15 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Great gaming on a screen the size of 2 postage stamps.
Date of Review: Oct 2, 2005
The Bottom Line: It's a fun little system. If you have money to spend on toys and like video games, you can't go wrong. Look out for bad shoulder buttons and dead pixels.
The word is out; there's nothing new with the Nintendo Game Boy Micro, except size. Why buy it? It's small, cute, fun, and you have a hundred bucks to blow... oh- and you're a gadget lover. I must say, it's a cool gadget for sure. The unit comes with 2 extra face plates, a small tool for removing them, and a black velvet stuff sack. The whole thing is practically smaller than one hand, and almost feels like it belongs on a key chain. If you want details, the Engadget website has it covered pretty well with lots of pictures: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000917060290/. I've owned every handheld system Nintendo's released, and this one is just as cool as the rest, as long as you aren't expecting anything new. It fits in your shirt pocket easily (it's smaller than a pack of smokes), though I find it a bit heavy for your average T-shirt. Rechargeable battery, charge indication LED's, On/Off switch, rocker volume/screen brightness button, standard 1/8" headphone jack, shoulder buttons, removable battery, wrist strap hole, removable face plate, and proprietary connector jack. I don't play multiplayer or use wireless,so I can't comment on that. Plays only Game Boy Advance games. Rumor has it that Nintendo is releasing a cartridge that will facilitate MP3 and MPEG-4 video playback (extra cost, of course). Both the audio and video are very crisp on this unit. I had to return two for replacement due to bad left shoulder button and a dead pixel. Games play great as you would expect, and when using headphones, the audio is even better. My only two gripes with this system are: 1) Nintendo really needs to give this thing a "sleep" mode so you can pause in mid-game without the audio & video still running (some games include a feature for this, but it should be on the system itself), and 2) it would have really been special if they gave it MP3 playback out of the box, or at least a clock/alarm feature, or even USB functionality. It's hard to justify spending $100. for the Micro, and then have to spend additional money for MP3/video playback and other peripherals. This unit seems like it should be around $60 or $70 max. If you're a video game/gadget lover with the extra cash to spend, this is right up your alley.
