Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Clue:
AW - Advance Wars

First it's Advance Wars (GBA), then the second sequel Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (GBA). And now, the moment for all Advance Wars fans are waiting for is finally come true. Let's give an applause for Advance Wars: Dual Strike! The first AW debut game for the Nintendo DS. I must admit that it's one of the game that drive me into buying a Nintendo DS for myself.

Do not concern yourself too much for thinking that you won't even know the storyline well, especially if you had not played the 2 AW game for the GBA before. Although AWDS doesn't provide any major flashback of the previous game storyline, you wouldn't mind to bother as some characters will provide little information about their background throughout your game play.

In the beginning, your military instructor, Nell's sister (Nell is the main millitary instructor/guide for the 2 previous AW title), Rachel is going to brief you through the game. Do not worry if you hadn't played AW before as she will guide you throughout the game. Quite frankly though, experienced user such as myself didn't find that tutorial to be any help as the control is simple.

As you can see, AWDS is designed exclusively for NDS. So it must somehow implement the use of Dual Screen right? Dual Screen - Dual Strike, any ideas what it's all about? In certain campaign, you'll be force to take control in both screen. That's right, you can use up to 2 CO's at a same time in a battle. Likewise your opponent will also do the same. In normal campaign, certain campaign will automatically setup a CO for you. However in the hard campaign, you can choose your CO's for battle. No more restriction.

So control both screen at the same time, how is it possible? Well, the mechanic behind it is pretty simple. Since your main goal is to defeat the lower screen (touch screen) by either capturing the HQ or demolish all enemy units, you wouldn't bother to defeat the enemy on the top screen eh? I'm afraid you're wrong. In certain campaign, you'll need to destroy the enemy units on the top screen in order to destroy the barrier for the enemy structure in the lower screen. Simply put, unless you managed to destroy the enemy units in the top screen, you won't be able to give a single scratch to a single enemy structure in the lower screen. Hope it doesn't sound confusing for you.

Throughout your game play in normal campaign, you may think you can't use the previous AW CO's such as Jack, Nell, Drake, Kanbei and more just as I did. Apparently unless you managed to beat through all 26 missions in normal campaign, you won't be able to use them. In other words, you can use them in hard campaign which you can buy from Hachi via access to the [Battle Map] in the main menu. Every CO's has their own pros and cons. For example:
  • Jess has higher offensive value for ground type mobile while the offensive and defensive value for naval and air units has been slightly lower, ever than Colin perhaps?
  • Colin can built units at a cheaper cost. The only downside is the unit firepower had been slightly downgraded.
Single and Full CO's power still applies in this game. There's even a mode called Tag Force which you can only access if two CO's (in a same screen) has the full CO's power with them. With this, you can move 2 turn in 1 day. Whether using or not using it is your call as building full CO power for both CO's is definitely going to be longer and tough. For mission which you can use 2 CO's, you can change the current CO's. However, keep in mind that it will end your turn. So change CO's only after you had assigned your units for attack/move/capture. There's no undo button for every AW game. So use your CO wisely.

For your information, the normal campaign missions in the previous game, especially for AW: Black Hole Rising is far more harder than you thought it could be compared to AW:DS. However, if you're willing to challenge your command & conquer skill in AW:DS, you can try and beat the Hard Campaign. As the name 'Hard' implies, the mission is really hard and you'll mostly need a more strategic ways to win it. Getting a S rank in all the missions in Hard Campaign seems a little bit impossible for me, unless you are good at it.

Whenever you managed to clear a mission, you will be graded based on 3 main aspect - Power, Technique and Speed. For those who doesn't know how they're being judged of, I'll simply brief you:
  • Power - Amount of enemy units that you're managed to demolish/destroy
  • Technique - Amount of your own units that are destroyed by enemy units. The lower the number of your destroyed units, the better. Luckily it's judged by percentage. So if you think you are able to clear a mission in that turn, try and build some cheap units such as infrantry unit, recon in order to increase the percentage.
  • Speed - The amount of days that you need to clear a mission. It's obvious that the sooner the better.
For you to acquire a [S] Ranking for a mission, you'll need to have at least or equal to 280 points. Extra points for damaging enemy units such as Oziom doesn't count in.

Another addition to boost the game excitement would be the increment for the units. Additional units such as Oziom, Stealth, Carrier, Megatank, and even flying missile had been added to this game. For further information about those units, just play the game and eventually you'll find out the specifications about them.

Since there are many unlockables features in the game, the replay value for this game is definitely high. Nothing much to say about the unlockables, just figure it out yourself as I would not like to spoil the fun for you.

I think the great deal about this game would be nothing more than the Wi-Fi features. Although I hadn't get a chance to test it since I hadn't got myself a Wi-Fi router or Nintendo Wi-Fi USB connector, I got a hunch that it's the major attraction for the popularity for this game. With such features, you can battle any AW user worldwide without knowing that this world is indeed, what do we call again? Oh, LARGE!

Beated Castlevania: PoR and Pokemon Pearl

Man, glad I'm managed to beat both game in a same day as the fact than I'm sick today (fever, sneezing and sore-throat)

I must first admit than the boss in Castlevania: PoR - Dracula is definitely a far more weak than the previous title such as Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA). The attacking pattern is pretty straight forward to see and it's very easy to figure it out once you saw it once.

On the other hand, the Elite Four in Pokemon Pearl is surely dazzling and amazed me. I thought the battlefield where they're standing would be nicely detailed and designed appropriate with their pokemon type. For example, I would imagine a forest-like battlefield for the first Elite Four (Aaron). However, if you somehow managed to beat all Elite Four, prepare to meet the Champion. Now here's what I'm talking about, roawr! The battlefield where the Champion was standing is just amazing enough, I wouldn't like to spoil you. It's just great and you'll get the feeling that this would be your final battle, at least for the time being... I couldn't complaint more about the music while battling in Pokemon League. The music composer - Go Ichiyose did it well again! He'll never let us down, even once with every single Pokemon League music he composed. Nicely heard, nicely done.

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 vs. Yu-Gi-Oh! Spirit Caller

Clue:
WC - Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007
SC - Yu-Gi-Oh! Spirit Caller

I guess the fancy quote "Newer version of stuff always beat old stuff" applies to Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 over Yu-Gi-Oh! Spirit Caller. For those who doesn't know, Yu-Gi-Oh! Spirit Caller is the first debut of Yu-Gi-Oh! game for Nintendo DS. As we all know, the first debut doesn't always sounds too good, at least not as best as the sequel eh?

Unlike Mario & Luigi: SuperStar Saga (first sequel of mario & luigi co-op game for GBA which many people claims that it's a game far more better than the second sequel for NDS - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (second sequel for NDS), Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 seems to prove just the opposite thing. In fact, in the latest addition for the game, many cards had been added and as you may recalled Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2006 for GBA which is a non-RPY style game, compared to Yu-Gi-Oh! Spirit Caller.

The battle mechanics and graphic still applies the same for both game - The summoned monsters will appeared in 3D (although it's not well-rendered, it's still nice looking) and the blasting, slashing battle scene still the same. Don't misunderstanding here, you won't see the monsters battling each other as seen on TV anime. Instead, the only thing you'll see is two cards, both left and right, and the blasting (usually dragon, demon), slashing (warrior of course, bugs) graphic scene are done when you're being attacked or attacking other monsters cards. You can't expect to see those monsters attacking sprites would you? Consider the fact that NDS doesn't equipped with high-end 3D graphic card or what-so-ever. Even if Konami did consider to implement the battling sprites for the game, it would take up many space as the game normally would, 1 or 2 GB perhaps?

Nevertheless, WC is definitely a better choice than SC for most Yu-Gi-Oh! fans. The main reason is probably the elimination of RPG style game (SC) which required the user to search and pinpoint any nearby enemies to initiate a battle. As in WC, your opponent is pretty straight forward for you to choose. Just select 'Free Duel' from the main menu, select an opponent (consisting of monsters and humans) then battle. Frankly I couldn't figured how on the earth does a monster duel you? Choosing their card with their tiny or fat fingers than you could barely imagine it would be true. Anyways, each enemies own a deck that are appropriate for their look and their deck name. For example, for a fire fox, it will use deck that mostly consist of Fire type monsters and so on.

