- Introduction -
The G6DS Real is obviously one of the most anticipated carts that are out on the market. With features such as download play, cheat engine, and obviously high performance memory. However, it has not been taken in very well with early reviews that put it down. The G6 Team informed me that the 2.0 firmware was out, and it would surely make the product far superior than all the rest.
The G6 Team or better known as the M3 Team has been on the market for a very long time, probably one of the longest. All of their products were high in price, and also some of the best carts ever, even today, they remain an excellent choice. It was not surprising that they would release a slot 1 version of their cart, and that they boast that it would be the best, however, the surprising news of the price is what shocked users. At a mere $64.99, this cart can be yours.
- Design -
I received the G6DS Real very suddenly, not even informed it was shipped out. I excitedly opened the package, and inside it a normal box, but the design looked impressive. Far nicer than any other box the M3 team has pumped out. On the back of the box, the list of features was so incredibly long that a whole side of the box was dedicated to this font size 8 writing.
Good luck reading that! If you want to see the full sized version of this picture and read the features, click here.
Inside the box was the G6DS Real inside a nice card holder, which was probably taken from some of their M3 Simply packages, a card reader, and a USB extension cable. All of the accessories were very high quality; the extension cable is especially useful because of the bulky card reader. The card reader for the G6DS Real is quite solid, however, the G6DS Real doesn’t fit as well as it should. The G6DS Real sticker gets scratches ever so slightly every time you push it into the reader. Thankfully this only damages half the sticker.
I have to say, I love the packaging as well as the bonus accessories.
The reader works quite fast, but it scratches the G6DS Real a little bit when it is inserted and removed.
Of course, the most important object in the package was the G6DS Real itself. Upon my first glance, it looked very different from all the other carts with the clips on the side as well as the lack of separators in between the pins at the back. However, it was very high quality, and looked to be the right size. Upon closer inspection however, you notice that there is a chip sticking out right where it is labeled G6DS Real. Because of the glossy layer on the sticker, it feels like it is sticking out more than it really is. In reality, it sticks out no more than the EZ Pass 3 or the DS Link.
Upon usage inside a DS Lite as well as the normal DS, it made it clear that the G6DS Real is slightly thicker than an original cart. It is quite awkward to insert when you are use to carts perfectly identical to original games, however, after a few times, you will get used to it. The G6DS Real does not damage or get damaged because of this.
It is awkward to insert and take out, but not really so bad.
- Software -
The G6DS Real has no real software for itself as it is drag and drop. There is no software to trim games or to convert saves either. However, this is understandable, as there is already a massive amount of programs out on the internet that can do this already.
The system files for the G6DS are quite fast to update, there is no need to run anything within the cart, simply replace the system folder or the files to update. The G6DS Real also has a “mini loader” that comes within the G6DS Real. If your cart ever has its system folder deleted or get corrupted, the G6DS Real has a very minimalist loader that can run games.
With the mini loader, you are first greeted with this warning message.
Then you see the famous TouchPod screen as well as a toned-down version of the G6 loader.
- Use -
When a DS Lite is turned on with a G6DS Real, it can either go directly into the G6DS Real menu, or it can go into the DS menu depending on your options. Either way, you get into the G6DS Real menu at some point. When inside the menu, you will notice that the menu looks almost exactly the same as the G6 Lite’s menu. It has all your games, and the options are at the top right corner. For the options, you can boot to slot 2, change skins, and also choose to boot the G6DS Real menu at launch or just the DS menu. As usual, the G6DS Real also comes with programs such as the PDA feature and the MediaPlay-Extend, which is a modified version of Moonshell. Within the menu, you can click X to swap screens, and you can click Y to change the brightness level.
Once again, the G6 team relies on the older G6 menu designs.
When you choose a game, you enter a menu that gives you options for cheating, soft reset, slow-motion switch, and the actual slow-motion level. The cheats are put at a separate page. At this point, the cheats posted up on the official site are limited, with barely any games supported, however, it is fairly easy to use files from other carts, or simply using Action Replay files. The soft reset pretty much worked with every game I tried. At this point, I have to say that slow-motion is a pretty broken feature, there is only one game that I have tried that has worked with the feature, and many that don’t. I hope that the support for this feature gets better because for now, it isn’t even worth trying.
Very easy to use if it wasn't for some touch screen calibration issues.
This video shows the G6DS Real turning on, using the cheat function and booting a game.
- Functionality -
In terms of compatibility, the G6DS Real excels. It ran everything I threw at it with zero lag. Obviously this includes problematic games such as Castlevania and Tony Hawks, but it also, even the newer Brothers in Arms DS game ran without any frame rate problems. Even though drag and drop and soft reset works with every game, it is no longer surprising. With flash carts such as the R4DS and the N-Card clones, this is an expectation. Even so, it lives up to that expectation.
That's right, another Castlevania screenshot, and another cart that can play it with zero lag.
Homebrew seems to be a major concern with the G6DS Real. It is true that the G6DS Real does not yet have its promised auto-DLDI patcher, however, it is promised to be released in June sometime. And remember that the G6DS Real carts have just shipped out, most have probably not even received their carts yet.
The most important topic that came into play with the G6DS Real is download play compatibility, early on, the G6DS Real boasted of 100% download play compatibility, but now on the G6DS Real site, this claim has been reduced to “the highest download play compatibility.” My tests are posted here:
Working
Tetris DS
Mario Kart DS
New Super Mario Bros.
Bomberman Land Touch
Elite Beat Agents
Meteos
Quickspot
True Swing Golf
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!
Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer DS
Not Working
Super Mario 64 DS
Mario Hoops 3 on 3
Nanostray
Metroid Prime Hunters
Club House Games
Big Brain Academy
As you can see, it isn’t too bad, certainly very far from 100%, but definitely “the highest download play compatibility”. The G6 team managed to fix Mario Kart 64 in an update, this means that they can probably fix download play games in the future.
Mario Kart DS didn't work before, but with the new 2.0 firmware, it is running perfectly.
- Conclusion -
In general, the G6DS Real has the best of everything (assuming that the auto-DLDI patcher comes out in June), and even though it is a seemingly high price in the current market, the G6DS Real is a bargain compared with slightly older carts.
The G6DS Real is very high quality, and all the accessories are also high quality. The cart itself is not up to standards because it is thicker than the original carts. However, the performance on the cart is phenomenal, and it does currently sport the highest download play compatibility. And obviously, the makers of the G6DS Real is the G6 team, who are known to produce high quality products, and stand behind their products for a very long time.
I hope the G6 team can fix the thickness issue in the near future, it is one of the very few negative points about this cart.
Unfortunately, the G6DS Real does have its downsides. Let’s face it, the G6DS Real, at $64.99 is the highest price in the current market. It also does not have the promised DLDI driver. The build of the cart is sub-standard, as the chip sticking out is clearly causing problems. And in general, the features do not seem very polished yet.
In conclusion, I would say, the G6DS Real is a very good product, and definitely worth looking at and perhaps even buying it. If all the promised features are released in the next month, which is a very high possibility, this cart can easily be the greatest in the market. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, it isn’t. So all I can say is that, the G6DS Real runs games flawlessly, it does download play very well, and overall, the menu and loaders work very fast and efficiently. Features outside of that are still up in the air.
- Score -
Design – 3/5
Software – 5/5
Use – 5/5
Functionality – 18/20
Tilt – 5/5
Overall – 36/40
Special thanks to the G6 Team who sent me a sample. |
