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Game Boy Advance Video
Score: 90%
Developer: Nintendo
Device Type: Miscellaneous


Function:

The Game Boy Advance Video is different from most hardware you will find on this site. This product is not one, stand alone item, but a series of GBA cartridges that allow you to watch various shows on your Game Boy Advance or Game Boy Advance SP.

When it comes right down to it, the purpose of the GBA Video line is to allow kids to watch some of their favorite shows while on the road or otherwise away from an actual TV. And it does a great job at doing that.

The Video paks are just like any other GBA cartridge. You don't need any special adapters or plug-in in order to view the shows, which makes it a simple piece of entertainment for any age. Some of the products coming out for the Game Boy Advance Video are episodes of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as collections of Spongebob Squarepants, The Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron.


Performance:

Overall, I'd say the various Game Boy Advance paks that I was able to test out did well in the performance area. I had no problems viewing the shows and the controls were easy to use.

You can fast-forward or rewind by using the left and right buttons on the D-Pad, and you can skip chapters with the Left and Right Shoulder Buttons. Start pauses the show while Select brings up the option to return to the Main Menu. You can even lock the buttons by holding the up button for three seconds. Unfortunately, there is no way to unlock the controls (at least no way I was able to find).


Features:
  • Full-screen, full-color audio and video on any Game Boy Advance System
  • 45 minutes of video on one Video pak with longer content coming soon
  • Simple "plug and play" viewing -- just insert the Video pak into your Game Boy Advance System and start watching
  • Familiar ?DVD player? controls including: Fast Forward, Fast Rewind, Chapter Skip, Chapter Reverse and Pause plus animated chapter menus
  • Skip-free viewing -- No matter how much you move your Game Boy around, your video will never skip!
  • Adjustable brightness so you can control how you watch
  • All of this with no additional hardware or attachments required! All you need is your Game Boy Advance and your Video pak

Drawbacks & Problems::

At this point, the Game Boy Advance Video pak can only hold 45 minutes of video. Which means that for the same price as a DVD containing episodes of Pokemon or The Fairly Odd Parents -- you are getting a lot less show time.

So it comes down to how much bang you get for your buck. If you already have a Game Boy Advance or GBA SP, then this might not be a bad idea -- it certainly beats buying a portable DVD player, at least in the short run.

There are two other sticking points with the GBA Video: one is that the quality isn't superb. Well, to be more precise -- the quality varies. I found that products coming from Nintendo directly, like Pokemon, had clearer and sharper images than those from Majesco. But in both cases, the picture was pixelated enough to be very noticeable.

The other part of this system that got my attention was the fact that these cartridges do not work in the Game Boy Player (a Game Cube attachment that allows you to play GBA games on the GC). The reason for this is fairly obvious. If you can play these shows on a TV, then you can tape them and then pirating will be that much easier. I had to think for a long while before deciding if this "feature" would actually take away from the final score.

In the end I had to think about what the purpose of this was. It is a way for people to watch their favorite shows on the go. And because of that -- there is really no reason to knock the Video for not working in the Game Boy Player.

So is the GBA Video line a good buy? That depends on several features. If you already have a portable DVD player to bring on those long road trips, don't bother -- you can get more shows for the same price. But if you don't and you only plan on short 45 minute stretches in the car (and you already have a GBA), then this might be a good form of entertainment to look into.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated