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Here it is, my review for one of the most hyped flashcarts of all time; the SupercardDSTwo. This review will be quite long-winded, and will have more pictures than normal. However, that's understandable seeing how <b>so</b> many people want it, have it, or looked forward to it. Furthermore I'd like to note that this review was only written for DSDatabase, and GBATemp. If you see this review posted anywhere else, please notify me! Anyways, enjoy the review!
Before we start, I'd like to thank NDSCardSale for the sample they provided for me. Without them this review wouldn't be possible.
<a href="http://ndscardsale.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/PharaohsVizier/Affiliates/nl1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
<b>Introduction-</b>
The SupercardDSTwo is the successor flashcart of the SupercardDSOne(i). The flashcart was originally announced back in November on GBATemp. The DSTwo promised GBA and SNESAttachment 200 emulation using techniques similar to that of the iPlayer. It also promised some very exciting features such as a 4 slot real time save, real time cheat, picture viewing in real time guide, file management (copy, cut, paste, delete), DIVX playback, and ebook support (including PDF). The SupercardDSTwo was able to promise a lot of these innovative things by deciding to embed a powerful processor (the one used in the Dingoo A320) inside the flashcart itself. Now the idea of putting a processor inside a flashcart was not original by any means (it had been more or less copied straight from the iPlayer, which came out a little bit before the DSTwo was announced). However, since the flashcart has promised so many amazing features to go along with this embedded processor people got quite excited.
The SupercardDSTwo is, of course, released now. Some say that it shouldn't have been released when it was, that people rushed the Supercard team to release an unfinished product. It all depends on how you look at it. What my review will do is help you decide whether or not the SupercardDSTwo lived up (or rather living up) to it's expectations or if it's just another razzle dazzle flashcart.
<b>Packaging and Installation-</b>
The packaging of the SupercardDSTwo is fairly straight forward. It's nothing over the top like the iEDGE packaging, but it's not cheap like the Acekard's box (they keep making it smaller and smaller). The DSTwo comes packaged in a decent sized cardboard box. The box contains a small plastic casing for holding the included contents. Inside the casing is the obligatory microsdhc reader, a manual, and (of course) the SupercardDSTwo itself. The plastic casing can be quite a hassle to separate from the flashcart and usb reader. While removing my flashcart from it it got caught on the corner of the indention where DSTwo is held, and it started to be pulled apart (I'll go into more detail in the Build section). Anyways, the plastic casing eventually let me have my flashcart and usb reader with the correct blend of force and care (you could always just cut the casing apart). The box itself is pretty snazzy. It has a cool design, and a almost complete feature list on the back. It's as if the box was made to be placed on store shelves (this may actually be the case in some countries).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2594.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2588.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2593.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Manual; Snazzy Box; Plastic Casing</i></div>
Onto installation. A couple years ago installation wouldn't even be included in a review because it was made so simple by the flashcart teams. Gone are the days that most flashcarts would include a quick and simple CD with the firmware on it. Nowadays users are left to fend for themselves when it comes to finding the firmware. At best the box will have a website on it, but that doesn't always lead directly to a download or to the best download (this is sadly the case with the M3, Acekard, etc.). The Supercard Team, however, were kind enough to include a manual that includes a quick start guide, controls list, FAQ, real time menu explanation, default hotkey displayed, and a nice feature list. The manual even helped answer some questions I had about my DSTwo when I first got it. The actual installation itself is pretty straightforward, just copy and paste the files on your microsd. All and all I like how the Supercard team included a manual with their packaging, it's a big help for flashcart veterans and newcomers alike.
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<i>The FAQ actually helps, it's not just standard questions</i></div>
Finally we have the DSi 1.4 firmware fix. As most of us know, the 1.4 firmware for the DSi blocks all flashcarts. By now almost every DSi flashcart that isn't a clone has some way to update itself in the case of another update and so it can get past the 1.4 blocks. However, depending on the flashcart, the update method can be quite a pain (the Acekard2i required me to borrow a DS Lite from my brother). Updating your flashcart for 1.4 is just one more thing that stands in between you and enjoying your flashcart. Luckily the Supercard team realized this and has decided to ship every single SupercardDSTwo to be already compatible with the 1.4 firmware. This is quite a sigh of relief as you don't have to spend upwards of 30 minutes finding the update file, trying to get it to work, failing, looking up a guide, and (worst of all) potentially bricking your flashcart. Now if there is ever another update for the DSi that blocks flashcarts, the DSTwo can update itself by just sitting in the DSi while it's on. This is quite great because it doesn't require any extra hardware (that could break) nor does it require you to have a non-updated DSi or DS Lite. So the Supercard team pretty much has things covered in the event that Nintendo decides to let loose another update. At any rate, your DSTwo should display Fish Tycoon in the DSi menu. This shows that it was correctly updated by the Supercard team (and there has yet to be any reports of people getting a DSTwo that wasn't updated properly or at all).
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<i>Atleast it's not Danny Phantom <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /></i></div>
<b>Build-</b>
Like noted earlier, in the installation/packaging section, my SupercardDSTwo was almost pulled apart by the casing (the tiny seam that goes along the sides it where the hole started to be made). Luckily I stopped trying to pull it out before the plastic snapped. While the case is somewhat at fault, it's also partly the DSTwo's build. It is either held together by weak glue, or it's not held together by anything but it's screw. Oh right, I forgot to mention that part. Yah the SupercardDSTwo has a screw in the bottom right hand corner on the back. So there could easily by no glue on the seam because the screw would easily hold together the cart by itself. So there's the upside of having the strong screw support, but there's little to no glue support (so overall it's sturdy, but parts that are opposite of the screw will be a little weak). You'll also notice that on the contacts there are 10 nicely spread out teeth to protect the contacts from damage, and to help line up the flashcart's contacts with the DS's.
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<i>The teeth on the contacts and screw are placed in quite odd spots. But, if it makes the build better, I can't complain.</i></div>
The front of the flashcart will greet you with a nice shiny (and freaking hard to take a photo of without getting a glare) sticker that has DSTWO, and oddly enough it has the words "2 in 1" in the O of DSTWO. I'm not sure what they mean by 2 in 1, but it's not too important. Anyways, if you hold the SupercardDSTwo you'll notice that there's a considerable bump in the upper left hand corner on the front of the DSTwo. I imagine this is the embedded CPU, though I'm not too sure. This bump does cause some problems when inserting and ejecting your Supercard. Whenever you insert it for the first time it has some considerable trouble getting in. I don't mean like a small click/road block when putting it in, I mean you have to slowly push/force it in the whole time. It will eventually get easier to push it, but you can't help but feel that this might be hurting the insides of your flashcart or worse: your DSi. Finally, when ejecting your DSTwo it only comes out about a quarter of an inch before you must manually pull it out (I've once ejected my Acekard and it went flying for a foot or two). While none of these interferences when inserting/ejecting are that big of a deal, it can be a little annoying and/or worrying.
<div align="left"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2555copy.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>The arrow helps show the outline of the bump</i></div>
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<i>That's how far the DSTwo goes out by ejecting it via spring.</i></div>
Finally, time for some good news, the microsd slot. The microsd slot is positioned on the top of the SupercardDSTwo and is spring loaded. While I personally prefer my microsd slots to be on the side of the flashcart, I can live with it being on the top. I also like the choice of it being spring loaded, always less of a hassle when compared to manual loading slots. One of the great upsides of the microsd slot is that the microsd not only doesn't stick out, it even sinks in a bit to make it harder to be ejected while in the DS. The actual spring in the flashcart feels somewhat reliable. Your microsd slowly goes in and then click, unlike the Acekard where it almost instantly clicks (and that, in my opinion, makes the spring feel cheap). I have yet to experience or hear of a problem with the spring breaking in the DSTwo, so the spring should be hold out for as long as you use your DSTwo (all springs break eventually <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />).
One last note about the build of the SupercardDSTwo is that it's <b>very</b> similar to the iPlayer's build. It's been confirmed that it's not exactly the same, because the chips used are different and are in different places. In my eyes, it doesn't matter if they even admit to copying the build, it's fine as long as it's not flimsy.
