This is a “Flipping” or “Hinge” joke safe zone.
Prepared by Joe
Howdy neighbor, I’m just sitting on the can in my morning meeting pondering retro handhelds and their OEM brand counterparts, the real stuff ya know? We’ve been lost in the pocketable/hand feel/button quality sauce now for so long that I have nostalgia for the likes of the RP2 or the infamous RK2020 and EVEN the most degenerate members of the community (going through our list of banned users on Facebook).
I now have a kenopsic sense of dread when staring into the abyss of old Android versions or Open Dingux and remember… with mixed emotions over what it was like to spend 4 hours tweaking N64 to gain a couple of frames per second… only to proceed to sell the device on the marketplace to another tweaker.
But this article isn’t about looking into the recent past, it’s about looking farther into the velvet curtain of our childhoods and how good we had it then, complete in sepia. I recently sipped on the RG35XX SP Kool-Aid, and while it’s 100% too late to review it, we need to talk about something.
I can’t bring myself to do a full review of the device because my job as a journalist is to A: Post Cringe and B: Write something new – and I just don’t have anything new to bring to the review space that could take up 1000 words or more. So this isn’t a review, more like a talk. A ponderance.
Swanky
I have the original 2003 offering and love it dearly. Has this new Anbernic doodad replaced my need for the GBA SP? Does the utility of having an all-out emulation device outweigh the turn-on-and-play nature of the original hardware? This is an easy question to answer, but it really isn’t. And I’ll explain in 1000 words or more. So son, let’s have a sit-down, a fireside chat, a heart-to-heart, a state of the union, over where we are in this zeitgeist and ask ourselves a single question. Was the original better?
Are The Original Games Better?
Let’s get something straight: 1000s of old games perfectly playable at your fingertips is amazing. The cost of cartridges is too damn high and is entirely left to the used market with the exception of Good Boy Galaxy with you paying over $70 for a copy of Final Fantasy VI that may or may not contain Cheeto dust. It’s the Wild West in the collecting scene and has only been made worse through pricing schemes that are…. Completely arbitrary. Take any Pokemon GBA title, like Emerald, and look at the average price.
Life’s always better with Kirb
That’ll cost you at least $110 USD with or without a working battery. Surely this must be a rare title? A diamond in the rough, niche little… 7.06 million unit selling game. 7.06 Million copies in the wild, dripping from the trees of a 30-40-year-old’s forgotten collection in the basement. Pokemon HeartGold for DS? $130+ against…. 12.72 million units in the wild (split with soul silver). Pokemon? More like Poke-nuts. More like too much Pokemoney.
Do SD cards count as Cartridges?
I’m not here to go over the beaten-to-death topic of retro collecting in-depth, but wanted to emphasize that these titles just aren’t as accessible in any other way beyond emulation. Even official offerings by the original companies are either A: Limited to an online service, B: Dead (3DS, DS, Wii U), or C: Kinda sucks (SNES, NES Classic consoles). While I’m not condoning piracy, I also don’t really care enough about it to give a REAL opinion.
Do I think it’s unethical that Anbernic ships their consoles with a preloaded SD card? Yes of course I do, so I usually delete the entire library they sent me and replace it with my even denser ROM collection that I ethically sourced from my collection of 10,000 cartridges. It’s crazy how these retro game prices are so high and everyone just happens to have a collection of over 10,000 games and the means to dump them.
Behold, my friends and family
And we complain about the price of the RG Cube… Yeah I just like the ability to play Super Mario 3 while in the middle of my wife’s labor (it’s a boy), and these devices make sure I can have it. …. That being said, what’s more valuable to you? Dropping your childhood copy of Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario Bros 3 cartridge into your favorite modded Game Boy Advance SP and going “Wahoo!” loudly while waiting for your back pain prescription to be filled and Rite Aid, OR browsing a curated directory and opening up a ROM?
I’d argue physical ownership… does make a difference. It carries weight, has value, and is the console’s intended way to experience the game. I would also argue that limiting yourself to just the games you play and/or are curious about maximizes the amount of time you ACTUALLY spend playing a game on a device you’re playing on. We can have 1000s of games, but nothing to play, or 15 bangers fighting for your attention.
After all, our time is limited. The reality is you won’t be able to experience everything, so just try not to worry about it. Do you have the fear of missing out because everyone likes Metroid and you haven’t started any of them? Don’t worry about it. Play what you like, try what you think you will like, or be happy with what you have. Maybe this is a better case for smaller ROM sets, and when Everdrives exist for the GBA, why not? Just something to think about.
Were We Better Off With No OS?
