Yes, out of all the old systems, I think the GBA is the easiest to program for. The design is more streamlined/modern overall so that you don't have to worry about things like bank switching and the GPU has a cleaner design than the SNES.
The BIOS, graphics, and audio firmware fit nicely with the 32bit ARM architecture such that all you have to do is poke data into the right address (usually a #define'ed pointer in C) and it DMAs to the hardware.
And unlike later consoles, there's no operating system or significant copy protection to deal with, you link in a crt0.s to put everything at the right address, load the rom into an emulator, and it will start displaying your game. When your ready, you pop a flashcart into your hardware and it will probably work too. It's all very nice.
The BIOS, graphics, and audio firmware fit nicely with the 32bit ARM architecture such that all you have to do is poke data into the right address (usually a #define'ed pointer in C) and it DMAs to the hardware.
And unlike later consoles, there's no operating system or significant copy protection to deal with, you link in a crt0.s to put everything at the right address, load the rom into an emulator, and it will start displaying your game. When your ready, you pop a flashcart into your hardware and it will probably work too. It's all very nice.