NinjaPass X9 Review

[TheSpade]

NinjaPass X9 Review

Official GBATemp Review

​

The Slot-1 flash card invasion is upon us, and every company is trying as hard as they can to get their products out to retailers as fast as possible in order to take your hard-earned dollars, Euros, pounds, whatever. The NinjaPass X9 is yet another offering for this round of product pummeling onto consumers. Does it really have what it takes to make you forget ever using a Slot-2 flash card again, or like the original NinjaPass, is this one best left alone? We'll dive in head first with this in-depth review!

 

[ambitous21]

i'll "pass" this one up.
had no idea the GUI looked so ugly..

 

[Deleted User]

I think it got the score it deserved. I wouldn't want to talk anyone into buying a piece of junk like this.

 

[MaHe]

Hmm, sorry to say, but this is one of the worst reviews I've yet read. Among all the other things, I was really bothered by the 'great homebrew support' statement. You obviously don't know what this means - FAT support. If it runs any .nds file, but only MoonShell can read the filesystem, then the homebrew is FAR from good - it sucks. According to your philosophy, each adapter on the market (except for Neoflash) has good homebrew support.

No offence.

 

[TheSpade]

Hmm, sorry to say, but this is one of the worst reviews I've yet read.
You're welcome to your own opinion. I always welcome constructive criticism.

Among all the other things, I was really bothered by the 'great homebrew support' statement.
The overall count of homebrew successfully running versus "slot-2 cards" is great. Might want to reread my explanation there as well as check out the Scorpei wiki and compare for yourself. Also, take into mind that there is a third party patching program specifically for homebrew, which raises its working count along with my labeled "Con" about depending on outside contributions far too often.

You obviously don't know what this means - FAT support. If it runs any .nds file, but only MoonShell can read the filesystem, then the homebrew is FAR from good - it sucks.
Sucks for die-hard MoonShell fans? I'd go along with that, but remember, not everyone uses MoonShell. Also, there is a beta build for now. As with all homebrew, I hypothesize that this will change in the near future, either on the end of Team NinjaPass or the author of MoonShell himself. Then again, it may be the one product all MoonShell fans will avoid. That's up to them.
QUOTE(MaHe @ Dec 31 2006, 05:04 AM)According to your philosophy, each adapter on the market (except for Neoflash) has good homebrew support.

Nothing can be further from the truth. I have bashed G6/M3 for their refusal of releasing the necessary information in order for homebrew developers to make their projects much more compatible. EZ-Flash IV was quite unmotivated in getting in line with the homebrew community, but I guess with V, that may change or not. The fact today is that there is no perfect homebrew flash card, unless you want one of the older CF model flash cards with your DS appearing to be suffering from a tumor. People want their flash cards nowadays to be flush, stealthy and invisble to anyone around them. At times, it's a sad thing that people care more about appearances versus functionality, but what can you do?
QUOTE(MaHe @ Dec 31 2006, 05:04 AM)

No offence.

None taken. A review is simply one person's opinion. I am personally looking forward as to what the other sites out there have said and will say about the product versus my synopsis. It ultimately comes down to the buyer's wants and needs in determining their decision as to which flash card to buy. I offered my advice on the subject. It is the reader's call whether or not to follow parts of the review or its sum.

Please also take into account that I am eagerly waiting for the next update, as again, it claims to fix many of the issues. They're being tightlipped about portions of it (perhaps homebrew improvements?), but when it is released along with some sessions with it, the review will be revised. The grade may raise or remain the same. We'll have to see.

 

[Monkey01]

I have to agree with MaHe on the "+ Great homebrew support" statement. In the AceKard review they say "- Very low homebrew compatibility", but if I compare these two:

Both have a modified version of moonshell that works.
Both don't work with any other homebrew that uses FAT lib (like DS organize)
Both do work with all the games that don't use that FAT lib.

Only difference I noticed is that NinjaPass seems to be compatible with SnesDS, so the difference between Very Low and Great is determined by one single app? I don't want to say SnesDS doesn't matter, but damn, it's certainly not Great. :S

Also on the rom compatibility, Castlevania PoR works fine with AceKard also, and I do believe the R4 (and M3Simply automatically too) work fine with it too...
Euw, and check out Metroid Prime Hunters and Pokémon Pearl/Diamond...


