"That thing is going to warp your mind and destroy your life," my mom yelled, as she wrenched the clunky, gray Nintendo GameBoy from my eight-year-old hands. I played that GameBoy until dawn and for countless months after, and, in honesty, it never managed to warp my mind or destroy my life.
Eventually though, the time came for us to part. After a while, playing GameBoy simply became impractical. I could not play late at night because I needed a night-club spotlight just to see the screen, and the dang thing kept running out of batteries. I also couldn't take it with me to school because it was too big and the screen would get scratched in my backpack. And, let's be honest, how long can black-and-white Tetris actually keep your attention?
Well, of course, Nintendo didn't give up. This week it made another valiant stab at warping my mind and destroying my life: the GameBoy Advance SP. The newest, coolest thing in video gaming has already caused me to fail a Spanish oral exam, and it's killing my brain activity by the second. SP features a full-color, backlit screen, a shell cuter than my ex-girlfriend and, unlike her, a fully rechargeable battery.
The Advance SP can play the same games as the older GameBoy platforms, so you are not stuck buying a whole new arsenal. As before, Nintendo has continued to support its products with its own original games. It's not all peachy though, as the rechargeable battery will barely last you a car trip to New York City, and the whole design is more stylish than practical, bucking the ergonomic mastery of the previous Advance, which fit comfortably into your hands. With that said, the new foldable design protects the screen and is smaller than most wallets, so it fits easily and discreetly into your pocket.
My mom called me today to tell me that the new GameBoy will warp my mind and destroy my life, and to be honest, this time she's probably right.
-Yoav Lurie
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