DS Lite Action Replay

10 Review to this product

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  Theresa P
  August 23rd, 2010 on 9:00 pm

  Rating

  My son had his eye on this product for a long time. I resisted, arguing that loading cheats onto your game seems counterproductive. Isn’t part of the fun and satisfaction of playing knowing that you figured things out on your own? Obviously, I don’t fully understand the frustrations of Pokemon. He came up with his own money and I ordered the Action Replay for him. He is 100% satisfied and has had absolutely no troubles with using it. From a mom’s perspective, I don’t really “get it”, but he was so happy to be able to catch “shiny Pokemon”. I’m just glad it did what it was supposed to do, easily, the way it was supposed to.
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  Pat A. Beckord
  August 24th, 2010 on 5:49 am

  Rating

  Bought this for my 15 year-old-grandson who say it is “incredible” and all kinds of good things I don’t understand! Wishes he would have had it a long time ago.
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  M. W. Harris
  August 24th, 2010 on 10:28 pm

  Rating

  I bought two of these for my two kids for Christmas, and each one works perfectly. The boys were so stoked being able to max out their Pokemon on Diamond and Pearl! Whoever said “cheaters never win” obviously didn’t use an Action Replay DS for playing Pokemon Diamond. Really was money well spent. As another reviewer put it, they were the Kings of the DS! Given that, I want to try to address some of the complaints I’ve seen about this excellent product.

  I easily installed the software on my computer (Windows XP operating system — I can’t address it’s compatibility with Vista or Mac), and easily updated said software by clicking on the “update” icon. Updating the codes on the device itself wasn’t as intuitive as I originally thought, though, and I initially couldn’t get it to work because my computer couldn’t “see” the device. Yes, the instruction booklet could be written more clearly; however, anyone that has more than a nodding acquaintance with computers shouldn’t be put off by what is an all-too-common complaint with computer components: poorly written instructions. After I *carefully* reread those instructions it was obvious what my problem was. The Action Replay DS must be inserted in the Nintendo DS (with the cable attached to the device and plugged into a USB slot on your computer) and the Nintendo DS must be then powered on for your computer to “see” it and to enable you to update the device. I’m guessing the small amount of power trickling through the USB connection isn’t enough to enable the thing to work, but whatever the case is, you have to have it in a powered-up Nintendo DS for it to update. If your computer can’t find the driver for your Action Replay DS, just tell it to search the internet for it and it’ll find it for you (it’ll find something called “NDS” something or other), then just tell it to install it.

  Once you’ve established connectivity, if you use the software to do a “quick update” it will delete all the codes currently on the Action Replay DS and attempt to replace them with all the codes on codejunkies.com for the Nintendo DS. What you’ll find is the hackers at codejunkies.com have been busy writing new cheats for new and old games since your Action Replay DS was packaged. The end result is they have more codes than your Action Replay DS can hold, thus, when you get about 80% of the codes loaded, it’ll give you a message along the lines of “update canceled, memory is full” and will stop updating the Action Replay DS. Since it takes several minutes to get to that point, I recommend you only update the codes for those games you actually have. Just peruse the codejunkies US list, and drag the folders for the games you want to the main window, and the software will replace the existing data (if it already exists on the Action Replay DS) with the new data. There are other ways to manage this, too, and I’ll leave it to you to read the instructions to find out.

  In any case, I’ll bet you ten bucks that 99% of the complaints for this are from people who didn’t follow the directions. It’s OK to complain when something truly doesn’t work, but it just makes you look foolish when you didn’t even follow the written instructions that came with the thing. Besides, other than smashing it with a hammer, jamming a crayon in the cable socket, or cutting the cable, I’m not sure how you could “break” this thing. Of course, 7-year-olds are prodigies when it comes to breaking things, so I guess I shouldn’t speak so fast. Anyway, I hope this all helps someone out there.
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  Anonymous
  August 25th, 2010 on 10:51 pm

  Rating

  The action replay is almost perfect. But theres that word. Almost. The company should have a customer service because when mine broke(no clue how) i looked all over their website. Nothing! Any way, you have to be REALLY carefull with it. But while its working its awsome!!!! All my freinds wanna use it!!!!!!!!!!!! I have the GBA AR and this better!!!! You dont have to scroll through all the games to find the one you want. And the downloading thing rocks!! I got a bunch of codes for new games of it. I wish i knew why it broke…. you use one day and it works, the next day it doesn’t. Sigh. Get this, not a waste of money, just be super carefull with it.
  
  Good luck.
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  J. Barber
  August 26th, 2010 on 2:25 am

  Rating

  That “kid” in the previous review must not be very bright. I bought one for my son for Christmas and it works perfectly! We’ve used it with at least five different games (including Mario Kart DS) and all of the codes work fine. Updating to new codes is also a snap because of the included PC application. Just plug the DS Action Replay catridge into the PC with the included USB cable and it’s trivial to copy new codes to the cartridge (no more typing in codes manually).

