Oh Nintendo, why must you continue to make more and more ways for me to enjoy my old pastimes? Portable ways at that! The newest baby to enter our console family is the Nintendo Game Boy Micro. He is by far the favorite handheld, (don’t tell the others) beating out my old favorite, the Nintendo DS. You may be wondering what all the fuss is about. After all, it is just a handheld device.

The newest Game Boy is a much sleeker, sexier version of its predecessors. More elongated in length makes handling it much easier; especially handy when playing things like Dr. Mario for hours on end. The whole thing just looks nicer too. Black and silver, bright screen, cool buttons that light up. What’s not to love? Too dull for your personal style? Nintendo thought about that too. The Micro has interchangeable face plates. Our version is what they call the Silver Micro. Mostly silver with a black faceplate, it comes with two additional plates. Not your style still? Try the Black Micro. It comes with a whole different set of face plates. Not good enough you say? Try the retro styled one. This whole changing faceplates thing is a bit gimmicky for me, but hey, there are probably a hundred thousand others out there who love the customization aspects.

Now that is just part of the buzz on the Micro. What I would consider its biggest asset is the better, brighter screen. The resolution…beautiful. It’s like night and day between it and the old GBA. It even kicks the DS to the curb. This new screen technology is supposed to be the one that gets used on all new Game Boy releases including the soon to come redesigned DS. I don’t know how to say this in any other way. Just take my word on it. The screen makes the thing worth the purchase.

The sheer smallness of the Micro makes it easier than ever to take your favorite Game Boy games on the road with you. Put it in your pocket, it’s no worse than that wallet that you haven’t cleaned out in years. I’d be willing to bet if you stuck them side by side, the Micro would be smaller. Not that I am trying to say that all guys never clean out their wallets, some of you have wives and girlfriends that tell you to and I suppose that some of you do it on your own… all I am trying to say here is this; it’s small.

Take it with you wherever you go; renewing your driver’s license, flying to visit grandma, waiting in line at the bank, on your lunch break at work. The possibilities are endless. Don’t want to play alone? Use your wireless adapter to play with a friend.

You can check out all of this at Nintendo’s website or the special Micro site. I think that if you have ever hesitated to buy a Game Boy for any reason, if there was ever a time to buy one, this one should be it. d For under a hundred dollars this little guy packs a lot of bang into the buck. If you see me in line anywhere I’ll be the one with the best little handheld on the block.