Heh, it seems common that i'm writing more of these game reviews lately... and at the moment, i'm having a bit of a drought in terms of scenery writing for my next episode. But don't worry, that drought will quickly end and i'll get back on writing it, so hang with me until then. In the meantime though, i do have another gaming review to bring... or mostly another gaming accessory to review. This time... it's Nintendo's e-Reader device for the Game Boy Advance, which allows you to scan cards on the device to activate the application that you want to play with on that accessory itself.
Yes, i mentioned cards, folks, because as for those who are loyal Nintendo fanatics, long before the company made video games, it initially made its start back in 1889 as a playing card company, mostly Hanafuda cards and such. So, it wouldn't be a surprised that when they released the device, they would eventually release e-Reader cards to use with the device, which costed not much, like either 5 or 6 bucks a pack of cards each or whatever, depending on what types of e-Reader cards you'd be using for the device plugged in on your Game Boy Advance.
The device itself is an add-on to the Game Boy Advance and would be plugged in on the Game Boy Advance, the Game Boy Advance SP and the Game Boy Player, although it could also be connected to the Nintendo DS Lite, but not the original Nintendo DS, seeing that the bit of bulk of the original DS handheld would not allow the accessory to be plugged in. As for plugging it on the DS Lite, it would work, but... if you noticed at the top of the e-Reader, it does contains a connector spot to it, which you have to use the Game Boy Advance Game Link cable to connect it to another Game Boy Advance or to the Game Boy Player, if you're using it on the Gamecube's accessory. And sadly, connection between the DS Lite and either Game Boy Advance handhelds or even the Game Boy Micro (although you need to have a Game Boy Micro Game Link cable or something, unless i'm wrong here; let me know in the comments if i'm wrong about it) or the Game Boy Player would not work at all.
Regardless, for the menu in mind, when you start using the e-Reader, you'll see the following:
Scan Card: Each e-Reader card have dot codes to be scanned, if you're to use an application, depending on which card you're scanning.
Communication: This one simply lets you load the application from either the Game Boy Advance or the Gamecube, depending where you've connected the Game Boy Advance (or Game Boy Micro) game link cable to.
Access Save Data: If you've saved an application on the e-Reader, it allows you to load what you've saved without the need to re-scan the cards needed to activate the application again.
In terms of scanning the e-Reader cards in mind, as it came in different series, they each have dot codes on them, which is a bit of a barcode technology, courtesy of Olympus Corporation, the same one that made products such as cameras, medical stuff, industrial products and more. For the e-Reader cards itself, it came in different series of cards.
NES Games, which are mostly those that were originally seen from the Black Box series of NES games back in the mid-80s, each coming in a pack of five cards, containing a total of either nine or ten dot codes to scan.
New levels and power-ups for the Super Mario Advance 4 Game Boy Advance game.
Items and designs for Animal Crossing on Gamecube.
New trainers to battle in the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire games on Game Boy Advance.
Mario Party-style mini games, which were included in the Mario Party-e game board.
Game & Watch game cards, which were supposed to see a release of about every one of the Game & Watch series or at least 20 of those, according to some people... but unfortunately, that one got canned and only one Game & Watch card was released: Manhole-e. And it was among the sample cards that were included with every e-Reader package that was seen in stores.
Of course, the e-Reader accessory itself was quite fun to play, although it was not a very successful device to even begin with (though it was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me at that time). Japan did had the device launched in 2001, while North America received it the following year. And Europe... well, it was never released there at all. Probably because it wasn't a big thing for them or something. It kinda wasn't a big thing for North American audiences either, but we did bought it regardless and we had fun playing with it... though the device was eventually discontinued in 2008, while for Japan, it was a big thing, i do believe.
Anyway, on the list of cards i mentioned, the only ones i've ever gotten are the NES-e series of cards (it had three series of cards, so to speak, containing five games for the first two and three games for the third series), the Super Mario Advance 4-e series of cards and the Mario Party-e game board thingy, which had 64 cards in it, but some were scannable cards, even though i did had gotten an extra card from the Gamepro magazine, that was a two coin card of sorts. I did had the sample cards too, which were three Pokémon-e cards, an Animal Crossing-e card and the aforementioned Manhole-e card.
