A long time ago I heard a joke about playing GBA between respawns of Desert Combat.  I laughed at that, mostly because I enjoyed my GBA so much at the time that I was staying up until painful hours of the night to play Golden Sun.  I didn’t fully appreciate the humor until just recently.

I’m playing a truckload of Halo 2 and GR2 everyday and these games, like Desert Combat, all have something in common: downtime.  In Halo 2 it’s between rounds of Rumble Pit.  In the other two it’s the respawn wait between rounds (and in Socom II I definitely do some waiting around).

What to do with all this extra time?

Well, I braved leaving the house the day after Thanksgiving for one reason only: I heard Circuit City was going to be selling white GBA SP’s.  I saw a picture of these over in Europe or Asia a while back.  They were being sold with the Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance.  I wanted one then, but with only 4 colors available in the US it didn’t look likely.Anyway, They did have them, and I got one.  I am now a unique and beautiful snowflake… or, at least, my GBA is.

My long-term love affair with my favorite handheld console has been renewed.  While it always had a place on my hip, it’s rarely left my hands since I got it.  I want to play it all the time, and hold it, and take it on my arm when I go to fancy restaurants.

This brings me back to my original story: game downtime.  You really can get a few rounds between respawns or new games!  I know, because I’ve been playing FF:TA whenever I’m not busily fragging.  It’s a hard life, playing two games at the exact same time, but somebody has to do it, right?  I volunteer!

It helps me be less emotionally involved in the games anyway.  I do much better with a cool head (and after the Socom II rust has rubbed off to leave me as freshly roughhewn as I was before), and when I don’t do well my head is anything but cool.  But that’s a story for another time.  I can get at least another 3 rounds of FF:TA in right now.

- Jinx

i’m losing my favorite game. you’re losing your mind again.