- Introduction -

Almost two years ago, Nintendo announced the Rumble Pack for the Nintendo DS.  It would be shipped along with copies of Metroid Prime Pinball.  Being the size of a GBA cartridge, it wasn’t odd to find users that wanted to shave some of the size off.  Soon after, the eWin Rumble Pack was released.  Although currently there is an official Nintendo DS rumble pack that is lite sized, it hasn’t been released for as long as the eWin Rumble Pack.

Before I continue, it seems like the packaging really wants to let people know that this is for the Nintendo DS Lite only.

The eWin Rumble Pack is an unofficial rumble pack for the Nintendo DS Lite.  It was advertised to be exactly the same as the official rumble pack.  At a cheap price of $6 in comparison to Nintendo’s $10 rumble pack, it seemed to be a bargain.

At $7, the packaging is quite professional. It looks nice and clear, and very solid.

- Build Quality -

The eWin Rumble Pack is a nice little cart with a sticker that can almost pass up for something official.  It is lite sized, and comes in various colors such as polar white and onyx black.  For this review, I have received a black eWin Rumble Pack.

It looks fairly solid, and has a nice overall feel to it.

The eWin Rumble Pack’s build quality looks amazing.  It seems to be the same size as the dust cover that came along with my Nintendo DS Lite, however, it is missing the glossy layer at the top.  Even so, it looks phenomenal on the Nintendo DS Lite and does not stick out at all.

It is the closest thing to a dust cover I have seen in quite some time.

However, the cart does seem a little thicker than the dust cover, causing a few issues sliding in and out of the DS Lite.  Early on, the eWin Rumble Pack is quite hard to remove from the DS Lite, however, over time, it slides in and out quite easily.

- Usefulness -

Originally I had imagined that a rumble pack for the Nintendo DS Lite would be great.  However, over time, I have realized that very few games have support for it, and even fewer games make good use of it.  According to Wikipedia, there are only 15 Nintendo DS games that use the Rumble Pack, and on that list, there are only 2 or 3 that I can imagine would use the rumble feature to its full extent.

As a quick test, I played a bit of Metroid Prime Pinball with the rumble pack, and it is one of the few games that I did enjoy quite a bit.  The rumbling and the slight buzz did add a bit of a spin to the game, and it certainly does enhance the game quite a bit.  But upon playing Hotel Dusk: Room 215, I didn’t even notice a difference.  It is in very odd bits and parts of the story that you may feel a slight vibration, and even then, you can barely notice it.

Hmm, rumbles after he shoots, how predictable.

- Ease of Use -

Using the eWin Rumble Pack is as easy as it gets.  Basically all you have to do is plug it into slot 2 of a DS Lite, and when a game that supports rumble is selected, you will get a slight buzz to signal that it has been activated.

Just plug it in, then play.

It is fairly simple to use, there is not much thinking involved.  There are other options of rumble packs that allow users to rumble in games that don’t support rumble, or need games to be patched for rumbling.  But for the most part, the eWin Rumble Pack is quite painless to use.

- Functionality -

As mentioned before there are only about a dozen games that support the eWin Rumble Pack’s rumble feature.  Most of them aren’t the greatest, but a few of them make it worth purchasing an eWin Rumble Pack.  Metroid Prime Pinball is the first and the best game that makes use of the rumble pack.

Metroid Prime Pinball uses the rumble pack very well, it is almost a completely different game.

Basically a rumble pack rumbles during sections of the game, how great it is depends on how developers choose to use the rumble pack for their games.  In general, the “rumble enabled” games on the Nintendo DS are far and few.  They aren’t great, and there are many games that you’d wish were on the list but just aren’t.  However, to be fair, some games are more than memorable because of their use of this rumble pack, for example, Elite Beat Agents uses the rumble feature quite nicely.

As far as the quality of the eWin Rumble Pack’s “rumble” goes, I can say that it is quite decent.  It is certainly no console rumble pack, but for a handheld, it is quite decent.  It gives a very nice little vibration, but the noise it makes isn’t that loud, and overall, it is one of those nice little additions to a game that you can live without.

- Conclusion -

The eWin Rumble Pack is nice and cheap, it works exactly the way it should, and it works very nicely.  However, the real question is whether you really want to spend $7 on a rumble pack that is only supported by a handful of games.

Looks great, works great, too bad there just aren't that many games that make use for it.

In general, I have to say that the eWin Rumble Pack does add some nice feedback for a number of games, but to be honest, I can’t see the reason in getting one, especially when there are far better uses for the second slot of the Nintendo DS Lite.

- Score -

Build Quality – 5/5
Usefulness – 2.5/5
Ease of Use – 4.5/5
Functionality – 4/5
Tilt – 5/5

Overall – 21/25