The state of NDS flashcarts is needlessly confusing and vague:
nds.flashcarts.net seems to have a comprehensive list of flashcarts. I'll be linking to the pages on that site for each flashcart I tested, to avoid confusion.
I currently have an Old 3DS XL and a New 3DS XL. The cartridge slot in both consoles feel different. The locking mechanism of the cartridge slot on the New 3DS XL doesn't work on some flashcarts, while the Old 3DS XL doesn't have this problem. On New 3DS XL, the cartridge has to be pushed deeper to engage the locking mechanism.
If I buy a DS, DS Lite, DSi, or DSi XL, I'll update this page with relevant info.
This was the first flashcart I bought, in 2018. I soon learnt that it had a timebomb in the kernel, so I replaced it with YSMenu. Due to the timebomb, it was not recommended by most websites online; however, among the flashcarts I've tested, this is actually my favorite, simply because it can run iQue games. Or rather, it's because the Wood kernels used by other popular/recommended flashcarts refuse to run them. More on that later.
After years of use in YSMenu, it finally started to randomly freeze and corrupt saves. This is probably a hardware fault, so I replaced it with an r4iwood.cn flashcart in 2024.
In 2025, after I got frustrated with the other flashcarts, I bought three of these, one of each label: Gold Pro (yellow), RTS Lite (grey), Dual Core (white), and confirmed that they all work identically with the same kernel. I also set up YSMenu dual boot just in case. Despite the instructions on nds.flashcarts.net and sanrax's guide, you should use the "R4i-SDHC YSMenu" folder, not the "DSTTi-Clone YSMenu" folder. The latter would load the file explorer but will not load any games, at least when dualbooted, reporting an "unsupported DLDI name" error. The instructions in the GBATemp post said to use the "R4i-SDHC YSMenu" folder for r4isdhc.com flashcarts.
The timebomb in the stock kernel (R4iMenu) has since been removed with the latest (and probably last) version, even on older flashcarts that predate the removal, suggesting that such timebomb has no hardware component and is entirely in the kernel.
THIS IS BAD. DO NOT BUY.
I bought this one in 2019, shortly after the r4isdhc.com one, for use with my New 3DS XL, because it was recommended on GBATemp back then, and because I wanted to avoid timebombs. However this turned out to be a bad choice in more ways than one.
Firstly, it works poorly with the cartridge slot of the New 3DS XL. Most of the time when I tried it, it refused to lock in the slot, and sometimes even got stuck in the slot (i.e. can't be removed even with another push) without engaging the locking mechanism. Either way, it couldn't be detected by the console. I searched for the problem, and some people recommended pushing it harder. I did that and it still only worked sometimes. After a while I noticed the pins in the slot have slightly bent/deformed, probably because of me using excessive force. Then after a short while the flashcart itself stopped working (i.e. it can't be read by the console), even on my Old 3DS XL where the locking mechanism has no problems with the flashcart; it was purchased later than the r4isdhc.com flashcart, and stopped working years before the r4isdhc.com one did, with way fewer uses.
Secondly, because it uses a Wood kernel, it refuses to load iQue games. It seems that Wood kernels have an internal whitelist of games, and would refuse to load games that are not in this whitelist. The official websites of flashcarts that use Wood kernels mention that they only support clean ROMs, which makes sense if there's a whitelist. Such flashcarts load J/U/E/K games just fine, but would consider iQue games to be "corrupted" and refuse to load them (pressing A does nothing), without even reading the game info from the ROM. I tried with both fully original ROMs, and ROMs with the region byte (0x1D) patched and header checksum recalculated, and both are refused by Wood, while both are accepted by R4iMenu and YSMenu.
Although this is unrelated to the particular flashcart I bought, another reason to not recommend it is, to quote nds.flashcarts.net: "The last batch of the R4i Gold Plus carts had a hardware fault that rendered them unable to load games with Wood R4 1.64. If you have one of these carts the alternative is to use BL2CK OS, although you won’t get the additional features from Wood R4 1.64."
This was the third flashcart I bought, in 2024, to replace the broken r4isdhc.com flashcart. It runs a Wood kernel and therefore refuses to run iQue games. There doesn't seem to be RTS support; it's not advertised on the label, and it's not mentioned in settings.
The card I bought has r4iwood.cn printed on the label. However, when you go to that site it says:
main site: www.r4isdhc.com.cn sub site: www.r4iwood.cnBoth domains indeed point to the same website.
The kernel provided on the website is bugged. Taiko DS3 (B3DJ) has a repeating click sound whenever a music track is played (either system BGM or playable song) while sound effects are not affected. Switching to the kernel provided by Ace3DS X or archive.flashcarts.net fixed the problem, however I ordered an Ace3DS X (the new "coolest kid on the block") before I realized that.
