BlazePro is back with another gimmick for the Gameboy Advance, developed by the famous SuperUFO company. I first heard about the Xploder products back in the N64 days, and since then cheat devices for PSX, PS2, DC, GB, GBC and GBA has come and gone. The latest product is not a real cheat device though, but still could be described as one. The Xploder Action Reloader allows you to save or restore any GBA game, anytime or anywhere in the game, the only thing you have to do is remember to save every now and then.
The Action Reloader works with the original GBA, the GBASP and the NDS, I have not been able to test it with a Gameboy Micro unfortunately.
The Action Reloader piggybacks the GBA, as it is inserted into the cartridge slot of the GBA, and GBA game is then inserted in a cartridge slot in the Action Reloader.
When switching on the GBA, you're presented with an Action Reloader startup screen and once you get to the menu of the Action Reloader, the GBAgame inserted is automaticly detected and the title of the game is written at the bottom of the screen. Should it say please change cart, you might be using a pirate cartridge, shame om you. It will not work with your favourite flash cart either.
At the menu screen you are able to do 3 things, save, load or delete a game. It might be a great idea to create a save for the game you've just played, before playing another, or load an existing savegame if you've already been using an Action Reloader. The device does require any batteries, I'm guessing all saves are stored on a flash chip. Hopefully I don't have to explain what delete does, so i? :-)
Action Replay is able to store up to 7 different save games, or 7 saves for just one game. When playing a game, 3 buttons on the Action Reloader hardware allows for easy save and retore, the left and right buttons are both for restoring while only the center button is for saving, so be careful not to restore when you actually wanted to save.
I really like the idea of being able to save whenever you want in a game, keeps you from having to repeat the same level, from the beginning, when you loose a life to the stage boss.
The Action Replay cost about US$30 which isn't bad at all, but unfortunately there's no guarantee that it will work with all future GBA games, or existing ones for that matter.
