In this review we are looking at a XPLODER: Action Reloader from BLAZE. Action Reloader is a quick save / restore utility for GBA games. Can be used in GAMEBOY Advance, GBA SP and GB micro (GBM) as well as in Nintendo DS.

What it does is it adds a quick SAVE and RESTORE like what you have in many PC action games with [F5] and [F9] buttons. So you can create a RealTime Save at any place in the game and later on with a single push of a button restore -> go back in time to that save point in game...

In addition to having this one active game save slot or as Xploder calls it [CAPTURE] you also have memory for storing up to 7 realtime games saves. Can be used all for one game or for multiple games.

Same as cheat devices like Action Reply or Game Shark you plug the Reloader into GBA slot and insert your game cartridge into it. As I already mentioned it was tested to work with all versions of Gameboy Advance including GBA, SP and Micro and it works on Nintendo DS, but of course on DS you can use it only for GBA games and not for NDS game cards.

When you turn on the console Action Reloader reads the name of the game from the cartridge, so this really helps when you want to save a backup of that game as you don't have to write the whole name yourself. Of course if you want to you can - but what we did is just changed the end of the name to 1, 2, 3 if we had multiple game saves for that game or if multiple people were using Reloader from the same game.

Now the best part is actually how easy it is to use it. Unlike in other add-on cheat devices where you have to enter codes or download them from the internet, here you can operate the device with just 2 buttons straight out of the box. Use the middle button on the Xploder to SAVE and any one of the side buttons to RESTORE. And yes - it really can be done at any place in the game. The best I can think of are before the big boss fights or if there is a long level and so far you have completed it perfectly that is a good place to do a quick save so that you don't have to replay the whole level if something goes wrong. Best of all you are not really cheating - just jumping back and forth in time like Michael J. Fox in the movie "Back to the Future" :)

Reviewed by Gameboy-advance.net