Being used to YSMenu, I don't like that the Wood UI essentially wastes the top screen. In Wood, the only way to show game info (icon and/or title) without pressing Y is to show it in the file listing, which increases the height of entries and therefore decreases the number of entries that can be shown per screen. I use the "filename only" view to maximize the number of entries shown per screen.
It works well enough for most games, except that it refuses to run iQue games (see previous section), which prompted me to seek other alternatives.
Pico Loader, the loader of DSpico, a new open source DS flashcart released in November 2025, can run on this flashcart and EZFlash Parallel, and can run iQue games.
I have noticed that Momotarou Dentetsu World would freeze when you choose "card" from the in-game menu, which would normally show the list of cards you have. The music keeps playing, but the display is frozen, and the game doesn't respond to any input. This happens with both Pico Loader and Wood, with both this flashcart and Ace3DS X, but doesn't happen with the r4isdhc.com 2014+. One more reason to prefer DSTTi clones.
THIS IS BAD. DO NOT BUY.
Sleep mode doesn't work. When the 3DS is closed, a strobing effect occurs, like when you're holding the space key in Windows Media Player (where the space key works as both play and pause). I held on to the card without returning it because the transparent shell looks stylish, hoping that a fix will come, but it never did.
I bought it because I saw Macho Nacho Productions recommending it in a review, which never mentioned the sleep mode bug, which should be easy to spot. Lesson learnt: never trust YouTube reviews.
Another reason I bought it, shortly after I bought the r4iwood.cn one, is that I wanted to find a flashcart that wouldn't refuse to run iQue games. Sadly EZFlash Parallel fails on this too, as it also uses a Wood kernel. Pico Loader supports EZFlash Parallel though, so maybe it would run iQue games this way. I don't even want to test this though due to the sleep mode issue.
So, similar to the r4ids.cn flashcart, there's no reason to buy this at all.
It was later discovered that a hardmod can fix the sleep issues "once and for all". I don't have the required expertise or tools to do it, so my EZFlash Parallel will continue to sit in storage.
I bought one in 2025 because I thought the clicking sound problem I experienced while using the r4iwood.cn flashcart was a hardware fault. Both are Ace3DS+ clones, and both can use the same Wood kernel, so they're effectively the same flashcart, and both refuse to run iQue games (except when using Pico Loader). A distinguishing feature of the Ace3DS X is that a switch on the flashcart switches between "DS mode" (plays DS games) and "3DS mode" (acts as an ntrboot cartridge).
So now I have basically confirmed that all flashcarts that use Wood don't support iQue games. However, most flashcarts that are still in production use Wood, with the r4isdhc.com one being the only exception. If I want to test more flashcarts I'll have to buy older ones that are out of production, like DSTT, Acekard, and EDGE. I won't buy Supercard ones because they're too expensive. I'm not sure when or if I'll buy these older flashcarts, so I decided to publish this page in its current state.
DSpico, a new open source flashcart, was released in late 2025. Ready-made products appeared for sale in 2026, and I bought one.
What made me want a DSpico is that it's a DSi mode flashcart, and can even run DSiWare. The only DSi mode flashcart I know of before DSpico is the CycloDS iEvolution, which has been out of production for a long time and is basically unobtainium; and even that can only run cartridge games in DSi mode, and not DSiWare games (I think). I had been using TWiLightMenu++ to run DSi-enhanced, DSi-exclusive, and DSiWare games, but loading into the file browser and launching the game takes too long. DSpico has the potential to replace TWiLightMenu++ for me entirely and get rid of the slowness.
Another pleasant surprise is that, the ROM loader for DSpico, Pico Loader, supports a lot of other existing flashcarts, including all flashcarts mentioned above on this page. It can be used on flashcarts that normally use Wood, to run iQue games.
DSiWare compatibility is spotty though great. As of July 2026 (Pico Loader 1.7.1, Pico Launcher 1.3.0), it can run Nintendogs (KDOC) while nds-bootstrap can't, but it can't run the iQue version of Metal Torrents (K59C) while nds-bootstrap can. JP/US/EU DSiWare seem to be fine though. Pico Loader PR #105 might improve compatibility with CN and KR DSiWare, if it is merged.
Update: it appears that the problem is entirely caused by the shared font file (TWLFontTable.dat), as there are no other emunand files; shared2\0000 is said to be required, but apparently not for all games, as my DSpico's microSD card comes preconfigured but without the shared2\0000 file, and many games I tested can still run fine. That leaves TWLFontTable.dat as the only file that can potentially affect the compatibility. It has three variants: one for CN, one for KR, and one for JP/US/EU. TWiLightMenu++ supports CN and KR games by supporting all three font files; they're to be named {TWL,CHN,KOR}FontTable.dat. DSpico currently doesn't have this capability and can only read one file named TWLFontTable.dat as the shared font file. If I use the CN one as TWLFontTable.dat, the CN DSiWare games would all work now, but then in exchange JP/US/EU ones don't work.
