Review My acekard 2 review :)

[pokemongalaxy]

The dstemp.com review for The acekard 2!



Before starting, I would like to thank team Acekard for providing me with the review sample.

My reviews are on my site as well: dstemp.com


CONTENTS:

1.Intro

2.The packaging and appearance

3. Setting up/ Gui

4.Performance

5.Additional information

6.Score (conclusion)





1.Introduction

The acekard2 is a strong flashcard in the market. It's in some ways, the successor of the acekard r.p.g. , the card that had a built in 1gb flash memory, along with support for memory cards. But having the built in memory and memory extension support, the card was rather expensive...well now the acekard team has pretty much ripped out the built in memory of the rpg, and made an excellent budget card in the flashcard market. Read on to see if this card is as good as expected to be!



Advertised features:

Official Feature List:

• Perfect Compatibility. No need to convert, No need to flash.
• Write save file directly to TF card. No more save type selection.
• Auto patching DLDI. Run homebrew games and programs without convert.
• Support Soft-Reset. Support Download play. Support Wi-Fi.
• Support SDHC microSD card. No maximum file limit.
• Support Action Replay. Built-in editor.
• Low power consumption. Long playing time.
• Easy operation. Support pad and touch screen control.
• Multi-languages. Support Customize Skin.
• Support launch slot-2. Support expand package.
• 4 level brightness adjustment.
• Support reading text files, listening mp3 and watching movie.

2. Packaging and appearance

In a sturdy plastic case comes our acekard 2. The back of the package has the advertised features as well as setup. On the front is the Acekard and an included microsd reader, which you will need for transferring files to the acekard



The box contents:

1 Acekard2

1microsd usb reader

Its nice to see a free usb reader thrown in. And might I mention how sturdy and qood quality the reader seems? It doesn't have the cheap plastic-like look that other free readers come with!



The appearance of the acekard...:

I really like how the acekard has a rainbow reflective like surface to it. It really gives the card some quality. Below the acekard 2 logo, you can see a url to the acekard website. There's also a slogan written on it "the real ultimate experience in your hand". It's also notable to mention that the acekard 2 is spring loaded, meaning that it is rather easy to put and take the microsd memory card out. I would also like to mention one minor thing, that when running your finger over the glossy acekard2, you somewhat feel a chip sticking out a bit. But I'm happy to say that this doesn't affect insertion into the ds at all. The acekard is truly like a regular gamecard.

In order,from left to right, you can see the acekard2, m3ds simply, and a commercial gamecard: metroid prime hunters. Above is the Kingston Japan 1gb microsd I'll be using for the review.

3.Setting up and Gui

SETUP:

Download the Acekard2 firmware from www.acekard.com .For the review, I'm using version 4.07a15 firmware . When you've done that, extract the files using winrar (google it). Then drag the "__ak2", and the loader itself, "akmenu4.nds" into the root of the microsd card. You have now installed the firmware!

Gui:

Once you boot your ds up, do what you do when you select the game, you will see the ak2 logo, go on it...

You should be seeing 2 icons upon booting: microsd, which will let you explore your microsd card and play games,music,video ,and homebrew.



Slot2, which will play anything you have put in your gba slot,including games and flashcards.

if you choose microsd, you will be shown everything in your microsd card, locate where you put games and homebrew. When you find a game or application you want to use, scroll over to it and press the A button the boot it.



Something unique about the ak2 is, If you press the start button ,you will get some stuff similar to this

"Copy", "Cut", "Delete", and "Paste" you know what they do. You can copy a game in microsd card to get 2of the same files, and stuff like that. This is useful for when your friend wants to play a game but you don't want him playing on your save file...
"Patches" - Displays the "Patch Options" window, which allows you to toggle Download Play, cheats, and soft-reset.
"System Options" - Displays the "System Options" window, details below
"Properties" - Displays the "Properties" window displaying detailed information about the highlighted file.
"Help" - Displays button commands for the loader

Here's a quick video showing the acekard 2 Gui and other things.





http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=fyuC7EXQ2pM

Overall, I love the Acekard Gui, its very easy to use and is very quick

4.Performance



For testing performance, I used a 1gb Kingston card. Unfortunately, I dont have an sdhc card with me currently, but I'm sure that acekard 2 supports sdhc as it was an advertised feature.

