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Game Boy Advance SP Silver
Nintendo (
28 March, 2003 )
Video Games |
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£
84.99 |
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List
Price
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£
89.99
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You save £5 (6% off) |
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The REAL Gameboy Advance  |
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OK, lets start by saying that the original GBA was below par for a company that values its customers like Nintendo. This was all down to the lack of a built in light source for the screen which meant that if the lighting conditions were not almost perfect, you were going to have problems seeing what was on screen. Thankfully this has now been added for the SP version along with some additional features that make the console feel that little bit special. Like higher end walkmans it now comes with its own built in battery that requires charging (No more paying £2 for a pack of 2 batteries every week!) and a new sleeker design which has all but halved the size of the unit (It now actually does fit in your pocket!).
Looking beyond these improvements though for any console you have to look at the catalogue of games available, what I would say here is if you are 15+ you may find the lack of many adult themed titles depressing. All I can say is lets hope that the emergence of the new look GBA (which is obviously aimed at cornering the 15+ market) will mean a greater number of mature titles to sit along side the great cute nintendo games such as mario. All in all a great product (if a little expensive compared to the original) but 2 years after its original release a star is knocked off awaiting games that will push the format to its limits (Heres hoping)
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Very nearly essential |
All games systems should be judged not just on the technical specifications of the console itself but also by the quality of the games available for it. In both areas the Game Boy Advance SP (which stands for Special Project apparently) is excellent.Its a very nice looking unit and the flip top lid is both stylish and functional - protecting the all important screen from dust and scratches while closed, and making the whole thing truly pocket sized. It feels great too; the button layout is fine, with the standard A/B/Start/Select buttons along with two shoulder buttons all feeling nice in the hand. The screen is the same as a standard GBA screen, but with one important addition... A backlight, turned on or off via a switch beneath the screen. This feature is what makes the GBA SP far superior to its predecessor, as the backlight allows you to play games with no other sources of light around. The backlight brightens up the gaming screen considerably, making all games much much easier to play, without you having to strain your eyes or constantly shift around to get a decent bit of light on the screen. Although it drains more battery power this way, the Lithium Ion battery is rechargeable so midnight gaming sessions are at last possible! The only minor gripe with this new Gameboy is the lack of a headphone socket. So, while the sound is perfect coming out of the GBA SPs speaker other people around you may not appreciate it, so youll have to turn the volume down and stop enjoying those tunes or invest in a headphone adaptor. The GBA SPs game library is huge. Its backwards compatible with all the older versions of the Gameboy (although the old games stick out a bit due to the bigger cartridges!), so it can replace any other Gameboys you may have. Also, it has some fantastic new games (e.g. Advance Wars) and ports of old classic SNES games available, which has left me spoilt for choice as to what to buy next. The only bad things about the GBA SP are that there is no headphone socket and some of the games can be expensive, so if you buy one youll need to have the cash to supplement your gaming desires. Aside from that, its absolutely top class.
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Try before you buy, GBA owners |
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If you arent already an owner of a Gameboy Advance, now is the time to get your hands on the definitive version of Nintendos hand-held. BR>First of all, Nintendo have made it far more user friendly with (of course) the backlit screen to banish those times when you needed to sit by a lamp to be able to see, and the rechargeable battery so no more fiddling about with unreliable third-party chargers. Although the flip-top design is new, its very similar to the classic Gameboy layout (d-pad of the left, the two buttons on the right, screen above) which I prefer simply due to the fact I have big hands and the original GBA seemed to have been designed for Japanese peoples hands, which was very uncomfortable at times.
But it looks like this time Nintendo have nailed the formula now, seeing how well the Gameboy Advance SP has sold.
If you don’t already have a GBA this is the one you need. If you have, I recommend you try the SP before you buy.
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