R4 SDHC Dual Core Review

Hi and welcome to the first installment of my series of reviews called "R4 Wars" in which I will be reviewing R4 (clone) cards. This is Episode 1: The Dual Core Menace, where we will be looking at the R4 SDHC Dual Core flashcard. This flashcard runs on every DS console and it even supports the latest 3DS firmware (v7.1). The firmware the card uses is the popular Wood firmware.

Packaging

The R4 SDHC Dual Core comes in a convenient little carboard box which holds the card itself and a microSD USB reader.

The Card Itself

The card itself is really well built in my opinion. It's quite sturdy and pretty hard to take apart. The microSD slot is really tight, I really needed to put some force into it for the microSD card to get to the bottom of the slot and it was really hard to get it out of the slot again.

Firmware

The card shows up as SpongeBob Atlantis Squarepantis on the 3DS. When booted you will be greeted with he familiar Wood R4 firmware which is pretty straightforward in it's use. The R4 SDHC Dual Core team included their own theme for the Wood firmware, but you can still use the other two themes (Zelda theme or Black theme) if you'd like.

Dual Core

The card is called Dual Core, so what's with that? From what I read, the card uses two cores: one core to run the firmware and one to run the games. As to which other cards use only one core for all of those tasks. The two cores are supposed to make the card run faster and smoother than other cards. And it does, the firmware boots really quickly and the games take less than a second to load. The games also run really smooth. I have had some trouble before with the start screen on Pokémon Black/White (2) which played incredibly slow and distorted, but there is no problem at all with this card.

NDS ROM Compatibility

These games were tested on the latest Wood firmware (1.72).

Beyblade Metal Fusion (USA): Worked perfectly
Medarot DS: Kabuto Ver. (JPN): Worked perfectly
Kingdom Hearts re:Coded (USA): Worked perfectly
Pokémon Black 2 (USA): Worked perfectly
Pocket Monster White 2 (JPN): Worked perfectly
All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation 2 (JPN): Worked perfectly

So overall it has an almost perfect game compatibility while using the Wood firmware.

Conclusion

The R4 SDHC Dual Core is a great flashcard to play NDS games on.

Pro's:

• Dual Core processing resulting in really fast loading times and smooth gameplay
  
• Almost perfect NDS game compatibility with the Wood firmware
  
• Really well built
  
• Cheap (± $10 - $15)

Cons:

• Tight microSD card slot

Final Score: 92%

DS-Scene would like to thank WooCards for sending us the review sample.