Everything I threw at the acekard seemed to be working %100. Ive encountered NO PROBLEM OR NON-WORKING GAMES!!

Games:

Jump ultimate stars (patched with english translation)-pass

Golden Eye-rogue Agent-pass

Viewtiful Joe-double trouble-pass

Megaman starforce 2 Saurian-pass

Yoshi island-pass

New Super Mario Bros-pass

pokemon diamond-pass





DOWNLOAD PLAY:

new super mario bros-pass

Jump ultimate stars-pass



Wifi:

Megaman Starforce-pass

pokemon d-pass



One thing unfortunate is that th ak2 doesnt support ds-gba compatibility, I mean games like pokemon diamond and pearl cannot use the slot 2 to access games like pokemon ruby and firered...But I know of few cards that support this feature, so overall, this is not a downfall.

Homebrew:

Smash Bros Rumble v3-pass

Dsorganize-pass

moonshell-pass







Additional Information

Acekard has many extra features, including:

1. Booting slot2 devices, including flashcards and games.

2.Automatic DLDI patching, meaning that most, if not all homebrew games work perfectly!

3.Media capabilities: The ak2 can play music and video with the use of moonshell, a homebrew app that allows media playing.

4.Soft reset capabilities: ak2 can soft reset (quit out of games), simply press A+B+L+R and Down to go back to the game list.

5.Cheat support: the ak2 has a built in action replay!

6. Skinning: you can give themes to your acekard2.

CONCLUSION

This is what you've all been waiting for...the rating! To sum it up...the ak2 is awesome!

Pros

+Great looking Menu

+You can copy,paste and such within the Gui, which is rather unique!

+MicroSDHC support (meaning cards higher than 4gb will work!

+%100rom compatibility, including wifi and multiplayer support (and download play)

+many extra features, including auto Dldi and media and soft reset capabilities

+Cheat support

+multi language

+can work as passme

+menus are very responsive!

Cons

-no gba-nds support(games like pokemon diamond cant connect to games like the gba pokemon firered, meaning slot2 cannot be utilised)

SCORE: 9/10 (Excellent)



WHERE TO BUY THE ACEKARD 2? Click here to go to Dealextreme!

 

[bestperson]

thanks for the informative review. i think im going to advise my friend to get an akerd instead of a cyclo ds b ecause he is on a budget.

 

[golden]

thanks for the informative review. i think im going to advise my friend to get an akerd instead of a cyclo ds b ecause he is on a budget.
Tell him to get the cyclo instead. Trust me on this.

To topic creator, I posted this on your other review thread and would like to get a response, thank you:

QUOTEJust wondering but why would you post this on GBAtemp if this is for your site and reviewed by your own site, DStemp? You would be swaying viewers from your site and just encouraging them to stay on GBAtemp and not even glance at your site if all of the review stuff is already here. I guess I am just confused why you would post this here unless you don't really care about your site at all and just wanted to make it for the review samples. Thanks for your time.

 

[Splych]

is it me or are the pictures blurry ? still nice guide ! shoulda tested rom compatibility with the latest roms . then test homebrew with the most popular homebrew =P

 

[golden]

is it me or are the pictures blurry ? still nice guide ! shoulda tested rom compatibility with the latest roms . then test homebrew with the most popular homebrew =P

they are blurry. As if they were taken from a camera phone.

 

[golden]

Also, is it just my web browser (it does this a lot) or is it that the text is formatted really oddly with huge spaces, and some html codes?

I don't see the HTML code but some of the stuff is weirdly spaced.

 

[satel]

i own both acekard2 & edge & tbh the edge is much better (compatibility & built quality wise) the card is a totaly different class its exactly like a CycloDS but without the extra features like real time save..etc.

 

[golden]

i own both acekard2 & edge & tbh the edge is much better (compatibility & built quality wise) the card is a totaly different class its exactly like a CycloDS but without the extra features like real time save..etc.

Cyclo without all its features is not very appealing in my opinion. It's just your average 100% compatibility cart with a decent menu. Big deal. The AK's menu at least looks really cool.

 

[satel]

i own both acekard2 & edge & tbh the edge is much better (compatibility & built quality wise) the card is a totaly different class its exactly like a CycloDS but without the extra features like real time save..etc.