The password features doesn't really work in the same mechanic as the GBA version of Yu-Gi-Oh! game. If you think you can just input the password for the card (you'll probably get those password via GameFaq just as I did) and use them in the early battle to gain easy victory, then I'm afraid you're wrong. In WC (I haven't tested the password features with SC yet, sorry), even though you had entered the correct password for a card, let's say 72302403 for [Sword of Revealing Light], you still can't get it unless you had at least one card with the same name or unlocked a packlist that contained the card. Other than that, I'm afraid you just can't get it.

As you may recalled a features in all Yu-Gi-Oh! game - Forbidden card, it's still apply the same in WC and SC. In this time, the forbidden card number just grow larger and larger. You might think it's bad eh? No more Raigeki, Pot of Greed... However, if you think in other perspective, neither you or your opponent can use it! So you can turn this as your advantage. No more need to fear your opponent for using Raigeki upon your monsters.

For me, I really isn't a Yu-Gi-Oh! fans as I seldom play the card game with my friends. However, it's really worth to play if you have got plenty of free time to spent.

Have you ever being angry with your parents?

Have you ever being fed-up and angry with your parents? If you don't, you must have a great personality and patience. On the contrary, if you DO, then you're just like me and almost 99% kids in the entire world.

Whenever your parent instruct (I prefer the 'instruct' term over 'order') you to do thing, such as mopping, cleaning or any other houseworks. Sometimes the result will not be the one that they had expected. In the end, you'll hear complains from them. Yet you didn't dare yourself to fight back or debate about what they're saying because they're far more older and much more experienced than you do. Thus, the only thing you could do is listening to their advice (they sure don't sound like advice to me, I rather called it 'scolding'). And when they have done and you walk back behind them, you'll just keep on mumbling at them. For real, I don't think any kid in the world will ever think to stab a knife at them after such incident.

However, the magical thing is - No matter how much you hate them, this hattress will eventually jump off from your mind. The next thing you knew, you'll probably end up forgiving them and begin to chat with them, apologize maybe? In fact, in Asian, it's very rare for a parent to apologize after what they had done (which is scolding) to their children as it's kinda embarrassed and may against some traditional to do so. So the best thing is 'forgive and forgave'. The power of LOVE and bond, who would have thought it will be such strong?

If you're wondering whether I'm involved in such situation or not, well I certainly did! Seriously, who wouldn't? Unless you're being adopted by a family who they torture you like their slave, you would definitely forget the revenge sooner or later. As for kids, they're usually more easy to comfort by giving them toys. However, for teenagers, it's all depend on their thinking. If they couldn't think rationally enough, they will leave the house and stay at friend house, probably for weeks, months. Who knows what teenagers would do. In fact, most teenagers would only decided to leave their houses if the parents is abusing them and they have capability to survive in solo.

Pokemon Zircon announced in Japan!

Like the previous Pokemon generations, it looks like the fourth generation of Pokemon games - Pokemon Diamond and Pearl - will have a third version associated with it.

Pokemon ZirconThe game is titled Pokemon Zircon (Jirukon in Japanese, which translates to Zircon), and although all the details are not yet known, some information about the game has been released:

  • Unlike previous third versions, which left the plot of the game primarily the same, Zircon will feature several large changes to the plot and adventure to enhance the story.
  • Giratina will play a much larger role in Zircon, and you will be able to encounter it before fighting the Elite 4. (How this will work exactly is unknown, because it isn't on the Sinnoh Dex... maybe you won't be able to catch it? maybe it will just have "???" for its number?)
  • There is a new area to the Northeast Island called the "Challenge Area," which will contain simulation fights similar to Pokemon XD, as well as some competitive-style battles with twists thrown in. (Sort of like the Battle Frontier from Emerald, I'm guessing.)
  • New applications for your Poketch!

Information is very limited at this point, although I am sure we'll be hearing more about Pokemon Zircon in the upcoming months before its release date, which is scheduled for Fall '07 in Japan.


