Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

The e-Reader was an interesting and quirky peripheral for the Game Boy Advance. It seems like it never quite reached its full potential, but the idea of scanning cards into games to get additional content was a fairly novel idea at the time. In a sense, it could even be viewed as DLC before the concept had really caught on. For example, there were several stages added to Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 by e-Reader cards, that were otherwise inaccessible.

Though it has yet to appear in any other Virtual Console game, it seems that e-Reader content will be supported in the impending Japanese release of Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. Apparently, all the levels from the cards will be available from the get-go on the data select screen. It remains to be seen whether this will be the case when the game inevitably arrives on western virtual consoles, or whether e-Reader content for other games will start to appear, but only time will tell.

What do you think? Did you ever play these levels back on the original release? Do you think we'll see more e-Reader content in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[source nintendoeverything.com, via nintendo.co.jp]