Customer Reviews

DS Lite Action Replay

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(69)

 

 

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.

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.

When Datel previously came out for the Action Replay for the Nintendo DS, it really didn't shine as well as the companion method to install codes for the Game Boy Advance. Well, that had to take a dramatic change with the device. This newer Action Replay includes great codes for DS games like New Super Mario Brothers and Metroid Prime Hunters. The method of installing codes on this Action Replay though is quite different than its other models for other systems like the Gamecube. This model requires you to have a Windows XP computer to install the software. From there, you connect the device to your computer, go to the codejunkies.com website, and from there you can simply update your action replay codes into your device. It is simple and convient for DS owners to use. Although you can't manually install action replay codes here, it does work nicely for those who feel the need to cheat their way through a Nintendo DS game, than this would be worth the money.

Price: B 1/2-

Convience: B-

Overall: B-

First, a preface:

Father's day is here and my 11 year old has been giddy all weekend because she has gotten me the perfect gift. She's went to three different stores to find one with it in stock (she doesn't have a credit card, so no amazon) and found it. Took it out of the obnoxious hard plastic shell the put it in, repackaged it, and on sunday morning was so excited. And so was I, I'd been talking about getting one for a while.

And here my troubles began.

Break it out and start following the directions on the package to install the software. Seems to go very smoothly. No problems. Install the driver after plugging in the device through the supplied USB cable. No problem. Open the software and then attempt to connect to the AR. No joy. Double check the driver. All good there. Hrm, I'm already on XP (so anyone thinking vista, quit) but decide to try it on another PC. Same thing. Seemingly smooth installation, but no joy on linking the software with the AR. I'm getting really worried I'm not going to make it work and that it's going to bum my daughter out who went through a lot of trouble to get this for me, so I persist. Manufacturers web site -- 2 faq entries, neither helpful. I can call (tommorow) or email. No way. Start search the interwebs, nothing. Finally I come up with the magic search terms (1.60, which is the revision ended up being what helped) and then find a gem of a post on yahoo answers. Someone else had had the same problem and gotten an answer from codejunkies.

And the problem: Whoops, we put the wrong software on the CD we sent out with the AR.

"FIRMWARE VERSION 1.60 OR ABOVE

Unfortunately, the incorrect drivers were included on the Action Replay DS disc that came with your product. "

This email you will get from codejunkies will have a URL to install the correct version (with instructions). Went through this process and IT WORKED.

But the rub is that I had to scour the internet to eventually find this. Nothing listed in the support FAQ pages at the codejunkies site. So basically if you buy one of these today you're going to HAVE to get technical support (or for you folks at home put 1.60 in with your "ar will not connect" search term) to make the thing work. It sucked.

Oh, works great now that it's installed, but sheesh!

Url to instructions and link to fix (hopefully this is not considered spam and removed):

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080523110725AAoXQzI

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.

My seven year old got this for Christmas. Without doing any software downloads, he plugged it into his DS and played Pokemon Diamond for a few days without issue. A friend at school told him that he needed to upgrade so that he could get 999 Master Balls. So, with directions in hand, I managed to delete all of the data he had on his system using the "Quick Update" (my gosh, my heart was pounding!) and then had to reload it again. Then it took several tries for us to figure out how to turn the information on in the application before he could have access to it. And I'm pretty computer savvy. You can just unplug the system from the PC when you're done. I was looking for a save or eject button. But once we got it up and running, it worked perfectly and he can get all the health points and extra lives and Rare Candy that he wants. Great codes for Pokemon Diamond and Blue Rescue Team. I just wish the booklet had a quick step-by-step for new users.

Update April 08: For the first three months, he was the life of the party (ok, the bus stop and the after school care program.) Then, suddenly, the Action Replay stopped working. Whenever he would use it with a game, he would get a blank white screen. By now he's eight and is completely out of sorts because it's not working anymore. In my head I'm thinking that I should have listened to the warnings and should never have spend money on this thing. But since he loved it and it made him so happy, I thought I would try to revive it. So I contacted Datel, explained the issue, told that it was a new unit (still within the 90 day warranty) and asked for assistance. They assigned me a case number and I sent the unit to them for repair. Not only did they repair and return the unit within a timely manner, they kept me updated on the status of the unit. These days, Customer Service is everything. My son now has his original unit in perfect working condition and he's happy again. Now we're just waiting for the codes for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness.

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.

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.

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.

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.