DS Rumble Pak Review

Since the release of the Nintendo 64 rumble pak that was first bundled with Starfox 64 we all have enjoyed the added dimension of game play that a rumble pak gives, punches, kicks, crashes and friendly reminders are represented by a various levels of vibration emitted from this device. From then on we have come to expect this feature from all our home consoles controllers, but now Nintendo have gone one step further and given us this rumble luxury in our favourite hand held gaming system the Nintendo DS, although this is not Nintendo’s first attempt at adding rumble feed back to its portable systems.
Nintendo tried this with the Gameboy Color, by building it into certain game cartridges and using an extra battery as a power source.
The DS version comes as a plug in form; this rumble pak is inserted into the GBA slot at the bottom of the DS.
When the rumble pak is plugged into your DS this screen should appear:

The Nintendo DS rumble pak was first released as a bundle package with Metroid Prime Pinball, the rumble feature of this game is excellent allowing you to get realistic pinball feel for the game .

Although now these original Nintendo DS rumble paks are becoming hard to come by because they were only officially released as a separate accessory in Japan.
Now only available second hand or through importers, that are asking quite too much for them.
Most reviews on the official Nintendo rumble pak, refer to it as excessively noisy and producing more of an annoying buzz than a rumble . Some reviewers even thought that they might off had a damaged pak.

These days your alternative option is to get a third party eWin rumble pak, which are easy to come by on online stores and auctions. These third party rumble paks come in the most popular DS colours black, white and pink and at an affordable price.

I purchased my eWin rumble pak from Ebay for $14 including delivery, which if you ask me is well worth it. The eWin rumble pak fits perfectly into the DS lites GBA slot, nice and flush with nothing protruding out the bottom, the colour also matches up nice, with my only complaint being that the rumble pak has a matt finish instead of a gloss finish like the DS, but this is barely noticeable.
I have just left my one plugged in; it does the same job as the dust cover with an added bonus.

I got to test the rumble pak with two games Diddy Kong Racing and Clubhouse Games, with Diddy Kong Racing you receive a rumble when you have a decent crash and Clubhouse games gives you a reminder when it’s your turn.

The feel of this rumble pak is quite good, giving you that added sensation you take for granted with your home consoles. My only complaint about its performance is that you can still hear the noise of the rumble mechanism with the volume up full, it’s not overly noisy; if you had a set of earphones plugged in you wouldn’t hear a thing.

For its price it’s well worth a purchase and we can never have to many accessories, can we? Let’s hope Nintendo and third party developers program the rumble feature into more of its up and coming releases, but for now here is a list of what is available now.

List of Nintendo DS games supporting the Rumble Pak
List taken from Wikipeda.

• Clubhouse Games


• Custom Robo Arena


• Diddy Kong Racing DS


• Elite Beat Agents


• Ferrari Challenge


• Hotel Dusk: Room 215


• Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights


• Magnetica


• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time


• Metroid Prime Hunters


• Metroid Prime Pinball


• Orcs and Elves


• Picross DS


• Race Driver: Create and Race


• Star Fox Command


• Star Trek: Tactical Assault


• Super Princess Peach


• The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning


• Wario: Master of Disguise


• WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008

Japanese Release Titles

• Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2


• Boku wa Koukuu Kanseikan DS


• Mahjong Fight Club DS - Wi-Fi Taiou


• Power Pro Kun Pocket 9


• Power Pro-kun Pocket 10


• Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary

Overall rating 7/10

I would have given this accessory a higher score if it was silent and if there were more compatible games available.
This review is also posted on MyDS.com.au