The Nintendo GameCube is small and portable, but even this system can become troublesome for longer distances, so a few companies have released GameCube carrying cases in various shapes and forms. Last Holiday season I received one such item (that I picked out): ALS’s GameCube Backpack.

The ALS GameCube backpack, officially licensed by Nintendo, is a sleek oval-shaped product streamlined to carry the system, two first-party controllers, and the AC adapter, plus a few extras of your choice. And it does what it claims to do quite well, honestly. There are no directions, so those who buy the product should take some time to experiment. As it is with all travel, packing can be difficult. The console goes on the bottom of the main compartment, where it fits snuggly into a chamber with padding on all five sides. On the top of the padded lid of the compartment is an elastic band used to hold the block-of-an-AC adapter. It works best if you run one of the cables through the holder, allowing for a tight grip around the bulky part. Having 2 twisty ties like the ones that came with it in the ‘Cube’s box could be handy, though not necessary. On the rear wall of the pack are two more bands, but these have Velcro straps and are each designed to go around the middle part of a controller. As the two straps are at slightly different heights, the handles will perfectly interlock with each other in an impressively space-effective manner. I found the straps to work best with the controller cables wrapped around the divots just outside the D-pad and C-stick, though more twisty ties would also work.

So far I have been talking about the pre-designated peripherals, but there are pockets for more GameCube items. I found that the A/V, RF adapter, and other similar cables worked well in the main pocket where all of the AC and Controller cables bunch together, but any other items will need to be carefully placed. The only design flaw in this backpack is that there are two pockets competing for the same space. Inside the main pocket is a zipper on the front wall where games should go. Unfortunately, instead of adding a protruding pocket so common in school backpacks, the GameCube backpack’s outer zipper leads directly into the same “neutral space” shared by the internal game pocket, making this pocket virtually obsolete. This can easily lead to the delicate situation often found in RPG games, where you have more items than your character/party can hold at a time. From my own experimentation I have been able to fit 3 games and 3 first party controllers or 2 games and 4 first party controllers, the latter being quite a taxing process. I put my memory card in a game case, obviously. Fortunately the backpack seems to be made of strong material, so I don’t believe pushing the backpack to its limits will do any real damage (though it may not look quite as good when stretched out completely). If you want to get creative you can use CD or mini-CD cases to fit more games into the backpack, but it may be more practical and cost-effective to carry your surplus games separately. Third-party game cases are an option, but I suspect packing the games in a suitcase will work just fine for travel and carrying them in-hand will be easy enough for a trip to your friend’s place. Overall, it carries all of the vitals with flying colors and a few other things adequately.

Though it isn’t perfect, ALS’s GameCube Backpack makes GameCube travel easier by several degrees, and I am happy with the purchase. As long as you are willing to pack some of your GCN supplies separately it should be a good buy. And if the price is too high, ALS makes a “carrying case” (really a suitcase) of similar quality for $15 less, though my brief in-store examination lead me to believe it couldn’t hold quite as much. If you have ever struggled to carry your GameCube, two controllers and three games (I have) you will really appreciate this backpack! Unless you’re worried about theft, I can’t think of anything better to carry your GameCube around in.