Who knew that my rather innocent expression of my appreciation for the expandable content of SMBA4:SMB3 would be so controversial as to lead to this kind of exchange? Oh well, here goes:
[QUOTE=Michael D]You know, it's amazing how you found a way to insert a cheap shot against Microsoft and then used it to justify Nintendo's insanity with the e-Reader.[/QUOTE]
How in the world was that a cheap shot against Microsoft? All I said was that I think it's no more "insane" to use an e-reader card to pull in a new level on a game than it is to download a new level using XBOX Live. After all, my annual XBOX Live subscription costs $50 and some change, and each download is at least $5 and sometimes more. You're the one who complained that these levels weren't in the original game itself, which is something becoming increasingly common in the industry. It could be interpreted as an insult or a cheap shot against the 360 if I suggested that the e-Reader was objectively better than XBOX Live in this regard, but even then only if I accepted that either one is a bad thing, which I do not.
I generally don't like the trend of having downloadable add-ons to a game, because I prefer owning hard copies of the games themselves. And so I do personally have a slight preference to the e-Reader simply because I am able to own the games on a hard medium that will last if taken care of, but that's not the same as saying that it's better or worse, as that kind of judgement is going to depend on what the individual gamer is looking for. And even with a preference for hard copy of my games, I don't think expandable games through downloadable content is an insane idea, though I can see why such a thing wouldn't be for some people.
[QUOTE=Michael D]Now, let's go down the list here and set the time to 2003 (the year of MA4's release) to exhibit just what Nintendo expected of us to unlock the extra levels:
1. Mario Advance 4 cost $30
2. The e-Reader was $40.
3. The card packs were $5 each and Nintendo made 5 of them for this game[/QUOTE]
You need to fact-check before you post things like this. There were only two sets of cards released for Super Mario Advance 4 in the United States, both of which were $5 and contained eighteen cards each. Each of those two packs came with five new levels and thirteen other cards with power-ups and demos. That makes the total cost $10 for ten new levels and 26 other add-ons, not $25. In Japan, there were more cards released, but they were sold in much less expensive combo-packs as well as in individual sets.
[QUOTE=Michael D]4. You need either another GBA or a Game Boy Player for the Gamecube, which were $100 and $50, respectively
5. You needed a GBA link cable to connect the two GBAs together, which ranged from $15-$20.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I misread your reply here the first time I wrote a response, and thus I replied incorrectly earlier. So I am editing my response.
You definitedly needed to have GBA to GBA connectivity. It's probably not acceptable to many people to buy a second GBA just to get e-Reader downloads, and I can certainly appreciate that. In fact, I would have preferred the system to have been usable with a single system in its add-on functionality, but I still had my old model GBA, and the e-reader fit it perfectly. Besides, I have plenty of people around me who have GBAs, and so for me it wasn't too costly or "insane" at all.
It doesn't have to be worthwhile to you or others here in order for it to be worthwhile to me and many others I know who actually enjoyed it. Nor is it "insane" because it wasn't something you considered to be a good value for the cost when, for me, it was for the most part at least in respect to this game. In those situations you just don't buy it, and move on. About the only thing that made it not worth the cost ultimately for me, at least the e-Reader itself, was that the trend didn't continue in other games I was interested in and the add-on was discontinued prematurely. But that's a whole different matter than saying there was fundamentally no "sane use for the thing".