Though the connectivity feature seems to be coming out of the gate without all cylinders firing, the company does indeed have plans. If you're a lucky owner of the Game Boy Advance and plan on getting the GameCube sometime during its life, you can look forward to several games that will utilize the two systems in some fashion.
The Past
This isn't the first time the Game Boy system's found its way to the console world. Nintendo has included the Game Boy system in console gaming for the past few years.
The first instance where the Game Boy system was used in conjunction with the Nintendo 64 was Nintendo's own Transfer Pak peripheral. This unit allowed players to plug in specific Game Boy Color titles into a Nintendo 64 controller, and transfer data between the Game Boy Color cartridge and the Nintendo 64 game. This was used in only a handful of games: Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium 2, as well as Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. and Rare's own Perfect Dark Pokemon Stadium utilized the Transfer Pak as much as it could -- not only did it read and write to and from the cartridge, but it also activated a Game Boy emulator in the N64 game, so you can play the specific cartridge on the big screen.
Nintendo had further plans to integrate the Game Boy Color into Nintendo 64 gaming. The company was to utilize the Game Boy Color in a horse racing game for the 64DD, Derby Stallion, where wanna-be gamblers used the private LCD screen to bet on the right horse. Another game, DT, was a card game that traded card information back and forth between the Nintendo 64 and the Game Boy Color. But this title was eventually canned due to the failure of the 64DD.
The Cable
To get the Game Boy Advance to actually talk to the GameCube, the two systems need to be connected together via the as-yet-unnamed GameCube/Game Boy Advance Cable. One end of the unit snaps securely onto the top of the Game Boy Advance, plugging into the link cable port and securing itself by hooking into the two slots on either side. The other end of the cable plugs directly into one of the GameCube's controller ports. Potentially, four Game Boy Advance systems can be plugged into the GameCube at one time, but Nintendo only showed two examples of game ideas that used the link cable feature...and neither featured two player support.
The cable currently has no release date and no set price, but it's expected to hit Japan by the end of the year.
The Games
Nintendo announced two titles that will utilize the Game Boy Advance in some fashion at Space World 2001 in August:
Animal Forest Plus
Nintendo's remake of the N64 adventure game for GameCube will utilize the portable in several interesting ways. When the Game Boy Advance is connected to the GameCube, players can send the character to a secret island that will take place on the portable system. The GameCube actually sends a tiny program to the GBA that players can take with them...disconnecting from the GameCube entirely. The tiny game fits completely into GBA system memory, and the system can be put into "sleep mode" so that gamers won't waste their batteries when they want to take a break. The unfortunate thing is, if a player wants to play a different GBA game, it will flush the system memory, and anything performed on the miniprogram will be lost...unless all the changes were sent back to the GameCube prior to the deletion.
It's not entirely clear what can be accomplished on the Game Boy Advance, but in a demonstration at Space World, we saw that players could create little pictures in a basic art program on the GBA, and upload the image as textures that can be placed on virtually anything...clothes, signs, wallpaper.
Animal Forest Plus will be the first Nintendo-published game to use the connection cable.
The excellent Game Boy Color game of 2000 Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble is being remade for play on the GameCube -- but the development team is requiring the use of the Game Boy Advance in the gameplay. Players will need to plug a pink cartridge into the Game Boy Advance -- this cartridge has a motion sensor that recognizes when the system is being tilted and bumped in the players' hands. Kirby can be maneuvered on the GameCube by slanting the GBA system in the proper direction -- if the player screws up and makes Kirby fall off a platform, he'll plummet off-screen onto the Game Boy Advance's screen where the game continues. Players maneuver the pink puff on the handheld until he can be flung back up to the GameCube screen.
The cartridge doesn't actually have the game program on it. Instead, it's an almost completely blank cartridge, only containing a good amount blank RAM and the motion sensor needed to move Kirby around the screen. The GameCube actually sends the entire Kirby program over to the system via the link cable. Since the Game Boy Advance has very limited internal memory for the single cartridge multiplayer link and the system connectivity, the Kirby GBA cartridge could be used by other developers in their games if they wanted to use it.
Sega has also revealed plans to use the cable for its GameCube titles:
Sonic Advance/Sonic Adventure 2
Like the Dreamcast version, the GameCube conversion of Sonic Adventure 2 will have a hidden minigame, the Chaos Races. The Dreamcast version allowed for raising of Chao creatures through the use of the system's portable VMU memory cards. But in order to take advantage of this feature on the system, you must raise Chaos creatures on the Game Boy Advance, through Sonic Advance's minigame, Chaos Garden Advance. They can be transferred to the GameCube through the use of the Game Boy Advance/GameCube communication cable.
The Myth
Many people have asked about the possibility of playing Game Boy Advance games on a big-screen television utilizing this cable. Sorry folks, it's not going to happen. To do this would involve something a lot more technical than what's offered. The Game Boy Advance link cable port is not an audio/video out, which means the signal that's going to the LCD screen and speaker is not being sent out through the link cable port.
Like Pokemon Stadium, there is the possibility of a developer creating an emulator in its GameCube software to allow for specific Game Boy Advance games to play on the system utilizing the cable. The emulator would have to have the actual GBA game on the disc, and the GameCube software would activate it if it recognized the proper cartridge in the Game Boy Advance system.
The Future
The potential is there, but it's difficult to say if developers will take advantage of the system connectivity between the two systems. It adds to the time a game spends in development, so unless the company has resources to spare, this feature will most likely end up being used in just a select few games.
But imagine the possibilities -- football games where you use the Game Boy Advance for play selection. Or first person shooters that use the GBA as the map and radar. Or a casino simulator where each player is dealt his or her cards on the handheld. And the list goes on.
The GameCube has just hit the shelves in Japan, with a release of mid-November in the US. By the end of the year, we'll be able to plug our Game Boy Advance into the system for a brand new dimension of gaming. I can't wait.
-- Craig Harris
