GBA SP impressions

I didn't receive my GBA SP unit yet, but one of Cube-Europe's board-members does. Ben (aka 'ben_turner') put up a few tests and some images... Thanks Ben!

Hi i decided to write this review after recieving my gameboy advance sp this morining from JPN Games. I live in England and I thought this was quite quick for a thing which has just arrived in Japan. Anyway onto the review.

The Box... First thing as you open your parcel is the cuteness of the little box, I immediatly thought that something was missing eg ac adapter.

I opened it up flicked the thing up and the thing was smaller than i though. I got cramp on my hands alot whilst playing the original GBA. I turned the machine on, i was slightly dissapointed that they had not changed the start up screen. Not a major thing, but would have been nice

First Test... First thing i tested was the E-Card reader. It fits very nice and cosy. It looks big and clunky in pictures and when you look at it, but my hands fitted fine. Actually quite comfortable.

The Light... I myself have a GBA with a Afterburner installed in it. The light is very much the same as a Afterburner, but the main thing was there is still a slight line effect when tilted to the side. Not a problem at all, just some people are saying it blows the Afterburner away in my opinion NO.

More Tests... I tested some other devices with the machine including the Game Boy Camera (official Non-Coulour one) and my Pro Action Replay cheat cartridge (gameshark for you yanks): they both fit fine, but .... the game boy camera does not function properly. As the camera is tilted upsidedown this makes the picture upside down on the screen making the device useless in my opinion. Lets hope nintendo solve a way around this. I think a link port camera would be much more better with the software on a cart.

(click to see whole image)

I charged it fine not sure if the thing auto shuts itself off after charging I'll let you know.

The weight of the machine is much lighter than the original gba not that this matters of course. I shall be testing the gba tv tuner next week with my sp.

The Link... Linked up with animal crossing perfectly fine, no problems at all.

The Verdict... Overall the machine is nearly flawless, on a side note i have huge hands and much to my surprise this is miles better than the normal gba for playing, even on games such as mario kart super circuit. The l & r buttons are actually better than they look they feel and play much better than the other game boys l & r buttons.

I rate the machine on a scale of 1 to 10: 9.8 flaws because: headphone jack & gb camera

feel free to ask questions/opinions on my review

thanks for reading Ben

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