Reggie Thought Game Boy Micro Was "A Nonstarter" But Was "Forced" To Launch It

I used mine, infrequently. Obviously it was far easier to travel with in a pocket, but then the GBA SP wasn't too big and would fit in a pocket as well anyway.

Ya well they also refused to release the white colored 3DS in NA for a long time..

Although some may argue that Reggie no longer works at Nintendo, and therefore the website shouldn't put any focus on him and his stories, these people fail to remember that being president of the company's entire American branch would mean that he may just possibly be able to provide valuable insights into how the company was run behind the scenes at the time.

I think I did say this before...but I saw the Micro as a collectable trinket more than anything. I was always wondering why Nintendo thought releasing it was a good idea.

Especially when the Gameboy advance was being phased out and the DS was still in it's infancy. Plus, the DS was backwards compatible with GBA software. The whole idea was redundant imo. But my brother bought one. though I will admit the face-plates were pretty cool...I dunno.

Not sure what i think of the Micro nowadays. lol.

I regret selling my original GBA to replace it with a Micro

Honestly I didn't pick one of these up, because I didn't see the point. But I was glad that it released and those who wanted it got one. If Reggie had gotten his way, I might have the same problem I had with North America not wanting to releasing the non-XL New Nintendo 3DS. (They eventually did, but either in bundles or in very miniscule amounts)

I remember the announcement very well and thinking the same thing. It just seemed so pointless.

Operating in silos? Should that be operating in silence?

I think the amount of emphasis Reggie seems to be putting on with the issues of Nintendo back then gives a lot of insight as to why Nintendo is so garbage today - Bowser doesn't seem to be making as big of an effort to fight for the players as Reggie did. When Reggie was in office, Nintendo of America stood out and became a major influencer in the decisions of how their products are made. Now, it's back to the old ways of being just a localized marketing group, and nothing more.

I never held one in my hands so I don't know how small it actually feels in hand, but I always thought it was the perfect "actually pocketable" handheld. I have smaller than average hands to begin with, but I already feel like the D-Pad on something like the DS Lite or even 3DS is too small so I kind of expect that I wouldn't have been comfortable playing the Micro either.

@ModdedInkling When Reggie was in office, you guys didn't get Another Code R, Disaster Day of Crisis, Last Window The Secret of Cape West, all of which Europe got and you wouldn't have got Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story or Pandora's Tower if players hadn't had to voice their discontent... And even then Nintendo didn't budge, third parties had to rise up to release them in North America in a more limited fashion than what we got in Europe.

Reggie spontaneously passed over more great games than he actually did stomp his foot to make sure that his players got them (the outlier I can think of is Elite Beat Agents, which I seem to recall he pleaded to have made for the west specifically).

Is the screen size shift also why new 3DS was barely released in North America?

LPT: Don't work in silos.

The micro seems an interesting collectable, due to its scale and retro styling, but not the sort of thing I feel sad about missing out on.

I never picked one up, it always looked too uncomfortable on the fingers... and the eyes

To this day I know absolutely nobody that actually owned one of these.
I remember seeing the commercial and immediately thinking "yeah, this isn't for me.".

@Kyloctopus yes. It took me a long time to get my white New 3DS

The Game Boy Micro was a nice piece of portable device but with its lack of backwards compatibility feature stripped out, the system does feel barebone compare to the GBA SP but if you bought it for its EverDrive, SuperCard, or EZ Flash emulation this works very well on the device allowing you to play the full library of Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket Color, NES, Sega Genesis, Famicom, SMS, GBA, and Atari 2600 games on the go in super portable form complete with headphone jack, a super bright non-scratchable screen, pixel perfect resolution, additional faceplate feature, and super tight control.

The micro was a novelty console. The SP already massively improved the GBA, but the micro was a step backwards (not least because it released after the DS!)

Where the heck is my Kirby anniversary Game & Watch?

I know I love my GB Micro Famicom edition, but I also have a ponk one, and initially bought a green one. Swapped it with a friend's blue one but then swapped the faceplates, green is my favourite colour, blue isn't far behind. The screen had a sharp and bright image, and the system itself is gorgeous, GBA library is awesome... What's not to love? And I do have quite big hands.
It was perfect for Warioware Twisted, one of the best games the system has. Boktai, Drill Dozer, all games with large cartridges worked perfectly on it, and much like now I prefer the N3DS over the N3DS XL often, for its sharper image, customisable plates, and better portability, the same was true then.
Sadly it never got Gamecube link cables, or any link cables at all I think.

Awesome little thing and held value well. It was just Nintendo being super clever and having some fun with what was essentially outgoing hardware yet they knew it would have appeal.
In reality you could argue that it’s the only real true portable console as it truly is pocket size.

I love my Game Boy Micro, so I'm glad Reggie failed in this case.

@Lordplops

No, silos is right. It's extremely common business-speak for teams working in relative isolation and not communicating with each other.

The first time I ever saw Reggie was when I bought a copy of Official Nintendo Magazine whilst on holiday in 2004. There was a photo of Reggie presenting the Gameboy Micro on stage and the article writer joked about how small it looked in his massive hands!

@RupeeClock oh right, thanks, I'd never heard of it before.

@Beaucine thanks, now I know how to describe the communication between myself and my mother-in-law.

Yo I couldn't disagree more. The micro is probably my favorite Nintendo console after the GameCube. I think it's perfect. I was able to find one used about 6 years ago, but it broke down pretty quickly. I'm going to take it to a place to get it repaired though. Thank goodness Reggie was overruled on this.

I love my micro, but I have to agree with him that by the time it launched, it was kind of pointless.

@LXP8 his reveal on stage is still one of my favorite moments in the history of E3. And it will likely remain so because we may not get another.

I'm guessing he's not a fan of the Game Gear Micro then!

I definitely felt like it was pointless at the time but I’m glad it launched everywhere. I bought one a couple of years back and I love it.

The Game Boy Micro had a lot of things going for it: the screen was sharp, the buttons and D-pad were much better than the GBA SP, and it had removable faceplates. But it was too damn small. My perfect GBA would basically be a larger GBA Micro, but that would have been an even more pointless product to release at the time.

I absolutely loved the Micro and spent hundreds of hours playing it. I had no issues with the small size of the system/screen/buttons, and I was an adult when I bought it. Even though I already owned a regular GBA since launch, the Micro significantly increased the number of games I bought. That Micro was the main game system I played for several years.

Also, it was the only portable game system where strangers were actually intrigued when I played it in public, vs giving me looks of judgment.

I loved my Micro. I love my tech small. I would love a Switch, the size of a phone. I still play my micro from time to time. I have a GBAsp, which has an updated screen, that is a better experience but the tiny, tiny size is cool plus the headphone jack make it a desirable little handheld. You could also use it as an mp3 player if you had a flashcart.

Wish they sold a micro with 30 games installed xxx

I just found my box the other day. I had gotten it open box from best buy for $39.99. Money well spent, not just for what it’s worth now, but the hours I poured into it. The King of Fighters EX2, which was amazing, the best attempt at a dedicated portable, yet arcade quality KoF hands down! And not to forget the Super Robot Taisen Original Generation games which were $15 bargain bin releases at the time if you can believe it.(I should have picked up Chrono Trigger for DS for $15 while I was at it). My micro literally was all about these 3 games and I have no regrets. I didn’t take my DS/Lite outside much so my portable gaming fix was my micro. The screen was sharp and bright, the D-Pad and face buttons were surprisingly good and almost SNES-like, even the L and R shoulder buttons were somewhat comfortable since the actual ‘button’ was placed inwards. Your inner index finger knuckle would round the corners of the unit so you can still press the button with the tip of your fingers. I’d say the GBA micro is a pretty solid piece of hardware for what it was.

@RupeeClock @Lordplops glad you asked I didn’t understand that either 😅 and thanks for the explanation

@BionicDodo I've been told the Game Gear Micro is much smaller than this.
This seems uncomfortable to play (if I used the cartridge size as a guess to judge it, I haven't seen one), I hear the GG is essentially unplayable (is it like a keychain that functions?) with the one that comes with four RPGs on it a joke about playing it.

I regret purchasing the Gameboy Micro. It's worst trait actually wasn't the small screen. Reggie actually mentions the issue: it was the buttons. They were of the "mushy" variety and really need to be pressed hard to get an input. This lead to some presses not registering which is really unacceptable in any gaming environment.

@KingMike Yeah, the Game Gear Micro is more a novelty than a useable handheld.

I’d never heard of the micro until years after it’s release and I’ve been playing Nintendo since Donkey Kong.

Looking at the release date I was busy moving to England at the time, but still, wish I coulda got one.

I love the Micro and use it frequently, in fact I currently own three. I'm so glad lovely Reggie was overruled on this one. Although it was never going to sell loads it's a total design classic imo.

@thinkhector I've never experienced a problem with the buttons registering on the four units I've owned over the years. And many of us prefer the mushy to the clicky.

Indeed, this is one of the odder revisions in Nintendo history. You know your handheld may be a bit too micro when you have to mark its map buttons TWICE.😅 And even jokes about Japan's penchant for tech miniaturization don't quite fly here, seeing as people across the pond witnessed the advent of native stuff like Tiger Electronic Game Watches.

I love mine so much. I surprisingly got one as a gift from my aunt shortly after launch. Was my main console till I got a DSi.

I always thought the Micro was super sexy.

But I already got hand cramps from the GBA SP if I played more than 45 minutes. So it was a no go for me.

The Micro was a weird product, coming out closely after the DS had launched, it certainly felt redundant. The people that own it love it, tho, and the screen quality was great, despite the small size of it. Certainly Reggie learned a lot from this, in order to handle the Kyoto branch with much more delicate pressure.

Literally one of my favourite Nintendo portables, if it had supported Original Gameboy carts and GBC carts I could have retired my SP. It had solid production values and showed there was a market for such a portable. Otherwise PSP would have failed. Nintendo could have followed that premium ethos with their next handheld without the DS gimmick.
What is more worrying is the design of the original DS following on from Micro, ouch it stunk, hence the rapid redesign.

