The next iteration of the extremely successful Game Boy series is finally here. After having broken the postmans back delivering sacks of hate mail to Nintendo, theyve given in and decided to release a deluxe edition of the best selling handheld ever. The new design is aimed more towards the mature end of the market rather than the fun-loving kids of the world but its already proving popular with both ends of the spectrum. The design is unlikely to deter the kiddies from the laptop look-a-like handheld, because as a wise person once said GBA? GBA SP? If it plays Pokemon, they shall come... or something like that.
Features
- New pocket size and foldable with flip-top screen that enables an even more compact size
- Dimension are 82mm Wx 84.6H x 24.3D and it weighs approximately 143g
- New integrated self-contained LCD screen light
- New built in rechargeable Lithium Ion battery that enables approximately 10 hours of continual game play with approximately 3 hours of recharging time
- When the front light is turned off, the continual play increases to approximately 18 hours.
- Three premium metallic colour variants (silver, black and blue)
- Up to 32,000 simultaneous colours
- Display Size 40.8mm x 61.2mm
- Resolution 240 x 160 dot
- 32 - bit CPU with embedded memory
- Multiplayer mode for up to 4 players with Game Link cable
- Compatible with virtually all existing Game Boy & Game Boy Advance games
Anthony Pepera:How many times have you been on a bus, plane, train -or a dentists waiting room- when you suddenly crave a few quick laps of F-Zero or a short session of Koopa crushing in Super Mario World, only to be blighted by poor lighting conditions. The original Game Boy Advance, upon release, was lapped up by anyone and everyone that could get their mitts on it. In actuality, it sold neck and neck with the PS2. The 100million seller portable has come back and in a big way.
Unfortunately, it gradually became easier to spot Game Boy Advance owners by their uncouth appearance during play in public, swaying toward any hint of incandescence, resembling wilting flowers. Gamers tolerated the omission of a light source in the GBA only because there they were compensated by the nectar of gaming goodness that the GBA is home to. Nevertheless, Im not sure how much more squinting we could take! Was it pity that drove Nintendos decision to re-engineer the design and function of the GBA? Was it profit? Well, neither of those questions matter right now. The GBA SP is here and its managed to kick the ass of this reviewer with both feet, and believe me that takes some skill.
Lord, give me light.
Where to start, where to start, hmmm maybe Ill start with the mighty beam of light emanating from my screen at present. The light is -as youve likely heard- is great. Game Boy owners have definitely been missing out on what Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear owners (among others) have had for roughly a decade now. The importance of the light itself should not be understated. Details and sometimes entire objects that were previously obscured under the cover of darkness on the screen of the original GBA, now appear vivid and clear. Some folks have even gone as far as to say it has made their games easier to play.
It seems a new lease of life has been injected into the once dull, pseudo 3D games on the GBA as well. Games like Doom, Wings and Iridion were tailored to be played in an environment that can satisfy the amount of light required to view the play area. Doom, for example, degenerates into dark wall-texture, after dark wall-texture followed by a spate of flashing red when youre getting your ass reprimanded by a horror-some ghoul. Pop your cart in a GBA SP however, and you see a world of difference. Instead of being blind-sided by the ominous, dark and misty fog of war, you receive a warm, friendly welcome from the Doom of yester year. Revisiting SNES classics on the ol SP tends to provoke relapses of early 90s gaming more so than the original GBA due to such a pucka image being projected from the snazzy TFT screen.
Theres no doubt in my mind that playing the GBA SP with the light configured to the "on" position, is the way the developers always wanted gamers to be playing their games.
Just a few niggles with the screen worth pointing out though (uh oh). The GBA SP is front-lit. This means light is washed over the top of the TFT reflective screen evenly. Well, thats almost true. With the GBA SP the light source is situated at the base of the screen distributing light upwards. What this means for you is that the screen may appear to -ever so slightly- darken near the top. The good news is that you can put away those alarm bells, as its a very minor design fault that cant really be spotted unless scrutinised to death by a beady-eyed critic and shouldnt hinder the average user's gameplay at all.
Another trait that the addition of a light has brought to the GBA is a slightly blue hue to the screen. Whether it was intentional or not is not known, but its so light it becomes non-existent to the naked eye within a few minutes of gameplay. Its not the kind of illegal tint you have on your roadster. Its actually a similar tint of blue you find on a few PC monitors. If that goes unnoticed in your daily/weekly/monthly foray on the internet then you should have no problems.
Outdoors, the GBA SPs front-light fights a losing battle against natural light. The screen is still very-much visible but, colours seem washed-out next to its performance in poorly lit areas. It operates more suitably under natural light with the light off. The GBA SPs light can be turned to the on/off position with an easily accessible button on the centre of the device. As well as that, the extremely reflective nature of the plastic screen shielding the TFT screen of the GBA SP/GBA makes playing outdoors a bit of a pain. Its best to switch off and enjoy all that sunshine instead.
Clam up kid
The most obvious physical design alteration to the GBA is in its clam-shell form. At a first glance you could easily mistake it for a PDA and a disappointing one at that, featuring only 5 buttons and one D-Pad (which well come to later). However, the design change is more likely to have been influenced by the Game&Watch series of the early 80s, that Nintendo themselves designed. The popular portable gaming device resembling a ladys or sexual deviants- mini make-up kit, opened up vertically reveals one-half of the clam design home to a screen, and the other side containing a familiar button and D-Pad layout (there were also horizontal Game&Watch releases that spanned across two screens. but thats another feature).
