"Is the GBA to GCN Connection Worth Continuing?"

The GameCube has been out on the shelves for quite sometime now and has seen some very ingenious and original games. This originally has kept gamers occupied and happy that there's some fresh ideas coming out of Nintendo HQ and other gaming developers, a few examples of Nintendo's originality lies within Mario Sunshine (clear up toxic mess using FLUDD and go against an impostor). Luigi's Mansion is another game (suck up ghosts using a vacuum - though it's seems like a bit of a rip off of Ghost Busters, it's still an original concept). Another game proving Nintendo are still thinking of new ideas is Animal Crossing (though originally released for N64 and the GameCube version brought everything up to standard and the GCN allowed the game to show off its potential). All this is a sign that Nintendo are still `out there' and are thinking of new ways to keep gamers happy.

So with the tide of the GameCube and the GBA out on the shop floors, Nintendo had in mind a special feature between the units, a link-up between the two. Nintendo announced this link-up idea when the GameCube was first revealed and was recieved with glee by Nintendo fans. It was a feature to look forward to.

Now the GameCube has been released for nearly two years now, so how far has the idea come? Well to everyone's horror it's still only in its early stages, only a handful of games support the link-up feature. The feature would allow you to connect either two games to each other (one GameCube game and Game Boy game e.g. Sonic Adventure 2 battle and Sonic Advance). Or one GameCube game and an empty Game Boy, so the Game Boy could be used as a certain map or tips device (e.g. Tingle Tuner in The Wind Waker). This has allowed developers to do whatever they want to do with the feature, however many developers have yet to touch upon the feature or use it to its full potential. Nintendo has left the developers to come up with their own ideas; so far this has proved rather unsuccessful.

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was the first game to support it and it remained the only game to do so for quite some time after it was released. To be honest the Chao Garden was a good idea to begin with, but now it's just a bore and it's now really a mediocre feature used to try and sell the games. There have now been a few other games to use the feature. These include, Rayman, Harry Potter, Metroid Prime, Phantasy Star Online, The Wind Waker and some other not very good titles. The games listed just before are really the only games that utilise the feature properly, though they are far from perfect; however there is a certain game, which has actually used the feature to a great potential: Animal Crossing.

Now Animal Crossing has an array of GameCube to Game Boy link-up features. Not only can you unlock a special island which you could call your own and even download and take on your travels, but you can also download to your Game Boy a special paint program. With the paint program you can make and then upload to the GameCube your own patterns for clothes, umbrellas, signposts and other things within the game. Not content with this, Nintendo have also crammed into the game the ability to use E-Cards to download new characters. Ingenious isn't it? So why isn't there any other game that matches Animal Crossing when it comes to the link-up feature?

There could be many reasons for the lack of games using this feature. It is fair to consider that Nintendo haven't showed to developers the potential of using this feature, thus making developers wary about using the feature in their games. Another possible cause for the lack of connectivity is that developers don't have the time to add the feature into the game or even can't be bothered due to the possible belief that the feature is just a silly little phase - and indeed that may be right. A phase or not, though, it's a feature that's there and that Nintendo have to take responsibility for the connectivity. If Nintendo aren't showing off the possi-bilities of the feature to the developers then they've dug themselves a very big hole in which they're going to have problems getting out of.

To get developers and the `gamers' interested in something Nintendo needs to advertise, but this is something that they seriously lack in. Nintendo have a rather bad reputation when it comes to the advertising part of things (especially in Europe). Nintendo used to have a serious problem when it came to third party support. This is yet another factor on why the third party developers would be wary to use the feature, in the days of the N64, Nintendo was not kind to third parties, dismissing many and not allowing them to create games for the system, and this has admittedly tarnished Nintendo. Luckily they've not done the same mistake this time round and have made up with many companies. Saddly, though, companies are still wary at what Nintendo is doing, and therefore could make an impact on what could be a good feature.

The feature so far hasn't had much of a good ride, and with only a few games making use of the feature, it does seem to be going down the road of doom.

However there is still hope for the connectivity feature to break through properly. With the arrival of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles just around the corner and both Tetra's Trackers and Four Swords in development, things do look bright. Each of the games just mentioned use the Game Boy as an actual controller. In FF:CC to play the game properly you'll need 4 players each with a Game Boy, though there is a one player game. The same goes with the Zelda games, though I don't know if they'll just be multiplayer games. The Zelda games do differ slightly from FF:CC: they allow you to play on the GBA screen when the action has moved away and the four players aren't on the TV screen. Though in FF:CC, details and hints will pop up on the GBA screen. However there is just one concern I have, the three games just mentioned are all multiplayer games. That meaning you need 2-4 GBA's to get the most out of them. The problem is not everyone has a GBA and GCN or have friends with GBA's with GCN to GBA link cables. This problem begs the question of "is it worth using the feature in this way?"

Well, maybe that way can be done, but it depends if they can pull it off with success. If not, then the connectivity feature will continue on its journey to failure. There are other games using the feature in the future and hopefully with these games will come at least some good success out of the connectivity. However, it is worth considering if Nintendo should even bother continuing plugging in a feature like this. Fine, it's original and everything, but it's just a part in a game. To make it bigger they need to make a game for it, and that's where Nintendo is falling as well. They are jumping down at people, telling everyone that the feature is `cool' and `great', but we need the games as well and Nintendo haven't really delivered recently. I won't be long on this subject as this is planned to be a future investigation. Nintendo haven't brought us many good games recently and games like Mario Kart and a new Zelda game are still way off, but if they didn't try and plug in this feature they would most likely have time to work on the great games in which we are waiting for.

It's not worth considering if the GBA to GCN connection is just a little thing that Nintendo invented to show developers that they're doing original things and that it's a great feature to use, when they themselves haven't got anything planned for the feature.