E-Card Reader Report
The Pokemon Master 1110
Well, Nintendo released it's latest contraption recently, the E-Reader. Its a cool little device, if nothing else a oddity that will go well with any game fans collection. But, what does it really do, you ask? Lots, that's what. Lets take a look at it more closely.
The E-reader is sort of a strange new game console in a way, because you can play many different games with just the on E-Reader. It comes packaged with a sample pack as well as the necessary cards to play one of the NES classics, Donkey Kong jr. Oh, right, the cards. Should of explained that already. See, in order to do ANYTHING except stare at a menu screen, you need special cards. The cards have information on them, in the form of thousands of tiny dots in a bar code on the side(s) of the card. You simply must swipe the bar code on the card through the scanner an voila! The scanner reads the information and a game is enabled. Some games, like the DK jr. game, have the needed information on multiple cards, in it's case, five. Each of those cards has two code strips, for a total of ten scans you need to perform. Luckily, Nintendo enabled the e-reader to save the info from such long games on the ER (e-reader, not emergency room) itself, so you don't have to spend five minutes swiping the cards every time you want to play the game. Nintendo seems to think it's a good idea to teach us how to use credit cards. What's up with that? Hmmm... Right now, DK jr. exitebike, balloon fight, pinball and a few others are available, but more are sure to come. Will we see some more classics like Mario Brothers, Zelda and others? Hmmm... perhaps. It is even feasible that all new games could be produced, only anything above NES style games would be so much information they would probably have to sell them as DECKS rather than packs.
The sample pack also contains some goodies as well. The first thing you'll notice is a card that has pictures of Animal Crossing on it. Animal Crossing is a new game for the Nintendo Game Cube (GCN for short). So what does this little card reading do-wacky and the GCN have to do with each other? Well, it you scan the card through, data for the game, which may be new clothes or something for your character, will come up. If you have the new link cable that links the GBA (game boy advance)to the GCN, you can transfer the data to the Animal Crossing game on the GCN! Cool, no? So by scanning a little flimsy card on your e-reader, you can enhance you GCN play! The second card in the pack, and the coolest thing you get with the ER, IMO, it a Game & Watch card! Fans of the GCN game Super Smash Brothers: Melee will recognize this as one of the coolest things ever. Swiping this card lets you play Manhole, a classic of the G&W days. At first, this game appears to be the biggest snoze fest in gaming history. But, give it time to get going, and you'll be in for a real good game. Hard, too. Hey, wanna know how to tell when a game is really hard? I'll tell you how. You know it is hard when it is a great accomplishment to have a high score of 60 =/ Geeze. The other three cards in the pack are the compleate Machamp line from the new Poke`mon Expedition set. Swiping these cards lets you play a game where your a machop and have to smash bolders before they, well, smash YOU!
One of the coolest things, IMO, is that you can use most of your Expedition cards with the ER. Many only contain information to a little music program. Some will be the info for songs, others the melody and others the tone. You know the great hymn "Joyful joyful"? You havent been shocked untill you hear it played not on the strings and horns of a great orchistra but squeed out by a Pikachu! Geeze, isn't that holy >_<. Some other cards unlock cool features to use with playing the card game itself. Chansy unlocks a coin flipper, which saddly wont be tournament leagal. Another example is Professor Elm's Training Method. Swiping the good prof. will open up a game clock which you can use to set a time limit on a pokemon match. Neat. But perhaps coolest of all are the games. Swiping certian cards unlocks little mini-games. For example, Kingler, Cloyster, Goldeen and Magikarp unlock a cool game where your a Kingler out for a day of fishing. You have to scoop up the passing Magikarp, which are worth one hundred points, and the swiming Goldeens, each one of them netting you (no pun intended) 2000 points. But whatch out. If you accidentally hit the hard shell of a cloyster, you'll get shaken up for about 5 seconds and can catch any fish then. Work quickly, because you only have 2 minuets to snag all the Poke` fish you can. This is only on game available though. The butterfree line will open a pollen collecting game, corsola and pichu will unlock a diving game, and there are many more which you'll have to find out yourselves. Oh yeah, one other thing. Some cards unlock cool little mini-movies which are more like little nic-nacs thrown in for fun. Lastly, all cards aside from Holo-graphics have a bar code on the bottom of the card, which when scanned will open a screen containing basic information on the card, as well as the exact card text. Sort of like a Poke`dex type of thing. Sweet.
Well, all in all, the E-Reader is pretty cool, and worth the fourty bucks because with time and new sets of cards it can only get more useful and fun.
Enjoy.
The Pokemon Master 1110