<b>Firmware-</b>
When you boot your SupercardDSTwo you'll find a menu very reminiscent to that of the DSi menu. You'll have a few blocks with pictures in them, and you can scroll left/right through these blocks. Each block represents one core aspect of the SupercardDSTwo's menu or a plugin. One will boot the NDS rom/homebrew launcher, another will boot the GBA emulator, and the last will boot Moonshell 2. Finally, if you are using a DS Lite, you can download 2 more blocks from the Supercard website that allow you to boot to a Slot 2 or Slot 1 device. Now, what this menu is really doing is booting separate homebrew files (you could have guess when Moonshell was put in the list). You can even get your own plugins (or blocks, we'll just refer to them as plugins for now, since this first menu we see is called the plugin menu) that launch any homebrew file you want. For example: if you want to have fast access to DSOrganize you can just download that plugin, put it on your microsd, then launch the plugin from your plugin menu. And there you have it! You've launched DSOrganize within seconds of running your Supercard!
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Our next stop on our DSTwo firmware adventure would be the actual NDS rom booting section. This section/plugin by default is called DS_GAME (as seen in the above picture, it's also called the Evolution OS). Don't let the ugly name fool you, it's actually quite nice. When you boot DS_GAME, you'll yet again seen a menu that you'll most likely recognize. If you don't recognize it then I'll help you out; this menu is very close to the AKAIO firmware. The reason for this is that that DS_GAME/EOS is based off the Acekard RPG source code, which is also what AKAIO is based off of. You might notice that the DS_GAME menu has a lot of features that AKAIO has. Some of these features include copy/cut/paste/deleting files in the menu, multi-save, the start menu, etc. Anyways, once you boot up DS_GAME you be greeted by a another layout similar to AKAIO: the 4 icon per page file list on the touch screen, and the time/date on the top screen. While this file this is nice, the thing I like the most about DS_GAME is the table-esque layout you can switch to. I like this table format the most because you can see up to 12 files on one page at once, it makes finding the right file much easier. One thing that DS_GAME differs from AKAIO is that, on the top screen, the internal name for roms are displayed (so on the bottom screen you get the actual file's name and on the top you get the internal name that's coded in the rom).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2636.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2634.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2779.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>As you can see the table layout's names are harder to read, but you see more icons. While on the 4 icon page layout you get longer names but less icons.</i></div>
You may have noticed in the pictures above that the DS_GAME/EOS menu also has a start menu (yes, like AKAIO...but that's not such a bad thing ;D ). The start menu holds the system options, file management, skins, help, the works. One thing I like...and sort of dislike...about the DS_GAME start menu is that it's more organized. If you click File Operation (file management) then another menu will pop up to the right of the main start menu with the options Copy/Cut/Paste/Delete. This makes the start menu much smaller and more organized (the start menu on AKAIO stretched all the way to the top of the screen). However, this feature can also make the start menu clutter up the screen. One of the ways this happens is like through the system settings, it branches out into 3 different menus: Main Start Menu > System Settings > Brightness (one of the few options in the second menu that pops up for system settings) > Level 1-4 (4 different options in a new list).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2615.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2622.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2627.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>It starts out all innocent, but it eventually can clutter up the whole screen <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/frown.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="frown.gif" /></i></div>
Alright we have just a few more things to go over. As seen in the picture above, the DS_GAME menu does come in multiple languages. The default languages include: English, Standard Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Korean. While there is a large selection of languages, some of the words in the lesser used languages (Spanish, Italian, German, etc.) take up too much space and are either cut off or overlap other words (like the phrase OK in Spanish is Aceptar, and this causes problems in some buttons). Another feature to note is that whenever you change which files to view (like instead of only showing NDS files you want it to show NDS and SAV) it will automatically update the list, instead of making you go out of the folder and back in (this is the way AKAIO handles it, and it was a little annoying). Finally, if you press X while having a game selected you can choose a few options for the game. First you can choose multi-save, which allows you to have multiple sav files for one game without having to go through the trouble of renaming them each time you wish to use them (ex: gamename.sav, and gamename-1.sav, you'd need to rename gamename.sav to something else and gamename-1.sav to gamename.sav). Then we can choose to turn cheats on or off, this is quite obsolete since cheats can be turned on/off while in the real time menu (Note: cheats will be talked about more in the real time menu section). And last but not least patch/clean mode. By default, games are patched so they can work without problems, but sometimes putting a game on clean mode will make a game run better. Oh and one more thing, the skins. Skins are pretty straight forward, however you can skin a lot. You can skin: the loading screen, gba emulator, the plugin menu, DS_GAME, and the real time menu. You can go here to download and see what some of the skins are like.
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<b>GBA Emulator-</b>
I was contemplating putting the GBA emulator review in the firmware section, but then that section would be way too big. Plus the GBA emulator is such a big part of features included that it deserves it's own section.
I'll be blunt. The GBA emulator is pretty much the same exact thing as Dark Chen's emulator for the iPlayer. What's the difference? Well the DSTwo's emulator has a different default skin. Another difference is that the Supercard's emulator is actually updated for compatibility (it also gets new features such as new a new cheat system, real time clock, etc). However, the iPlayers main advantage is that it can launch GBA games from it's menu. On the DSTwo you must back out of the DS_GAME menu to the plugin menu and launch the GBA emulator.
Your GBA roms can be placed anywhere on your microsd card, the emulator has the function to browse for roms (and even has a recently played list). While playing your game if you would like your games to run a bit faster (not faster than normal, but if they go slower than on a real GBA and you want them to go faster) you can turn up the CPU frequence. Though keep in mind that this will considerably drain the battery more than it normally does. It's defaulted at 2 but it can go as low as 0 or as high as 4 (so it's more or less defaulted at a normal/in the middle value). Furthermore you can also use the fast forward feature, which makes the game run a lot faster (this is different from CPU frequence where it actually speeds up the frames per second and turns frame skip on max). This feature is more for the people who like to get things done fast or skip through boring cinematics. There's also the obligatory frame-skip (as mentioned a sentence back). This is to help fix laggy games without draining your battery. The price you have to pay, though, is that animations are more blocky and don't look as real. Also, like most emulators, there's save states. This feature let's you save any time you feel like it and then load that save and start exactly where you left off. You're given a total of 10 save slots. Finally, the last of the speed/time bending features, rewind. This features cache's your gameplay and allows you to skip back 1, 2, 5, or even 10 seconds each time you press L+Y. Keep in mind that you can only do this for as long as you have the feature enabled, and enabling it obviously drains more battery.
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<i>Don't worry, if you don't like the look you could always install another skin.</i></div>
More handy features include the snapshot feature, remapping keys, and cheat support. The snapshot feature allows you to take a picture of whatever is on the screen and store it on your microsd card. Later while playing the game you can go back and view the screenshot. So if there's a point in the game where you have to remember some pattern, you can take a snapshot and go view it later. You can also use it for whatever reason you might need a picture of the gameplay on your computer (like I said earlier it saves the picture to your microsd and it's in bmp format). The key remapping let's you do things like set the the turbo keys to something like X and Y (turbo keys are keys you hold down and they input A and B REALLY fast). It also allows you to set the key that opens the options menu during gameplay to Y or the touchscreen (this also freezes gameplay and it's how you access things like save states and all other options mentioned above). Last but not least the cheat support. The cheat files used in the gba emulator must be in the .cht format. This is quite handy because gbatemp has a huge database for gba cheat files in the .cht format. The one downside is that you must scroll through the list and actually load each cht file, it will not automatically match up like DS cheats. Furthermore, when loading a cht file you cannot view more than 1024 cht files before the list just stops. Oh and I almost forgot the cherry on top. The SupercardDSTwo's GBA emulator is able to load archived GBA roms. That means you can save quite a bit of space on your microsd card by putting each of your gba roms in a separate zip archive. But keep in mind EACH rom must be in it's own zip archive, and the archive can not be bigger than 16 MB.
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Some last notes about the emulator are that it supports skinning. This way you can have a skin that goes along with your DS_GAME and plugin menu skins. There's also the option to have the Chinese or English language. And finally you can turn sound off for games that sometimes have glitchy sound. Turning sound off also helps boost the speed on some slower games as well. Furthermore the DSTwo's emulator supports Real Time Clock for games like Pokemon. This is a feature that not even all slot-2 expansions have. Finally, you can download a small txt file called game_config.txt and put it in your NDSGBA folder. Doing this will boost the compatibility for upwards of 20 games (this includes almost ALL pokemon games). You can get the game_config.txt here.
