Here is what happened on Saturday the 19th. The last day of this years E3. :( boohoo Byebye.
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• 5/17/01
• 5/18/01

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• General
• Gameboy Color
• Gameboy Advanced
• N64
• GameCube
• Playstation
• Playstation 2
• Dreamcast
• XBOX
• Other

There were GBA games on display just about everywhere. I really can't remember them all. Nearly every major developer had at least one or two AGB games in development. Overall it looks like the developers are quite happy with what Nintendo had developed, even if the screen sucks. (too dark and reflective) I'll cover the games I played yesterday, but forgot to mention, as well as those I saw today.

How about the games?

Title	Thoughts
Super Mario Advanced	Super Mario Bros. 2 and Mario Bros. all in one cart. Quite cool. Not only that but they both have been overhaled in the sound and graphics department to SNES quality. And lets not forget the ability to link 4 systems together to play a 4 player game of Mario Bros. This was the first game I bought for my Import AGB and it's worth it.
F-Zero	I was actually surprised how well this Mode 7 SNES game ported to the GameBoy Advanced. Since the system only supports Mode 5 and not Mode 7 I didn;t know what to expect. But they did a wonderful job. The game is as fast and furious, if not more so, then the SNES original and still includes almost all of the scrolling, rotating and scaling of the original.
Mario Kart Advanced	Much like F-Zero I didn't know what to expect. And again, Nintendo did a great job. One of the best SNES games and it's portable.
Advance Wars	Hmm.. another strategy game for the AGB. This sure is a good thing for the portable crowd. I hope developers make more games like this. Portable versions of Mario and tetris can only go so far. We need more strategy and RPG games to take with us. This one is a military strategy game with tanks, ships, troops and planes. Blow the crap out of the enemy and seize all his bases and cities. Win the war while waiting in line to see the FF movie. ;)
Diddy Kong Pilot	Kind of like Mario Kart advanced. The graphics are a lot like MK but this is a Rare game. Remember the flying portions of DKR for the N64? Well this is a portable version of that. And it's a very well done one at that.
Tony Hawk 2	A 3D game on a 2D system. Nice!! The creators of this version wanted it to have the same level of tricks and animation as the PSOne version had. In order to do that in 2D required around 100MB of data just for all of the spites. This is more then an AGB cart can hold. So what did they do? They developed a 3D engine to render the characters in real-time 3D and a 3D physics engine to move the character over the 2D backgrounds. The devlopers created equations for all of the 2D levels for that 3D engine. What's the result? A game on the GameBoy Advanced that looks and plays like a real 3D game. Sure I don't really like the Tony Hawk games, but even I am impressed at how well this game plays. Even with just 4 buttons and a small screen the game looks and plays perfectly. If you've ever wanted the THPS experience while riding the bus to school/work this is the game for you.
Castlevainia	A portable version of Castlevainia:SotD, sort of. It looks and plays like the SNES versions of the game, but it has the level depth and RPGish elimements from the PSOne game. This is probably the best game for the system and will be the most sought after one. If you want it then I recommend pre-drdering it because it's going to go fast. Sure the levels are a little dark, but that's OK. The gameplay is perfect and fun. The graphics and sound are crisp and clean. Get it..
ChuChu Rocket	Sega on a Nintendo system. Who would have ever thought it would happen. And this isn't a licensed game like Sega has allowed in the past. This is a Sega developed game. It's a very adictive puzzle game originally released on the DC. No this verison doesn't looks as good as that one, and it isn't online either. But it is still the same game. You try to move your mice into the rocketship while avoiding the cats. You can't control the mice directly, you simply tell them which directions to move in at certain locations on the map. It's simple and fun. And, just like the DC version, quite adictive. ^_^
Rayman	This is the 2D platformer game originally done on the Atari Jaguar and Sony Playstation. The main difference is that this verison looks better. You are still the limbless hero with the big "ears" to help you fly/glide out to save all your friends captured by the evil badguy. As far as I could tell there was nothing really new in this version. All I could tell was that it was fun to play. If you like platformers then this is a good game for you.
Mech Platoon	FMV on a cart based portable. The entire intro is done in FMV and it looks great. The game itself appears to be a mech based strategy game. I didn't play it much since I didn't have much time. But from what I saw this would appeal to mech strategy fans. The actual game graphics didn't seem to be up to the standards set by other games, but the gameplay was. I'd love another go at this game since I didn't have much time with it today.
Street Fighter 2	The leader of 2D fighters returns from the SNES for another round. Relive the days of playing your first fighting game and finding your first combo. Only this time you can take it with you. Gee... the GBA sure has a lot of well made games. And a lot of well done SNES ports. I guess some developers are listening to what gamers ask for.
Final Fight One	Once the again a great SNES game ported to this little portable powerhouse. It looks like a pattern is happening here. But that's not a bad thing. Esp if all the ports are as well done as they have been done so far. This is the king of side scrolling beat-um-ups. It was king in the arcades and on the SNES.