Game Boy Advance Video is a discontinued format for putting full color, full-motion videos onto Game Boy Advance (GBA) ROM cartridges. These videos are playable using the Game Boy Advance system's screen and sound hardware. Each cartridge contained up to 45 minutes of animated series episodes or, in select cases, a 90-minute film. A total of 35 Game Boy Advance Video Paks were published between 2004 and 2006.
The Game Boy Advance Video Paks were primarily published by Majesco, with the exception of those based on Pokémon, which were published by Nintendo. Majesco's releases used compression technology developed by DC Studios, Inc., while Pokémon and "Movie Pak" cartridges used the Mobiclip codec developed by Actimagine.
History
In a May 2003 press release, Majesco and DC Studios announced Game Boy Advance Video and would be showcasing the technology at E3 2003; the press release confirmed they were in discussions with multiple studios and planning to launch in Q4 of that year. At the same event, 4Kids Entertainment announced their own line of cartridges containing episodes from their anime properties, known as "GBA-TV", and targeting the same launch window, though none were ever released. In March 2004, Majesco announced Nickelodeon and 4Kids as the first two licensors for the GBA Video line. Further licensing deals with Cartoon Network, DIC Entertainment, and Funimation were announced over the following two months.
The first GBA Video Paks launched in North America in May 2004, and initially retailed for a MSRP of US$19.99. In conjunction with the line, Majesco manufactured headphones that could connect to the Game Boy Advance SP through its EXT2 port, as the system lacked a standard headphone jack. By October 2004, 20 different GBA Video paks had been released. At that time, Majesco reported an increase in revenue of nearly US$30 million over their previous year, with 79% of all sales attributed to GBA Video.
In November 2004, Majesco announced a licensing deal to release several Disney animated series for the platform. In July 2005, Majesco announced that three animated films from DreamWorks Animation would receive GBA Movie Pak releases. The final GBA Video release was a compilation cartridge containing two of these films.
Features
SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Pizza Delivery" on Game Boy Advance Video. The heavy compression resulted in artifacting and color bleeding.
Game Boy Advance Video Paks offer the same 240×160 resolution as standard Game Boy Advance games. While playing a video, players can pause, fast forward, rewind, skip between different chapters, adjust the brightness of the footage, or lock the controls to prevent interruption of playback.
Most GBA Video Paks have a storage capacity of 32MB (megabytes); Movie Paks use a special chipset to allow 64MB of memory, larger than any other commercially-released GBA game. Due to this small capacity and the length of the video content, GBA Video Paks are heavily compressed, with significant video artifacting. The Shrek & Shark Tale Movie Pak also had to reduce the screen resolution to 240×112 to fit both films on one cartridge.
In order to prevent piracy of the included content using a VCR or other recording device, Game Boy Advance Video Paks are not compatible with the GameCube's Game Boy Player accessory; attempting to play one on the device only displays an error message.
List of published titles
A total of 35 Game Boy Advance Video Paks were released. Most contain 2–4 episodes of an animated series, totalling about 40-45 minutes, while some contain full 90 minute films. The following titles and episodes were released on Game Boy Advance Video.
12Shrek and Shrek 2 were also released in a physical bundle containing both cartridges.
↑Majesco and DC Studios also included the GBA Video version of "Meet Strawberry Shortcake" as a bonus feature in the Special Edition re-release of Strawberry Shortcake: Summertime Adventure (2004).
123Metts, Jonathan (June 26, 2004). "Game Boy Advance Video Review". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on September 22, 2026. Retrieved September 20, 2026.
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