Nintendo e-Reader

"Not worth the money unless you are super into Animal Crossing"

I cant believe there are no negative or even average reviews for this thing. Ive played it around 10-15 hours and ultimately it now sits in my game cabinet forever (or till ebay). It is simply not a good purchase for more than 10$
Construction: 5/10
Its well built but bulky. The thing doesnt feel very breakable and would stand up well to the workout even an 8 year old could put it through. On the other hand the gba is supposed to be portable. This unit essentially increases the size of the sp (when closed) by 50%, furthermore when not plugged in you will have to make the choice whether to carry it instead of 3-4 carts. No problem if you carry your gba in your backpack, but if you want to slip it in a pocket just forget it. There doesn't seem to be any clear reason why it needed to be this large.
Games: 3/10
There are some good games for this puppy, notable ice climber. Still the fact that a year after it has been released we still only have ~ a dozen games should be a major concern for you. The games are also all rehashes of original nes games, and can be found elsewhere (game and watch or gb/gbc titles). Most of the games dont have more than a couple hours of replay value unless you are a die hard fan. Lets put in perspective, a typical system would recieve a score of 5/10 for games, there is no way this system has an average number of good games. I'd put it on par with the virtual boy, though even saying that is a struggle and Im sure some would disagree.
Ease of Use: 4/10
It's pretty cool how it reads cards and does a fair job of avoiding misreads - it's never frustrating. The problem is most games take about 10 swipes to fully load. And then you can only store 1 title at a time in the memory. As a result you are constantly spending 3 minutes reloading in games. Frankly this is just lame. It does fairly easily link up with animal crossing however and those features are pretty solid since the additions are stored on the gamecube memory card.
coolness factor: 5/10
If you like collectable cards, this is a very neat addition. If not you wont be impressed. Plain and simple. the device has no where near the coolness factor of say... rob the robot, but easily is cooler than say... a third party wired controller with a turbo button. That's about it.
Value: 1/10 (if you play Animal Crossing a lot 4/10)
At this writing its still pretty hard to find this puppy for less than 30$. Let say you do that and buy a few packs of games - dk jr, tennis, and ice climbers, and the game comes with a game, say dk. you will have spent 40$ (tax included) on what are essentially free giveaway games on animal crossing. Of course youll be able to play them portable style, but you could easily afford 3-4 used or budget gba releases for the same price. And those games, frankly will be more fun. If you want to collect Animal Crossing stuff this thing does become a necessary evil. Its worth it for the added items and characters, just be forewarned that a collector of this stuff will be running his/her bill into the 100$s of dollars if they get serious. Still whatever floats your boat. I've seen a lot of less cool stuff to collect (beats beanie babies for example).
Collectible factor: 3/10
Nintendo made a lot of these. Also it comes in a blasted plastic thing rather than a box so forget trying to keep it in good condition AND play it. If you are looking to buy a toy just to hold on to for 10 years, try elsewhere. It does however play cards that might one day become sought after, and it is bizarre - so there is always a chance it will become sought after.
Overall: 3/10
sure its neat. sure it had promise. Ultimately its a failure. you can use your 40$ in so many different ways, dont bother with this one.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/04