Reviewed by CL on 9/14/2003
Here is one area where Nintendo has dominated since the beginning of time, the handheld market. They continue their excellent work with the Gameboy Advance SP. When I first saw the Gameboy Advance, I was totally blown away. The fact that you could have a Super Nintendo in your pocket was really cool. There also seemed to be a decent selection of games available for the system. The only problem was that it was a little on the chunky side and the screen brightness (or lack there of) was horrible. Therefore, I decided not to get one when it came out. But when the GBA SP came out with all the fixed to the first GBA, I couldn't resist. I must say that I'm not sorry about my purchase at all. In fact, this is one of the better systems to have in a collection.
The GBA is truly another system and not a simple gimmick like so many other handhelds. In fact, this system has the largest library of any system, period. This is due to the fact that it can play Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance games. The only way you'll get more of a gaming selection would be to get a Gamecube with the Gameboy Player. The problem with this is that you've taken a portable system and made it not portable.
As stated above, the beauty of this system is that it is completely portable with an excellent battery life. You can play this thing anywhere, in the car, waiting in line, or simply sitting around outside. The addition of the backlight is by far the number one selling feature of this system. You can now play in any lighting condition and even in total darkness. This makes it a great thing to have if you're never around at home, you can still play on the go if you want to. The other nice thing is that this system has a lot of pick-up-and-go games, meaning that you can simply turn on the thing and start playing; you don't have to sit down for hours at a time to get a good gaming session in. This complements the portability of the GBA SP very well.
In conclusion, you need to pick up one of these if you don't have one in your collection already. That's pretty much all there is to it.
