The Game Boy Advance is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed by Nintendo. It is a sixth generation console and was released in 2001. It is backwards compatible with both the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color, and can be hooked up to outside devices such as the Nintendo GameCube. GBA games geared themselves toward sprite-based platformers and RPGs, and became a favorite with old-school gamers with ports of earlier 8-bit and 16-bit games. The GBA was redesigned twice, first in 2003 with the Game Boy Advance SP, and later in 2005 with the Game Boy Micro.