -- the Lynx was definetly the best of the handhelds back when it was released -- and, it stayed at the top for quite a long time. But, it has been passed by the GBA now, no doubt about it. The GBA has much better specs than the Lynx, and it has an incredible game library to go along with it (GB, GBC, GBA). Add in the fact that you can easily get 15 hours of gameplay with 2 AA batteries, and the GBA is way ahead of the Lynx.

As far as game prices go, the most I've paid for a GBA game is $30 (US) -- and I have about 12 games. I find that most of the games when they come out are usually on sale at one of the big chain stores (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc, etc). I got Sonic Advance for $24, and Mario Kart for $22 (with a free 2-liter of soda). The deals are there. I've also found that some of the earlier 3rd-party games are discounted heavily at places like Target and wholesale clubs (Sams, Costco, BJs) -- I've gotten a few games for $8 a piece, new in the box.

Also, you can always buy GB/GBC games -- they are much cheaper, and there are some pretty good ones out there. Not Lynx quality, but still fun.

BTW, for those who love the Lynx and the GBA, there is news of a Lynx emulator being worked on for the GBA -- it's slow right now, but the coders working on it have a lot of optimizations planned for it. Go to http://www.geocities.com/psx_nemesis/ for more info (no downloads yet).

[Gunstar]

Ze_ro said:

I assumed Gunstar was just being a smartass...

--Zero

I was...as far as I know, there isn't an Afterburner "the game" for the GBA... ...if there is, it's news to me and I haven't tried it, so I'd have no point of reference

[Atari Master]

GBA by a longshot! I mean, you can't get Golden Sun, Wars Advnace, Castlevania, Mario Cart, Mario Advnace 2, Sonic, Atari, and other amazing games for the Lynx... And now with the new E-Card Reader you can play NES games on the GBA! It's unbeatable!

[Gunstar]

Atari Master said:

GBA by a longshot! I mean, you can't get Golden Sun, Wars Advnace, Castlevania, Mario Cart, Mario Advnace 2, Sonic, Atari, and other amazing games for the Lynx... And now with the new E-Card Reader you can play NES games on the GBA! It's unbeatable!

half of those games I'd never want, and the other half I've no idea if I want (on my Lynx). The Lynx has quite a few games that I think are very cool too, that aren't on the GBA. But my nephew came to visit a week ago and he had his new GBA with a few games and I have to say after playing it for a while that I can't stand the screen with no back-light(I could not get a good look at the screen no matter how hard I tried; sunlight, lamplight, shade, etc). I'd never buy one for that reason alone; I don't care how long the batteries last, I use rechargable ones anyway or an AC adapter on my Lynx. If they ever come out with a version with back-lighting, then I'll reconsider, but they'll have to lose Mario and Poke'mon first too...

[SmileyDude]

Gunstar said:

If they ever come out with a version with back-lighting, then I'll reconsider, but they'll have to lose Mario and Poke'mon first too...

Well, without Mario and Pokemon, the GBA would have just about as much market as the Lynx does -- as I recall, Pokemon pretty much saved Nintendo on the handheld side. At the time it came out, the Gameboy Color wasn't even out yet. Pokemon ended up selling loads of GBs and GBCs for them.

[bergbros]

Smiley and Gunstar are both right. The library for the GBA is off the wall huge but most of the games are juvenile and poorly made. I find I collect for the Lynx because of its limited but solid library and I just choose the top five GBA games. There is absolutely no way I will pay $30 to $40 a pop (!!) for GBA games unless they are the absolute best in any platform. That means Mario Advance, Tony Hawk 3, Wars Advance. Smiley, I know with the sheer quantity of titles and the superior hardware of the GBA, there is going to be some games superior to the Lynx. My problem is that there shoulda been so much more. The fact that it took Ninetendo 10 tears to get a color system superior to the Lynx is an indictment enough.

[SmileyDude]

bergbros said:

Smiley, I know with the sheer quantity of titles and the superior hardware of the GBA, there is going to be some games superior to the Lynx.  My problem is that there shoulda been so much more. The fact that it took Ninetendo 10 tears to get a color system superior to the Lynx is an indictment enough.

I'm pretty sure Nintendo could've come out with hardware to match the Lynx earlier -- but, that's not what the game is about. It's about making something that you can market, sell cheaply, and make a huge profit. The Lynx failed at all three.

Part of being cheap is also making it so that you don't need to buy a battery factory just to feed your portable game.

I remember the Lynx and the GB when it came out. I drooled over the specs of the Lynx. There was an article in Analog magazine (I think...) that talked about developing for it. It was so cool.