<b>Real Time Menu-</b>
The real time menu is probably one of the biggest features of the Supercard right now (setting aside the GBA emulator, of course). What the real time menu is is a menu you can access while playing any NDS rom with 6 different features that enhance your playing experience. These 6 features are: Real Time Save, Real Time Guide, Real Time Cheat, Slow Motion, Free Cheat, and Soft-Reset.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2641.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/rtsico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Let's start with real time save. Real time save is like the save slots for the gba emulator, you can save your exact spot in any game anytime you want. Real time save is one of those features most flashcarts have at this point in time. So you know, the Supercard team couldn't just throw in the same old stuff and expect us to buy it. What they did is allowed the user to name their own saves, a never before seen feature for real time save. Then they allotted you 4 different save slots to use, and to my knowledge this is the most any flashcart has ever had as of yet. Furthermore, the embedded processor in the SupercardDSTwo makes the saving time roughly 4-5 seconds, and the loading time 2-3 seconds. While the concept of real time save isn't too new, the Supercard team sure was able to make it seem magical.
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<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/rtcico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Next is real time cheat. Real time cheat is one thing that has yet to be seen on a flashcart before the SupercardDSTwo, which is weird because it's such a simple idea. Essentially real time cheat allows you to choose/apply cheats while still playing your game. All other flashcarts make your choose your cheats before launching your rom. Even if you have your cheats already selected you still need to remember to turn them on before you play your game. It can be quite frustrating to soft-reset back to the menu 2 or so times because you're a real forgetful person and you can never remember to apply the cheats you want. With real time cheat you can turn on cheats and choose cheats while playing the game. It's like a dream come true for forgetful people (guilty as charged <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="blush.gif" />). The cheats are even organized in categories similar to that of the R4's cheats. The one downside to real time cheat is if the a cheat's description is too long it'll get cut off (and sometimes those descriptions can be very critical to correct use). Hopefully the Supercard team will fix this problem soon.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2688.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/smico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Onto slow motion! Slow motion is a handy feature that can actually slow gameplay. Like, imagine being able to go to bullet-time speed for any game you want. Having trouble with geometry wars? Getting killed a lot? Use slow motion so you're able to react to things easier. Slow motion is pretty straight forward. You can set it between 0 and 100% in increments of 25. So there's basically 5 settings: 0% (off), 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. So the higher the percent the slower the game goes. The feature doesn't really have much use in games like Advance wars, but in games like Picross, Tetris, Elite Beat Agents, etc. it can be a life saver.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2643.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/rtgico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Now for my favorite feature, real time guide. I love this feature so much because it's the feature I've always wanted, and have always needed. What real time guide does is allow you to read a text guide/faq/walkthrough for the current game your playing. I have needed that so many times. Like on Professor Layton there may be one or two riddles I can just never figure out, so I have to go all the way to my computer and open the guide, etc. With this feature everything is already right there. You can even have multiple guides for one game. So maybe you can have one guide for an RPG game for the items, and another guide for boss fights. Text guides isn't the only thing you can have, you can even have picture guides. So if maybe you need to look at a map of a level in zelda, you can put the bmp on your microsd and use that whenever you want. You can have multiple text and bmp guides. Finally, the loading times/viewing is so smooth. The loading takes only 3-4 seconds, and you can scroll through even a really big text file almost by the exact line with the scroll bar to the right. The same applies to bmp guides. It doesn't lag or anything when moving around the image (quick note, the image can be any size as long as it's not outrageously huge or small). One thing to note is that the text/bmp files have to be in the same folder as the rom and be named the same thing as the rom (you don't browse for the files...that would be handy though).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2676.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2678.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2683.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Text viewer; Real time guide list (this is different per rom); BMP viewer</i></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/freecheatico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Probably one of the most interesting features that the SupercardDSTwo has is free cheat. Free cheat allows you to make your own cheats for a game easily and on the go. Now free cheat is a mix between complicated/easy and limited/powerful. If you've ever used the program Cheat Engine for the computer, you definitely know how to use free cheat. Basically you're just searching for numbers and editing/saving them. If you have 50 HP in an RPG game, you can search 50 in free cheat. You'll of course be greeted by this message:
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2653.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
So what you have to do is go back into the game and change the value by, let's say, getting hurt. So it's now dropped from 50 HP to 49 HP (you're up against a really weak monster I guess <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />). So what you now do is go back into free cheat via the real time menu and search 49. It now looks for any values that were 50 then went to 49. So keep doing this until you only have a couple left and when they stay there (even after a few more changes to your HP number). You then can edit one of these (they should all work) to the value you want and see if it works. If it does, you can save this value for later as a cheat. So once it's saved you can give it a name/description and then edit or lock it (locking it makes it so that the value never changes). Of course this is only the very basic type of cheat you can make, and this is assuming your searching with the right size (there's 3 different sizes you can search, but that's too in depth for a review example).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2651.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2656.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2659.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>1. Begin searching; 2. Narrow it down to one or two values; 3. Save the value as a cheat and have fun</i></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/srico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Last but not least, soft reset (and the other minor details about the real time menu)! Soft reset obviously let's you return to the SupercardDSTwo's menu without turning off your DS, turning it back on, launching your SupercardDSTwo, etc. Blah, blah, blah, soft reset. Yah it's something like <b>every</b> flashcart has, so it's not that big of a feature. The real time menu also has the ability to toggle the DS's backlight level (1-4). This only applies for DS Lite/Original DS's, as the DSi can change it's brightness at anytime (hold select and use the volume button). It is a handy feature though, because before this came around you'd have to use special made cheats to change the backlight level in the middle of a game. Furthermore you're given the date and exact time according to your DS's internal time settings. You can even skin the real time menu, which is pretty cool. Most real time save menus for other flashcarts are very limited (like there's not touch screen controls whatsoever, and the user interface is very bland). So being able to actually skin the menu is a nice change.
And now, for another pretty cool feature the real time menu offers. In DS_GAME's settings there is an option called "Hotkey". What this does is let you choose <b>exactly</b> what key combination to use, while playing an NDS rom, to make the real time guide to pop up. Other flashcarts only give one or two different preset combinations that you probably won't really like. With this you can set the combination to just be A or Start (while that is kind of stupid unless the game you're playing doesn't use those keys at all).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2628.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Note: The default key combination is L+R+Start</i></div>
<b>Compatibility-</b>
Here is where I will be testing the compatibility for all the different kind of things the SupercardDSTwo can run. Being highlighted green means it works, yellow means it runs but with problems (such as the real time menu or other features don't work, just as a note the key combination I'm using for this compatibility test is L+R+Start. Your results may vary depending on your real time menu's hotkey), and red means it does not run at all or it doesn't run to the point where you can finish it.
<u>NDS Roms</u>
<!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--><b><ul><li>Kirby Canvas Curse</li><li>Advance Wars Dual Strike</li><li>Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow</li><li>Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney</li><li>Tetris DS</li><li>Metroid Prime Hunters</li><li>Star Fox Command</li><li>MegaManZX</li><li>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin</li><li>Phoenix Wright - Justice For All</li><li>Hotel Dusk - Room 215</li><li>Custom Robo Arena</li><li>Osu Tatakae Quedan 2</li><li>Planet Puzzle League</li><li>Elite Beat Agents</li><li>Picross</li><li>Rune Factory</li><li>MegaManZX Advent</li><li>Phoenix Wright - Trials and Tribulations</li><li>Mario Party DS</li><li>Advance Wars: Days of Ruin</li><li>Professor Layton and the Curious Village</li><li>Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney</li><li>Final Fantasy IV</li><li>Kirby Super Star Ultra</li><li>Time Hollow</li><li>Castlevania Order of Ecclesia</li><li>Dragon Ball Origins</li><li>Pokemon Ranger - Shadows of Almia</li><li>Metal Slug 7</li><li>Chrono Trigger</li><li>Grand Theft Auto - Chinatown Wars</li><li>Pokemon Platinum</li><li>Rhythm Heaven</li><li>Suikoden Tierkreis</li><li>Knights in the Nightmare</li><li>Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box</li><li>Mario & Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story</li><li>ScribbleNauts</li><li>Phantasy Star Zero</li><li>The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks</li><li>Dragon Ball Z - Attack of the Saiyans</li><li>Sands of Destruction</li><li>Ace Attorney Investigations - Miles Edgeworth</li><li>Pokemon Ranger 3</li><li>Pokemon Soul Silver</li><li>WarioWare DIY</li><li>Maplestory DS</li><li>Picross 3D</li><li>Dementium 2</li><li>Tetris Party Deluxe</li><li>The World Ends With You</li><li>Sonic Classic Collection</li><li>Jump Ultimate Stars</li><li>Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days</li></ul></b><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Yawn. As expected, all the major titles worked without a hitch. This includes Real Time Menu. There will obviously be a few games that don't work (and sometimes it's on a per user basis), but even if they don't you can tell the Supercard team and they'd most likely fix it in the next update.
<u>NDS Hombrew</u>
<b><ul><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--></li><li>Pocket Physics</li><li>Video Games Hero</li><li>Super Smash Bros. Clash</li><li>Moonshell 2.10 Stable</li><li>Colors</li><li>StillAlive </li><li>LemmingsDS</li><li>Warcraft Tower Defense</li><li>HaloDS</li><li>GeoWars</li><li>DSKiosk<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->ZeldaDS<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li></ul></b>
Most homebrew games/apps work perfectly. I'm not sure what was up with ZeldaDS, it may have just been a fluke on my part. (Edit: I just realized ZeldaDS only works on No$gba, so it's not the DS2's compatibility)
<u>GBA Roms</u>
<b><ul><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--></li><li>Pokemon Emerald (Does not work without the custom game_config.txt, it works without a hitch when you do have it though)</li><li>Golden Sun (Slight lag in battle and in world map, nothing that stops you from playing all together)</li><li>FZero GP Legend</li><li>WarioWare Inc.</li><li>Sword of Mana</li><li>Bomber-Man Max 2 Blue</li><li>Bomber-Man Tournament (Some lag occurs when blowing up 3+ things with one bomb)</li><li>Castlevania - Circle of the Moon</li><li>Castlevania Double Pack</li><li>Metroid Fusion</li><li>Metroid Zero Mission</li><li>Zelda - A Link to the Past<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->Dragon Ball Z Legacy of Goku 1 and 2 (Legacy of Goku 1 plays, but 2 just freezes. The individual LoG2 works, but it needs to be patched)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li></ul></b>
While not every game works close to perfect like on a slot-2 expansion, it's enough to play some of your favorite games with.
<b>Feature List-</b>
Here is where I will review the feature list to see how well the actual flashcart lives up to it (whether or not features are missing, or if some don't work too well, etc.)
<b><ul><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--></li><li>Real time functions: real-time save, real-time game guide (txt, bmp, jpg), and real-time cheat. (only thing to note is that real-time game guide only supports txt and bmp, not jpg).</li><li>Multi-saves (up to 4 slots), easy to back-up and restore saves.</li><li>Unlimited microSD storage space support. SDHC support. FAT or FAT 32.</li><li>Multiple languages. (it actually includes up to 8 different languages)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->Built-in GBA/SNES Emulator. (GBA emulator is built in, however the SNES emulator has yet to be released. We have been given a general release date though)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro-->Action slow motion (4 levels).</li><li>File management system (copy, paste, cut, and delete). Long file name support.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->E-book in .BMP, .JPEG, .JPG, .PNG, .TIF, .GIF, .TXT, and .PDF formats. (Has yet to be included, but we have been given pictures and such)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li></ul></b>
The feature list isn't completely true. It does include a few things that have yet to be implemented, or were scrapped during the development process. However this is countered by the fact that there are a few big features not even listed.
<b>Final Notes-</b>
A couple things to note are that this review will be edited/updated once the iReader/SNES emulator come out. These are 2 features that Supercard team have promised to release soon, but were supposed to come out when the flashcart did. The flashcart is also missing DIVX playback, which is also supposed to be included soon. Until it does come out, you can always use the included Moonshell 2. I would also like to note that, while in the process of creating this review, a new EOS update came out. So this is a pretty good indicator to show that the Supercard team is committed to updating their flashcart. I even had to go back and edit out complaints in my review because the new update fixed those complaints.
<u><b>Conclusion</b></u>
The SupercardDSTwo in no way is perfect, and it can be a bit pricey for some people. Some people may be disappointed because the cart couldn't live up to the huge hype it created over half a year from it's announcement to it's release. However, despite all this, the SupercardDSTwo is still a wonderful flashcart. Even though I was following the flashcarts progress since it was announced, I was still surprised by some of the features it had when I got my copy.
<u><b>Scores</b></u>
<b>Packaging/Installation, 5/5:</b> Even though the packaging was a little flimsy and almost caused my flashcart to break (it's partly my fault as well), I feel that it got the job done pretty well. The inclusion of a manual with a FAQ, quick start guide, and other instructions was very nice. Also, the fact that every single DSTwo comes pre-flashed to work with firmware 1.4 (a first ever for a big time flashcart) is wonderful. I think the Supercard team definitely succeeded here.
<b>Build, 11/15:</b> Definitely one of the lower points of the DSTwo. The build isn't horrible, the DSTwo can take some hard blows and live through it, but the fact that it has to be almost forced into the DSi is a pretty big let down. Also, having the extra screw support to keep it held together, and the teeth on the contacts is a nice plus. So the build isn't too good, but it's also not horrible.
<b>Firmware, 9/10:</b> The firmware has very few faults. The plugin menu is very handy, and many would agree with me if I said it looks better than the DSi menu. The DS_GAME interface has many handy features and a very nice skinning system. You can also easily and quickly move between the 3 components of the firmware (Plugin Menu, DS_GAME, GBA, and even Moonshell) without resetting your DS. I mean...the EOS firmware isn't perfect, but no firmware is.
<b>GBA, 8/10:</b> The GBA emulator has already gotten a few pretty big updates from the Supercard team. They even completely revamped the cheat engine to use .cht files. There's more than enough features to justify using the GBA emulator over a slot-2 expansion pack (not to mention it also works on a DSi). The biggest downside is that the Supercard team essentially took DarkChen's emulator and re-skinned it. You can't even launch GBA games directly from the menu like the iPlayer can. Also the compatibility isn't bad at all, you just may have some problems with some more powerful games (ex: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories doesn't work).
<b>Real Time Menu, 5/5:</b> I am in love with the Real Time Menu. It has a lot of features that some other big flashcarts don't even have (*cough* Acekard *cough*). Even if other flashcarts have some of these features, the one's the DSTwo have are essentially on steroids. It's even more flexible than most other in game menus for flashcarts (you can skin it it, it can change the brightness for DS Lites, etc.). I would seriously buy the SupercardDSTwo if it only had the Real Time Menu, and for the same price too.
<b>Compatibility, 14/15:</b> While in most of my tests there was a really good compatibility rate, I have seen numerous reports of some big games not working (even when they were supposedly fixed awhile ago, and they've been fixed on other flashcarts for ages). All I have to say is, if you buy a SupercardDSTwo, you'll be able to play nearly any game want it to.
<b>Overall,</b> 52/60 or <b>9/10:</b> The SupercardDSTwo definitely has it's flaws, I'll give you that. However, the fact that it was able to pleasantly surprise me multiple times while reviewing/using it is more than enough to call it a great flashcart in my eyes. Very few flashcarts lately actually innovate, they just use other thought of features and put a bow and ribbon on it. They may make the features work better, but I would rather have a somewhat buggy/new/surprising/awesome feature over an old refined feature any day. Not to mention there's still 3 huge features on their way as I type this. In all these respects, the SupercardDSTwo is definitely a keeper.
So now make sure if you want to buy an SupercardDSTwo that you buy yours from <a href="http://ndscardsale.com" target="_blank">NDSCardSale</a>!
Here it is, my review for one of the most hyped flashcarts of all time; the SupercardDSTwo. This review will be quite long-winded, and will have more pictures than normal. However, that's understandable seeing how <b>so</b> many people want it, have it, or looked forward to it. Furthermore I'd like to note that this review was only written for DSDatabase, and GBATemp. If you see this review posted anywhere else, please notify me! Anyways, enjoy the review!
