Game Boy

Last weekend I went with my sister to get a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP. It's a pretty funny story actually. Some time ago, my nephew David celebrated his birthday. Of course, his doting Granny (my sister's husband's mom) asked him what he wanted for his bday gift. Despite being raised like Puritans by my sis (heh), the kid asked for the coolest toy a kid could have these days- a Gameboy Advance SP.
So that would have been easy, right? Well, no. Granny went off to a store in Rockwell, lugging along David's older sibling Catheriine to point out the toy. Well, for some weird reason that I can not to this day comprehend, the girl picked out a pack of Gameboy Advance Accessories worth P700 and said that THAT was a Gameboy Advance SP. Never mind that the package did NOT in any way have any label saying it was a portable gaming console- they didn't even look or test the device, which would at least show that there's no game in the thing. I can't even fathom WHY the salespeople of that store sold an accessory pack instead of a whole gaming unit. I guess they all left their brains at home, the lot of them.

Anyway, it ended of course with poor David opening the gift he got from Granny, expecting a spiffy new Gameboy Advance SP and finding only... accessories for the older Gameboy Advance. TOTALLY USELESS. Can you say... TOTAL letdown? Yep, the kid was devastated. It had me in stitches though. MAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Okay, before you all think I'm the most horrible uncle on Earth (which I aspire to), I went with my sister of course to Greenhills to get the darn toy. Of course, my sister wouldn't even consider asking Granny to get the real thing (so she got off this year spending just P700 bucks... Feh) as I recommended, so she had to shell out the cash herself to save David from becoming a bitter youth. My sis is probably the most frugal person I know, and she was considering just getting a Gameboy Advance instead of the SP. I of course recommended the newer, cooler clamshell SP since it had it's own backlight, better and longer batteries, yadda-yadda-yadda. So, to seal the deal I pitched in and paid for about a third of the price so David and his siblings wouldn't be wanting for a great toy. Am I great or what? Heh. I wonder if my sis is considering my suggestion of taking out the price of the Gameboy SP out of Catherine's trust fund? Hoho...

NEVER try anything concerning gaming without consulting the resident game guru. You'll save money.

The Gameboy Advance SP is a pretty cool plaything. I actually wanted to get one months ago, but balked. Seeing it again gave me temptations again, but I won't bite. Nintendo really isn't my bag. It's the Playstation Portable or PSP that has my name written all over it. For those of you who love the big N though, you'll be glad to know that Nintendo's next gen handheld, the Nintendo DS will be coming out this November in the US (and probably soon here as well). The thing is a clamshell like the SP, but sports two screens (hence the DS monicker). The game lineup is long and filled with big names, but until I see the words 'Tekken' or 'Dead or Alive' on the roster, I'm not biting.

Ah, toys. So many toys, so little time. And cash. Oh well.