At first, the Game Boy Player may seem to be a glorified Super Game Boy. But with further exploration and testing, I couldn’t wait to bring one of these home with me.

Setup is fairly simple. You attach the Game Boy Player to the bottom of your GameCube, and then make the connection secure by tightening four screw-like connectors. Since the unit I tested was inside a lock box (an anti-theft/tampering enclosure) I couldn’t double check if there was a boot disc, and I couldn’t get a straight answer from Nintendo if there in fact a boot disc is needed or not.

Upon boot-up, the screen first displays the GameCube logo, then the Game Boy logo, and then dumps you into the menu for the Game Boy Player. Here are the settings you are given:

Frame: You have 20 pre-set borders to choose from. Most are themed, like a Tetris theme (with Tetris blocks), or even a GameCube theme where the screen looks like an indigo GameCube.

Screen Size: Toggle between full screen and bordered

Controller: You can select how certain buttons are laid out.

1. L/R buttons are controlled by Y/X, L+R is Select.

2. L/R normal, X+Y is Select.

Screen Filter: Sharpen the graphics in three degrees: Normal, Soft, Sharp

Timer: Parental Timer which can be adjusted between 1-60 minutes.

Once you set everything to your desires and the game begins, it really feels like you’re just playing a Game Boy title on your GameCube. As I’ve stated before, it looks better than a TV de Advance or even the Wide Boy Advance (the development tool that lets you play GBA games on an N64). Tweaking settings on the fly is as simple as pressing Z and going back into the menu.

Audio playback quality is determined by your TV’s speakers. I couldn’t tell how good the stereo separation was because I was playing the game at a lower volume, but from what sound I could hear, it seemed to be pretty good from the speakers on the Panasonic HDTV I was playing on.

Overall, I think the Game Boy Player is an excellent piece of hardware which compliments the Game Boy Advance and GameCube very well. Not only can you play all of your Game Boy Advance games almost flawlessly on your television, but you’ll be able to network a few of these together and play multiplayer games with multiple TVs or GBAs. With all the connectivity that Nintendo is promising, the Game Boy Player is a must-have addition to your GameCube.