Nintendo launches Pokemon Super Paks

Having recently discovered Christmas, Nintendo has announced a couple of limited edition Game Boy Advance SP bundles to celebrate the success of Pokemons Ruby and Sapphire and claw yet more cash out of parental paws. Due out on November 28th, the Pokemon "Super Paks" will each comprise a colourful GBA SP (red and blue Pokemon variants), a matching console carry case and a copy of Ruby or Sapphire, and will ship in boxes rather like the one you can see here. Each 'pak' will retail for 170 Euro (about £120).

(Oh, and according to the box graphic, each set is worth 1,000 Nintendo VIP points, which is almost good for a free T-shirt from Nintendo's Stars Catalogue - if they ever get any stock again, at least.)

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire launched to terrific success this July, selling more than 500,000 copies across Europe after Nintendo stamped on the throats of anybody daring enough to try and import them from the US during the preceding months. With more than 1.5 million copies now sold, both games remain in Chart-Track's UK Top 40, at numbers 32 (Ruby) and 35 (Sapphire) this week, also obviously appearing in the GBA Top 20 at 4 and 5 respectively.

Nintendo will obviously be hoping that this bundle can perk them up again towards the end of the year. However, to our eyes at least, parents may need some convincing that a single game handheld bundle is really worth all that dosh when a GameCube and a couple of budget titles would run to the same.