Once upon a time, you turned the system on a game booted up. It didn’t care what the operating system was, it didn’t care what RA version you were using, and it certainly didn’t care about your normal 2x bilinear scaling video shader integer filter scaled from 2:3 to a 4:3 display (wat). Once you decided “Alright, time for a poop break”, you were in a game before you hit the can. It looks as good as intended and is as responsive as intended. Then again on the 35XX SP, if you spent time setting everything right, you can just flip that dude up and you are EXACTLY where you left off after a couple of seconds, which is nice.
Or, you’ll power it on, wait for a full boot, find a game, boot into that, and let it ride. Or maybe the console is dead because it slept too long and the battery drained despite being nearly full when you used it a few days ago versus flicking on my GBA SP I hadn’t turned on in 2 years. Times were simple, and maybe simpler is better. Or maybe having better sleep functions, rewind/fast forward, save states, randomized, and custom controls are too convenient to leave behind. Software is a mixed bag, but you always know what you’re getting with the original: Not much, but maybe enough.
For my 35XX SP, I went with a custom build of the stock OS modified by cbepx-me (found here). Thanks Andy. Why this over #THEBEANS? Because on startup you are taken through all the best “set it and forget it” prompts like how it handles save states and the hinge for setup purposes and I can rely on the sleep mode in this OS more than muOS. It still takes me too long to get into a game and turning this guy in isn’t a matter of just flipping a switch half the time, but it gets the job done without any clunk
Does Build Quality Hold Up?
We all know and love the pure and blessed THONK that comes with our Game Boy SPs being closed. Arguably more satisfying than the Switch Joycon. Now take that, and add new Hall Effect closing technology in the RGSP … It’s literally just a magnet. Magnets are nice though. Anbernic really nailed this feel, and nothing else. Kind of.
They’re sleeping
If you’ve seen any review of this brick, you’ll know its one major flaw: button feel and sound. And I come to you with the truth, the truthiest truth: it’s not that bad. The thock and click of the face buttons and shoulder buttons are actually kind of satisfying, with it being slightly too loud.
The stiffness on the other hand…. Not bad. I did the tape mod thing that the video nerds recommended and it DOES null the sound a bit, but has nearly no effect on the stiffness. It’s not that big of a deal though. The original SP had buttons tailored so that a 7-year-old could press them without getting an owie, which is me. I’m 7. No owie for me.
Goodmorning
One thing we take for granted on older devices is how this thing feels in the hand. Whenever I grip the 35XXSP, I feel a sort of longing for something skinnier, leaner. And cobalt blue. Whereas our original SP might still fit well in the hand and in your pocket like it was meant to be. The 35XX SP is bulkier, and that may just come down to preference, but I think the original SP has the hand feel beat on this one.
Nice
For me, the biggest original flaw of the GBSP is its IO. I loved modding my GBSP for years now and I’m happy with my Funnyplaying V2 display, but doing additional mods for a USB type C connection and a headphone jack just isn’t worth it to me, if not the soldering then it’s mutilating the original SP shell, which I prefer over aftermarket. The 35XXSP, as per any new console, just has these.
So is the Original Better?
I believe… don’t stone me… I believe the GBA SP is an overall more well-thought-out device and does what it does in the best way it can: It plays GBA, GBC, and GB titles, and that’s it. You can pocket it, make the lid go THONK, charge it up on a dumb proprietary bit, use headphones on another dumb proprietary bit, look cool at the lunch table, and everything in between (which is just about nothing else). the RG35XX SP is a great console, made even better with software and hardware mods. But I can’t help but feel like a second version of this handheld with better controls would be better.
Modded Gameboy Advances are the Way
This console is at its BEST when copying Nintendo’s homework with its hinge design and layout, but I still find myself reaching for the original, warm-blooded, Japanese gem of a console: The Nintendo Switch OLED. Wait what? Why the Switch? Because I already started The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on it. Totally unrelated.
According to a recent poll on Facebook, we almost wholly (unsurprisingly) endorse reserving our insatiable GBA fix for a small pocketable emulator of choice. But second to that… Amongst everything else… Is a modded GBA interesting, but doesn’t surprise me.
Hmm…
I wouldn’t call this a diss on… well… “Retro Handhelds”, but more of an acknowledgment that there is still plenty of room to improve. Maybe the RG35XX SP is it for you, and for that, I am jumping with joy… but maybe there’s something better around the corner.
Oh no. Variety… Wait.
And to that, do I recommend the RG35XX SP? Sure do! It’s nice, cheap, and plays nearly everything with minimal setup. But I also implore you, if financially able, to give the GBA SP a shot. Get it modded, buy a cart or two, and just get lost in a 20-year-old title. As a console, it holds up very well and even has a pretty stacked library of NES and SNES titles to go along with your Gameboy dribble.
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