So This is my review on the R4i Gold RTS,
Site i bought it from: http://www.nds-card.com
Price: $15.99 (no tax either)
First off the customer service with the company is AMAZING! They answered all of my questions quickly and all of the requests I had as well. And shipping was very quick. I purchased the cart in the beginning of april and it was shipped out a few days later. They told me the shipping time was 7-35 days. well 13 days later i recieved it.
So the packaging i will say was better then my previous cart *cough* acekard 2i *cough cough*. It was a little cheap looking but it was still great.
Packaging:4/5 stars
The cart itself feels thicker compared to my acekard 2i but from what i could tell it was the same thickness. I also noticed that it clicks in (not even pushed it in to lock and it was locked in.) only half way down. Which was a little weird to me but ive gotten used to it. The one thing i was looking forward to on this cart was the anti-fake code system which it was lacking. The acekard system was great and i really hope to see other carts implament something like their system in the future. I would like to know before i get to into my cart if its a fake or not. (i still dont know if i have a fake cart or not but i am running Wood 1.57.)
*The anti-fake code will Not affect my rating.*
Physical Cart:5/5 stars
Now onto software,
So if your coming from an Acekard 2i and that was your first cart, You may get a little confused with the new UI. And since the cart doesn't come with a button guide its trial and error. Once you get them down though youll be good. As for out of the box compatibility its amazing. It plays ALOT (dont have many) of games that require the anti-anti-piracy patches WITHOUT the need for codes or ROM patching. as where the AK2i requires both the Cheat database AND the rom patched AND the AAP to be applied before you can play the newer games. Now on the AK2i the cheats option is built into the system menu option, on the R4i though its a little bit harder to find. but after some trial and error for buttons its actually found on the settings of each ROM. Its smarter this way i believe but again coming from the AK2i it was a little bit different to me. The themes section is still a bit confusing to me. As the AK2i has far less complex themes to it the R4i seems to have ALOT more requirements to it. Ive downloaded a few themes from both here and the actually r4i site and they dont seem to be formatted properly. And upon looking at the premade zips that come with the Wood kernel and the zips i downloaded there are ALOT of files missing from the themes. The load times for opening the ROMs seems to be less to none on this cart. Before id be waiting maybe 5-9 seconds to load the ROM on my AK2i on the R4 its maybe 2-5 Seconds. Now the RTS feature is a BIG mystery still to me. There is no documentation, Guide, Or button symbols on how to use this feature. I know from emulator days that there usually is a button or drop down menu option to use it. And i think with this being a option that is printed on the card there should of been a little bit more documentation on this option. The update via wifi option im glad to see in here. i loved it with my AK2i and im glad they simplified it so you didnt have to install different plugins to make it work. Moonshell is an option i see alot of users talk about and recommend but its not something i really know much about or use. But i did install it on my cart last night and can confirm that it works, Again i dont know much about it so all i really did was open it to see if it would run. Lastly a little thing i noticed about the themes. (swy this isnt with the themes part but its something i just remembered.) When changing themes i noticed that it will freeze on the loading screen after rebooting to apply the theme. The simple fix i found for this is to just go back and restart the cart by going back to the home screen. Again i dont know if its just me or an actual R4i issue.
Software rating: 4/5
So after everything ive noticed from this cart and everything i was able to test out my overall rating for the R4i GOld 3ds RTS (which i use this on my DSi 1.4.4u) Is
*Drum roll here*
5/5
This cart to me is alot better then the AK2i. Also since the AK2i will no longer be updated due to capacity of the cart being reached it will not be able to work with updated versions of handhelds.
I HIGHLY recommend the R4i GOLD 3DS RTS to ANYONE that is looking for a quality After Market Flash Cart for their DSi/DSi XL, 3DS/3DS XL.
If anyone wants pictures let me know and ill upload them.
Site i bought it from: http://www.nds-card.com
Price: $15.99 (no tax either)
First off the customer service with the company is AMAZING! They answered all of my questions quickly and all of the requests I had as well. And shipping was very quick. I purchased the cart in the beginning of april and it was shipped out a few days later. They told me the shipping time was 7-35 days. well 13 days later i recieved it.
So the packaging i will say was better then my previous cart *cough* acekard 2i *cough cough*. It was a little cheap looking but it was still great.
Packaging:4/5 stars
The cart itself feels thicker compared to my acekard 2i but from what i could tell it was the same thickness. I also noticed that it clicks in (not even pushed it in to lock and it was locked in.) only half way down. Which was a little weird to me but ive gotten used to it. The one thing i was looking forward to on this cart was the anti-fake code system which it was lacking. The acekard system was great and i really hope to see other carts implament something like their system in the future. I would like to know before i get to into my cart if its a fake or not. (i still dont know if i have a fake cart or not but i am running Wood 1.57.)
*The anti-fake code will Not affect my rating.*
Physical Cart:5/5 stars
Now onto software,
So if your coming from an Acekard 2i and that was your first cart, You may get a little confused with the new UI. And since the cart doesn't come with a button guide its trial and error. Once you get them down though youll be good. As for out of the box compatibility its amazing. It plays ALOT (dont have many) of games that require the anti-anti-piracy patches WITHOUT the need for codes or ROM patching. as where the AK2i requires both the Cheat database AND the rom patched AND the AAP to be applied before you can play the newer games. Now on the AK2i the cheats option is built into the system menu option, on the R4i though its a little bit harder to find. but after some trial and error for buttons its actually found on the settings of each ROM. Its smarter this way i believe but again coming from the AK2i it was a little bit different to me. The themes section is still a bit confusing to me. As the AK2i has far less complex themes to it the R4i seems to have ALOT more requirements to it. Ive downloaded a few themes from both here and the actually r4i site and they dont seem to be formatted properly. And upon looking at the premade zips that come with the Wood kernel and the zips i downloaded there are ALOT of files missing from the themes. The load times for opening the ROMs seems to be less to none on this cart. Before id be waiting maybe 5-9 seconds to load the ROM on my AK2i on the R4 its maybe 2-5 Seconds. Now the RTS feature is a BIG mystery still to me. There is no documentation, Guide, Or button symbols on how to use this feature. I know from emulator days that there usually is a button or drop down menu option to use it. And i think with this being a option that is printed on the card there should of been a little bit more documentation on this option. The update via wifi option im glad to see in here. i loved it with my AK2i and im glad they simplified it so you didnt have to install different plugins to make it work. Moonshell is an option i see alot of users talk about and recommend but its not something i really know much about or use. But i did install it on my cart last night and can confirm that it works, Again i dont know much about it so all i really did was open it to see if it would run. Lastly a little thing i noticed about the themes. (swy this isnt with the themes part but its something i just remembered.) When changing themes i noticed that it will freeze on the loading screen after rebooting to apply the theme. The simple fix i found for this is to just go back and restart the cart by going back to the home screen. Again i dont know if its just me or an actual R4i issue.
Software rating: 4/5
So after everything ive noticed from this cart and everything i was able to test out my overall rating for the R4i GOld 3ds RTS (which i use this on my DSi 1.4.4u) Is
*Drum roll here*
5/5
This cart to me is alot better then the AK2i. Also since the AK2i will no longer be updated due to capacity of the cart being reached it will not be able to work with updated versions of handhelds.
I HIGHLY recommend the R4i GOLD 3DS RTS to ANYONE that is looking for a quality After Market Flash Cart for their DSi/DSi XL, 3DS/3DS XL.
If anyone wants pictures let me know and ill upload them.
