The Game Boy Advance succeeded the Game Boy Color in 2001. With a 32-bit processor and large memory capacity, it allowed hand-held game-play on approximately the level of Super Nintendo with its first releases, and even better as developers learned to take full advantage of its abilities. GBA added L and R buttons to bring the controls in line with the SNES, and moved the controls to the sides of the screen, like Game Gear (although the SP model later reverted to placing the controls below the screen). Many of the big titles in GBA's library were toned-down versions of games available for the GameCube, as well as remakes and collections of NES and SNES games, such as the Zelda and Final Fantasy series. Of course, the Pokemon series was always huge on hand-held systems as well. Finally, one of the best things about the GBA was backward compatibility, allowing you to play your older Game Boy and Game Boy color games on the new unit.