There are three positions that the device can lock into. Fully open at 180 degrees. Open at about 160 degrees. And finally, fully closed at naught degrees. You can adjust the screens angle to a multitude of positions in-between, but the position will not be locked stable. Regardless, the regular open position is a more than adequate playing angle. One thing thats for certain is you wont be adjusting the viewing angle for more light.
The GBA SP comes coated in 3 stylish, metallic colours of platinum, cobalt and black. In keeping with Nintendos new found love for 90 degree right-angles, the casing is square. It looks very much like a yuppy's play-thing and has no doubt been cleverly designed to attract that type of consumer base. Up-close the unit is very impressive and just exudes impulse buy out of its every peripheral slot. Theres no other word to describe the visceral design of the GBA SP but, cool.
Pushing my buttons
Upon viewing the GBA SP for the first time youd be forgiven for immediately thinking the ergonomics of it to be unwieldy. I can only honestly answer that with a yeah and no.
Lets start with the obvious. The L and R buttons. The cusp of the two corners where your index fingers will rest. Different people will have different sizes of hands, and therefore different ways of hold the GBA SP. The inherent problem with focusing the design of a handheld on a square is that base square will never truly appease the comfort of everyone. With the GBA SP the majority find the comfortable resting position from which they can access the triggers effectively is with the tip of their fingers. A few others have told me they prefer to use the under the knuckle method (get your mind out of the gutter son). Neither way leaves me 100% convinced and could have been handled with a little more consideration from Nintendo.
The L and R buttons infact, stand-out as the weakest attribute of the GBA SP, being too small and fairly flimsy to the point you feel you could just pop them off with ease if uncareful.
The other buttons have also seen a face-lift this time around. The B, A, START, SELECT as well as the D-Pad have been more than halved in height. Theyve also lost their curved surface as well as any sort of attrition they may have possessed before (although the B and A buttons are still lightly embossed). One major change to the feel of the buttons is they all click instead of travel when depressed. The click is a lot lighter than the clicky buttons of a mobile phone and it seems to deliver more accuracy to gameplay.
For example, the classic HADOUKEN! move in the Street Fighter series can be executed over and over with deadly accuracy due to the newly improved D-Pad from which you can feel three, quick, individual, clicks under your thumb while performing the world famous quarter-circle action.
Block rockin beats
The GBA SP doesnt have an improved sound chip in there but Ill be damned if you dont at least think there is upon first play. In reality its all to do with positioning. From the first Game Boy to the original Game Boy Advance, weve been covering the speaker with our right palms. The sound came out muffled and muted at the best of times.
Now, however, with the repositioning of the speaker to the centre of the unit, the tunes, voice samples and various sound effects of all your games come bursting out with newfound clarity. It kind of makes you wonder why Nintendo allowed our palms to impede the speaker for all those years doesnt it?
Gimme an outlet
If you look around the GBA SP youll only find 2 outlets, 3 including the cart slot. Wheres the headphone jack you ask? Well, Nintendo seem to have left it in their bank vault. Coincidently, the very same bank vault your hard earned play-dough is heading when you run out to purchase the official connector needed to attach your headphones to your GBA SP. That said connector plugs into the same outlet as the chargers, translating into zero usability of headphones while charging and playing.
The second slot at the top of the unit is used for other peripherals such as the GBA/GC link cable, speaker adapters and so on. Most, if not all accessories that worked with the original GBA, do so with the GBA SP. Devices such as the old Game Boy Camera for example, operate on the GBA SP fairly well considering there have been two Game Boy design changes since its inception. It needs to be turned on its side to view the action, but works well enough.
As with the original GBA, non-GBA carts stick out of the machines main housing. It proves to be a little more of a problem due to the carts protruding from the base of the unit this time, where your palms are resting. The problem is minor but can be a slight pains after a lengthy session.
Constant juice
This was a long time coming, it was just a matter of time until it was incorporated into the Game Boy.
Recharging.
That one word means no more running down to the local 7/11 at 10:55pm. It means Mr. Duracell is crying into his golden coffee mug. It means you can play your GBA SP 24 hours a day for years (if you can stand that much fun), because you can also play while charging.
The unit uses a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery that loses about 20% of its potency after roughly 500charges. With the GBA SP the user can play for 10 hours uninterrupted with the light on and 18hours + with the light off (pff). When charging the GBA SP for the first time youll have to wait 3hours, after that its an estimated 1hour per charge. All of which culminates in hours and hours of playtime without ever having to spend a penny on batteries.
When the battery power is roughly 20-30mins from chocking on you, your GBA SP will alert the user through an orange light appearing on the right side of the unit. An orange light also appears while charging and disappears when the Lithium-Ion battery is fully charged. Contrary to popular belief, you can actually remove the battery from the GBA SPunit at will. It just takes a tiny-headed screw-driver (the sort used for repairing glasses) and not much effort at all. You wont need to be removing it in a very long while though.
As if that wasnt enough, you can also play your GBA SP while its recharging. Although it will take longer to charge fully as a result. All the features of charging a GBA SP should sound familiar if you own a mobile phone.
Playing with power
Regardless of whether the Game Boy Advance SP is perfect or not is of moot point. I believe the gadget, designed to lure the conservative business man in, can only have positive results on the industry as a whole. Many will grumble whether the simple addition of a light bulb in a GBA is worth the price on its head. I say yes. If you want to get the most out of your GBA games, youll need to own one of these.
Even the best lighting accessories on the market for the original GBA cant stand near the GBA SP for fear of being put in the shade. The only feasible alternative would be the Afterburner accessory. But if you want a compact, stylish, portable, SNES with a crystal-clear and bright screen, awash with vibrant colours, then look no further. Now youre playing with "super power", again.
Anthony Pepera