My nephew’s really lucky. It’s his birthday this Sunday and my parents decided to get him a Nintendo DS Lite. Aside from kiddy games like Pokemon Diamond and Mario Kart—none of that gory stuff—an R4 was of course included in the package.

The reason why the R4 is such a great companion for the Nintendo DS is because it lets you place all of your games in one microSD card. A 1GB microSD card was part of the bundle, which means I can put tens, if not hundreds, of games on it. Placing all your games into the microSD and plugging it into the R4 has benefits.

Even if they’re a lot smaller compared to say, the games for the GBA, lugging around lots of DS cartridges presents it own set of problems. They could get damaged, or worse, lost. By placing the game ROMs I’ve downloaded online into the microSD, my nephew only needs to bring the console itself.

And, swapping cartridges adds to the wear and tear of the device. Once you place it in, the R4 will never leave your DS’ slot, because you can just pull out the microSD card if you want to add or remove games. The R4 will always stay in the unit, protecting the cartridge slot.

These benefits mean that my nephew will enjoy his DS gaming experience a lot more. He can leave his game cartridges at home, and can choose a game to play from the R4’s main menu. Again, I must note that it’s only legal to use downloaded ROMs if you own the actual game catridges. Playing the Ace Attorney ROM without owning a legit copy is illegal for example.