Game Boy Micro: Small Size Does Matter!

The original Game Boy was a godsend for teenagers everywhere; the ability to play your favorite NES games on the go was an amazing concept at a time when portable Pac Man consoles were available on a keychain near you. The Game Boy wasn’t technologically amazing by any means, the screen was pea-soup colored, and the console itself was a big grey brick. But the advantages were the excellent battery life, and awesome game library that was always sprouting with new releases. When Sega released the Game Gear it was everything that the GB wasn’t, the Game Gear backlit, color screen, and impressive graphics. But the Game Gear suffered from some major drawbacks such as horrid battery life and the console was also the size of a brick, Nintendo’s Game Boy on the other hand was excellent on batteries and the price was cheaper.

When the Game Boy Pocket was released it tried to address these problems by offering a smaller pocket friendly console with a monochrome screen instead. The Game Boy Pocket was also personalized with individual color choices, and then Nintendo finally released the Game Boy Color which had a vibrant color screen and a more compact size. The GBC was an awesome portable but it still had its share of problems, such as a lack of a backlit screen, and the screen was still much too small. 2001 brought the release of the Game Boy Advance, the GBA has a full 32-Bit processor and a larger screen, but there was still no backlight to be found. Finally Nintendo released the smaller clamshell GBA SP which has a backlit screen, the GBA SP also got a new brighter screen a couple of years after the initial release but now the GBA Micro is another choice for Nintendo Gamers who don’t want to take the plunge for a Nintendo DS.

In a day and age when smaller is better the GBA Micro excels in every aspect of the word. First off the GBA Micro is only 2 inches long and 0.7 inches thin, weighing only 2.8 ounces, this is possibly the smallest portable game console available at the moment. But there were sacrifices that had to be made, the screen has been shrunk down to two inches diagonally, which might seem small but it’s actually still quite easy to play on. The text is actually more vibrant and crisp thanks to the brighter backlit screen, and the clarity is better then that of the original SP. Another thing that I like about the Micros screen is the fact that it can be seen pretty well outdoors, for instance I took this little device on a vacation to the beach and I could still see the screen perfectly. If I try to take my SP outdoors I really can’t see the screen well until dusk, which isn’t really good if you are taking this little device traveling or to a convention such as comic-con.

Nevertheless there are some drawbacks to the GBA Micro, firstly this device cannot play classic Game Boy games, which is a major drawback if you’re like me and you have a huge library of Game Boy Color games. Also, this device has lackluster sound but Nintendo has included an integrated headphone jack, so you could just as easily purchase a pair of noise cancelling headphones which is the road I chose. The controls on the Game Boy Micro are also very squishy when compared to previous Nintendo Handhelds which had more of a click feeling to their buttons. Although I’ve noticed that Game Boy Advance games like Need for Speed are much easier to control using the Game Boy Micros controller configuration. The lack of backwards compatibility with the Game Boy Micro might be frustrating to some hardcore Nintendo enthusiasts, but there is a huge library of Game Boy Advance games to choose from, everything from sports, platform, RPG, and of course the Pokemon series that people like myself are addicted to playing.

Perhaps the most unique feature of the Game Boy Micro are the customizable faceplates, this is a feature in the wake of customizable cell phones and gaming console skins. Nintendo packages three faceplates with the console, but you can find many other styles online at retailers like Amazon and most Japanese import websites. I’m not really interested in the faceplates but I think that this feature might appeal to teenagers or school aged children. One might wonder what kind of batteries something this small requires. Well, the Game Boy Micro is powered by a rechargeable battery; I usually charge the console overnight which seems to give me the best results. The Battery life is on par with the Nintendo DS and GBASP consoles, and I’ve played non-stop for four hours until the console began to lose its charge.

The Start and Select buttons glow blue when the unit is charging, and then turn red when the console needs to be recharged. It’s little features like that in which make the Game Boy Micro interesting, and I happen to like this unique little handheld very much. Overall there are many reasons not to purchase the Game Boy Micro, but if you are a collector or you would like a smaller Game Boy Advance console then the Game Boy Micro wouldn’t hurt. Plus nowadays this console can be purchased online brand new for around fifty bucks so I’d just go ahead and get one to see if you like it, after all the Game Boy Micro has the stellar reputation of Nintendo behind it.