Flash cartridges have been around for a very long time and are potentially most commonly associated with the Game Boy line of consoles, but they do also exist for the NES, SNES, and rather controversially, even systems as modern as the Switch. But there’s a new flash cart on the block; this one is for another of Nintendo’s hardware outputs, and it’s none other than the best-selling handheld of all time – the Nintendo DS.
But what exactly is a flash cart and how is this particular one different to any other DS flash carts on the market? Let’s take a look!
This is the EZ Flash Parallel, created by EZ Flash and sent to us by Senko Games for the purposes of review.
Table of Contents
Opening Up A Parallel World Of Possibilities
Effectively, this is literally just a Nintendo DS flash cart which works exactly the same as any other cart, such as the R4 or ones you’ll find for extremely cheap on sites like AliExpress or Temu. The major difference here is that the build quality is much better, with it using a much higher quality plastic for its shell. Plus it’s transparent which makes it look pretty cool… just like me.
Interestingly, the Parallel features a tiny FPGA chip which might get you all excited due to how hyped up this technology is, but rather weirdly, this chip doesn’t actually seem to currently do anything. This implies that a future update to the cart will add in some additional functionality, and so far EZ Flash have actually been consistently updating the device and providing us with fixes for some initial issues the cart had, so it’s not completely unreasonable to assume that they could be working on some pretty major stuff behind the scenes.
The most obvious thing we could maybe see is a way of playing Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games through the FPGA chip inside the flash cart, which would give us much greater performance than we can get by emulating these systems on the DS via software. But whether this actually ever ends up happening remains to be seen.
Of course, if you have an original model DS or a DS Lite, then there is a cartridge slot that allows it to play GBA games anyway, but this slot was removed for the DSi, and even the DS systems with this slot couldn’t play original Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridges. So the official backward compatibility in this area was a bit lacking, which makes the idea of an FPGA Game Boy and Game Boy Advance function on a DS cartridge all the more enticing.
For now, let’s stop speculating about things that might not even end up happening and take a look at what this thing can currently do, as well as how you’d go about setting it up.
EZ By Name, But Is It Easy To Use?
For those of you who are brand new to flash carts, what they basically do is enable you to store hundreds of games on a single cartridge and trick your device into thinking that it’s playing those games natively and officially. It’s also not using emulation which means that you’re getting perfect performance like you would if you were playing with an official cartridge.
I’m very happy to report that the setting up process here is about as straightforward as you could get. All you need to do is have a spare micro SD card handy, format it to FAT32 using a PC, download the newest version of the EZ Flash Parallel frontend from their website, plonk it onto the root of the micro SD, add in your ‘legally obtained’ ROM files to a folder on the micro SD, and then slap that sucker into the flash cart, shove it into the DS, and away you go.
They do recommend you only use a micro SD card at 32GB or less, but this seems to just be a precaution because cards as big as 64GB seem to work perfectly fine.
The UI the EZ Flash Parallel uses is based on the ‘Wood Kernal’, which is an open-source front end used by the vast majority of these DS flash carts. Why exactly EZ Flash chose to create their own very slightly modified version I’m not sure, but it appears to be almost identical to the standard version. This is actually a little bit of a shame in a way because I would have appreciated a more modern interface that looks a bit slicker. However, because it’s based on open-source software, that means it’s compatible with any user-created skins and themes created for the ‘Wood Kernal’, so I guess that sort of makes up this slightly unambitious UI.
You can also choose to install a completely different UI like Twilight Menu if you’d prefer that, but for this video, I want to stick to the software that EZ Flash have provided considering that’s kind of the authentic experience they want you to have here.
Putting The EZ Flash Parallel Through Its Paces
Now, if you literally just wanted to play standard DS games, at this point you’d have everything completely set up and ready to go. But you’d be missing out because these flash carts are actually capable of much more than this.
The main reason you would want a flash cart outside of playing all of the DS games in your collection on a single cartridge is to access some pretty crazy homebrew stuff.
People have somehow managed to get games like Doom, Quake and even a modified version of Super Mario Galaxy working on the DS, and all of these are just crazy things to experience. You wouldn’t think that this stuff would run on original DS hardware, but you know what these talented creators are like – they just won’t rest until everything is running Doom.
If that doesn’t impress you, how about accessing emulators? There is working emulation software running on the DS for systems like the NES, SNES, SEGA Genesis, Atari 2600, and more, and to think that the DS hardware was capable of this and yet Nintendo themselves never took advantage of it is pretty insane.
Remember that you do not need to hack your actual console in any way to access this stuff either, you’re literally just dragging and dropping files onto the micro SD, putting it in the cartridge, and loading it all off there. This makes it a really attractive option for people like me who don’t normally like messing with soft modding too much but still want access to some of those awesome features that aren’t available by official means.
But all of this is possible on any flash cart, so what is actually unique to this particular one?
