for this review item! Anyways, let's get started with this review. Introduction:
Well, the Game Boy Advance SP is pretty well built, had good software, and the packaging was well, except for one problem, but as the review gets more in depth, you'll see what the problem was. Aside from that, my first impression was “just another game system” but it was actually pretty fun to play around with and see what games there were.
Packaging:
When I first got the SP, I took it out of the package and the box was mangled and destroyed, like the people in the sorting room played baseball and my package was sadly the ball. The packaging was all beat up, but the contents of the box was still very well in place and not damaged at all, it looked like it the Game Boy Advance SP was unharmed throughout the travel and possible game of baseball.
Looks like the packaging was pretty damaged on its way to the arrival destination]
There isn't much to say about the packaging, it did what it was supposed to, but it would have been nice if it wasn't so damaged, it would have looked like a nice gift box.
I give the packaging a 7/10. The package did what it was supposed to and protect the contents inside it, but a package like this was also meant to have a type of pizazz to the consumer, and when it's damaged, it doesn't look so nice, but as I said already, it did what it was supposed to and that's all that counts I suppose.
Software:
The software on this machine was pretty sweet, it had preloaded games on it, different languages to choose from, and even some NES games. The bad part is that the box did not give any instructions on how to change the language on it, so my first use I had to ignore the Arabic and continue testing out the games.
The software was pretty fun to play around with
When you turned on the SP, the Game Boy Advance logo would shine and do its thing, but it was a bit slow in comparison to my normal SP. I scrolled through the list of games and realized the first four items on the SP was various video files which included .AVI .MP4 and .FLV. I was pretty surprised when I saw this and I tried the videos, they ran very well.
Games
The games on the SP had a bountiful amount, ten thousand in fact, but at game number 0476, the game list repeated. So there was only about 472 games on the SP, which is still amazing because most of them were really good Game Boy Advance games and some random NES games. The NES games used an emulator called “PocketNES” I figured this out when playing a NES game I tapped the L and R buttons and a menu popped up which had a scaling option, Save and Load State options, a game reset option, and an Exit option which just restarted the game.
The Game Boy Advance games I played had no lag or very little lag, hardly anything noticeable, which was very amazing considering I've seen comments on how the games lagged lots on the system, but I noticed very little lag, only some lag on Harvest Moon: Friends Of Mineral Town.
The SP even had a game slot in the bottom of it, which I was happy with, so I tried Harvest Moon in it, and it had just as much lad as the one on the one on the system itself, so nothing much to complain about.
I give the games a solid 10/10. It had a wide selection of games on it, and some NES games to go along with it, a very good combination of 472 games.
Software:
Although it had a good selection of games, it is near impossible to comment on the software. This is where the problem began with me. When I received it, I turned it on to realized the game names on the bottom of the screen were in Arabic, and I didn't know how to change it after ten minutes of fiddling around with it and figuring out it was the L button to change the language. I was not overall impressed that the makers of this system forgot an instruction booklet on the software, the instruction booklet that came with it was an extremely shortened version of the Game Boy Advance SP booklet. Being the person I am, I even noticed some spelling mistakes and noticed that one of the pages said “Turn to page 57” when there was only around twenty pages.
Aside from the frustration of not being able to change the language, the software had a little battery meter, which made me happy because I never liked charging my SP when the red light went on, because that usually meant I had another hour or so. This had a meter that indicated when my battery was low, a nice plus for those people who like knowing when they need to charge it when it is almost dead, a nice little pro for the software.
A nice little menu for all the games
Now here comes the problem. As soon as I charged the thing, I left it on my bed to charge as I went out for an hour. I come back to see that the charging light is still on, so I decided to turn it on and maybe play some Harvest Moon or Super Mario Advance 2. So I flicked the switch on, the light turned on, but there was no sound, no screen turning on, the SP bricked itself. I actually took it apart to see if there was anything wrong with the ribbon cable or the speaker, so I disconnected the ribbon cable, connected it and used the battery to turn it on. No luck. The software quite literally corrupted itself and made it unable to play games or even start up a game with a cartridge in the slot. Once again to no avail, it refused to boot. I even left it on overnight to see what would happen to the thing. So as I woke up in the morning, the green light was still mocking me as the screen did not turn on. I am sure it may have been my fault for leaving the SP on my bed where it collected heat, but it should be advised while charging it to keep it on a flat surface.
I give the software a 0/10. I give it such a low score because I did not expect it at all to brick itself. I leave my DS charging on my bed, even wrapped in the covers and it always has turned on and played games properly. I was very disappointed when it broke, I really enjoyed the system and all its games. I would even give it 1/10, but the system software did have some perks like the battery meter and the fact it had so many languages, a system clock, and adjustable brightness, too.
Games: 10/10
Software: 0/10
Total: 6/10
Hardware:
The hardware was pretty much the same on a Game Boy Advance SP, almost like and exact clone, which is very nice because it reminded me of my old SP and would be a nice collection to add to my Nintendo systems. There was one problem that I didn't really like was the buttons. They were really loud to press and the power slider would kind of refuse to turn on and stay halfway between on and off, making me press a bit harder to turn the SP on. The rest of the buttons which included the L and R, A and B, Start and Select, and even the directional pad was very loud to press making an awfully loud clicking noise, which my previous SP has never done. I did not like this very much, but aside from that the hardware was pretty durable.
The SP was an almost exact clone of the original Game Boy Advance SP
When I was holding the SP it felt very normal for an SP, and nice and sturdy. Whenever I pressed the A or B button, the back was nice and sturdy and didn't buckle inwards or anything, which was very nice,I never liked systems where you would press a button and you could feel the back of it kind of collapsing into the system itself. I even dropped it a few times off my desk and the thing didn't even get a scratch. Even when I took the system apart, the face of the SP only collected some minor scratches when I slid it along my desk, but it also could have been the colour, making it hard to see the scratches.
I give the hardware a good 9/10. The system itself was nice and durable, even after the travel and possible baseball game played by the mail sorters and people who shipped it. Still a good system, even though the software killed it.
Conclusion:
Well, having the SP for such a short time, and by short I mean around a day or so, it was very fun to play around with it, even though the software was able to kill the whole thing. All the games where fun to play and I may even buy another one in the near future!
Packaging: 7/10
Software: 5/10
Hardware: 9/10
Total: 7/10
Once again I would like to thank
for this amazing review sample!! And thank you for taking your time to read this!P.S. Sorry for the limited photos, I took pictures at the start and was planning to take more the next day, but since the SP killed itself I couldn't that many pictures...
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