The other week I was at the local Goodwill and found a copy of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. It was only $6.99, and my girlfriend wanted it so she bought it. This is it.
Upon bringing it home we decided to try it out, and found that it did not work. So today I thought up the brilliant idea of trying it on my DSlite (my girlfriend having a DSi), and it worked. Strange...
It was then that her brother said it might be a bootleg, and our blog begins. The first problem is with the cover art. The cover is missing the "Nintendo Wi-fi connection" logo in the top left hand corner above"Nintendo DS".
The instructions are the best part. Lets see if you can spot the obvious problem here.
Yes, that is right, the screen shot has the "GAMESPOT" water mark on it. At least now I can read the GS review without even powering on my computer. Yes, the instructions are nothing more than the GS review printed in a booklet.That is hilarious.
Here is where things get a bit tricky. Bootlegs dont usually have an "NTR" code (all real games have a code that begins with NTR, and ends with the region code; or USA), but instead a long unrelated code. This cart has one. Also, most bootlegged carts have poorly made, and even more poorly affixed labels. This label is glossy, and centered nicely. Another thing, I'm not sure what picture the cart is supposed to have, but this is merely the cover art reproduced.
Tha back gives away a bit more of the puzzle. (Sorry, I had to make the pun.) Firstly, the Nintendo logo and NTR-005 are in the correct location, slightly higher than centered. This is not good for our case, but the fact that they are actually stamped into the plastic is a tell tale sign. Real carts look like they just didn't pebble the logo and numbers.
Our next problem again consists of correct features and incorrect ones. On most bootlegs the connection pins are black, giving them away immediately. On this one however, they are gold as they should be. The problem we run into here is that the circuit board below the pins should not be green, as they are on this cart. Below is my copy of SMT: Strange Journey, to illustrate what I mean.
As you can see, GameStop aggravates me to no end by putting all those stickers all over everything, but I digress. You can see that the part of the circuit board under the pins on a real cart is indeed white.
Other than that, I can only try to describe what the cart feels like, as it feels a bit off as well. The only way I can think to describe it is it feels like there is a small chip under the case that causes the front of the cart to bulge slightly. I've never had a real DS cart do this, so I'm sure that isn't exactly kosher.
One last thing, most bootleg games look like garbage because they are. They are made of inferior materials, and are notoriously unreliable. There have even been claims of bootlegs messing up DS systems. This is not something that I want, and I'm sure neither do you.
This blog is intended to help others identify bootleg DS games and not get duped into buying them. I am in no way trying to promote counterfeit games. I am trying to educate people so that they know what to look for.