Got Me A Game Boy Advance SP

Just as the itch faded from playing the demo for the 3DS, I found myself in another Target for different reasons about a week later.  Then I found myself in the same predicament.  Another 3DS, another round of Star Fox.  This time I fared a little better, but I still couldn't get the directional controls embedded in my brain.  I was still thinking down went up and up went down.  I hit the ground a lot.

The point being, that I was jonesing for a 3DS now, but there was absolutely no room in the budget for one.  So I did what I figured I would end up doing anyway.  I fired up the internet, pulled up Craigslist and found a Game Boy Advance SP with a game for 20 buckaroos.  I jumped all over it and now, for the first time since I was a wee little lad, I have my very own portable gaming device.  (No, I don't count my phone.  As much as I love me some Angry Birds).  I'm seeing why this thing was considered so cool.  I have the purple one with the back light and it is just what I needed.  Keeping up with my tradition of getting the cool things years after they were initially cool.

Mine: Not So Shiny

Unfortunately, I don't have a charger.  I have one on order, but this one was charged up and I don't spend hours at a time on it, so I'm still good to go til it comes in the mail. For now though, I got some Metroid Fusion happening, and it is just perfect for those bite sized pieces of gaming I need when the kids are watching Mickey Mouse or whatever they do to take over my usual entertainment outlets. I've never played one of these things before, even though I have played some games (like the aforementioned Fusion) on the GameCube Game Boy player.  Portable is different somehow, it offers you a freedom being hooked to the TV doesn't.

And even more exciting, I got another game in the mail today that I found on the cheap that I have played before as well, but not getting very far.  Mario Golf: Advance Tour.  It's an addicting game that, once again, offers a nice little "here and there" type of play that I love so very, very much.  Like the Wii, it'll be slow going, but I look forward to building a small library of fun games that I've missed out on in the past for not owning one of these things.  Having had the GameCube player, I never really took much advantage of it, so now is my chance.  I'm jazzed about future rounds of Mario Kart Super Circuit and Minish Cap as well as some old SNES classics that are available.

Something I realized after I got it that I didn't think about beforehand is that I really will enjoy teaching my kids to play old school video games this way.  My three year old little girl already likes to make Samus run and jump (that's about all she can do with it, but she thinks it's awesome), so it'll be exciting to get her going on a Mario game sometime in the near future.

The 3DS will have to wait for now, until then I have a really nice substitute in my brand new used Game Boy Advance.