April Fools!

Yes, as I'm sure many of you figured out, the box art for Pokemon Zircon was a fake. I tried to make it as believable as possible, and I've gotta say I don't think I did half bad.

Although I think some of the features I mentioned would be neat, no third version to the D/P series has been announced, not even in Japan. Throughout this whole thing, it really did make me wonder how the third version (if they do make one) Legendary will work, since the only other Legendary in the Sinnoh Dex is Manaphy, and you get that in a different way. Curious...

I apologize if I upset or mislead anyone, and I hope you enjoyed this year's April Fool's Day surprise! It's all in the spirit of fun...

Also, a quick REAL update: a bug in the size comparison feature of the Pokedex has been fixed. Now, smaller Pokemon should be displayed at their proper height rather than look reaaaallly tiny.

*All content are adapted from Pokemon Marriland

Upcoming Games for NDS

I believe Nintendo DS/Lite user may have been expecting some new games for this year. Here's some upcoming games titles that will totally make your NDS worthy :-

Recommended Games for New Nintendo DS User

So you just bought yourself a brand new Nintendo DS/Lite, what is the main reason for you to buy it at the first place? Do you being attracted by it's sleek exterior and interior design, an exclusive game only available for NDS such as Pokemon Diamond & Pearl, or after reading some interesting reviews on it?

No matter what the reason is, the important fact is, you buy it because you want to play games. What am I talking about... NDS is all about games aren't it? For me, I surely prefer NDS over PSP as the game library for NDS is certainly growing over days and have a wide range of popular title, such as Pokemon and Legend of Zelda. And most importantly, it's the first hi-tech handheld LCD console that offers two LCD screens and the thickness is pretty thin and slim.

Let's get straight forward to the point. If you're wondering what kind of games are you going to grab to play with your brand new NDS, I suggest you to try out the games below. You will definitely glad that you try those games:-

*Information below are adapted from GameSpot and any other relevant sites.

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Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Advance Wars: Dual Strike significantly broadens the scope of this very deep and incredibly fun strategy series while not messing with the fundamentals that made it so great.
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By: Nintendo, Intelligent Sys.
Genre: Modern Turn-Based Strategy
Release Date: Aug 22, 2005
Players: 1-8
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Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Portrait of Ruin is a great game not because of what it does differently, but because it stays true to the familiar Castlevania design and delivers a fun, lengthy adventure.
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By: Konami
Genre: 2D Platformer
Release Date: Dec 5, 2006
Players: 1-2; 2 Online
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Daigasso! Band Brothers
This rhythm game will challenge players to make music using the DS. ----------------------------------------------
By: Nintendo
Genre: Rhythm / Music
Release Date: Dec 02, 2004 (JP)
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Final Fantasy III DS
Not only is this a nicely done remake of an influential, little-seen early chapter from this long-running role-playing series, it's also an all-around solid RPG.
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By: Square Enix, Matrix Software
Genre: Role-Playing
Release Date: Nov 14, 2006
Players: 1 Player
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Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart DS represents a significant step forward for Nintendo's much-loved racing series, and not only because it's the first to feature online play.----------------------------------------------
By: Nintendo
Genre: Kart Racing
Release Date: Nov 14, 2005
Players: 1-8; 4 Online
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New Super Mario Bros.New Super Mario Bros. is a terrific 2D side-scroller that makes you think of the old games but never feels like it's just cashing in on past success.----------------------------------------------
By: Nintendo
Genre: 2D Platformer
Release Date: May 15, 2006 (more)
Players: 1-4 (tech info)
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Nintendogs: Dalmation & Friends
Dalmatian and Friends is still a charming, endearing game, though it's also essentially the same game that was released in previous versions.
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By: Nintendo
Genre: Virtual Life
Release Date: Oct 16, 2006
Players: 1 Player
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Pokemon Diamond / Pearl
The additions and alterations aren't game changing, and Diamond and Pearl do what the Pokémon franchise has always done best--deliver an accessible and highly addictive role-playing game experience.
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By: Nintendo, Game Freak
Genre: Role-Playing
Release Date: Apr 22, 2007
Players: 1-8
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Pokemon Ranger
Pokémon Ranger has a similar look and feel to all the other lighthearted Pokémon games, but invites you to capture all those critters in a rather exciting new way.----------------------------------------------
By: Nintendo, HAL Labs
Genre: Action Role-Playing
Release Date: Oct 30, 2006
Players: 1 Player
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Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Trauma Center succeeds because it strikes such a good balance between its medical theme and its puzzler roots.
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By: Atlus Co.
Genre: Action
Release Date: Oct 4, 2005
Players: 1 Player
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Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007
Tournament series makes its debut on the Nintendo DS.----------------------------------------------
By: Konami
Genre: Card Battle
Release Date: Mar 20, 2007
Players: 1-2
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// Updated soon...

