The Game Boy Advance was Nintendo's third handheld console, releasing on March 21, 2001 in Japan. Unlike the Game Boy Color, the Game Boy Advance featured a noticeable leap in hardware. This allowed it to play titles comparable (though still downgraded) to Nintendo's home console the SNES.
A combination of strong first and third-party game support lead to continued success, though its higher price meant that it could not outsell the previous generation Game Boys. Two main revisions followed over the years, including the clamshell Game Boy Advance SP — some SPs included a much needed backlight — and the Game Boy Micro.