The one thing that kept the Gamecube from competing on all levels with the PS2 or X-Box is the lack of DVD playback. I personally don't care about this as I've already got a decent DVD player, but however most people figure that if you're going to drop several hundred dollars on electronics junk then the more crap your machine can do the better. So Panasonic made this licensed clone which is essentially a Gamecube with a DVD player.However the addition of a DVD player upped the price about $150, bringing the total retail price to about $399 (this was before you could get a new Gamecube for $99.)Once again, when you have two versions of essentially the same product right next to each other on the shelf you end up competing with yourself. Most people went with the normal Gamecube, which means in a few years this is going to be one of those holy grails everybody will drool over.

Why would you want one of these babies instead of a normal Gamecube? Well besides the fact that it plays DVDs and just plain looks cooler, the Panasonic Q also is region free, which means it'll play all Japanese and American Gamecube games. Also you can mod it to play DVDs from any region, which makes it worth the money in my book. Who the hell are these bozos to tell us what games or DVDs we can use? Anyway the system was only sold in Japan and will cease production soon (if it hasn't already) so get it now before it's too late.

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Ultimate Console Database