Cyclo without all its features is not very appealing in my opinion. It's just your average 100% compatibility cart with a decent menu. Big deal. The AK's menu at least looks really cool.

its the looks of the Acekard2 vs the quality & compatibility of the EDGE.

btw you can get really cool skins for EDGE.

 

[golden]

i own both acekard2 & edge & tbh the edge is much better (compatibility & built quality wise) the card is a totaly different class its exactly like a CycloDS but without the extra features like real time save..etc.

Cyclo without all its features is not very appealing in my opinion. It's just your average 100% compatibility cart with a decent menu. Big deal. The AK's menu at least looks really cool.

its the looks of the Acekard2 vs the quality & compatibility of the EDGE.

btw you can get really cool skins for EDGE.

Both carts as well as pretty much all other cart have 100% compatibility so I don't see your point there. Quality, well, ok, but I believe the bad batch has been taken care of.

 

[satel]

i own both acekard2 & edge & tbh the edge is much better (compatibility & built quality wise) the card is a totaly different class its exactly like a CycloDS but without the extra features like real time save..etc.

Cyclo without all its features is not very appealing in my opinion. It's just your average 100% compatibility cart with a decent menu. Big deal. The AK's menu at least looks really cool.

its the looks of the Acekard2 vs the quality & compatibility of the EDGE.

btw you can get really cool skins for EDGE.

Both carts as well as pretty much all other cart have 100% compatibility so I don't see your point there. Quality, well, ok, but I believe the bad batch has been taken care of.

i'm not talking about defect hardware (acekard2 bad batch) what i mean is quality built & performance,both CycloDS & EDGE have the best built quality in all flash cards made to date & best compatibilty full stop, with my Acekard2 some new games require new firmware update in order to work but the CycloDs & EDGE new games just work first time you only need a firmware update every blue moon.
if you are after quality hardware & gaming then CycloDs or EDGE. one is king of advanced cards & the other is king of budget cards no questions asked.

 

[golden]

i'm not talking about defect hardware (acekard2 bad batch) what i mean is quality built & performance,both CycloDS & EDGE have the best built quality in all flash cards made to date & best compatibilty full stop, with my Acekard2 some new games require new firmware update in order to work but the CycloDs & EDGE new games just work first time you only need a firmware update every blue moon.
if you are after quality hardware & gaming then CycloDs or EDGE. one is king of advanced cards & the other is king of budget cards no questions asked.

I personally don't like the edge.

 

[haringtonl]

Are the bad bunch of acekard 2 gone? I heard alot of people on deal extreme talking about the fat error or loading problems. Tell me if anyone bought one recently. Thanks

 

[matriculated]

If you guys are taking pictures of things up close to the camera, try switching on the macro mode. It's usually on your dial-thingy as a flower icon. In this mode it's able to focus on close objects (usually about 4-5 inches away) and it'll reduce blurriness. Also, it's best to rest the camera on something and not hold it by hand. 'Course, camera phones probably don't have this option. Also, this may seem obvious, but don't move the camera until a second or two after pressing the button.

 

[Sir-Fritz]

@PharaohsVizier I too get strange html coding on the first page. Especially in the first line.

 

[JPdensetsu]

cool review !!! Thanks I going to buy that, Thanks to you

 

[pokemongalaxy]

k, this is very wierd, but every time I tried typing something here then press post, it said I havent typed anything, maybe its because Im in Iran right now(vacation)...?its working now cuz Im using a proxy...
Anyways, thanks for the comments, let me clear some questions:
1.bad batch is gone(I think)
2.build quality of ak2 is not bad, but not top notch
3.u can find skins I made for edge @ my site dstemp, also for the r4

 

[rhyguy]

You rate things too highly.

 

[pokemongalaxy]

You rate things too highly.

Ok well I dont find that to be true, its my review, I can give it whatever rating. The ak2 is a great flashcard and I think it deserves that rating that you consider "too high"

 

[JPdensetsu]

You rate things too highly.

Ok well I dont find that to be true, its my review, I can give it whatever rating. The ak2 is a great flashcard and I think it deserves that rating that you consider "too high"

Everyone choose his own rating !!!