Gameboy Advance SP

 after fannying around with my original GBA and an afterburner, i rejoiced at the release of Nintendo's revised handheld. it's bloody pricey but you get a very stylish machine with a great lithium ion battery giving you plenty of gaming greatness before having to recharge. at the moment there aren't many shooters available for it but the list is getting slowly larger and the potential for Snes conversions is an alluring prospect. please please please somebody convert Axelay and Super Aleste.

 

 
GHOULS N GHOSTS/.an odd choice you may think but i reckon this game is 90% shooting, or throwing at the very least. it looks incredible and the music is brilliant. i love this game, but it is ridiculously hard. GRADIUS ADVANCE/.an absolutely fantastic remix of previous Gradius games. looks stunning and plays brilliantly. even surpasses the PC Engine conversion of the original. simply stunning.

 

 IRIDION 2/.more of a showcase of what the GBA is capable of than a great game. the graphics are incredible considering the platform and, stylistically, are reminiscent of viewpoint. the game, whilst not awful, is rather formulaic and dull. if you can stomach lots of repetitive levels then you will get some enjoyment out of this. the power ups are nice and some of the bosses are great, with some nice bullet patterns. but overall its nothing to get excited about. buy if it's cheap.

 

METAL SLUG ADVANCE/.an absolutely incredible achievement given the hardware. a great mixture of previous Metal Slug titles. much like the other titles in the series this is beautifully animated full of humour and rock hard. if you own a GBA you owe it to yourself to get this game.

 

 PHALANX/.not a bad little shooter, but not great either. if you can get it for around a tenner it's probably worth getting.
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