Product Description

Even the odds by arming yourself with infinite health, bullets, and time. Unlock secret levels, characters and vehicles. Now you can become all poerful and beat any game. Action Replay is already pre-loaded with totally unauthorized cheat codes for all the latest and greatest Nintendo DS games and you can easliy update the Action Replay with new codes. Action Replays contains everything you need to put the power in your hands today!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #471 in Video Games
• Brand: Datel
• Model: DUS0167
• Released on: 2008-12-01
• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Dimensions: 1.50" h x 5.50" w x 9.00" l, .30 pounds

Features

• Pre-loaded with loads of codes for the latest and greatest games.
• New codes downloaded seamlessly via USB cables (included)
• New codes downloaded seemlessly with the USB cable included.
• Colorful hi-resolution graphics
• Full touch screen control.

Customer Reviews

Don't Jump to Conclusions from the Negative Reviews
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.

Amazing Product That Works Flawlessly When Used Right.
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.

DS Improvement
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-