Believe it or not, the original Gameboy is now 12 years old, and is officially the most popular games console of all time.

Since then, it's been relaunched, repackaged and revamped in a variety of cheeky lil' guises. First there were the different coloured models, then the Gameboy Pocket came along, then the Gameboy Color - so it's really easy to forget the chunky, beige, black and white brick that originally got the ball rolling.

The amazing thing about the Gameboy though, is that the actual 8-bit insides of the machine haven't changed a bit during it's long life - which is pretty remarkable in today's market of 128-bit Dreamcast's and PS2's.

Well finally, Nintendo have decided to unveil the first proper update of the pocket sized wonder. No bigger than a normal Gameboy, but with a 32-bit colour display and a new horizontal design….ladies and gentleman, introducing: Gameboy Advance.

Right, I’m not going to bore you with the technical specs of the machine (if you really wanna see them, then look at the bottom of the page) Nope, what we really want to know about IS THE GAMES!

Perhaps most anticipated of all is Mario Kart Advance, the GBA’s answer to the SNES classic which is looking so cool it’s unreal. The original karting classic boasted one of the best two player games in console history, but in this version (thanks to GBA’s 4 player link-up capabilities) four characters can race at once. It looks like the instinctive, nay perfect, control of the original will thankfully remain intact as well, because Gameboy Advance also has shoulder buttons like a SNES pad – Yay! Pocket powersliding!

Another Mario game is also in the launch line up. Mario Advance is the first proper 2D adventure to be released for…ohh…ages, and though it will be cool to play a real old-skool platformer, this game looks almost exactly like Super Mario Bros.2 on the NES (widely regarded as the worst instalment in the otherwise classic series)….we’ll wait and see.

A racing game has got to be pret-ty darned special to face up to Mario Kart Advance, but when it’s F-Zero – you’ve just gotta sit up and feel those G’s. Just look at this screenshot, it looks even better than the SNES game (which didn’t even have a 2player mode, this has 4player!) - so it should play just as well (something which even the 64-bit F-Zero X somehow couldn’t capture).

Gameboy Wars Advance is also shaping up to look really cool – a portable turn based strategy game with beautiful looking graphics. Although there has been no confirmation that this title will be translated into English –take a look at this screenshot and drool - only time will tell I guess.

Take a look at the full launch line up of games!