17 out of 17 people found this review helpful.
Now THAT'S more like it!
Date of Review: May 4, 2003
The Bottom Line: With its powerful game engine, sidelit screen, rechargeable battery and huge catalog of games, it's no suprise that it's nearly impossible to find one in stock. Buy this console.
When the first Gameboy Advance (or GBA for short) came around, my epinion was not very favorable. And with good reason - It wasn't usable in poorly lit circumstances. While the unit itself was comfortable in your hands, it wasn't completely pocketable and the lack of any kind of screen lighting made it hard to use.
Finally, Nintendo released the Gameboy Advance SP which finally gave it a much required sidelight. In addition to this new sidelight, they made it a lot more portable and included a Li-ion rechargeable battery. And they kept the $99 price - the magical price target that makes it very affordable.
The console itself is for all intents and purposes a Super Nintendo unit, though the GBA and GBA SP are 32 bit consoles as opposed to the Super Nintendo being 16 bit. The graphics engine is a 2D engine, with certain hardware effects like Parallax scrolling (to create wavey flame-like effects) and Mode 7 rotation (the ability to rotate and scale sprites very quickly). Graphically it's very impressive - easily outclassing any other portable console unit (including the aging Sega Nomad which was basically a complete portable Sega Genesis unit). The sound is also very good, sounding every bit as good as the original Super Nintendo complete with PCM modulation and digital samples. The cartridges are very small, but pack a pretty good amount of data. The largest cartridge size is 128 megabits (or 16 megabytes) without any form of "bank switching". More than enough for a hefty RPG with digital sounds.
The GBA SP's design is very well thought out - for its intended market. Bear in mind that i'm an "older" gamer, 33 as of this writing. My wife calls me the "Oldest Living Teenager". Perhaps she's right. For the target market of this unit (kids), the unit will be VERY comfortable to use. The buttons are laid out properly on the main face of the unit, meaning even adults will have little problem. The "shoulder" buttons on the top edge of the unit will also be fine for kids and adults with smaller hands, though for a guy with larger hands like myself they took a little getting used to. They still feel SLIGHTLY awkward to me, but they are still very usable.
The unit also comes with a rechargeable Li-Ion battery and a charger. The battery is rated for 18 hours of continuous gaming with the backlight off, or 10 hours with it on. I've run mine quite a bit, and while I haven't done any SCIENTIFIC tests to prove their claim, I would put my money on it. The battery itself is not really user-replaceable - it's behind a door that's sealed with proprietary screws, but a lot of hong-kong shops sell the screwdriver as well as replacement batteries. Though I really doubt you'll ever have to worry about this. The GBA SP of course comes with a charger to charge the battery. The plug portion itself is a bit of a wall-wart type thing, though not offensively large at around 2" by 3". The plug portion folds flush with the rectangular wall wart portion, taking up even less space.
Again, the unit is foldable and VERY pocket friendly. The additional side benefit of its foldable shape is that the screen remains protected when it's not in use. Everyone I know with an original GBA seems to have scratched the screen up to some degree. With the GBA's target market being kids, I would certainly expect this. Kudos to Nintendo for giving the SP a much needed method of protecting the screen.
Those improvements alone are terrific, but the biggest improvement with the GBA SP is the sidelit screen. The GBA SP's screen is a huge improvement over the original GBA. While the dimensions of the screen are identical, the big addition is the sidelight which enables you to play in virtually all conditions - even complete darkness. This was the original GBA's achilles heel. In fact, it made the original GBA unit completely useless for my needs as I use mass transit with various light levels (including a run through the Lincoln Tunnel). My son loved the original GBA though, and even he can appreciate the huge improvement of the SP's screen. While the sidelighting isn't perfect, it definitely does an excellent job. With no lighting at all on the original GBA, whites looked more of a dingy grey. With the sidelight on the GBA SP, Whites look more of a faint blue tinge - but still 100% recognizable as "white" in most circumstances. The screen itself is of high quality, and I don't notice even a hint of "motion blur" that happens on a lot of LCD screens.
So... are there any cons to this unit? A couple of minor ones. First, the volume doesn't get very loud, though it's pretty usable in most circumstances. Another omission in the SP is the lack of a headphone jack. The built-in speaker is mono, so if you want stereo you need to use a set of headphones. Since there's no headphone jack, you need to purchase either a set of headphones that plug into the same port as the charger, or you buy a small headphone jack "dongle" that converts the GBA SP's rear port to a standard 1/8th inch headphone jack (I opted for the latter). I paid $7 for such an accessory, and it's something you'll likely need.
In closing, I have to say i'm really impressed with the GBA SP. Considering the HUGE library of games available worldwide (996 of them as of this writing), you'll always find something appealing. The sidelit screen makes this console usable just about anywhere, and its long battery life makes your commute or boring afternoon go by much more quickly.
