Looking back, the failure of the eReader should not have been a surprise. I was really expecting the Pokemon TCG connection to sustain it, but I suppose that came several years too late... the legendary Pokemon card game is still chugging along, but its nowhere near the popularity levels of the late late 90s. If the eReader had existed circa 1999, Nintendo could have bought Key West and renamed it Isle Delfino.

But at least it was different, in a flashback-to-punch-cards sort of way. I loved it, mostly. But the catch is: I like collecting things. Here's my overview of the entire line:

Good:

- The Pokemon TCG eCards were a mixed bag. Some cards had secret attacks (which were probably never made tournament-legal), some had little sprite cartoons, some had passable mini-games... and then others would have some kind of dippy music generator thingy. The best feature was the customizable NES-style Pokemon platformer. I would love to see every component of that collected as a bonus in some future cart, because it's stupid hard remembering which cards provided what parts to the game. The saga of the Pokemon-e series is a visual indicator of the eReader's market success. At first every card has two strips... then only some cards have two strips... then only some cards have one strip... then they're gone.
- The Animal Crossing eCards were the secret to my success in AC, yielding up lots of items for my in-game collection. And it was the only way to get Ice Climber and Mario Bros. Plus you got bizarro letters from the AC cast and some great Nintendo texture patterns.
- The Mario Party-e card game was fun, a genuine card game with occasional eReader-scanned minigames. Again, it was different... not the most amazing card game ever, but a unique novelty.
- The SMB3 stuff was great, probably the fullest realization of the concept ever, with extra levels and powerups on each scan. Mike and I spent a night re-living old SMB levels, heavily assisted by scanned-in powerups. Of course, Nintendo took a beating in the Fanboy Press over this, because the scan content was viewed as something they actively removed from the game proper just so you were forced to buy an eReader + card sets. That's a cynical view that ignores the notions that A) collecting cards is intrinsically fun and B) the extra content is completely superfluous to the original SMB3. But there will always be those who hate to spend money and think everything should have a free download, so you can't let them get to you.

Bad:

- The classic NES game packs were pretty awful. Neat concept: scan five cards and play an original NES game. But it was a pain in the ass for a pretty lousy reward: scan five cards and play an original NES game. At least the eReader could save one of them even after being turned off, but who wants to scan cards just for a pickup game of Donkey Kong?
- The Pokemon Battle-e sets were terrible. I must be in the poke-minority, but I don't need more damn battles. There's plenty to be had in the game itself. Scanning in additional battles - battles that do nothing for your pokedex or experience - is not worth my time. Then there was the rare Berry cards... but you could never hold more than one rare Berry type at a time, making collecting a complete Berry set impossible. Strange.
- Pokemon Channel came with a couple line art eCards. Scanning them in would give you another b&w page to color in the game. I never bothered attempting this, since Pokemon Channel is one of the lowest points in the franchise.

Then there's all the promo/preview cards, the Pokemon EON Ticket, Manhole, the Kirby slide puzzle, Air Hockey-e... Nintendo should have released more of them. If every major video game mag had a different eCard pack-in for several months, maybe they would have created more interest in the hardware. Of course, since every major video game mag slammed the eReader right out of the gate, Nintendo probably didn't feel obliged to do this.

They tried. Notice how Nintendo tied much of the eReader product into a known card success: Pokemon. The biggest problem was all the gear involved, especially if you were scanning eCards into another game, not just the eReader itself. Then add to that the fallout coming from the gaming l33t who saw it as a money sink and/or a ripoff. In the end, the eReader will become a minor footnote of this generation, probably never to be duplicated.