If Nintendo made one mistake with the Game Boy Advance (besides the only two buttons on the face thing), it was lowering the power output on the link port to three volts. This made an otherwise great peripheral like the original Nyko Worm Light lackluster at best. Unfortunately, the new Worm Light Plus by Nyko is still haunted by the same problem.

There is little difference between the new Worm Light Plus for GBA and its Game Boy Color brethren. The design appears to be identical, even missing the extra little "nub" that was changed for the GBA port design. It's immediately apparent by the fact that the Worm Light Plus doesn't sit flushly on top of your GBA ... it wiggles around a bit, which is a bit of an annoyance. This is most likely due again to the minor change in the port design.

More importantly, the Worm Light Plus simply can't put out as much light on a GBA as on the Color model. That change in power output has killed a great design. The light is much dimmer, although serviceable. I was able to play in complete darkness once I adjusted the light to minimize the "glare point" but the corners of the screen were still dark. Perhaps with more fiddling I could get better light distribution, but with a shorter coil on the new light stem, it's much harder. With the old light on the GBC, you could adjust the light so that it was shining past the screen, and still have plenty of light to see by. It's just not possible with the new design and the GBA.

Other annoyances include the fact that the EXT. port on the GBA isn't centered over the screen, it's right-shifted a bit. Additionally, the Worm Light Plus is right shifted a bit because of the coiling of the design (intentional to raise the light up over the screen on the GBC); you now have a light you need to bend, contort and stretch just to get decent light spread.

Folks, if you're going to get a light, you're going to need to get a battery powered one, I'm afraid. The Worm Light Plus will do the job, but only barely, and it's quickly becoming apparent that nothing powered by the Game Boy Advance itself will suffice. It's a disappointing development in what is quickly becoming the GBA's chief flaw.

Update: As it turns out, I recently purcahsed a new Worm Light Plus for my GBA (solid Purple to match my GBA). The light output on this unit was SIGNIFICANTLY better, possibly as good as the older ones.

As it turns out, the clear Worm Lights let too much light leak out the sides, resulting in a more diffused light output on the screen. Solid colored units output MUCH more light on the screen since no light can escape the clear enclosure.

I can now wholeheartedly recommend the Worm Light Plus to all GBA owners, however, ONLY the solid colors. The clear units are still unacceptable.