Even though the content has never really appealed to me, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Game Boy Advance Video. I saw the prototypes over at Majesco's booth at E3 maybe three years ago, and thought the idea of doing kid-oriented video in color on the GBA was excellent -- but didn't see how they'd cram enough content onto a cartridge to make it more than a novelty.
This was the year that I kept seeing the Video Now player, with its tiny black and white screen and comparatively massive disc housing, in toy departments. It was a hot Christmas gift at $50, but surely kids deserved more than black and white?
Then came the launch of the GBA Video line. Given that most kids who want on-the-go electronic entertainment already have Game Boy systems, the $19.99 carts (that held two full-length cartoons) were a no-brainer stocking stuffer.
So this year, Majesco's upped the ante with three animated feature films crammed onto GBA carts: Shrek, Shrek 2, and Shark Tale. They're still $19.99 each and even include a pair of headphones (that are only compatible with GBA SP). The frame rate is just as choppy as the cartoons they've released, and it's a little more noticeable since the source material is more complex than Pokemon.
But it's still totally passable for a $20 video on an $80 piece of hardware that has 90 minutes of animation. Kids'll still love the films. And of course the videos work on all the Game Boy models and the Nintendo DS (but not the Game Boy Player that hooks up to the GameCube -- and it's a good thing, because imagine how awful that would look on your TV).