Before we start, I'd like to thank NDSCardSale for the sample they provided for me. Without them this review wouldn't be possible.
<a href="http://ndscardsale.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r98/PharaohsVizier/Affiliates/nl1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
<b>Introduction-</b>
The SupercardDSTwo is the successor flashcart of the SupercardDSOne(i). The flashcart was originally announced back in November on GBATemp. The DSTwo promised GBA and SNESAttachment 200 emulation using techniques similar to that of the iPlayer. It also promised some very exciting features such as a 4 slot real time save, real time cheat, picture viewing in real time guide, file management (copy, cut, paste, delete), DIVX playback, and ebook support (including PDF). The SupercardDSTwo was able to promise a lot of these innovative things by deciding to embed a powerful processor (the one used in the Dingoo A320) inside the flashcart itself. Now the idea of putting a processor inside a flashcart was not original by any means (it had been more or less copied straight from the iPlayer, which came out a little bit before the DSTwo was announced). However, since the flashcart has promised so many amazing features to go along with this embedded processor people got quite excited.
The SupercardDSTwo is, of course, released now. Some say that it shouldn't have been released when it was, that people rushed the Supercard team to release an unfinished product. It all depends on how you look at it. What my review will do is help you decide whether or not the SupercardDSTwo lived up (or rather living up) to it's expectations or if it's just another razzle dazzle flashcart.
<b>Packaging and Installation-</b>
The packaging of the SupercardDSTwo is fairly straight forward. It's nothing over the top like the iEDGE packaging, but it's not cheap like the Acekard's box (they keep making it smaller and smaller). The DSTwo comes packaged in a decent sized cardboard box. The box contains a small plastic casing for holding the included contents. Inside the casing is the obligatory microsdhc reader, a manual, and (of course) the SupercardDSTwo itself. The plastic casing can be quite a hassle to separate from the flashcart and usb reader. While removing my flashcart from it it got caught on the corner of the indention where DSTwo is held, and it started to be pulled apart (I'll go into more detail in the Build section). Anyways, the plastic casing eventually let me have my flashcart and usb reader with the correct blend of force and care (you could always just cut the casing apart). The box itself is pretty snazzy. It has a cool design, and a almost complete feature list on the back. It's as if the box was made to be placed on store shelves (this may actually be the case in some countries).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2594.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2588.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2593.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Manual; Snazzy Box; Plastic Casing</i></div>
Onto installation. A couple years ago installation wouldn't even be included in a review because it was made so simple by the flashcart teams. Gone are the days that most flashcarts would include a quick and simple CD with the firmware on it. Nowadays users are left to fend for themselves when it comes to finding the firmware. At best the box will have a website on it, but that doesn't always lead directly to a download or to the best download (this is sadly the case with the M3, Acekard, etc.). The Supercard Team, however, were kind enough to include a manual that includes a quick start guide, controls list, FAQ, real time menu explanation, default hotkey displayed, and a nice feature list. The manual even helped answer some questions I had about my DSTwo when I first got it. The actual installation itself is pretty straightforward, just copy and paste the files on your microsd. All and all I like how the Supercard team included a manual with their packaging, it's a big help for flashcart veterans and newcomers alike.
<div align="center"><a href="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2595.jpg" title="Click to view full size" target="_blank"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2595.jpg" alt="User posted image" height="100" border="0" /></a>
<i>The FAQ actually helps, it's not just standard questions</i></div>
Finally we have the DSi 1.4 firmware fix. As most of us know, the 1.4 firmware for the DSi blocks all flashcarts. By now almost every DSi flashcart that isn't a clone has some way to update itself in the case of another update and so it can get past the 1.4 blocks. However, depending on the flashcart, the update method can be quite a pain (the Acekard2i required me to borrow a DS Lite from my brother). Updating your flashcart for 1.4 is just one more thing that stands in between you and enjoying your flashcart. Luckily the Supercard team realized this and has decided to ship every single SupercardDSTwo to be already compatible with the 1.4 firmware. This is quite a sigh of relief as you don't have to spend upwards of 30 minutes finding the update file, trying to get it to work, failing, looking up a guide, and (worst of all) potentially bricking your flashcart. Now if there is ever another update for the DSi that blocks flashcarts, the DSTwo can update itself by just sitting in the DSi while it's on. This is quite great because it doesn't require any extra hardware (that could break) nor does it require you to have a non-updated DSi or DS Lite. So the Supercard team pretty much has things covered in the event that Nintendo decides to let loose another update. At any rate, your DSTwo should display Fish Tycoon in the DSi menu. This shows that it was correctly updated by the Supercard team (and there has yet to be any reports of people getting a DSTwo that wasn't updated properly or at all).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2568.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Atleast it's not Danny Phantom <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /></i></div><b>Build-</b>
Like noted earlier, in the installation/packaging section, my SupercardDSTwo was almost pulled apart by the casing (the tiny seam that goes along the sides it where the hole started to be made). Luckily I stopped trying to pull it out before the plastic snapped. While the case is somewhat at fault, it's also partly the DSTwo's build. It is either held together by weak glue, or it's not held together by anything but it's screw. Oh right, I forgot to mention that part. Yah the SupercardDSTwo has a screw in the bottom right hand corner on the back. So there could easily by no glue on the seam because the screw would easily hold together the cart by itself. So there's the upside of having the strong screw support, but there's little to no glue support (so overall it's sturdy, but parts that are opposite of the screw will be a little weak). You'll also notice that on the contacts there are 10 nicely spread out teeth to protect the contacts from damage, and to help line up the flashcart's contacts with the DS's.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2558.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>The teeth on the contacts and screw are placed in quite odd spots. But, if it makes the build better, I can't complain.</i></div>
The front of the flashcart will greet you with a nice shiny (and freaking hard to take a photo of without getting a glare) sticker that has DSTWO, and oddly enough it has the words "2 in 1" in the O of DSTWO. I'm not sure what they mean by 2 in 1, but it's not too important. Anyways, if you hold the SupercardDSTwo you'll notice that there's a considerable bump in the upper left hand corner on the front of the DSTwo. I imagine this is the embedded CPU, though I'm not too sure. This bump does cause some problems when inserting and ejecting your Supercard. Whenever you insert it for the first time it has some considerable trouble getting in. I don't mean like a small click/road block when putting it in, I mean you have to slowly push/force it in the whole time. It will eventually get easier to push it, but you can't help but feel that this might be hurting the insides of your flashcart or worse: your DSi. Finally, when ejecting your DSTwo it only comes out about a quarter of an inch before you must manually pull it out (I've once ejected my Acekard and it went flying for a foot or two). While none of these interferences when inserting/ejecting are that big of a deal, it can be a little annoying and/or worrying.
<div align="left"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2555copy.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>The arrow helps show the outline of the bump</i></div>
<div align="right"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2567-1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>That's how far the DSTwo goes out by ejecting it via spring.</i></div>
Finally, time for some good news, the microsd slot. The microsd slot is positioned on the top of the SupercardDSTwo and is spring loaded. While I personally prefer my microsd slots to be on the side of the flashcart, I can live with it being on the top. I also like the choice of it being spring loaded, always less of a hassle when compared to manual loading slots. One of the great upsides of the microsd slot is that the microsd not only doesn't stick out, it even sinks in a bit to make it harder to be ejected while in the DS. The actual spring in the flashcart feels somewhat reliable. Your microsd slowly goes in and then click, unlike the Acekard where it almost instantly clicks (and that, in my opinion, makes the spring feel cheap). I have yet to experience or hear of a problem with the spring breaking in the DSTwo, so the spring should be hold out for as long as you use your DSTwo (all springs break eventually <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />).One last note about the build of the SupercardDSTwo is that it's <b>very</b> similar to the iPlayer's build. It's been confirmed that it's not exactly the same, because the chips used are different and are in different places. In my eyes, it doesn't matter if they even admit to copying the build, it's fine as long as it's not flimsy.