-edit:
Hmm, something else found I wish to comment on.

You are to go to the homepage to obtain the system and loader files. Actually, you get it out of the forum, which you must register for beforehand. While I commend the team for providing an official forum (in English!), files belong on the website without pestering users to register. This is a pet peeve of mine, so take it for what its worth. Still, it's a nice sight to see yet another company making an effort to keep the lines of commication between the team and the user base strong and lively. To my knowledge, only DS-Xtreme offers such a relationship, as all the others depend on unofficial forums, e-mails with bad English and of course, here at GBATemp.

Although I do like it that they have a forum in English and all (AceKard doesn't). I don't think the forum is that okay. I mean, they have a word filter, that changes ds-x, sc, supercard, m3, g6, ez and all kinds of words in ****, now you have questions like: "Can I use my ** saves on this product", I mean, what's that for? They used to have a forum about this passcard they had, it said it could boot **, **, **-**** and *********, come on how unprofessional can you be? And when I pm'ed about this filter with why it was not good, not even told with bad language or something, they got me a ban. Nice forum that is.
The help from the admins is not that good either:

I can't seem to get Pokémon to work, can anybody check if it works for you?
- Have you tried adjusting the speed settings?
- What TF-Card are you using?
This and that card, but does it work for you?
- It might be a problem with your card...
But does it work for you.

Man, just tell the poor guy that he has been screwed by buying the piece of shit and that Pokémon doesn't work with any fucking TF-Card or Speed setting, right away. :S

And although they recently changed stuff in their FAQ most of it is still a cheap rip-off of the DS-X one:

NinjaPass:
Q: Does Drag and Drop functionality work on a Mac and other Operating systems except Windows?
A: Of course Our device is fully mass storage spec compliant, and should work with any operating system which supports this standard
Q: Do I have to flash my DS firmware in order to operate the X9TF?
A: NO! No firmware hacks or any nasty tricks are required to use the X9 . If you change your firmware you lose your warranty!

Ds-X:
Q: Does Drag and Drop functionality work on a Mac and other Operating systems except Windows?
A: Of course Our device is fully mass storage spec compliant, and should work with any operating system which supports this standard
Q: Do I have to flash my DS firmware in order to operate the DS-Xtreme?
A: NOOO! No firmware hacks or any nasty tricks are required to use the DS-Xtreme. If you change your firmware you lose your warranty!


and lastly, about the post of you from above:
"EZ-Flash IV was quite unmotivated in getting in line with the homebrew community, but I guess with V, that may change or not."
This will change with EZ-V, as they already released their FAT-Lib and as far as I know, their the only Slot1 card to date that has done so already...

 

[bobmcbob]

that review is terrible. I have X9 and I do not personally like it, but that review is just awful.

Castlevania DoS intro plays fine on the kingston card you said you tested in your review. I know this because I have that card.

Homebrew support is a JOKE at the moment. I wrote the original patcher for the X9 and its a pretty dirty method to get stuff to boot. No homebrew that relies on SD card access works.

And what the hell you talking about with the flashme? You clearly have no understanding of what it actually is.

Oh and your rant about patching? All slot-1 cards patch. They just dont require you to use PC software.

Slot-2 homebrew??????? jeez, most homebrew works fine on slot-2 cards. Indeed a lot of it is designed to work from slot-2.

 

[jelbo]

I have to agree with MaHe, Monkey01 and bobmcbob here.

And what the hell you talking about with the flashme? You clearly have no understanding of what it actually is.

Yeah, I personally love FlashMe. Download play works, I got rid of the annoying Health Warning screen and I have protection for bad code.

Oh and your rant about patching? All slot-1 cards patch. They just dont require you to use PC software.

The whole 'clean ROM' stuff is bogus indeed. They all claim to have 'clean ROM' support, but instead of patching ROMs before putting them on your card it is done on the fly and you get to run ROMs with slowdown, messy save systems and who-knows-what.

 

[Costello]

To be honest I'm surprised this cart gets such a high rating.

Poor commercial games support, so-so homebrew support (who to believe?), dodgy forums/team (copying/pasting the DS-Xtreme FAQ was awfully lame), a non-existent ease of use...

