Serious Sam Advance is a handheld version of Croteam‘s infamous first-person shooter, Serious Sam: The First Encounter. It was developed by Climax Entertainment and published by Global Star (a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive) in 2004.

The game features a single-player campaign, and a multiplayer deathmatch mode that supports up to four players.

In the campaign, there are twelve levels and the game can be played at three difficulty levels. The levels aren’t very long, and there aren’t many secrets to find, so the game is relatively short overall.

You begin the game with a chainsaw and a pistol, and can also acquire a shotgun, a tommy gun, a rocket launcher, and a minigun as you progress through the levels. You can’t look up or down, so the game uses a rudimentary (and somewhat clunky) auto-aiming system that doesn’t always work as well as you’d maybe like. The shoulder buttons are used to sidestep left and right. Holding down the ‘B’ button allows you to turn more slowly, giving you finer control over aiming.

The aim of each level is to blast your way through waves of spawning enemies and to simply find the exit, which is represented by a rotating ankh located somewhere in the maze of corridors and rooms. There are no keys, but you occasionally have to find and press switches to open some doors. Generally, though, defeating a certain number of enemies in an area will unlock the way forward.

Enemies in Serious Sam Advance are repetitive, and not particularly interesting, but are plentiful and challenging to deal with. Some – like the screaming headless bombers – are a staple of the Serious Sam series.

Upon completing a level you get a time bonus (if you were fast enough), and an ammo bonus, based what you’ve got left.

Serious Sam Advance is an okay first-person shooter on the Game Boy Advance. It’s nothing special, and I think even Serious Sam fans might find it a little underwhelming, compared to the PC or console versions.

More: Serious Sam Advance on Wikipedia