<b>Firmware-</b>
When you boot your SupercardDSTwo you'll find a menu very reminiscent to that of the DSi menu. You'll have a few blocks with pictures in them, and you can scroll left/right through these blocks. Each block represents one core aspect of the SupercardDSTwo's menu or a plugin. One will boot the NDS rom/homebrew launcher, another will boot the GBA emulator, and the last will boot Moonshell 2. Finally, if you are using a DS Lite, you can download 2 more blocks from the Supercard website that allow you to boot to a Slot 2 or Slot 1 device. Now, what this menu is really doing is booting separate homebrew files (you could have guess when Moonshell was put in the list). You can even get your own plugins (or blocks, we'll just refer to them as plugins for now, since this first menu we see is called the plugin menu) that launch any homebrew file you want. For example: if you want to have fast access to DSOrganize you can just download that plugin, put it on your microsd, then launch the plugin from your plugin menu. And there you have it! You've launched DSOrganize within seconds of running your Supercard!
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2583.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2580.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2581.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
Our next stop on our DSTwo firmware adventure would be the actual NDS rom booting section. This section/plugin by default is called DS_GAME (as seen in the above picture, it's also called the Evolution OS). Don't let the ugly name fool you, it's actually quite nice. When you boot DS_GAME, you'll yet again seen a menu that you'll most likely recognize. If you don't recognize it then I'll help you out; this menu is very close to the AKAIO firmware. The reason for this is that that DS_GAME/EOS is based off the Acekard RPG source code, which is also what AKAIO is based off of. You might notice that the DS_GAME menu has a lot of features that AKAIO has. Some of these features include copy/cut/paste/deleting files in the menu, multi-save, the start menu, etc. Anyways, once you boot up DS_GAME you be greeted by a another layout similar to AKAIO: the 4 icon per page file list on the touch screen, and the time/date on the top screen. While this file this is nice, the thing I like the most about DS_GAME is the table-esque layout you can switch to. I like this table format the most because you can see up to 12 files on one page at once, it makes finding the right file much easier. One thing that DS_GAME differs from AKAIO is that, on the top screen, the internal name for roms are displayed (so on the bottom screen you get the actual file's name and on the top you get the internal name that's coded in the rom).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2636.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2634.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2779.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>As you can see the table layout's names are harder to read, but you see more icons. While on the 4 icon page layout you get longer names but less icons.</i></div>
You may have noticed in the pictures above that the DS_GAME/EOS menu also has a start menu (yes, like AKAIO...but that's not such a bad thing ;D ). The start menu holds the system options, file management, skins, help, the works. One thing I like...and sort of dislike...about the DS_GAME start menu is that it's more organized. If you click File Operation (file management) then another menu will pop up to the right of the main start menu with the options Copy/Cut/Paste/Delete. This makes the start menu much smaller and more organized (the start menu on AKAIO stretched all the way to the top of the screen). However, this feature can also make the start menu clutter up the screen. One of the ways this happens is like through the system settings, it branches out into 3 different menus: Main Start Menu > System Settings > Brightness (one of the few options in the second menu that pops up for system settings) > Level 1-4 (4 different options in a new list).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2615.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2622.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2627.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>It starts out all innocent, but it eventually can clutter up the whole screen <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/frown.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="frown.gif" /></i></div>Alright we have just a few more things to go over. As seen in the picture above, the DS_GAME menu does come in multiple languages. The default languages include: English, Standard Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Korean. While there is a large selection of languages, some of the words in the lesser used languages (Spanish, Italian, German, etc.) take up too much space and are either cut off or overlap other words (like the phrase OK in Spanish is Aceptar, and this causes problems in some buttons). Another feature to note is that whenever you change which files to view (like instead of only showing NDS files you want it to show NDS and SAV) it will automatically update the list, instead of making you go out of the folder and back in (this is the way AKAIO handles it, and it was a little annoying). Finally, if you press X while having a game selected you can choose a few options for the game. First you can choose multi-save, which allows you to have multiple sav files for one game without having to go through the trouble of renaming them each time you wish to use them (ex: gamename.sav, and gamename-1.sav, you'd need to rename gamename.sav to something else and gamename-1.sav to gamename.sav). Then we can choose to turn cheats on or off, this is quite obsolete since cheats can be turned on/off while in the real time menu (Note: cheats will be talked about more in the real time menu section). And last but not least patch/clean mode. By default, games are patched so they can work without problems, but sometimes putting a game on clean mode will make a game run better. Oh and one more thing, the skins. Skins are pretty straight forward, however you can skin a lot. You can skin: the loading screen, gba emulator, the plugin menu, DS_GAME, and the real time menu. You can go here to download and see what some of the skins are like.
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<b>GBA Emulator-</b>
I was contemplating putting the GBA emulator review in the firmware section, but then that section would be way too big. Plus the GBA emulator is such a big part of features included that it deserves it's own section.
I'll be blunt. The GBA emulator is pretty much the same exact thing as Dark Chen's emulator for the iPlayer. What's the difference? Well the DSTwo's emulator has a different default skin. Another difference is that the Supercard's emulator is actually updated for compatibility (it also gets new features such as new a new cheat system, real time clock, etc). However, the iPlayers main advantage is that it can launch GBA games from it's menu. On the DSTwo you must back out of the DS_GAME menu to the plugin menu and launch the GBA emulator.
Your GBA roms can be placed anywhere on your microsd card, the emulator has the function to browse for roms (and even has a recently played list). While playing your game if you would like your games to run a bit faster (not faster than normal, but if they go slower than on a real GBA and you want them to go faster) you can turn up the CPU frequence. Though keep in mind that this will considerably drain the battery more than it normally does. It's defaulted at 2 but it can go as low as 0 or as high as 4 (so it's more or less defaulted at a normal/in the middle value). Furthermore you can also use the fast forward feature, which makes the game run a lot faster (this is different from CPU frequence where it actually speeds up the frames per second and turns frame skip on max). This feature is more for the people who like to get things done fast or skip through boring cinematics. There's also the obligatory frame-skip (as mentioned a sentence back). This is to help fix laggy games without draining your battery. The price you have to pay, though, is that animations are more blocky and don't look as real. Also, like most emulators, there's save states. This feature let's you save any time you feel like it and then load that save and start exactly where you left off. You're given a total of 10 save slots. Finally, the last of the speed/time bending features, rewind. This features cache's your gameplay and allows you to skip back 1, 2, 5, or even 10 seconds each time you press L+Y. Keep in mind that you can only do this for as long as you have the feature enabled, and enabling it obviously drains more battery.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2584.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Don't worry, if you don't like the look you could always install another skin.</i></div>
More handy features include the snapshot feature, remapping keys, and cheat support. The snapshot feature allows you to take a picture of whatever is on the screen and store it on your microsd card. Later while playing the game you can go back and view the screenshot. So if there's a point in the game where you have to remember some pattern, you can take a snapshot and go view it later. You can also use it for whatever reason you might need a picture of the gameplay on your computer (like I said earlier it saves the picture to your microsd and it's in bmp format). The key remapping let's you do things like set the the turbo keys to something like X and Y (turbo keys are keys you hold down and they input A and B REALLY fast). It also allows you to set the key that opens the options menu during gameplay to Y or the touchscreen (this also freezes gameplay and it's how you access things like save states and all other options mentioned above). Last but not least the cheat support. The cheat files used in the gba emulator must be in the .cht format. This is quite handy because gbatemp has a huge database for gba cheat files in the .cht format. The one downside is that you must scroll through the list and actually load each cht file, it will not automatically match up like DS cheats. Furthermore, when loading a cht file you cannot view more than 1024 cht files before the list just stops. Oh and I almost forgot the cherry on top. The SupercardDSTwo's GBA emulator is able to load archived GBA roms. That means you can save quite a bit of space on your microsd card by putting each of your gba roms in a separate zip archive. But keep in mind EACH rom must be in it's own zip archive, and the archive can not be bigger than 16 MB.
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Some last notes about the emulator are that it supports skinning. This way you can have a skin that goes along with your DS_GAME and plugin menu skins. There's also the option to have the Chinese or English language. And finally you can turn sound off for games that sometimes have glitchy sound. Turning sound off also helps boost the speed on some slower games as well. Furthermore the DSTwo's emulator supports Real Time Clock for games like Pokemon. This is a feature that not even all slot-2 expansions have. Finally, you can download a small txt file called game_config.txt and put it in your NDSGBA folder. Doing this will boost the compatibility for upwards of 20 games (this includes almost ALL pokemon games). You can get the game_config.txt here.