Popular Sites for Roms Download

If you are a Nintendo DS/Lite owner, have a flash cart, you would probably searched on the Internet via popular search engine such as Google.com by the keyword "NDS roms download". As you may know, you may probably having a hard time finding a ideal site which accumulate and organize all Roms with the exact order.

To make you finding NDS roms easier, I had decided to share some of the websites that offered NDS roms download to ease your searching pain.

Before linking to the websites below, there are several statements to read:-
* All sites posted and linked below does not contain malware and spyware
* All sites posted and linked below does not require you to register an account in order to download the file, unless stated with [R]
* All download speed results are tested via Streamyx 1MBPS

1. DS-ROM-NEWS [DS]
  • Do not tricked by the website title "NEWS" as this site offered great amount of NDS roms for download.
  • This site does offer 2 download sites and has a great download speed. I can reached average download speed of 40-55 kbps per file.
  • Although this site does not has a decent user-interface or other graphic elemental design, just some plain text, it does offered every single roms that had been uploaded.
  • The only drawback is you will need to enter image verification code for each download. It's kinda hard to tell which one is o, O or Zero (0).
  • All roms are packed in .rar format to minimize the file size. HTTP direct download.
2. DARoms.com [General]
  • Unlike DS-ROM-NEWS, this site does offered a wide range of roms to download. Ranging from GameBoy, Mame, NeoGeo, Snes, GBA and even NDS.
  • All roms are compressed and packed by using 7zip, which indeed has a better compression ratio than WinRar. So the file size has been tremendously reduced and you can download the roms in just a couple of seconds.
  • Great and ideal site for 56k modem users.
  • HTTP direct download
3. NDS ROMS for DS Flash Cards [NDS]
  • Strictly NDS roms only
  • This site is updated only once in a while, which means you probably won't find the latest roms available for download.
  • Uses eMule direct download links. User will required to install eMule before proceeding and initial a download progress
  • Speed varies and depends on the total of uploaders / downloaders
4. EmuWizards [General]
  • Roms ranges from popular title such as Nintendo GameBoy to Sega Saturn and Sony PS2 ISO's.
  • HTTP direct link download
  • Download speed is decent
  • A forum had been setup to discuss and find the latest roms. Like any other forum, you had to register in order to post a thread or reply to a post.
5. RomUlation [General] - Contributed and submitted by LEVIATHAN from lowyat.net
  • Frequent updates
  • Roms include GBA, PSX, NDS, N64, PSP and even roms for classic console!
  • Although popup may occur one time (perhaps?), it can be closed with no cookie trackback
  • No registration required to download roms
  • Clean, sleek view of rom list. Also include a sort function
  • Fast and reliable download speed via HTTP protocol
  • Forum provided to discuss the games (registration required to post)
If you had any other great links for roms download, please leave a comment and I'll update them as soon as possible.

R4DS - The Next Generation for Slot-1 Solution for NDS


I believe R4DS is a term that is not uncommon to hear for Nintendo DS/Lite users. If you had visited their website, you'll come across the following features that will certainly take your immediate attention. Finally, your mind will tell you to buy it!

As stated in their official site,
The R4DS Cartridge is the current top-of-the-line in DS SLOT-1 flash carts. It is just an amazing little device like original DS cart size, it is a complete solution with no need to purchase any additional components or deal with any messy software and truly the easiest media enhancer you have ever done; To simply put it, this is a must have peripheral for any regular DS/DS lite owner.

