Although it appears pink on the official site, my card came in red
Introduction
The original R4 team shut down in 2008, however many companies have since been producing flashcards under their name due to their high reputation all those years ago; the team behind this card are no exception, this card is a clone.
This particular team are still active today (hence the 2014 sticker) and provide a variety of different models of their cards however the internals of all of their 2014 cards are the same, and the only difference is the color and sticker.
Features
- Active team,
- Support for both Micro SD and Micro SDHC cards,
- Action Replay Cheat Code support,
- Soft Reset,
- Rumble Pak support,
- Real Time Save support,
- Uses standard .sav method of saving games (can exchange saves between different flashcards),
- Firmware menu includes power saving mode (screens turn off) after about 10 seconds of inactivity,
Firmware and Support
This card is brand new and has support for the latest firmwares of all DS models as of writing, (all DS phats and DS lites, DSi firmware 1.45, 3DS firmware 7.1.0-15).
The firmware has no inbuilt GBA ROM management tool, however you can load GBA ROMs through an EZ Flash 3-in-1 Plus (or alternative) via Rudolph's GBA ExpLoader tool.
Once you get used to the menu, navigating through folders, selecting cheats for each game, and toggling RTS for each game is a breeze.
Click for full image
Hardware
The plastic shell has exactly the same design as the R4n3DS card and many other modern R4 clones.
The plastic feels of decent quality and is of a reasonable thickness; the card has a non-spring loaded micro SD slot which holds it firmly in place. It's design is slightly different to that of an official game card however it pops in and out of a DS lite and 3DS without an issue and doesn't feel lose or wobbly while inserted. It's also worth pointing out that the card is slightly longer than an official card and so it is ideal for old DSes which have developed contact issues.
Click for full image
ROM Compatibility
ROM Compatibility on the R4iSDHC is excellent for the most part. All of the games I have thrown at it have worked, including some of the most recent games which fail on most cards due to piracy protection.
SpongeBob SquarePants Plankton's Robotic Revenge (latest DS game as of writing) - PASS!
FIFA 08 - PASS!
Mario Kart DS - PASS!
Pictocross DS - PASS!
Professor Layton - PASS!
Worms 2 - PASS!
Megaman ZX Advent - PASS!
My Frogger Toy Trials - PASS!
Yoshi's Island DS - PASS!
Super Mario 64 DS - PASS!
Pokemon Platinum - PASS!
Pokemon Black - PASS!
Pokemon White - PASS!
Pokemon White 2 - PASS!
I also tested several homebrews:
Win2DS - PASS!
Moonshell - PASS!
Flashme - PASS!
Conclusion
This card is one of the better R4 clones at the moment; with solid ROM and homebrew compatibility, as well as recent console firmwares support. It is very likely that a 2015 model will be made and that the card will no longer be updated, but considering its cheap price it's definitely worth checking out.
7 / 10