Then, when I went to go buy something, the Lynx wasn't cool in other areas -- battery life, physical size, and price. At that time, the games wasn't that big of a deal, but you could still see that Nintendo had a better footing on the market than Atari did. So, I got the Gameboy... while still wishing that I could've gotten the Lynx instead.

So, Atari beat Nintendo on the technology side, but as so many companies have learned (and Nitendo being one of the best to learn this), technology doesn't win you customers. That's why the GBA is still limited compared to what it could've been. That's why the GameCube is so limited compared to the Xbox.

Anyway, this isn't going to be very productive. For the techies, the Lynx is a great machine. For the game players, maybe the GBA would be a better choice. There is nothing saying you can't get both

[Harry_Dodgson]

I still have one major complaint about the GBA. It does not fit well in my hands and I get cramps after less than an hour playing it. The Lynx is nicely sized and does not cause any problems even after hours of gameplay.

[glitch]

I've never been much for the which is better arguments. I have 5 lynxes and 86 games and must say I really like them.

I recently bought a GBA and have to say I'm really impressed with it. I really like RPGs and I've never seen any on the scale of Breath of Fire or Ogre Tactics on a portable before (my nomad would have to be the closest, GB Final Fantasy a close second). The graphics seem to be really nice and the game speed is really good to. I'll definatly keep it around and get more games as time goes on.

But when I want to play some of the older games (which I do alot), especially the arcade ports such as Xenophobe, Roadblasters, Joust, Rygar, Robotron, or Klax I can tell you which system I'll be reaching for. Same for some of the Lynx originals such as Warbirds (I have yet to find a portable multiplayer game as fun as this one), Blue Lightning, Awesome Golf, Championship Rally or the Puzzle games such as Chips Challenge, Ishido, Lemmings, Super Squeek and the side scrollers like Slime World. The Lynx simply has a lot of great games that I love to play, and do so regularly.

I'll admit that I believe another portable has finally surpassed the Lynx in abilities and it also has a lot of great games, but I don't see it replacing my Lynx. I'll keep them both and use the GBA when I want to play a RPG or a newer style game like MarioKarts and I'll have my Lynx when I want to do "old school". Even if a Lynx emulator comes out on the GBA I'll still stick w/ the originals since I'm really not into the whole emulator scene.

Just my opinion.

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[NE146]

Quote

About 85% of Lynx games can be found for less than $10 on eBay. Often less than $5 even.

Yeah well that's NOW. How about us guys who bought all their Lynx when it was fresh and new? The prices were definitely more comparable back then. If you want to go that route, several GB games of that era can be found for much the same price or even cheaper.

On that note, as a person who DID in fact actively buy for both Lynx and GB, I have to say that although I did like the Lynx a lot, I played GB a helluva lot more quite honestly. And Lynx vs. GBA? Come on.. you're talking 2 different generations of systems! And although I love Atari and the Lynx, the GBA wins the day... easily.

But it's not really a fair battle due to the age difference.

[bergbros]

Again, the question is is the Lynx a better deal now not then. BTW, NE, what games did you play for the GB when you got it? Do you still play the GB? Talk about a deal. I saw used GBs go for $10 at Gamespot with $5.00 a game. Fortunately I got the Lynx today with the prices much less ($50.00 for a Lynx in box with 10 games off Ebay) than it is going for now. Also, the GBA technically is not totally superior as the Lynx has more colors, a bigger screen, back lighting and better scaling. Also, is the quality of the Lynx library better as a whole? THe biggest thing that the GBA has over the Lynx is its ability to save games. The password system is really imperfect. For many games, a save feature is a must. The question here, is with the prices currently what they are, is the Lynx the better deal. Another factor... is the Lynx a better collector's item? I give GBA its due, but I still give the Lynx the nod if I had to choose one over the other considering overall price.
BTW, does anyone else think NE's avatar is little bit obscene?

[Ze_ro]

bergbros said:

I was playing Super Mario World 2 at GameSpot and I have to admit I was impressed with the graphics, the game play and the efficient design of the system.

By the way, am I the only one that is not impressed whatsoever with the Mario Advance games? I mean c'mon, they ported them over from older systems! It probably only took them a weekend of work, and you're paying $40 for it? Give me a break... or at least give me NEW games instead of rehashed stuff I already have.

As for NE's avatar... obcenity is all well and good as long as it's from Atari history Although if someone did Custer's Revenge, it might be a little too much....

--Zero