So how much money would you expect to pay for a quality video projector to hook up to your video game system? The range of prices is enormous, but I’ll bet you wouldn’t expect it to include a paltry 180 bucks. Which is probably fair, since the new projector being touted for said price is really anything but quality. My friends, let me introduce you to the Phantiq Video Game Projector V.3, retailing at a unbelievably, suspiciously low 179.99.

I’m sure all of you are smart enough to know what to expect from an under 200 dollar projector. And you’d be right — low contrast ratio, low ANSI lumen brightness (which I4U tells me means you’d need quite a dark room to enjoy), and a 962 x 240px resolution. Top that off with a composite-only input, and you’ve got a very mediocre projector to say the least. And the sucker comes packaged with Wii composite cables, clearly indicating what they expect to be their number #1 market; which makes sense, given the Wii is clearly a multi-player system and big screens are great for multi-player action.

However, I’ll throw off my cynicism for a brief minute and point out that if all you are looking for is a cost-effective way to play the non-HD Wii on a very large screen with your friends, I suppose this is a semi-reasonable solution. Get yourself a big empty wall in a very dark room, and you can probably get at least reasonable functionality from this thing. But please don’t take that as an endorsement, it really isn’t.