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When one discusses the gold standard of retro gaming flash carts, Krikzz's range of EverDrive devices is usually at the top of the conversation – and with good reason.
The Ukrainian tech wizard has been producing flash carts for years, and his products are so famous that 'EverDrive' is one of those rare instances where a product name has become synonymous with an entire range of technology, just as 'Hoover' did all those decades ago.
While Krikzz's carts are almost always the best possible options at any given time, they're not immune to the relentless march of progress, and he's been upgrading some of his most popular carts over the past few years in order to keep up with rivals.
I reviewed the updated Mega Drive and Game Boy flash carts not so long ago, and now it's the turn of the GBA's offering. I've owned two of Krikzz's previous GBA carts – the X5 and the X5 Mini – but the new EverDrive GBA Pro ($129) promises to be one of the most dramatic upgrades yet.
On the surface, the EverDrive GBA Pro does exactly what you'd expect – it allows you to load ROMs (really fast) from a MicroSD card. If you've used one of Krikzz's carts before, the UI won't throw up any shocks; it's lightweight and simple, but has plenty of options to tinker with.
The headline news with this particular cart is the inclusion of Solar, Tilt, and Gyro sensors, which means this is the first GBA flash cart to grant access to the console's entire library of games. Previous flash carts have lacked these sensors, which meant that games like Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand and Yoshi's Universal Gravitation were rendered unplayable – they'd boot, but without the sensors, you couldn't play them properly.
I can confirm that these sensors all work perfectly. Obviously, motion sensors are pretty common these days, so that shouldn't be a surprise. The Solar sensor is one I was keen to stress-test. Granted, the week I'm reviewing this cart saw the UK being assaulted by a raging heatwave, but even so, the cart's sensor worked brilliantly, even picking up sunlight entering a darkened room through a window.
I've heard reports that the sensor used in this instance works with any light, unlike the one that was built into the Boktai cartridge back in the day. While that might go against Hideo Kojima's intention to get players outdoors, it's a revision I can certainly get behind myself.
Given that there are multiple ways to play GBA games these days, I tested the EverDrive GBA Pro across all official hardware variants – GBA, GBA SP, GB Micro, and DS. It worked flawlessly.
There are instances where moving from the original GBA to any of the other options presents issues with the way the tilt sensor has been calibrated (because the cart is upside down on the SP, Micro and DS), but most games either allow you to recalibrate, so it's rarely a problem – if it ever becomes one, the EverDrive GBA Pro includes the option to invert the motion controls in its UI.
Outside of the sensors, it's worth noting that the EverDrive GBA Pro has support for up to 98 save state slots per game, which means you can save your progress at any point – not just when the game allows it. There's also an isolated Real Time Clock support, so each game has its own copy of the time. This is enabled by an on-board battery with voltage monitoring, so you have a chance to replace it before it runs out of power.
There's also cheat support (with a built-in cheat explorer), custom menu themes, and a 'Mode-B' boot option for DS titles that have dual-slot functionality. Like many of Krikzz's other carts, you can also run Game Boy, Game Boy and NES games using emulators – another neat bonus.
In short, this is the best GBA flash cart money can buy – and it's genuinely hard to see how Krikzz can possibly iterate on it further. If you're in the market for this kind of device, then there's honestly never been a better time to pick one up.
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