Let me tell you what my kid taught me:
So the game boy advanced SP has a backlight which is a big upgrade over the color. It can play color games as well (though as you mention, maybe that’s not the point). It’s a folding formfactor though, and I believe the color comes in significantly different form factors – both the vertical and wide orientations. Anyway, last time I checked, you can buy original hardware on eBay. We have tinkered and repaired things on ours. His electrical charging port became loose and required some cleaning, but thankfully no soldering. Hes had this thing for 10 years now of heavy use.
another fact to add on is that there are two versions of the SP, the AGS-001 and the AGS-101. the 101 has a much nicer screen. the 001 has a front-lit screen which creates a weird infinite mirror effect with the light on.
Another thing to consider however is (and I actually have a 101 for GBA games) there’s just nothing better than a GBC and a worm light. Why? We’ll never know, it’s just one of those things that science can’t explain.
i’ll have to disagree. i never had a GBC but my friend did, and i spent probably months looking over their shoulder while they played through pokemon yellow on the bus or at recess. so that’s clearly the better experience.
I will say, lately I’ve been on a nostalgia kick, and have been going through the Pokémon games again. I’m emulating them, but recently found my GameBoy Colour and there’s just something about the non-backlit screen. Somehow the colours just look better to me, I’m not sure why. It’s definitely objectively worse, but I like it anyway for some reason.
GBA SP was the height of things, for me. Growing up with both the GB and GBC, I never quite forgave Nintendo for dropping GB/C support with the DS. The SP had a backlight and could play every GB game in existence and could easily fit in your pocket by being folded. It felt like the right direction in every way imaginable.