I couldn't agree more with it as I'm also one of it's customer. Unless you're willing to spent every single penny on every single game that you wanted to buy or try, go ahead, I wouldn't stop you. It's your money anyways, not mine. However, if you are short of cash and want to play games that your financial doesn't allow you to, you can definitely try R4DS.

R4 Functinality (adapted directly from R4DS official site)
-2nd generation storage device (no booting tool required)
-Flush fitting slot 1 card
-Uses MicroSD card, FAT16 or 32
-Supports any MicroSD card speed with no lag in game
-Supports Clean ROM, drag and drop. Works on any OS
-Built in NoPass
-Automatically detect save type
-Save directly to MicroSD card, not to onboard chip
-Supports Moonshell and other homebrew. Open I/O interface
-User friendly skinnable interface. Touchscreen or button operation
-Supports rumble pak and memory pak
-Supports the WiFi game, DS Rumble Pak, DS Browser
-Supports changes of the background of Operation Interface
-Support Skin DIY by setting background and font colors on Main Menu and Game Menu manually and automatically
-Supports 4-scale-lightness adjustment ( DS Lite only )
-Supports the Soft Reset.
-Supports Action Replay cheat
-moonshell 1.6 support Software Reset function( Press START key back to the R4 menu)

*See -> Read -> Think -> Discuss -> Buy R4DS

Well, you will probably follow the sequences above if you had not heard of R4DS before. What can I say! It's a number one flash cart solution available on market for now. If you had heard of M3Simply before, just to let you know that R4DS shared the same features as M3Simply. In other terms, how to data read and process is just about the same between those two.

Why choose R4DS instead of other flash cart?
Simply spoken, R4DS does not require the user to bypass or flash their NDS. Thus make it easier and safer to use compared with other flash cart.

So why choose R4DS in the first place over M3Simply?
It's simple. In fact, R4DS is always updated and till now, the kernal had been updated to v1.08. For those who not known, kernal is like OS for your computer. In R4DS case, the kernal is the brain behind it. The latest version had fixed a lot of bugs that occured in the older version and support Cheat function for your games. I doesn't prefer that though... Rumored had it that M3Simply does not updated much so may newest roms may not playable.

What's good about R4DS?
Like other flash cart, R4DS does support a wide range of homebrew (applications that used in NDS/L, in NDS, applications is known as homebrew) such as ComicDS, Moonshell. Moonshell is a homebrew that allow user to play mp3, watch video (in .dpg format) and even reading .txt on the fly. ComicDS is yet another homebrew that allow user to read comics in .cbds format.

So I had heard of R4DS now, where are these data stored?
Well, all data are stored in a microSD card. Beware of the word 'micro' as there are other kind of card such as miniSD in market now. microSD card range from 512MB to 4GB. Of course, the higher amount of the space is, the more files you can store. If you had installed Moonshell and ComicDS, with just a simple method of drag and drop, you can paste a wide range of files format such as .cbds, .dpg, .mp3 inside the microSD card. It's pretty simple to use.

What's the best microSD card available so far?
Grad you're asking. There are many microSD card such as KingMax, Kingston, Motorola, Sandisk and the list just goes on. I would prefer you to buy Kingston 1GB/2GB that start with SD-C01G JAPAN as a serial as many games does work with this microSD. Many other microSD card has failed to provide a smooth play with the game Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. In other words, the games will sometimes freeze or lag with those microSD. However, with Kingston, this game runs smoothly.

-> So why does Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin will freeze when played with other microSD brand?
As stated from someone else in the Internet, this game does require a microSD card with high speed transfer rate as the game read data rather faster than other games. I couldn't find out why though..

How should I know which game is playable with R4DS?
Check out this link. It mentioned clearly in that site so you won't have any problem finding your answers. Just use the 'Search' function and you'll get used to that long list. To make the user ease, all games are sorted by number.

Are you a customer for R4DS?
You bet I am. Or else, I wouldn't even bother to write a review regarding this product in the first place, would I?

Roms - Legal or Illegal, It's Just Your View of Perspective

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