Another problem is that soft reset is currently not supported, and the "return to DSi Menu" button provided by the games would return to the 3DS home menu instead of Pico Launcher. On a 3DS this means switching games require switching back and forth between DSi mode and 3DS mode, which is slow.
DSiWare banner save data doesn't work either; Pico Launcher always displays the banner (animated icon) from the ROM itself.
If these problems are solved, DSpico would be the ultimate flashcart for me, and I could finally ditch TWiLightMenu++.
After the DSpico, I bought three old flashcarts to try: Acekard 2i, EDGE, and M3 DS Real. I decided not to buy DSTT(i) because r4isdhc.com flashcarts are DSTTi clones so the experience should not be different.
The Acekard 2i is the only one that works out of the box on my Old 3DS XL. The fake game icon is the same as r4iwood.cn flashcart: Deep Labyrinth by Digital Bros. The seller loaded some sort of "multi-boot loader" onto the microSD card, and could load AKAIO, BL2CK, or MoonShell2. Unlike Ace3DS+ clones, the soft reset key combo is not configurable and locked as L+R+A+B+Down in both AKAIO and BL2CK. Also unlike Ace3DS+ clones, Momotarou Dentetsu World doesn't freeze when selecting "card" (in both AKAIO and BL2CK), and iQue games can be loaded (in AKAIO only). It does not support microSDXC cards; trying to use one would make it stuck at the "Loading" screen.
The microSD card sticks out a little bit when inserted into the EDGE, making it impossible to fit in some cartridge cases. When the EDGE is inserted into the cartridge slot, the cartridge icon on the 3DS home menu remains blank as if no cartridge is inserted at all, which can happen if it's blacklisted by the 3DS OS. Trying to load the flashcart using Apache Thunder's "TWL Slot-1 Launcher" results in the "an error occurred" screen, but trying to load the flashcart using TWiLightMenu++'s "Launch slot-1 card" feature sometimes works (when the cartridge is inserted right; it seems to have bad contact). Momotarou Dentetsu World freezes when selecting "card". iQue games can be loaded. The soft reset key combo is L+R+X+Y+A+B. It supports microSDXC cards.
The M3 DS Real has difficulty locking into the slot on my Old 3DS XL, just like the r4ids.cn flashcart on my new 3DS XL. Pressing the cartridge down at the left edge (when the label is facing you) could more easily engage the locking mechanism. When the contact is good, the cartridge icon displays a logo with "G6" on top and "DS-R" on bottom, and the "game title" is "G6flash" (another product by the M3 [formerly known as GBAlpha] team). Trying to load the flashcart using the cartridge icon would result in the "An error occurred" screen. Trying to load the flashcart using TWiLightMenu++'s "Launch slot-1 card" feature works. Using the stock M3 Sakura kernel, iQue games can be loaded, Momotarou Dentetsu World freezes, and soft reset is not supported. YSMenu can be used on this flashcart and it can run iQue games and MDW just fine, and it supports soft reset with the key combo L+R+X+Y+A+B. Another advantage is that YSMenu supports microSDXC (when used as the primary kernel) while the stock M3 Sakura kernel doesn't. It's said that M3 Sakura is based on MoonShell, and they indeed look similar. So it seems to me that there's no point in using M3 Sakura.
I don't see myself buying any other flashcart (unless another interesting flashcart like DSpico comes out in the future), because everything else is either too expensive, too old to be obtainable, known to be bad, or just a clone of DSTTi/Wood. So I'll rank all the flashcarts I've bought, except the ones that are so bad there's no reason to buy them at all.
The best flashcart overall for playing games is r4isdhc.com 2014+. Game compatibility is excellent, and RTS is a bonus.
I would put DSpico in the second place for now, because it doesn't have the soft reset feature or support for multiple shared font files (for CN/KR DSiWare). If these two things are fixed, it would be the first place.
Ace3DS X is only good as a ntrboot flashcart IMO, because its game compatibility is bad, and unlike the M3 DS Real, you can't even use YSMenu to redeem it.
Acekard 2i would have been third place, if not for some glaring shortcomings: it's not available new (therefore is more suitable as a collector's item), and it doesn't support microSDXC cards (so 32GB max).
At the fifth place is r4iwood.cn. It uses the same Ace Wood kernel as Ace3DS X, therefore it shares the compatibility problem, but unlike Ace3DS X, it doesn't even support ntrboot.
EDGE and M3 DS Real are only good as collector's items. The biggest problem is that you have to use TWiLightMenu++'s "Launch slot-1 card" feature to run them. Game compatibility with the stock kernels of both flashcarts is bad. M3 DS Real can use YSMenu, but r4isdhc.com 2014+ can too.