A Flash Of Brilliance, Or A Flash In The Pan?
One of the main selling points here beyond the much better build quality and visual appeal when compared to other carts, is the fact that this one doesn’t have what’s referred to as a ‘Time Bomb’. Lots of cheaper flash carts had this annoying function where after a set amount of time, they would stop working or have decreased performance, which was supposed to incentivise you to buy the new yearly model of the same cartridge.
As far as I’m aware though, this practice isn’t all too common with newer flash carts, but it is nice that EZ Flash guarantees that this isn’t going to happen when you buy their device. It also boasts a ‘power saving design’, and this is important because one of the main reasons you would have wanted to go for official cartridges over a flash cart is because flash carts were notorious for draining the battery of your console far faster than playing games normally.
I did a little bit of a test in this area by leaving my DS on with the flash cart plugged in and running Mario Kart DS for five hours, and then did the same with the official game and found that there was barely any difference in battery level. So yeah, the EZ Flash Parallel does seem to be extremely good in this particular area, and I feel like this is probably one of the biggest reasons to buy this over similar alternatives.
A Note On Backward Compatibility
Something I want to clarify is that on the website and promotional material for this and similar options, it always states that it supports all DS and 3DS systems, and this is technically true. For a lot of this video, you’ve been watching it being used on a 3DS and this is simply because the 3DS has a bigger screen than my original DS which makes it easier to film. However, this does not mean that you can put 3DS ROMs on here and play them on a 3DS.
This is an original DS flash cart, but because of the 3DS’ backward compatibility with DS games, it means that it’ll work on the 3DS but as an original DS. As far as I’m aware the best flash cart for the 3DS is… well, just hacking your 3DS. There’s no need for a flash cart because everything that would typically be made possible with a flash cart is done through the hacking process instead. I’ve actually done a video where I talk about what’s possible with a hacked 3DS and some of the stuff is pretty crazy, so definitely check that out if you want to know more.
But here’s the thing; if you combine a DS flash cart with a hacked 3DS, you effectively have the ultimate all-in-one DS system with every game (that you legally own) at your fingertips running completely natively with absolutely no emulation.
Emulation is obviously great; I love it just as much as the next person and it makes playing games you’ve owned for years feel completely fresh thanks to all of the different devices you can use and all of the upscaling options you have access to. But at the same time, I really do feel like there’s nothing quite like playing games on original hardware, and I truly do think I can tell when things aren’t being played natively. But this isn’t an issue at all with a flash cart and hacking because you’re still playing the games on the hardware it was designed to work on originally. It just feels right.
Retro Dodo’s Official Verdict
So would I recommend the EZ Flash Parallel for your DS needs? Well, yeah I would. I’m giving the EZ Flash Parallel 8 dodos out of 10. It currently costs £23.99 (which is approximately $30) if you get it from Senko Games, and while you can find much cheaper alternatives that might do the same job, I think there’s just enough going for this for me to suggest getting it over those other options.
First off, the build quality is much better here and it’s more visually pleasing in general. It also has the micro SD port on the side which means that it’s completely secure when the cartridge is actually in your DS, whereas most other alternatives have this port on the top which means you could theoretically accidentally remove the micro SD while playing a game and risk losing save data, or maybe even end up corrupting the game files.
There’s no ‘Time Bomb’ mechanic here that would render your new cartridge useless down the line, and they are actually doing updates to the software quite frequently which suggests that they’re listening to feedback. It also doesn’t drain your console’s battery life like some other flash carts do, which could be a huge benefit if you travel around a lot or don’t want to be hooked up to a charger.
The other major thing is that FPGA chip that doesn’t do anything yet. Now this might turn out to be nothing at all and could just be something put there to cause a buzz of excitement, but if this does eventually mean that more systems are playable directly from the cartridge with no hacking required, then this would absolutely give the Parallel the edge over the competition.
Right now though, it’s just a great Nintendo DS flash cart. It’s probably the single best Nintendo DS flash cart that I’ve personally seen, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no room for improvement. I want to see these flash carts get pushed into a new era by having things like a sleeker more modern UI for the software and maybe somehow make it possible to have save states to make jumping in and out of games easier.
It is also slightly disappointing that it doesn’t come with its own micro SD card by default; you either need to pay extra for one or already have your own. But the main criticism I have is that at the end of the day, it is basically just the exact same product that we’ve seen a million times before, just a tiny bit better in a couple of what could be considered minor areas.
Now, if that FPGA chip comes into play later down the line, things might dramatically change, but for now, I would say if you’re new to DS flash carts and want to check out some homebrew or access your games in one handy cartridge, definitely check this out!
But what do you think of the EZ Flash Parallel? Have you dabbled in DS flash carts before and if so, has this done enough to convince you to buy it? If you haven’t used a flash cart before, are you impressed by what they can do? Let me know in the comments of the YouTube video at the top of this article!
