· Intro
· Package
· GUI
· Compatibility
· Summary

Intro

The first DSi flashcard comes from Acekard 2i. All of you there are already lots of “i” flashcards, we choose one which is typical and does an outstanding performance among them. This is a review about what the new feature AK2i brings to us. We finally decide to key in something for it despite the fact that we’ve known the principle how it runs homebrew and games. That’s the simple thought.

Package

The initial AK2i contains a slot-1 card and a USB card reader, accompanying some funny bugs at the same time(black screen, frozen, etc). Now AK2i team has done some patches and fix the error. In the latest batch of AK2i, there is no USB card reader, leaving the card only.

For the card itself, the ak team redesign the shell to make it as the same as genuine DS card. However you can find a slight bump under the card label, well no problem while inserting to slot-1. This time there’s no screw on the card, so if you want to see the inner side, a pocket knife might be required.

From the back side you can notice that the fence of copper pin from the very original AK product comes back, so does the spring load design.

GUI

There is the simple official manual. All of you know how to make it work, don’t you? XD

Turn on the DSi, choose the AK2i icon and jump to the GUI. the yop screen shows calendar and the touch screen provides you the launch mode. Slot-2 mode is still alive that makes us bring something to mind, oh?

Now let’s list the new functions AK2i has and show them one by one. Choose a file and press START button to open the menu.

Auto run in Paste Setting
This is a new function which allows you to make a quick load for the last played game while booting AK2i.

Auto Trimming in System Options
This function allows you to remove dummy data from ROM while copy it from one folder to another.

Shortcut in Properties
Choose Properties to display the detail info of a game. Press X button so that a shortcut icon will be created on the GUI.

Backup save in Properties
Press Y button on Properties menu to move to the Setup Rom Info menu. Then press X button to backup your save files. You can creat up to 6 saves for a game.

Features

AK2i does the same as AK card does. With the latest kernel majority of games and homebrew can be exactly recognized and perfectly run. There is a Compatibility test list, all of them work well besides Layton Kyouju (Professor Layton Episode 3).

Games

New Super Mario Bros.
Jump Ultimate Stars
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Dragon Ball Z: Goku Densetsu
The Legend of Zelda ~ Phantom Hourglass
Layton Kyouju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokou
Chrono Trigger
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Tony Hawk’s Motion Hue Pixel Painter
Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon
Tales of Heart Anime Edition
Phantasy Star Zero

Homebrew

Moonshell 1.71
NeoDS 1.1
Image Viewer 0.7
Dolphin Reader 0.15
Tower Defenser 0.5

Ak2i supports a few multimedia files and you can run them directly on AK2i. DSM, MP3 and TXT(ANSI) format are available.

AK2i supports Action Replay Cheat Code, so just find the cheats and copy it to __ak2\cheats to activate the fuction.

About battery Life, the result comes out about 5 hours before the Indicator turns to red.

Summary

We get it and we like it, that’s the first impression Ak2i bring to us. The good support of games and homebrews, simple and humanising GUI, easy to use, powerful multimedia player. Just like what AKRPG and AK2 is. And don’t forget its the world’s first DSi flashcard. Although there isn’t any news about whether it supports DSi Only games (in fact none of DSi flashcard owns this function), we still regard it as a good stuff. Hope that the new kernel specialized for DSi would be released ASAP. We are supposing that Nintendo has send a congratulation telegram to celebrate the hacking progress of AK2i, so you why not support AK2i card?

Video Review: