When Okada first pitched to Nintendo leadership the idea of a small and thin Game Boy Advance that used a rechargeable battery, the feedback was almost entirely negative.

Not deterred, Okada told one of his hardware engineers to build a conceptual model as small and thin as possible without regard to the feasibility of manufacturing the device.

The first Game Boy Advance SP had a frontlight that illuminated the front of the display and a reflective surface behind the screen that sent light back through the liquid crystal pixel elements to the viewer.

[24] Few models made it to market, likely due to the release of the Game Boy Advance-compatible Nintendo DS one year prior.

(The European frontlit models of "Pink" and "Tribal" only feature small pictures of the Game Boy Advance SP on the sides of the box and Flower/Tattoo patterns on the front, respectively.)

A limited gold edition with a Triforce and the Hyrule Royal Family crest was available in Europe which included a copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.

[26] In 2003, Toys "R" Us sold an exclusive gold edition (without any Zelda symbols) in the US starting on Black Friday of that year, initially with a Super Mario Advance 4 game.

[28] In other regions, such as Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, additional colors have been released, such as Pearl Green and Starlight Gold.

[29] The Game Boy Advance SP had other limited editions: M. Wiley of IGN called the Game Boy Advance SP "a step in the right direction for Nintendo", praising the system's new redesign over the original GBA and highlighting its inclusion of a backlit screen and rechargeable battery, although minor criticism went towards the system's omission of a headphone jack.