GameBoy Micro (review)

I love my Gameboy Advance. There's no getting around it. It's my oldest handheld, and with the hundreds of hours I've spent playing Zelda and Pokemon on it, it definitely shows. If I'm going on an overnight trip it's always the first thing I reach for to take with me, not necessarily because it's my favorite console, but because it's the most portable one. Its battery life trumps the PSP and all variations of the DS, and it's the smallest of my collection. Until now.


The GameBoy Micro took all of the expectations I had and shattered them to pieces. It's so incredibly small and light. It barely weighs more than the charger, and it's small enough for me to comfortably fit it in the palm of my hand. Normally I wouldn't take size and weight into account when considering selling points of a handheld, but in this case, it feels so crucial to the device. I guess that's why they named it after its small stature.

Along with the small casing comes a small screen. I worried that it would be uncomfortably small, and I admit that it took a few minutes of getting used to, but the beauty of this display is truly astonishing. It can easily compare to the PSP's and even the 3DS's clarity. They managed to take the resolution of the GBA and pack it onto a screen almost four times smaller. It makes the DS screen seem comparatively blurry and pixelated.

There's a small speaker in the lower right for mono sound, which is essentially the same as the GBA SP's speaker, just smaller.  On its own, I didn't notice a difference in sound quality, but when played next to my GBA SP, I noticed that it was a bit tinnier in comparison, but forgivably so, since the music is 8-bit and sounds tinny either way.  The headphone jack absolutely makes up for it too, since my SP doesn't have one at all.  I plugged in my highest quality headphones and was blown away by how much I was missing, playing without bass all these years.  I don't know how often I'll use headphones personally though, since earbuds irritate my ears, and carrying around my studio headphones defeats the portability of the Micro.

Possibly the best feature, though, is how solidly it's built. I was afraid that such a tiny device would feel fragile, but it surpasses the DS once again. The charger and cartridge slots snap tightly into place, the buttons have a satisfying click to them, and the chassis is actually made mostly out of metal, not plastic like the other Nintendo handhelds (except the 3DS).

The Gameboy Micro was ahead of its time. Elements like the light metal casing, the sleek black design with chrome-esque finish and the slight inward curve of the faceplace are reminiscient of things you'd find on the market today, unlike the candy-colored, plastic, toy-like handhelds of its generation. Set the Micro next to an iPhone, a 3DS or a PSP, and you might mistake it for something brand-new, rather than a discontinued gameboy from last decade.

I should probably mention that it's not backwards compatible with any other GameBoy games, but I don't consider that a demerit, just a lack of feature. When considering the GameBoy Micro as a standalone handheld, I can't think of a single complaint. This little hardware from heaven won't be leaving my pocket anytime soon.