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[felix]

by tall4099 translation by felix

Advantages:
Support clean roms. Just drag and drop.
Same size as a original cart (unlike the first edition Acekard)
Can use on unflashed DS.
Many troublesome games works: FF3, Pokemon, Tony Hawk, EBA etc.

Disadvantages:
Can only display the first 8 characters of the file name
Cannot use as NoPass to boot slot 2 cards
Need to manually specify the save type of new games
Minor lag in some games, but still acceptable
Homebrew support unknown, except for a special edition Moonshell
Cannot use GBA programs, like all slot 1 cards

Unknowns:
Homebrew support, except for a special edition of Moonshell
Not all NDS games are tested
Download play support

[popinadam]

When all the Disadvantages are fixed (cept GBA Support), let me know...  :lol:

[tennisgy]

lag in games? that sucks, was the card speed normal?

[felix]

The lag was reported as minor, and still acceptable. The memory card was Sandisk 2GB MicroSD.

[sneef]

no lag is acceptable!  *cartman voice* respect my authoritah!!!

[darkuni]

Heh, the lag on Animal Crossing on the Supercard makes it damn near unplayable.  I've got an X9 on the way - I'll give it my treatment and let you guys know.

[sarah]

Mini Review

I have two of these from (I paid for them with my own money)
//www.cheapmod.net and //www.supercardstore.com
with Kingston 512MB and Dane-Elec 512MB microSD cards

Compatibility list here
http://wiki.scorpei.com/index.php/NinjaPass_X9_compatibility_list

I have tried Trauma centre, Super Mario 64, Yoshi's Island, FF3, Tenchu, Mario cart, Elite Beat, Warioware, Pokemon Ranger, Nintendogs, Brain Training, 42 classics, Bomberman Land Touch and they all seem to work perfectly. Tony Hawkes Downhill and Animal Crossing after saving prevent you loading any other game until problem is sorted out on a PC, and the save doesn't work. Yoshi Touch and Go ...... can't save game. Animal Crossing also takes ages to get between screens with black in the middle. Meteroid Prime and Project Rub stop at the loading screen. No slow downs in any of the other games I tried.

In the box you get a x9 in a black shell and a spare white/transparent shell.
You also get a USB2 SD/MMC card reader (so if you buy a microSD card without a SD adaptor you're stuffed)
No instructions, and no software, you download it from here http://ninjapass.com/

Construction quality is very good,
MicroSD press until click to insert, press again to remove (springs out)
X9 press until click into DS, press again to remove (springs out)
You can just manage to remove the micro SD without unplugging the X9 from the DS.

Loading new games you need to copy and rename a "model.sav" file for each game you put on your microSD card. To load the game you first select the game, then select the save file (Good if several people use the same DS). You also have the option to select your microSD cards speed of slow/medium/fast. Games tend to crash on the loading screen if fast is selected, medium seems fine for everything.

The X9 holds the game save details for the last game you saved on it's internal memory. So playing just one game again and again is pretty fast to load. It only saves the data when you load up a new game (so if you crash the cart on your new game, you lose the saves from the previous game, or worse get your save file corrupted)

General feeling, works pretty well, they need to update the software to cure the "can't save" problem that happens on several games. Compatibility seems about 75% at the moment.

(17 games tried, 12 work perfectly, 2 work but can't save and crash the X9 until you access a PC, 1 can't save, 2 don't work at all)

REVIEW UPDATE
I have now had this device for long enough to give a pretty good opinion on it. When I first used it, I thought it was great, the more I use it, the less I like it. It has major problems so here is a list of pros and cons in order of importance.

For
1) It's the only slot 1 device you can actually buy.
2) Reasonable price.
3) Good for simple games you don't need to save (Zoo Keeper)

Against
1) Limited compatibility with many popular makes of microSD card (they don't work properly in it)
2) Frequent lockups (only cured by access to a PC)
3) Game saves often lost or corrupted.
4) Poor user interface (unsuitable for young children)

Customer support
They need to concentrate their efforts into providing fixes for the key problem areas if they want this product to succeed.

Conclusion
Not yet suitable for public release, but if you need something before christmas, this is the only choice. Hopefully the firmware/operating system will improve with time.

PS
When I was a reviewer/product tester for a major UK distributor they used to give me loads of stuff and I was always allowed to keep it. The unspoken agreement was, never write a negative review. If you don't like it review something else, always be positive. Funny how the official reviewers for this product haven't written anything yet?

[sarah]

UPDATED

[ratx]

How come you think its the only slot 1 you can buy? you mean directly from the UK? Or just "slot 1 as in no patching" I'm in the UK and have managed to get hold of a DSlink and a DSX, so perhaps another mark against the X9 ;P