SUPERCARD DSONEi REVIEW


Hi DSDatabase viewers, this is the review for the Supercard DSonei, provided by the kind folks at DepotGo.com. Without their contribution, this review would not be possible. So, without further ado, let's go into the DSOnei, shall we?

Introduction
The Supercard DSOnei is a rather new flashcart created by team Supercard, released in 2009 as the successor to the Supercard DSOne v3 SDHC, and the predecessor to the all-new Supercard DSTwo, released May 18, 2010. The DSone recently released the Evolution Operating System, a sleek and shiny new user interface, early 2010. I'll be covering most, if not all, of these details later on.

What's Inside?
Well, Supercard team put in some freebies that are actually needed in this flashcart. This set includes:
-x1 Supercard manual
-x1 Supercard DSOnei cartridge
-x1 Firmware Flasher
-x1 USB reader (microSD)

They all come in a fancy tray and you can just take them all out. It's really nice, professional, and looks like time was spent on the box too. Everything is durable, except for my slightly squished box. It's probably just the mail services.


Note the fancy tray and how everything fits nice and snug.

Build Quality
The cartridge is a rock. It's really durable, and unless you're picky, you'll only criticize it because you can almost remove the front of the cartridge. It's a nice white color with a blue PCB. There's a finger nib on the side of the cartridge. The micro SD slot is spring loaded. Not really my favorite, in my opinion. I feel like the SD card will just randomly pop out. I'll admit it, I was thinking elsewhere when I tripped and my Supercard went flying out of my hand and it skidded a good few feet. It was awesome, no scratches or moving parts! It's probably the screw in the back of the cartridge that keeps it all together.


It's a nice color, nice sticker and looks appealing.

The cart itself is approximately the same size as a standard DS chip, except in white. Oh well, I highly doubt some cop is going to pull you over and inspect your DS. If he does, bummer for you buddy.



Note the screw holding the game together and the SD icon, just incase you are confused.

Cartridge User Interface

Time to forge on ahead. The DSOnei gets massive points on the UI alone. The interface is a recently released OS called Evolution. It was released around February 1, 2010, for the Chinese New Year, and it was well worth the wait. I can't say exactly that I used the old interface, but I know someone that did. From what I heard of the old interface, it was really clunky and HORRIBLY slow. With the release of the Evolution OS, the system speeded up a lot. I can tell it loads quickly as well, only about 1-2 seconds.


Note the interface and the folders and how easy it is to navigate.

Really impressive interface. When you load your cartridge, with its Star Wars Lethal Alliance icon (to signal a DSi 1.4 updated cart), youll notice a fancy loading screen that says "DSOnei" and then it jumps straight to the menu. The default blue theme is incredible! It's really nice, shiny, and sleek. You can press select for a list, or for lots of folders at once. I really like having folders and stuff to look at. The font is quite beautiful, and it has a fair share of options.


Top Screen looks sleek too!

The interface loads things quite fast with great response time. There is limited lag on the menu, close to none. It's a plus to have like 90 DS Games crammed into the folder with no lag on the menu at all. Points for that, no doubt.


Love this Chinese style theme.

More of the Chinese Style theme.

Game Compatibility

This is an easy section. Most games on most flashcarts should run flawlessly. It's a great feeling to be able to play games without much fear for anti-piracy. Anyways, with the release of EOS Service Pack 2, most games are fixed up, including the popular Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver! But for testing purposes, here goes!

Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver
Mario Kart DS
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
New Super Mario Bros.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 1 and 2
Tetris DS
Clubhouse Games
Mario Party DS
Summon Night X Tears Crown
Fire Emblem DS (ewwww)
Phoenix Wright series
...and many more DS titles

I tested about 80 games, and all of them ran. It's a hassle to list them all, but compatibility these days isn't that big of an issue. I'm not a big homebrew guy but the apps that I use, NDSMail, moonshell 2, nesDS, lameboy, and Pokesav DS r10, all work for me.

Special Features and Gimmicks

The Supercard DSonei has an abundance of features. Some of them include:

SDHC support
-Multi-save support
-Direct saving to memory card
-Supports Reset, Real Time Cheat, Save, and Game Guide
-User friendly GUI
-MP3, Movie, Picture, and TXT support.
-Unlimited Firmware Flash

Most of these features should be self explanatory, but I'll go into the not-so-well-know category, Real Time.

The Real Time Features

The real time stuff on the DSOnei isn't as great as its successor, the DSTwo. The DSonei lacks the great support for 3D games or high graphic games like Pokemon. Nice try if you were hoping to be able to save before attempting a legendary catch. It'll probably be ironed out in the future, but it's not too great right now.

Real Time Guide allows you to view those Game Guides you can find on GameFAQs as TXT files. I like the one on the DSTwo a lot better, obviously. This one is practically the template for future success. It works, but I just don't like scrolling down a huge page.

Real time cheat allows you to select some cheats while you're playing the game, turning them on and off. It's convenient, beating soft resetting every time a new code needs to be activated.

Unlimited Firmware Flasher

Holy God, I almost forgot about this one. This baby makes the DSOnei a rather special cartridge. Let me make a scenario so that you get the idea. Did you update your DSi and your DSone no longer works? Did you listen to Nintendo's cock and bull stories of great new features for DSi shop without regard to your game? Never fear! With the DSonei Firmware Flasher, you can update your game as much as you want as long as you have the proper file on your cartridge!!! I'll be posting links at the end of the review. The USB firmware flasher can be stuck in any USB port as long as it has power! It's a bulky block, this firmware updater. Word of advice: DON'T PULL THE FLASHER OUT UNTIL YOU SEE THE GREEN LIGHT. It's an eight minute process, so don't pull it out unless you want to brick your DSonei. Your choice.


The giant block that will save your life if you mess up.

Conclusions

Overall, I think it's a great cart. It has a pleasing interface and can do a lot of things for a person just starting out in the flashcart scene. It has a good amount of features and is really durable. The only things I could want fixed are the real time features. And with that being said, I am pleased to give out my score of the DSOnei!

SCORE
Build Quality 20/20
User Interface 20/20
Special Features 17/20
Game Compatibility 19/20
Other Gimmicks 20/20

FINAL SCORE: 96/100

Links to See
Supercard Downloads Section
GBAtemp.net
DepotGo (My "private" sponsor)

Once again, I would like to send a big thank you to DepotGo for sending me the cartridge, and to PharaohsVizier for making this site happen, to GBATemp for teaching me a lot about things I never thought I would learn. The biggest thank you goes to YOU for reading this and making my reviews as great as they are. I hope you enjoyed reading it and I hope I can point you in the right direction. If you have any questions at all, please reply here or drop a message. Thanks again, until next time!