<b>Real Time Menu-</b>
The real time menu is probably one of the biggest features of the Supercard right now (setting aside the GBA emulator, of course). What the real time menu is is a menu you can access while playing any NDS rom with 6 different features that enhance your playing experience. These 6 features are: Real Time Save, Real Time Guide, Real Time Cheat, Slow Motion, Free Cheat, and Soft-Reset.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2641.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/rtsico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Let's start with real time save. Real time save is like the save slots for the gba emulator, you can save your exact spot in any game anytime you want. Real time save is one of those features most flashcarts have at this point in time. So you know, the Supercard team couldn't just throw in the same old stuff and expect us to buy it. What they did is allowed the user to name their own saves, a never before seen feature for real time save. Then they allotted you 4 different save slots to use, and to my knowledge this is the most any flashcart has ever had as of yet. Furthermore, the embedded processor in the SupercardDSTwo makes the saving time roughly 4-5 seconds, and the loading time 2-3 seconds. While the concept of real time save isn't too new, the Supercard team sure was able to make it seem magical.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2665.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2667.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/rtcico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Next is real time cheat. Real time cheat is one thing that has yet to be seen on a flashcart before the SupercardDSTwo, which is weird because it's such a simple idea. Essentially real time cheat allows you to choose/apply cheats while still playing your game. All other flashcarts make your choose your cheats before launching your rom. Even if you have your cheats already selected you still need to remember to turn them on before you play your game. It can be quite frustrating to soft-reset back to the menu 2 or so times because you're a real forgetful person and you can never remember to apply the cheats you want. With real time cheat you can turn on cheats and choose cheats while playing the game. It's like a dream come true for forgetful people (guilty as charged <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="blush.gif" />). The cheats are even organized in categories similar to that of the R4's cheats. The one downside to real time cheat is if the a cheat's description is too long it'll get cut off (and sometimes those descriptions can be very critical to correct use). Hopefully the Supercard team will fix this problem soon.<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2688.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/smico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Onto slow motion! Slow motion is a handy feature that can actually slow gameplay. Like, imagine being able to go to bullet-time speed for any game you want. Having trouble with geometry wars? Getting killed a lot? Use slow motion so you're able to react to things easier. Slow motion is pretty straight forward. You can set it between 0 and 100% in increments of 25. So there's basically 5 settings: 0% (off), 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. So the higher the percent the slower the game goes. The feature doesn't really have much use in games like Advance wars, but in games like Picross, Tetris, Elite Beat Agents, etc. it can be a life saver.
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2643.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/rtgico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Now for my favorite feature, real time guide. I love this feature so much because it's the feature I've always wanted, and have always needed. What real time guide does is allow you to read a text guide/faq/walkthrough for the current game your playing. I have needed that so many times. Like on Professor Layton there may be one or two riddles I can just never figure out, so I have to go all the way to my computer and open the guide, etc. With this feature everything is already right there. You can even have multiple guides for one game. So maybe you can have one guide for an RPG game for the items, and another guide for boss fights. Text guides isn't the only thing you can have, you can even have picture guides. So if maybe you need to look at a map of a level in zelda, you can put the bmp on your microsd and use that whenever you want. You can have multiple text and bmp guides. Finally, the loading times/viewing is so smooth. The loading takes only 3-4 seconds, and you can scroll through even a really big text file almost by the exact line with the scroll bar to the right. The same applies to bmp guides. It doesn't lag or anything when moving around the image (quick note, the image can be any size as long as it's not outrageously huge or small). One thing to note is that the text/bmp files have to be in the same folder as the rom and be named the same thing as the rom (you don't browse for the files...that would be handy though).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2676.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2678.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2683.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Text viewer; Real time guide list (this is different per rom); BMP viewer</i></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/freecheatico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Probably one of the most interesting features that the SupercardDSTwo has is free cheat. Free cheat allows you to make your own cheats for a game easily and on the go. Now free cheat is a mix between complicated/easy and limited/powerful. If you've ever used the program Cheat Engine for the computer, you definitely know how to use free cheat. Basically you're just searching for numbers and editing/saving them. If you have 50 HP in an RPG game, you can search 50 in free cheat. You'll of course be greeted by this message:
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2653.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div>
So what you have to do is go back into the game and change the value by, let's say, getting hurt. So it's now dropped from 50 HP to 49 HP (you're up against a really weak monster I guess <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />). So what you now do is go back into free cheat via the real time menu and search 49. It now looks for any values that were 50 then went to 49. So keep doing this until you only have a couple left and when they stay there (even after a few more changes to your HP number). You then can edit one of these (they should all work) to the value you want and see if it works. If it does, you can save this value for later as a cheat. So once it's saved you can give it a name/description and then edit or lock it (locking it makes it so that the value never changes). Of course this is only the very basic type of cheat you can make, and this is assuming your searching with the right size (there's 3 different sizes you can search, but that's too in depth for a review example).<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2651.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2656.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2659.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>1. Begin searching; 2. Narrow it down to one or two values; 3. Save the value as a cheat and have fun</i></div>
<img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/srico.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Last but not least, soft reset (and the other minor details about the real time menu)! Soft reset obviously let's you return to the SupercardDSTwo's menu without turning off your DS, turning it back on, launching your SupercardDSTwo, etc. Blah, blah, blah, soft reset. Yah it's something like <b>every</b> flashcart has, so it's not that big of a feature. The real time menu also has the ability to toggle the DS's backlight level (1-4). This only applies for DS Lite/Original DS's, as the DSi can change it's brightness at anytime (hold select and use the volume button). It is a handy feature though, because before this came around you'd have to use special made cheats to change the backlight level in the middle of a game. Furthermore you're given the date and exact time according to your DS's internal time settings. You can even skin the real time menu, which is pretty cool. Most real time save menus for other flashcarts are very limited (like there's not touch screen controls whatsoever, and the user interface is very bland). So being able to actually skin the menu is a nice change.
And now, for another pretty cool feature the real time menu offers. In DS_GAME's settings there is an option called "Hotkey". What this does is let you choose <b>exactly</b> what key combination to use, while playing an NDS rom, to make the real time guide to pop up. Other flashcarts only give one or two different preset combinations that you probably won't really like. With this you can set the combination to just be A or Start (while that is kind of stupid unless the game you're playing doesn't use those keys at all).
<div align="center"><img src="http://i572.photobucket.com/albums/ss162/dsdatabase/DSTwo%20Review%20By%20Deltaburnt/IMG_2628.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<i>Note: The default key combination is L+R+Start</i></div>
<b>Compatibility-</b>
Here is where I will be testing the compatibility for all the different kind of things the SupercardDSTwo can run. Being highlighted green means it works, yellow means it runs but with problems (such as the real time menu or other features don't work, just as a note the key combination I'm using for this compatibility test is L+R+Start. Your results may vary depending on your real time menu's hotkey), and red means it does not run at all or it doesn't run to the point where you can finish it.
<u>NDS Roms</u>
<!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--><b><ul><li>Kirby Canvas Curse</li><li>Advance Wars Dual Strike</li><li>Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow</li><li>Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney</li><li>Tetris DS</li><li>Metroid Prime Hunters</li><li>Star Fox Command</li><li>MegaManZX</li><li>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin</li><li>Phoenix Wright - Justice For All</li><li>Hotel Dusk - Room 215</li><li>Custom Robo Arena</li><li>Osu Tatakae Quedan 2</li><li>Planet Puzzle League</li><li>Elite Beat Agents</li><li>Picross</li><li>Rune Factory</li><li>MegaManZX Advent</li><li>Phoenix Wright - Trials and Tribulations</li><li>Mario Party DS</li><li>Advance Wars: Days of Ruin</li><li>Professor Layton and the Curious Village</li><li>Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney</li><li>Final Fantasy IV</li><li>Kirby Super Star Ultra</li><li>Time Hollow</li><li>Castlevania Order of Ecclesia</li><li>Dragon Ball Origins</li><li>Pokemon Ranger - Shadows of Almia</li><li>Metal Slug 7</li><li>Chrono Trigger</li><li>Grand Theft Auto - Chinatown Wars</li><li>Pokemon Platinum</li><li>Rhythm Heaven</li><li>Suikoden Tierkreis</li><li>Knights in the Nightmare</li><li>Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box</li><li>Mario & Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story</li><li>ScribbleNauts</li><li>Phantasy Star Zero</li><li>The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks</li><li>Dragon Ball Z - Attack of the Saiyans</li><li>Sands of Destruction</li><li>Ace Attorney Investigations - Miles Edgeworth</li><li>Pokemon Ranger 3</li><li>Pokemon Soul Silver</li><li>WarioWare DIY</li><li>Maplestory DS</li><li>Picross 3D</li><li>Dementium 2</li><li>Tetris Party Deluxe</li><li>The World Ends With You</li><li>Sonic Classic Collection</li><li>Jump Ultimate Stars</li><li>Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days</li></ul></b><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Yawn. As expected, all the major titles worked without a hitch. This includes Real Time Menu. There will obviously be a few games that don't work (and sometimes it's on a per user basis), but even if they don't you can tell the Supercard team and they'd most likely fix it in the next update.
