Special thanks to the ELink team for arranging a sample.

- Introduction -

The ELink is the latest GBA flash cart out on the market.  It is a crazy idea to put out a GBA flash cart out on the market more than 6 years after the release of the original Gameboy Advance’s release, but it might pay off.

The ELink team is a brand new team that seems dedicated to support their product.  They have taken advantage of the fact that there are many users that are looking to play older GBA games, a feature that slot 1 flash carts lack.

The Gameboy Micro is the perfect console for the ELink, but it also works with all Gameboy Advance consoles and DS consoles.

Most solutions on the market for the Gameboy Advance cost over a hundred dollars or have terrible performance.  The ELink comes in at about $30 USD with 512Mbit of memory.  The ELink claims to play music, videos, eBooks, and most importantly, games.  If it can do all of this, then there is no doubt that the ELink should be successful.

- Design -

Unfortunately for the ELink packaging, CanadaPost has not been kind.  The bag clearly took a lot of damage; it was completely wrinkled, covered in rips and holes.  Surprisingly, the ELink packaging still came in a fairly presentable condition.  The box looks very professional, and incredibly durable. 

Plain and simple works by far the best.

The ELink packaging held a CD and a plastic tray with the USB cable and the ELink flash cart.  As well all CDs bundled with flash carts, it contained already outdated software, and a quick guide that seems to be written by someone not so familiar with the English language.  The USB cable is very study, and is about a meter long.  As you probably already know, the USB cable is unique to ELink.  It would be pretty hard to located another one if it somehow gets lost. 

There is a lot of packaging.  The empty slot makes me wonder if a slot 1 cart might come bundled with the ELink in the future.

The most important part of the entire package was the ELink cartridge.  Mine came in a clear green casing and a red label, but there is a picture of a black ELink cartridge on ELink’s official site.  The casing is made by a nice layer of plastic and seems to close together much better than some other carts I have used in the past.  It is GBA sized, so it will fit flush in all of the GBA consoles and the old DS, but it will stick out of the DS Lite.

It sits flush inside the Gameboy Micro as well as the GBA, GBA SP and the old DS.

- Software -

The ELink’s software is brilliantly simple, and it looks great as well.  You simply add games by clicking the add button, and right clicking will bring up a list of things you can do.  Basically for the most part, you can add or delete games, and burn or backup your save files.  The cheat option on this menu is not limited to cheating, but deals with pretty much everything with the rom, this includes soft reset, cheats, and changing the name of the rom.

The ELink software just looks brilliant and is incredibly easy to use.

All of this is in the first of the three tabs included in the software.  The second tab allows you to add eBooks, NES games and GB/GBC games into your ELink.  These functions are available with any other flash cart, but it is really nice to see it built in to the software.  Their software is far easier to use than Goomba or PocketNES’s native bundle.  You only need to drag and drop to a specified folder, then click add to burn list to get it into your ELink.  The final tab is not exactly useful.  They have some quick tips on how to get your ELink working, some button combos and their website.

Playing NES and GB/GBC games has always been available for Gameboy Advance flash carts, but having it built in to the ELink software makes it loads easier.

The most brilliant part of this software is that it automatically updates for you upon boot.  Every time, it will check the online database and see if there is a new version.  I have received my ELink only a few weeks ago, and it is safe to say that I have seen at least eight or ten updates.  These updates do not appear on their site, you must use their software to update though.

- Use -

To transfer games into your ELink, you need to connect the cart to the computer with a proprietary cable that connects a port on the ELink to a USB port.  Once connected, you turn on the GBA and turn on the program.  The transfer rate is relatively fast for a GBA cartridge, but definitely no match for a memory card reader.  It averages about 170kb/s on my computer but supposedly it could go up to 240kb/s.

One of the most frustrating things about the ELink is connecting it to the computer.  Sometimes I find that using MicroSD cards has really spoiled me.

When you turn on a Gameboy Advance console with the ELink inside, you boot up to a screen that lists 5 games at once.  It automatically highlights the previous game you have played for quick access.  And pretty much all the menu can do is boot the game on a click of A or B.

It is a nice menu in concept, but something about it makes it feel a bit cluttered.

- Functionality -

The ELink ran all GBA games that I have tested.  Because the ELink does not have a Real Time Clock (RTC), games like Pokemon will need to be patched.  But other than that, all games ran perfectly.  The two bundled emulators worked great as well.  Probably most importantly, I have yet to find a piece of homebrew that doesn’t work on the ELink.

I've never actually played Fire Emblem before, getting the ELink is a perfect chance for me to catch up.

The ELink has a soft reset combo (L+R+Start), which brings you back to the main menu.  I found that it worked on almost all games, but homebrew was a hit and miss.  The cheat menu for games are also quite nicely done, you simply push (L+R+Select) activate all the cheats at once.  The English cheats provided for you is done fairly well.  They have quite a complete list, however the translations are done poorly.  Thankfully, you can add you own cheats if you like by using the ELink’s bundled software.

A white screen shows for a split second when you activate cheats.  I haven't had too much lag with a lot of cheats on, but it does happen when you have more than fifteen or so.

- Conclusion -

As you can tell, the ELink is a full fledged GBA flash cart.  It does everything we expect it to do, and nothing more.  It has an incredibly low price, which should more than make up for any faults it has.

This is a great cart for a casual gamer who wants to play a few classics.

The ELink has a very nice build, the plastic is great, and it fits into the GBA slot perfectly.  It will also come in a Lite sized cartridge soon, which will retain all of the features of the original ELink.  The cart plays all GBA games and homebrew with nice bonus features.  The team seems dedicated enough as they have repeated released patches for fixes and new features.  One of the promised features is Real Time Save, which allows you to save anywhere at any point in time.

Some GBA games still remain the best games on the market.

Unfortunately the ELink has its faults.  The lack of a Real Time Clock is only a problem for real fans of Pokemon, but there are a select few games that also use the Real Time Clock.  The transfer rate is fairly slow in today’s standards.  This is completely forgivable in my opinion because the lack of these features is exactly what allows the ELink’s cost to be so low.

If you want to play Pokemon, you have to either patch the GBA games, or revert back to the old Gameboy versions.

If you are looking for a cheap GBA flash cart for your DS or Gameboy Advance, this is it.  Keep in mind that it only stores 512Mb, which is equivalent to 64MB of computer space.  This cartridge is nice and cheap, and probably the best choice if you are a casual gamer, or have already played all of the old classics and just want to relive some of them.

This is one of the cheapest ways to relive some of the enormous GBA library.

- Score -

Design – 4/5
Software – 5/5
Use – 4/5
Functionality – 18/20
Tilt – 5/5

Overall – 36/40

Special thanks to the ELink team who arranged the sample for this review.