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Was The Game Boy Advance Micro a Failure?
The ultra-portable GBA came and left us in the blink of an eye
Perhaps one of the strangest entries into Nintendo’s storied history of handhelds is the GameBoy Advance Micro. This little console was sold from 2005–08 and was the replacement for the GameBoy Advance SP.
Taking a nod to cellphones of the same time period, the GBA Micro had interchangeable faceplates. The unique appeal of being able to customize your GBA was a nice touch, but competition was fierce at this point in time.
Nintendo had released the DS console, and Sony was going full force ahead with the PSP handheld. For most gamers, it didn’t make sense to justify spending $99.99 on another GBA console.
I often think the GBA Micro was the right handheld at the wrong time. Had Nintendo gone with this design instead of the clamshell SP a few years earlier, I think it would have been a massive success.
The micro had a much better screen than the original GBA SP, with a finer dot matrix that made the quality pop. The rechargeable battery was also a nice touch at a time when rechargeable game systems were still new.
I’ve recently digging into the GBA Micro and trying to start collecting these. I think it’s amazing that this console never sold better, and I am curious to see who else has one?
