Toy maker Mattel, which hasn't had a real showing in the video game world since the days of the Intellivision, has decided to give it another go, this time focusing on the 8 to 12 year old boy market. Because they're really not served enough.

Mattel will be introducing the Hyperscan, a console that uses controllers and game CDs just as any other system, but also collectible cards that are scanned in and represent either characters or special powers.

Players plug the console into a television, insert the game CD, scan a character card under the system's card reader and then scan another card giving that character a special power, such as a weapon or skill. A player can fight the system or combat a friend.

At the end of the battle, the characters are accorded additional strength and speed based on how well they played. With another swipe of the character card, those enhancements are permanently retained so that players can battle on friends' consoles — and have an incentive to collect new cards with different powers and build up their characters' skills.

In other words, it's an elaborate version of a card battle game. I see a couple problems with this: First, one of the benefits of card games are their portability. Second, 8 to 12 year old boys already have better video game systems, ones with card games and everything else they want to play. Despite this, the one thing that could make it work for Mattel is the Hyperscan will be just $70 and come with a pack-in, a game based on X-Men. Each booster pack of six cards will be $10 -- ten bucks for six bloody cards -- but kids don't think about cost in the long term anyway.

Hyperscan is being positioned as a system for kids who are not ready for expensive consoles with violent and mature games on them, which means, of course, that it will be in competition with the Wii. However, being $70 and focused on a particular type of game makes it seem more like a really expensive standalone game than a console, so maybe the two can peacefully coexist. Maybe.

Source: LA Times