6.5 is IMO a generous rating considering all these elements!

Anyway, that was a good review to read. Informative, interesting pictures, not too long-not too short, I say good job.

 

[Monkey01]

To be honest I'm surprised this cart gets such a high rating.

Poor commercial games support, so-so homebrew support (who to believe?), dodgy forums/team (copying/pasting the DS-Xtreme FAQ was awfully lame), a non-existent ease of use...

6.5 is IMO a generous rating considering all these elements!

Anyway, that was a good review to read. Informative, interesting pictures, not too long-not too short, I say good job.

6.5... I believe it was D+ before?
http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/help.asp says that equals 5.5.

Which is okay I believe, cause with the newer cards like R4 coming out, I don't think there's anything left in NinjaPassX9 that's better then R4...

 

[mecharse]

... dodgy forums/team (copying/pasting the DS-Xtreme FAQ was awfully lame),...

that's pretty much the only dodgy thing they've done, though. other than that, the forums are far better than most, in terms of support from the developers - as far as I'm aware, only the DS-X team is that active on their own (english-language) forums. all the rest either don't post at all (supercard), don't even have forums (M3) or only have Chinese forums (Acekard)

 

[Monkey01]

... dodgy forums/team (copying/pasting the DS-Xtreme FAQ was awfully lame),...
that's pretty much the only dodgy thing they've done, though. other than that, the forums are far better than most, in terms of support from the developers - as far as I'm aware, only the DS-X team is that active on their own (english-language) forums. all the rest either don't post at all (supercard), don't even have forums (M3) or only have Chinese forums (Acekard)

How come marking other products brands as bad words (replacing supercard to *********),
banning me for requesting to improve the forum by dropping that filter
and acting like something incompatible is the fault of reading speeds or MicroSD brands isn't dodgy then?

 

[754boy]

Wow, that GUI is AWFUL. Just AWFUL!! Great review tho. I tink I'll stay away from this one.

 

[TheSpade]

The review was changed from a letter grade to a numeric score on a sliding scale, as it is a review format that Costello has asked me and all reviewers to follow. I normally did letter grading in the past, but I'm adapt to it from now on.

 

[RyuKakashi]

I skimmed it so I don't know if it was already mentioned but does download play work?
And is this the slot 1 card that claimed you could transfer via wifi your backup game from a flashcart to another flashcart?

 

[mastertop101]

I have it, and the main problem I see is, sometime the "whole thing" gets corrupted or whatever and I need to format my micro sd and put back the files.. And I think the admin is ALONE to do all this and he says he's yet very busy about just selling it, not much time to code and all.

 

[bullet007]

I skimmed it so I don't know if it was already mentioned but does download play work?
And is this the slot 1 card that claimed you could transfer via wifi your backup game from a flashcart to another flashcart?

Download play works on 91% of the games.
The wifi burning app, called ninjame, is confirmed (as code for it was found in the system files), but is not out yet.

Also, sometime in January, they will be releasing a new GUI (via the GUI contest that they are having), and currently this design is in the lead:

The only non-working games are Cars, Finding Nemo, Danny Phantom (basicly, some crap games), and Pokemon (which is being looked into now)

I still hae high hopes for this card.

 

[Entwinedwithsick]

it may just be what it takes to retire your Passcard and Superkey, or give them to the needy in order to fight the oppression that is Flashme. Why do you people still insist on using that?

Thats my favorite part. I'm sorry but I don't feel very oppressed using FlashMe. Last time I spoke to you a few months ago you had never even USED FlashMe..has this changed? You badmouth FlashMe but then praise having to manually drag SAV files over for every game?

My DS with G6Lite and FlashMe is just fine. No health warning, I don't give a damn about sleep mode and everything works just fine. Different strokes for different folks. Maybe you should stick to the facts in your reviews rather than slip bits of opinion in that seem uninformed.

 

[ambitous21]

lol they even have to hold a contest to get USERS to make their GUI
just forget about this one.
unless it costs like $25.
get R4, Supercard DS, anything

 

[bullet007]

lol they even have to hold a contest to get USERS to make their GUI
...

The users don't MAKE the GUI, they design it. The X9 Team is going to make it and make it the next GUI.