  I’ve owned many GameSharks / Action Replays for many different systems over the years and this is definitely Code Junkies (the people in Europe who actually create this product) best effort yet.
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  E. Erickson
  August 26th, 2010 on 4:00 am

  Rating

  it’s finally here! the action replay for the nintendo ds with REAL working codes. i bought one a few weeks ago and it is awesome! it is very easy to use, and updating the latest firmware is very easy. i highly recommend this to everyone.

  edit: ARDS finally has vista support.
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  S. Yung
  August 26th, 2010 on 4:05 am

  Rating

  I bought this product for my Pokemon Diamond for DS. As you have noticed, there are a number of complains about this product. To warn you; This product can be fragile. For example, if you touch the part exposing the computer chip of the action replay, part of the memory of the chip (codes) may be corrupted or erased.

  Here is a little background on how to use it before buying:
  
  To fix that, reupload the codes using the included program. To install, simply run the set up program(the mini cd)like you would normally do for purchased programs. When you launch the program, you may notice that there is one box where the codes come from code junkies automatically when you have internet access(“Subscriptions”), another that is labeled “My Codelists”, and the last huge box is labeled “Nintendo DS”. To connect the Action Replay with the computer(Windows XP(home or professional), no mac, no sure about Vista), insert the action replay into the DS and turn it on. Use the included USB(Universial Serial Bus) and connect it with the computer and the action replay. The “Subscriptions” starts to list the codes that is in the action replay. From the “Subscriptions”, you can drag the games or cheats to the “Nintendo DS” box to update the action replay with the codes that you want easily and quickly.

  Adding Customized Codes:
  
  You may have noticed that some users say that customized codes cannot be used. Yet, if you click software update(the ds game picture on the right), the software on your computer is updated, emabling you to add user-made codes that you want to use that is not on CodeJunkies. All you have to do is drag the game that you want to “My Code Lists”, then to “Custom code list”. Now there are more options for you, including adding games and adding cheats. Remember the 28-line complex codes that you want to use? Now, all you have to do is copy and paste the long code to the “Custom code List” under the game when you use adding cheats. Thats pretty much it for my before buying and after buying buyers guide.

  I hope this helps people that are lost/mislead about the product, eventhough I agree that you don’t get any customer support from them.
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  J. T. Gerrits
  August 26th, 2010 on 4:33 am

  Rating

  Alright, here is the deal. The thing works great, codes are super easy to put in, and you can even make your own cheats. BUT, be careful with it.

  At one point, when I had just turned the DS on and the Action Replay was loading, I tried to plug in the usb cable. For those of you with a ds, you know that you put pressure on the game in the console, a spring mechanism pops it out. Makes removing a game super easy, but it caused my action replay to pop out while it was loading, frying something inside, breaking it permanently. This is something Datel industries should have accounted for when they designed the thing, but they didn’t. So now its broken, and weeks after trying to contact Datel through email and the support link on their website I still have gotten no response. Their tech support seems to be non existant. I rate the Action Replay DS a 5/5 on functionality, and Datel Design & Development a 0/5 on caring for their customers.
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  Brendan2k5
  August 26th, 2010 on 8:44 am

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  It took Datel 14 months but they finally pulled through on their promise of an Action Replay for the Nintendo DS. Released late August 2006, the Action Replay DS (Also called the AR DS for short), like its other console counterparts allow gamers to modify their games to play it outside said game’s original design. For example, one can use it to have infinite health in Phoenix Wright 2 and 3 or to get every Card in the Yugioh Games.

  The ARDS isn’t without it controversy and critisism. Since its release, there have been reports of people using the ARDS to give themselves an unfair advantage while Playing one of the 30+ DS games that have online play. The most popular game thus far appears to be Metroid Prime Hunters.

  While it is true the Action Replay is made to make gameplay a bit more…interesting, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. I like to look at it as a means of fulyl exploring every nook and cranny of a game including areas you’re normally not supposed to have access to.

  It’s a good buy and I’d reccommend it for those who are tech savy or those who are into video game design.
  
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  Jayan M Kamdar
  August 27th, 2010 on 8:05 am

  Rating

  The two other kids that reviewed must not have been very careful with their Action Replay. I bought this and I loved it! It has very cool cheats for a lot of games, like Mario Kart, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Nintendogs, and more. If you don’t have a computer, don’t worry! The Action Replay already comes packed with thousands of cheats! If you do have a computer, though, you’ll be able to update to be able to use all the new games on your Action Replay! I totally recommend buying this.