| Neoflash Top Toy DS Review - DS Database - 1-06-2008 |
Special thanks to the Neoflash team for providing the review sample used in this review.
- Introduction - The Neoflash team have been responsible for some of the most revolutionary products for the DS scene, but unfortunately also some of the biggest flops. With very few updates in the past, people have always tried to steer clear of this team’s products. Even though they have been hugely beneficial to the scene, which is seen from their support towards homebrew developers to the way they pioneered the first generation Nintendo DS flash carts, it was smarter to stay away from their products. But it is safe to say that this product is a winner, you won’t go wrong with the Neoflash Top Toy DS.
The Neoflash Top Toy DS is an OEM of the DS Top Toy, they share the same firmware, build quality, software and even the same freebie in the package. Thankfully if one team were to drop out of providing software, it is easy to find a replacement.
- Design - The Neoflash Top Toy DS came in the standard Neoflash packaging, it is very professional and looks to be designed for a shelf. It has some nice colors, but the plastic mold seems to be made for something else because we see a slot for a lite sized slot 2 cartridge that is clearly missing, instead, jammed inside is a nice light blue MicroSD reader and a disk.
The disk had all the software for all of the Neoflash products, it was quite easy to locate the Neoflash Top Toy DS files, but they were out of date, so the most reliable option was to go onto their website to download the files. The MicroSD reader is quite fun to play with after you get used to it. Upon the first use, I was so annoyed, it was almost impossible to remove the MicroSD, but after a few uses and some loosening up, it is a joy to have around. It is very small and it keeps a MicroSD very secure. It goes straight into the USB port, and is extremely fast. I’ve placed a second MicroSD inside to carry around, the hook unfortunately doesn’t hook onto the DS Lite, but I used it to hook onto another hook that was placed on the DS Lite.
The actual Neoflash Top Toy DS was brilliant. The build quality was just amazing! It was made of nice thick plastic that covered the entire cart, there was no chip sticking out either. It might even be better than the R4. The sticker has the usual brushed steel look of the Neoflash stickers but doesn’t sport a lot of colors, it looks alright. Also, the Neoflash Top Toy DS uses a spring loaded MicroSD slot, which is quite strong as far as I can tell.
- Software - The Neoflash Top Toy DS completely supports drag and drop, it has autoDLDI patching as well, so all your games and homebrew can be put into the Neoflash Top Toy DS with a quick drag of the mouse. There is no need for any software whatsoever, so none is provided.
The firmware is a folder with a few files and skins, and can be downloaded from their site and also just dragged into the Neoflash Top Toy DS.
- Use - The Neoflash Top Toy DS is quite simple to use, upon the initial boot you get taken to a list of games after the Nintendo Health and Safety screen. The list of games has the game’s icon, file name, size as well as a few icons, each stands for something different.
There are two sets of options, at the top left hand corner under SysOption, you can set soft reset for all games to on or off. Underneath, you can boot a slot 2 cart using passme or just as a GBA game with either PASSME Mode or GBA Mode. Power Off is obviously clicked when you want to turn the DS console off. As for the button that says brightness, on the DS Lite you are able to swap brightness settings by clicking this button.
The other set of options are used for controlling the settings of each game individually. When you hover over a game in the main menu, a blue cross appears, when you click it, or just press select, you are able to enter another options menu with three settings. DMA Mode can be turned on or off, I’d leave this to the default settings because DMA deals with compatibility issues. Soft reset allows the game to reset to the menu when a certain combination of buttons are pressed, in the case of the Neoflash Top Toy DS, it is L+R+A+B+X+Y. The last setting you can fiddle with is cheats, which can be turned on or off. Once it is on, you can click the right button on the D-pad to access a cheat menu consisting of cheat files that either the Neoflash team has already given you or ones that you have added yourself.
When you actually boot the game, you might have to take a few seconds to create a save file after the first boot, but other than that it should boot within a second, two tops. The Neoflash Top Toy DS is incredibly fast when it comes to booting games, and loading up the menu is quite quick as well because there is no need to write saves onto the memory card upon power on, that is because the Neoflash Top Toy DS, like the R4 and some other flash carts, write the save file onto the memory card when it is supposed to happen, during the game.
- Functionality - The compatibility of the Neoflash Top Toy DS is amazing. The GBATemp review of the Top Toy DS claimed that Contra 4 did not work, however, I managed to get it running full speed in the earliest firmware I could find. I tested over 200 roms without a single problem, each one ran smoothly and saved perfectly fine.
For the purpose of this review, I have used a 1GB Japanese Kingston MicroSD memory card. For speed tests, the cart ran flawlessly with both Castlevania games, even their intros ran perfectly fine. Unfortunately I was not able to test this with any other MicroSD cards.
As for homebrew, the Neoflash Top Toy DS uses autoDLDI patching, therefore, theoretically all homebrew using DLDI should work, and every single one did, with the exception of the newly released Starlite demo, which happens to be problematic with several major flash carts. Nonethelesss, I found the autoDLDI patcher to be fast and reliable.
As for download play, the Neoflash Top Toy DS does not disappoint, it was the full 100%, all my usual download play games worked perfectly fine, just the same as the retail carts. The Neoflash Top Toy DS is an excellent flash cart that has already proven itself in a few short tests. It is certainly worth buying, and can easily be the next R4 flash cart. Already with the DS Top Toy it has received huge support, with numerous skins popping out, it is clear that this cart will live on for quite some time.
This flash cart has great support for NDS games and homebrew, as well as full download play support. Their cheat files can be taken from the huge databases that the R4 has to offer. It is easy to navigate through the menus and it focuses on getting you to the games as fast as it can. All of these features are packed into a tiny cart with an extremely good shell to house it in.
There are very few negatives that I can think of, one of the main problems is that the list of games is not alphabetically organized, but instead in time placed on the MicroSD. Also the system with all the icons can be a bit cryptic at times.
Overall, the Neoflash Top Toy DS is an amazing cart offered at an amazing price. I am highly satisfied with mine, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone!
- Score - Design – 5/5 Overall – 38.5/40 Once again, thanks to the Neoflash team for providing this great product for a review. |