To me personally though, the main thing for the e-Reader were the NES-e cards, seeing that i like retro gaming a lot... although when i did scanned the cards, depending on the game i wanted to play from that series, when i started playing the game in mind, the ratio screen of the NES-e game i wanted to play looked kinda squeezed a little and not in a good way, although that's somewhat understandable, seeing that the Game Boy Advance screen is not the same as those of a 4:3 ratio-style TV screen or an HD 16:9 ratio-style TV screen. Nevertheless, each of the NES games that were released in the NES-e series of games had some changes from their original versions, in which their two player options had been removed, seeing that you cannot connect one e-Reader to another. I kinda thought that it would be possible, but upon more thinking about it, i kinda find it impossible to be done.
In any case, the 13 games that Nintendo brought from its Black Box series of games were Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros., Balloon Fight, Pinball, Ice Climber, Urban Champion, Excitebike, Golf, Tennis, Baseball and Clu Clu Land. Among the 13 titles that were released for the e-Reader device, each in a pack of five scannable cards, most were eventually released on the Virtual Console and/or as unlockable games in Animal Crossing on Gamecube, but in the case of Golf, the Wii's Virtual Console didn't had that game brought in on the Wii Shop Channel, while on Animal Crossing's unlockable NES games, only Urban Champion was excluded from the list. BUT... all 13 of the aforementioned NES games were eventually brought in on the Wii U's eShop and were probably seen in the NES Remix series, although on the 3DS eShop, for Tennis, Golf and Baseball, their NES iterations were not there at all, but their Game Boy versions were. For Excitebike and Urban Champion, they were brought in on the 3DS eShop, but as 3D Classics only. But before playing some of these classics on future consoles, like the Wii U or the 3DS, this was all i could go for, in terms of retro gaming. And it was also before we had the Classic NES Series on Game Boy Advance. And Donkey Kong, Excitebike and Ice Climber would end up being released in GBA cart format... as would Mario Bros. as well, but only in Japan's Famicom Mini. And also, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Excitebike, Mario Bros. and Ice Climber would end up being a part of the NES Classic Edition as well. And as far as i can tell, playing the original NES games on future consoles looked much better than playing those on the e-Reader device, now that i think about it.
Of course, to others, Pokémon-e cards was their main thing. Not to me though, as i'm not into Pokémon, as many of you would know. But i did also had some fun scanning the Super Mario Advance 4-e cards, in terms of unlocking the levels for the World-e option on the game itself. However, while Japan had gotten ALL of the four series of cards that had all of the levels needed to scan for it, we only had gotten half of the series. And Europe... well, they were being left out of the World-e thing. Good thing that the Virtual Console version of Super Mario Advance 4 allowed us to play ALL of the e-Reader levels right from the get-go.
Anyway, i did kept ALL of the e-cards that i had either bought or gotten as a bonus of sorts, although now, i'm kinda keeping those as a collectible keepsake and wrapped up in plastic bags, so that i would not lose any of them. But in overall terms of this device, it's kinda of a shame that it was not much of a success in western territories than in occidental territories. Then again, i'm guessing we weren't much interested in that device, seeing that scanning cards to play games? I guess that just isn't our style, so to speak... or is it? Maybe Nintendo should've just kept the e-Reader thing exclusive to Japan... though if that was the case, then we too would be left out in the World-e of Super Mario Advance 4 as well. Regardless, that thing is a bit lame, but not in a too rougher sort of way. It's still a guilty pleasure to go back to for me... though i don't know about the rest of you who does have the e-Reader in your gaming collection or something.
But overall, that thing was... kinda okay. Just lame, as i said before. Maybe i should've just invested my money on better accessories or on better consoles and/or handhelds, huh?
-Eric B. (Shnoogums)
