13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Finally! A GBA I can live with.
Date of Review: Apr 29, 2003
The Bottom Line: Get it if the old version made your eyes hurt
I could never get around to buying a GBA, though I would borrow my sister's every once and a while. The screen would always get scratched up, and there was no lighting built in; combined, these problems with the original GBA would leave my eyes feel like they were bleeding after a few hours of use.
So when I came across the GBA SP, I knew I had to get it. The lighting on the SP is brilliant (literally), and can save your eyes when playing in poor lighting. The fact that the screen folds down is another added bonus, since this feature should keep the screen from getting scratched in the long run.
I don't think I've gotten 10 hours of use on the rechargeable battery (closer to 6), but I use the light quite a bit. I can still play the GBA while the battery charger is plugged in, so I could play it indefinitely in theory. However, one concern is that there are no rechargeable battery replacements out on the market that I'm aware of, so one couldn't replace the batteries during a long flight/car trip. I'm willing to bet that the after market will remedy this issue.
In buying the GBA SP, one concern raised by many people is its small size. Personally, I haven't noticed this small size adversely affecting gameplay. I like the fact that it is compact and won't take up much space in a backpack. Unlike the original GBA, there is no widescreen feature; however, I don't think I ever played the GBA using the widescreen anyways.
You can get a headphone jack adapter for an additional $5-$7; otherwise, you'll be relegated to keeping the volume low or off in crowded/public areas. I can live with this now, but I might break down and get this adapter. A lot of my favorite games (Rogue Spear, for instance) use sound to cue certain events critical to gameplay.
I would strongly recommend that you get this game console if you're a fan of the GBA. As a side note, I bought mine at Best Buy; for $10 extra, I added the two year warranty (which I plan to use in case the screen gets damaged, or the battery loses life quickly).