<u>NDS Hombrew</u>
<b><ul><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--></li><li>Pocket Physics</li><li>Video Games Hero</li><li>Super Smash Bros. Clash</li><li>Moonshell 2.10 Stable</li><li>Colors</li><li>StillAlive </li><li>LemmingsDS</li><li>Warcraft Tower Defense</li><li>HaloDS</li><li>GeoWars</li><li>DSKiosk<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->ZeldaDS<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li></ul></b>
Most homebrew games/apps work perfectly. I'm not sure what was up with ZeldaDS, it may have just been a fluke on my part. (Edit: I just realized ZeldaDS only works on No$gba, so it's not the DS2's compatibility)
<u>GBA Roms</u>
<b><ul><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--></li><li>Pokemon Emerald (Does not work without the custom game_config.txt, it works without a hitch when you do have it though)</li><li>Golden Sun (Slight lag in battle and in world map, nothing that stops you from playing all together)</li><li>FZero GP Legend</li><li>WarioWare Inc.</li><li>Sword of Mana</li><li>Bomber-Man Max 2 Blue</li><li>Bomber-Man Tournament (Some lag occurs when blowing up 3+ things with one bomb)</li><li>Castlevania - Circle of the Moon</li><li>Castlevania Double Pack</li><li>Metroid Fusion</li><li>Metroid Zero Mission</li><li>Zelda - A Link to the Past<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->Dragon Ball Z Legacy of Goku 1 and 2 (Legacy of Goku 1 plays, but 2 just freezes. The individual LoG2 works, but it needs to be patched)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li></ul></b>
While not every game works close to perfect like on a slot-2 expansion, it's enough to play some of your favorite games with.
<b>Feature List-</b>
Here is where I will review the feature list to see how well the actual flashcart lives up to it (whether or not features are missing, or if some don't work too well, etc.)
<b><ul><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro--></li><li>Real time functions: real-time save, real-time game guide (txt, bmp, jpg), and real-time cheat. (only thing to note is that real-time game guide only supports txt and bmp, not jpg).</li><li>Multi-saves (up to 4 slots), easy to back-up and restore saves.</li><li>Unlimited microSD storage space support. SDHC support. FAT or FAT 32.</li><li>Multiple languages. (it actually includes up to 8 different languages)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->Built-in GBA/SNES Emulator. (GBA emulator is built in, however the SNES emulator has yet to be released. We have been given a general release date though)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#006400--><span style="color:#006400"><!--/coloro-->Action slow motion (4 levels).</li><li>File management system (copy, paste, cut, and delete). Long file name support.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li><li><!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->E-book in .BMP, .JPEG, .JPG, .PNG, .TIF, .GIF, .TXT, and .PDF formats. (Has yet to be included, but we have been given pictures and such)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></li></ul></b>
The feature list isn't completely true. It does include a few things that have yet to be implemented, or were scrapped during the development process. However this is countered by the fact that there are a few big features not even listed.
<b>Final Notes-</b>
A couple things to note are that this review will be edited/updated once the iReader/SNES emulator come out. These are 2 features that Supercard team have promised to release soon, but were supposed to come out when the flashcart did. The flashcart is also missing DIVX playback, which is also supposed to be included soon. Until it does come out, you can always use the included Moonshell 2. I would also like to note that, while in the process of creating this review, a new EOS update came out. So this is a pretty good indicator to show that the Supercard team is committed to updating their flashcart. I even had to go back and edit out complaints in my review because the new update fixed those complaints.
<u><b>Conclusion</b></u>
The SupercardDSTwo in no way is perfect, and it can be a bit pricey for some people. Some people may be disappointed because the cart couldn't live up to the huge hype it created over half a year from it's announcement to it's release. However, despite all this, the SupercardDSTwo is still a wonderful flashcart. Even though I was following the flashcarts progress since it was announced, I was still surprised by some of the features it had when I got my copy.
<u><b>Scores</b></u>
<b>Packaging/Installation, 5/5:</b> Even though the packaging was a little flimsy and almost caused my flashcart to break (it's partly my fault as well), I feel that it got the job done pretty well. The inclusion of a manual with a FAQ, quick start guide, and other instructions was very nice. Also, the fact that every single DSTwo comes pre-flashed to work with firmware 1.4 (a first ever for a big time flashcart) is wonderful. I think the Supercard team definitely succeeded here.
<b>Build, 11/15:</b> Definitely one of the lower points of the DSTwo. The build isn't horrible, the DSTwo can take some hard blows and live through it, but the fact that it has to be almost forced into the DSi is a pretty big let down. Also, having the extra screw support to keep it held together, and the teeth on the contacts is a nice plus. So the build isn't too good, but it's also not horrible.
<b>Firmware, 9/10:</b> The firmware has very few faults. The plugin menu is very handy, and many would agree with me if I said it looks better than the DSi menu. The DS_GAME interface has many handy features and a very nice skinning system. You can also easily and quickly move between the 3 components of the firmware (Plugin Menu, DS_GAME, GBA, and even Moonshell) without resetting your DS. I mean...the EOS firmware isn't perfect, but no firmware is.
<b>GBA, 8/10:</b> The GBA emulator has already gotten a few pretty big updates from the Supercard team. They even completely revamped the cheat engine to use .cht files. There's more than enough features to justify using the GBA emulator over a slot-2 expansion pack (not to mention it also works on a DSi). The biggest downside is that the Supercard team essentially took DarkChen's emulator and re-skinned it. You can't even launch GBA games directly from the menu like the iPlayer can. Also the compatibility isn't bad at all, you just may have some problems with some more powerful games (ex: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories doesn't work).
<b>Real Time Menu, 5/5:</b> I am in love with the Real Time Menu. It has a lot of features that some other big flashcarts don't even have (*cough* Acekard *cough*). Even if other flashcarts have some of these features, the one's the DSTwo have are essentially on steroids. It's even more flexible than most other in game menus for flashcarts (you can skin it it, it can change the brightness for DS Lites, etc.). I would seriously buy the SupercardDSTwo if it only had the Real Time Menu, and for the same price too.
<b>Compatibility, 14/15:</b> While in most of my tests there was a really good compatibility rate, I have seen numerous reports of some big games not working (even when they were supposedly fixed awhile ago, and they've been fixed on other flashcarts for ages). All I have to say is, if you buy a SupercardDSTwo, you'll be able to play nearly any game want it to.
<b>Overall,</b> 52/60 or <b>9/10:</b> The SupercardDSTwo definitely has it's flaws, I'll give you that. However, the fact that it was able to pleasantly surprise me multiple times while reviewing/using it is more than enough to call it a great flashcart in my eyes. Very few flashcarts lately actually innovate, they just use other thought of features and put a bow and ribbon on it. They may make the features work better, but I would rather have a somewhat buggy/new/surprising/awesome feature over an old refined feature any day. Not to mention there's still 3 huge features on their way as I type this. In all these respects, the SupercardDSTwo is definitely a keeper.
So now make sure if you want to buy an SupercardDSTwo that you buy yours from <a href="http://ndscardsale.com" target="_blank">NDSCardSale</a>!