My GB Micro is still at my desk today, and still sees use occassionally. It's small enough to be convenient, even when wrapped in wired earbuds.

I have one. It was great on occasions I travelled with work and had some time to kill waiting for transport or things to start. But ultimately it's one of those odd Nintendo products that actually gets made.

Reggie is talking nonsense. I just did a quick comparison and the buttons on the Micro are bigger than the buttons on the 3DS XL and the Switch joy-cons I have to hand. They’re also flatter which means they don’t become uncomfortable when held down for long periods. The Micro’s d-pad is also the same size as the one on the 3DS.

There was absolutely nothing awkward about playing on the Micro aside from perhaps the screen size. I wish Nintendo would offer joy-cons with bigger buttons instead of sticking with those tiny bumps they currently use.

@RudyC3 To be fair he might've just had the idea rejected by his Japanese colleagues because they thought artsy games wouldn't sell well there like they do in Europe. Not confirming it, but there could be more micromanagement behind this story than we currently know.

@BulkSlash The original DS D-pad was the one of its era that was the right size for me.
Finishing the later bosses in Metroid Fusion was tough for me on smaller D-pads.
Too bad my OG DS has a busted hinge for I don't know what reason.

They tried to sell it as a fashion accessory.

I picked up a very lightly used Game Boy Micro not especially long after it came out. Perhaps it was someone who found it too small or whatever the reason. It showed to signs of wear which was great for me. I can only speak for myself, but I had no problems with its size or layout. The screen was small, but thanks to the backlight it wasn't difficult for me to see. I have small hands, so never had issues with using it, and I used it a lot. If that was a problem for others, then that's a fair criticism. While it may have been designed to be more of a novelty or a premium design, it really didn't fit in the market. Not only was there the GBA SP with the backlight, but the Micro came out after the DS, so it never made much sense.

call me crazy, but i dont judge the worthiness of a thing based on how much money it made or units it shifted.

@KingMike @BulkSlash

dpads have mostly been too small on nintendo's stuff since ds lite, i reckon. a few exceptions, but the lite seemed to have set the new paradigm.

the pro con dpad is the right size but wrong in every other way sadly.

anyway. i talk about dpads too much IRL too. 😖

@BulkSlash I really disliked the buttons on the Micro compared to the Gameboy Advance. They were just super mushy and you had to press them in so hard.
Anyways, I can recommend Nintendo Pro Controller. You can't actually make the Joy-Con buttons any bigger without ruining their functionallity. They are actually sized and spaced exactly like a D-pad. They COULD have made the buttons bigger on the Switch Lite though.Thar could have been interesting.

@FatWormBlowsASparky The only thing you missed out on is hand cramps.
Too bad Nintendo just didn't give the original Gameboy Advance an updated screen. That system had the best should buttons. That got worse with GBA SP and then GBA Micro.

While I'd love one now, i remember when they came out and it was the opposite of anything anyone wanted... Ds and psp made it look like an archaic children's toy...and by that time was sick of gba games

It was a novelty product. Best designed mini console for its time. Wish i had one

I love mine. It's so sleek looking, small and it's so weird to play in it ❤️ I still turn it on from time to time, but from my experience they are difficult to repair. Had mine at a shop for like 5 months until they could fix something related to it's motherboard.

I'm beginning to think that Reggie was fired from Nintendo and his NDA just expired so he's dumping crap on Nintendo.

Personally, I thought the Game Boy Micro was the coolest handheld Nintendo ever made. I don't have small hands, but got used to it fine enough, and playing Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission on it made up some of the most enjoyable gaming time I've ever had.

I used my game boy micro only for levelling up pokemon on victory road. Was really good for that.. seriously had it in my pocket because it was so small ready to grind when ever i was waiting for something

@RudyC3
But where is the line drawn? He's already done a lot of other things and he certainly couldn't have done everything unless he wasn't so affected by Iwata's passing. I'd rather appreciate what he's already done because it was a lot, rather than talk about what he could've done.

Never seen that before. Wow, it looks about the size of a candy bar.

I love that "Reggie" is a tag.

I don't love the silly angled layout of the B and A buttons here, just like with the redesigned NES "dogbone" controller, which makes it look like the designers have never played a Mario game.

@thinkhector
I could have done with it on toilet breaks at work. 😇

“This ran counter to current consumer electronics trends of making screens larger.”

On hindsight, I think Reggie’s belief on this aspect was also one of the main reasons why the smaller New 3DS was not released in US initially, while all other regions released concurrently with the New 3DS XL.

@DanijoEX Keep in mind that at the time Nintendo was attempting their "three pillars" strategy, so the GBA wasn't actually being phased out yet.

Then again, since the original phat DS was backwards compatible, that marketing strategy never made much sense in the first place, nor did the puny size of the GBA Micro when the GBA SP fits just as nicely in most pockets and unlike the Micro actually has its own (legal and built-in) backwards compatibility with GB(C) games.

@Orokosaki You must have some tiny pockets, then. The GBC, GBA SP, DS Lite, and non-XL (2/3)DS also fit in most pockets.