It’s been many a month in development and had a great deal of hype to go with it, yes we can only be talking about the latest DS flashcart that’s got everybody more than a little excited to say the least – the DS-Xtreme! On paper it looks just too good to be true, a super small slot 1 loading cart which also functions as a passme with abilities to run clean images and homebrew files as well as supporting native MP3 playback support.
Believe us when we say the DS-Xtreme is simply the best flashcart solution for the DS; continue reading our review to see what this little baby can do for your DS! Remember guys and girls, to prepare yourselves a clean bill of underwear as you approach the end of the review.
What’s in the Box & Initial Impression
The DS-Xtreme comes packaged in a compact yet relatively strong glossy finished box which contains the following –
- 1X DS-Xtreme 4Gb cartridge
- 1X Mini USB cable
The package reached us in perfect condition, sporting some funky little icons on the front of the box such as ‘USB 2.0’ and ‘Audio’. A neat touch to the inner packaging is how the DS-Xteme is presented behind a cardboard inlay which has a carved X in the middle.
Our initial impression is WOW this thing is damn small, this surely isn’t all I need? It really is no bigger than an ordinary DS game cartridge, which ultimately results in it fitting perfectly into slot 1 of your DS. From the perspective of look alone, the DS-Xtreme has even more up its sleeve than an original game cart, DS-X has managed to in build a mini USB port to the cart as well as two LED’s either side of the port.
Drag and drop all the way baby!
To send files to the DS-Xtreme, all you have to do is connect up the cartridge to your computer via the supplied Mini USB cable. You will know the DS-Xtreme is fully functional as you will see it’s pretty LED’s kick in for the first time. When connected, your computer will recognize the cartridge as a standard removable disk drive.
Just double click on the drive (G: in our case) and you will see the APPS, MUSIC and SKIN folders for the DS-Xtreme OS.
From this position you can simply drag over any game images, homebrew files, MP3 files and movie files for use with Moonshell very quickly as it is USB 2.0 compliant. It really is a walk in the park.
The BIG TEST – How can one little plastic cartridge bring so much happiness?
Ok so after you’ve transferred all your desired content over to the DS-Xtreme, there is just one thing left to do – enjoy it! Upon plugging in the DS-Xtreme into your handheld, you will instantly notice the set of blue LED’s at the back of the cartridge. Just hit the DS-Xtreme logo in the middle of the screen and you will find yourself launched into the operating system. Under the touch screen supported OS, you will find an APPS, MUSIC, SETTINGS and ABOUT section.
APPS – Pure CLEAN Fun
The APPS menu acts as the launch pad for homebrew files and can also launch clean back up game images. As far as homebrew goes we tried a distinct variety including XrickDS, Slide and Run, Paris Metro Map and even DoomDS which all worked flawlessly WITHOUT the need for any recompiling. Unfortunately the likes of SnezziDS didn’t function, but we’re sure the situation will get revolved in a firmware update. The DS-Xtreme has great ability to make DS developer’s life a whole lot easier and the scene more uniform, by requiring only an .NDS file and not multiple builds for each and every flash cart.
Now we saved the best app until last, thus being Moonshell the wonderful homebrew developed movie player for the DS. It does fully work on the DS-Xtreme and allows for third party movie playback on the device. After converting the movie wedding crashers into a playable format via DPG tools (approximately 30 minutes), we were able to enjoy it on the DS-Xtreme. The file size was as low as 210MB for the complete movie with 128kbps video and 96kbps for the audio.
Moving onto the slightly darker side of things, backup game image booting. We tested out backups of the problematic Lego Star Wars II, Ultimate Spider Man and New Super Mario Bros. all of the images worked fine with no patching required at all. Not to mention Star Fox Command, Danny Phantom and Contact also running as cool as ice. This is the by product of the advanced slot 1 loading mechanism of the DS-Xtreme.
Any APPS loaded into the respective folder shower perfectly in the menu and in most cases with a cute little corresponding icon. Just touch the screen on your desired app and away it goes!
MUSIC – to my ears
As if you weren’t aware, the DS nor DS Lite has any media functions at all out of the box. Not to worry DS-Xtreme is here to save the day supporting both OGG and MP3 formats on the handheld. All you have to do is hit library and the DS-Xtreme auto-builds your music directory which is selectable via a range of criteria such as Artists, Albums, and Genres. The music plays back fine with either the DS speakers or through headphones, better yet the music continues to play even if the DS lid is closed which can come in handy if you have no MP3 player such as an iPod.
The fun doesn’t stop there either; there are options to create playlists, shuffle and repeat songs. As you’d expect ID3 tags are supported.
Here is a great video a Youtube user uploaded showing off the dancing LED's feature. It's alot of fun!
One feature we really loved for pure nerd factor is the dancing LED’s which are activated via the settings menu. If switched on, the LED’s of the DS-Xtreme will rotate between a heck of a lot of colours in tune to any audio track which is being played from the cartridge.
Settings – Instant fun in a box
The settings menu has the option to toggle off the Dancing LED’s and Instant Boot options. Some of you may be asking what on earth does instant boot mean? Well it’s a great addition for those ‘waste no time’ kind of people, allowing for the DS-Xtreme to boot directly into the last played piece of software without having to go through the OS. To get back to the OS, all you’ll have to do is keep hold of A during boot up.
One final option in the settings menu is the ability to change the colours of the left and right LED’s. You can adjust the visibility of the colours green, blue and red for each LED. It’s fun to play with for the first time, but over a period of time you will most likely ignore this feature completely.
An Xceedingly great DS Flashcart – Vastly extending the feature set of DS
Excuse the somewhat lame pun, but in all seriousness the DS-Xtreme is the finest flashcart for DS/Lite that anyone could wish for. It adds some much needed media playback to the system, not to mention the aesthetic kick ass dancing LED’s! It’s compatibility with back up game images is virtually flawless and with homebrew it’s somewhat of a revelation being the first and only device to launch software which has not been specifically compiled for it. So much thought has gone into this product and we’re reassured there will be continuous updates and some truly fantastic user created skins to further evolve the product. For all those complainers who are rather conservative about memory size, we’d like to make it clear that we managed to put a full length movie, at least six game images, a range of homebrew and MP3’s and still have a lot of memory to burn! To simply put it, this is a must have peripheral for any regular DS/DS Lite owner. With the holiday season coming up around the corner, we think this is a serious contender for the must have gaming gadget right now and probably for next year too!
Postives
+ The same size as an ordinary DS flash cart
+ No need for a passcard or anything else to boot
+ Fits perfectly into slot 1
+ Upgradeable OS
+ Innovative design with in-built mini USB port and LED set
+ Super simple to use, drag and drop files over to the unit without a problem, no drivers required
+ Touch screen and potentially very powerful OS with skinning system
+ Can launch homebrew files without the need for recompiling, good compatibility
+ Launches game back up images flawlessly, without the need for any patching
+ Adds MP3 playback to the DS with a range of options
+ Dancing LED’s are nerdy but nice
+ Supports movie playback on the DS via the use of Moonshell
+ Instant boot option to reduce time taken to get into your favourite app
+ Great online support and forums
+ Included 4Gb memory, more than enough to hold a full length movie, a selection of over 6 games, homebrew software and MP3 albums ALL AT ONCE with a lot of memory left to burn!
Negatives
- More memory required for strict movie buffs
- Price, but you’ll be hard pressed to find anything which comes remotely close to the complete package offered by the DS-Xtreme let alone the functionality.
- No manual included
