Micro Management
September 11th, 2007 by JeffI used to have a black Game Boy Micro but I gave it away when we moved from Missouri to Nebraska back in May. Tina was kind of mad at me, but I thought I was doing something nice at the time. I gave it to some kids at church because they were into GBA, but they only had the original model, that atrocious thing with the impossible-to-see screen.
That’s how my mind works; I see the starving African kids on TV and I’m like “whatever” but I see some kids playing a first-model GBA and I feel it’s my duty to help them out. The Micro’s backlit and it’s got a built-in rechargeable battery, so they won’t have to bug their parents for AA’s all the time. As we were moving, I was on a big “get rid of stuff I don’t need” kick, so I gave away the Micro and I felt fine about it.
But just lately I’ve had an urge to play some GBA games that I never finished. Stuff like Zelda: The Minish Cap and a dozen or so others. I gave away the Micro because I have a DS Lite and I figured it would be just as good for playing my GBA games. Turns out I just don’t like playing GBA stuff on the DS, though. The main thing is that the buttons aren’t placed quite right. It would be pretty cool if you could map the DS buttons however you wanted for GBA mode (put L & R on the face, for example) but unless I’m missing something, the DS doesn’t have this feature.
So, I went looking for a replacement Micro, specifically the retro-styled 20th Anniversary one that I had seen in stores some months after I had bought my black one. The anniversary edition is meant to resemble the controllers of the old Japanese Famicom system (basically the Japanese version of what we knew as the original NES).
I believe there are still several stores that have Micro’s in stock, including the Famicom version. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them recently at both Wal-Mart and Best Buy. I decided to go eBay, though, because I have a PayPal balance and that always feels like play money, plus I could replace what I spent by selling some PS2 games. I got over $30.00 for my PS2 MGS2:Substance disc this weekend, which was more than half of the $53.95 I ended up spending on the Micro. Cool beans. My PS2 GH Silent Hill 2 only went for $8.95, though, which kind of surprised me. I mean, I have it for Xbox so I don’t really care, but… oh well.
I guess I’d say it’s an aesthetic toss-up between the 20th Anniversary edition Micro and the black one I used to have. Black is undeniably sleek and always classy. The 20th Anniversary is very shiny, in a red and gold scheme that’s a bit more “blingy” than I might normally care for, but the retro chic trumps the gaudiness for me.