Say hello to my little friend

The GameBoy Advance has finally launched in Europe and the United Kingdom after months of waiting. There are one hell of a lot of pre-orders to fulfill, but if you were hoping to wander down to your local EB or Dixons and pick up a bundle, you may be in luck. I've just arrived breathless back from Watford where the situation is pretty promising. Speaking to a minimum wage monkey at Dixons revealed that if I wanted to just hand over £110 or thereabouts I could walk away with a GBA bundle that included console, AC Adapter, worm light equivalent and Mario Advance. Not a bad little deal. Unfortunately, the mail order situation isn't quite as rosy. Earlier this week, Gameplay's Internet manager Mat Braddy told us that his company was having difficulty meeting demand due to problems with supply from Nintendo, and that pre-orders were still raining in, with buyers apparently either unfussed or ignorant of the potential fortnight's wait for the consoles. The situation seemed even more dire when we phoned up to confirm our GBA order. It took a while for the pleasant Scotsman on the other end of the line to hunt down our details, but when he did, we were informed that our order for a "Glacier" GBA was number 209 in the queue, and although originally Nintendo intended to ship them 250 of this colour, in actual fact they had only managed to supply 75. Luckily for us, it seems all GameBoy Advance consoles were not created equal. For many, the transparent "Red" unit is more pink than anything, and it has received the least orders. In fact when we phoned up on Monday it turned out Gameplay still had stock of the Red unit. Of course, EuroGamer staffers like a bit of mystique about them, so we opted for Red units on D-Day at the expense of Glacier cool at D-Day+30. We'll be updating you throughout the day with more information on the GameBoy Advance's European launch. Related Feature - The Portable Avant-Garde