The successful 1960’s television series, Astro Boy, will once again be hitting Europe with a bang later this year, with a brand new feature length CGI motion-picture and an accompanying videogame adaptation from D3Publisher and High Voltage Software. With the publicity ball having already begun rolling for this latest incarnation of the Japanese animated series, it seems quite apt that we should look back in the direction one of the most recent videogame releases based upon the lovable robot boy.
Ten points to anyone who knows what Spongebob Squarepants is all about. A talking yellow sponge living in a town underwater… What? Still, it does have a huge cult following, tons and tons of merchandise and several celebrity fans; so it obviously appeals to some. God knows why. But still, since it is a firm favourite with kids of all ages, and there is a lot of associated merchandise available, there was always going to be a game… or twenty. In fact Spongebob Squarepants: Lights, Camera, Pants! is the fifth to be released for the Game Boy Advance, a system which has unfortunately become synonymous with this kind of children’s title. As a title published by THQ – a company which seems to have gone from strength to strength in the past year – expectations are high, however, since it is a licence tie-in game, it would be foolish to expect too much. 
Gunstar Heroes is an incredibly well renowned title. Having launched on the Mega-Drive in the early nineties to much praise, a sequel to the title reportedly entered production within days of completion. However, developer Treasure went very quiet, very quickly, and hopes of a second outing in the 16-bit era were quickly dashed. In a hope to appease the huge Gunstar Heroes fanbase – with copies of the original title rarely garnering less than £100 in auctions – a deal was bridged with Ubi Soft in-charge of brining a conversion of the original title to the Game Boy Advance. Launched on February 18th 2005, Advance Guardian Heroes on the Game Boy Advance received mixed reviews, as newcomers to the series enjoyed its fast-paced balancing-act of skill, accuracy and blind-adrenaline rushes while fans of the original wondered how the title managed to fail to recreate the beautifully simplistic gameplay of the Mega-Drive original on a system far more powerful. 
With the new NintendoDS going from strength-to-strength you’d have thought that new titles for Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance wouldn’t be worth bothering about; but I ask you to take another look at what you could be missing-out on, in the form of Koei’s release of Dynasty Warriors Advance. 
On the verge of the release of the mighty PlayStation Portable (PSP) and merely a few weeks after the launch of the incredible NintendoDS, I decided to look at another handheld’s releases – does every game have to be big and flashy? A call to the fans of the Mario Kart series, Banjo Pilot has arrived on the Game Boy Advance. Plotting the pitfalls of Mario Kart in a style reminiscent of Diddy Kong Racing on then Nintendo64, fans of either should not look away. 
Anyone reading this review should be in no two minds about the subject matter. One of the most famous “board” games ever marketed; along with Cluedo, Chess, Snakes And Ladders, and Scrabble, Monopoly has been released in countless guises in a variety of formats. With 2004 apparently being the 70th Anniversary of the classic strategy game, ZOO Digital Publishing have taken it upon themselves to create a Game Boy Advance rendition for the first time. Programmed by Full Fat, this is the first 3D version of Monopoly available. 
OK, so I’m going to be honest for a minute now – I HATE Crash. Having an immense amount of love for my little palm-top-games-console, I thought that by bringing the two together I may be able to forge some ever-lasting bond between myself and the orange Bandicoot, but then, I’m probably a bit passed developing any new friendships, seeing how I view the Game Boy Advance platform market as Mario, Sonic, Kirby and the “me-too!” titles… not much originality on offer then.
I know what you’re thinking. “Here we go, Nintendo quickly polishing another old game to stick out on the Game Boy Advance and make another quick buck.” However, this time you’re wrong. Metroid: Zero Mission is more than just an easy graphical update of the first instalment in the famous Metroid franchise. 
Just two years ago, the hardcore UK gamers had a bit of a conundrum on their hands. Having shunned the hundreds of attempts Sony had made to steal their allegiance, they were all of a sudden presented with a press release stating that one of the most recognised and renown UK games development companies, Rare, would no longer be developing exclusively for their beloved Nintendo systems. “So what?” They said at first, “We can still play Rare games, only not exclusively.” Then, quicker than the time it took to spread the first press release, a second was issued with the real shock – Rare had been bought by Microsoft. 
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