Identifying Fake Nintendo games

[Dying Light]

Nice list! I like how you identify the differences!

I have accidentally purchased a bootleg online, and it was Yoshi's Island DS. What's funny, is that the plastic used has differences as well. I took my Pokémon Diamond game cartridge, and compared it to that of the bootleg. The label was poorly printed, and the plastic was sloppy and easily bendable. Lastly, when I inserted it into my DSi, it gave me the following error:

I don't have it anymore, because I simply threw it away. If I still had it, I'd send you it.

 

[NatureKeeper]

Nice list! I like how you identify the differences!

I have accidentally purchased a bootleg online, and it was Yoshi's Island DS. What's funny, is that the plastic used has differences as well. I took my Pokémon Diamond game cartridge, and compared it to that of the bootleg. The label was poorly printed, and the plastic was sloppy and easily bendable. Lastly, when I inserted it into my DSi, it gave me the following error:

I don't have it anymore, because I simply threw it away. If I still had it, I'd send you it.

The 3DS/DSi and GBA Micro can easily identify bootlegs by simply trying out the games. 3DS fakes are out of the question, the software is encrypted heavily. DSi games/DS games can be easily identified by using them on a DSi/3DS. Be careful, bootleg GBAs CAN be played on a DS Lite, but if the game is compatible with a DS title, like Emerald and Diamond, for instance, the save file of the GBA is deleted as soon as the DS game is booted (due to incompatibilities, obviously).

 

[Algo Fonix]

There are a very few legit GBA games (besides Pokemon) that use batteries for saving... but yeah. The quality on that FFV fake is absolutely horrible. Glob top and all the solder is extremely sloppy. I've been very wary of buying GBA games since finding out just how many bootlegs there are floating around.

 

[droomph]

Why would people do such a thing? That's really mean to little kids, not to mention that it's not a reliable source of money anyways. Get a job at Lucky's if you're really that desperate.

Also, don't you think now, that people can fix all their mistakes and make bootlegs even more close to the real thing?

 

[ShaQuL]

I have Pokemon ShinyGold, but I use it to get 2nd Gen starters xD
I bought it for £6 (RIPOFF) on a carboot sale when I was like
9. It was sad for me to find out it was fake when I was 10...
And that one script didnt work and you couldnt finish the game...

 

[Jessey Lawson]

I find that bootlegs are fun.

 

[Shadow Broker]

Final Fantasy V

My roommate bought me a copy of FF 5 on GBA which was nice...but I noticed it didn't have the seal of approval, and the cartridge felt different. Game seemed to work though. I wonder where it was from.

 

[zealot]

I bought a copy of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones online that had a stretched version of the boxart on it instead of the correct cartridge art. Needless to say it never worked. I'm not sure what happened to it.

 

[Banjora Marxvile]

I remember physically owning a Game Boy cart that was the Vietnamese Pokemon Crystal. Yay, how people loved that particular version. It wouldn't work with Pokemon Stadium 2, and was in a standard grey Game Boy cart instead of the light blue sparkly Game Boy Color cart. It also worked in the Game Boy too.

 

[Banjora Marxvile]

I think I remember you telling me about it once upon a time. If you still had it, I'd pay to get my hands on it. lol

Jeez, if I did still have it I would have definitely given it you... But I don't, my parents got rid of it after I got the legit Pokemon Crystal... Sadly... Ah well, never know what might turn up at the market that is on near where I live weekly.

 

[RESHIRAM123]

Thank You! This helped a lot.

 

[Lord Varion]

Ordered Pokémon Blue a few weeks back, They sent me a Pokémon Yellow, for GBA.
Of course any proper Pokemon fan can dismiss this as a fake! I did too.
I put it in my GBASP and it failed to do anything, but then after putting it in a DS, it loads a very poorly hacked TinyToons/LooneyToons for NES with each character's sprites hacked into a poorly sprited pikachu.

I've still got it somewhere round the house, If I find it I'll post pictures of the cartridge and in gameplay.

EDIT: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pokemon-Ye...ultDomain_0&hash=item1e6ca70c7b#ht_1622wt_690

This is what I bought, except I got it from amazon while it was being advertised as pokémon blue.

 

[Lord Varion]

I don't have the screwdriver, but my girlfriend does, since she's in the process of fixing one of my old games.

 

[WillPowerPedro]

My god this scares me for some reason. Good info though, Fail! I owe you one, but I play emulator through my Wii (homebrew) most of the time. D:

 

[Olly]

A couple of DS games that I bought from eBay a few months back turned out to be fakes. I knew as soon as I opened them up, they just felt wrong.

Also, the manual for both games were just reviews from the internet copied and pasted inside it. The funniest thing was that they included negative reviews as well, as if they thought people would believe that Nintendo would put negative things about their games in the manual.

 

[BenoPope]

Look at the box.

If there is awful grammar it is most likely fake..

 

[Ammako]

I used to have a bootleg of Yoshi's Island for GBA that actually worked as a regular cart should, so it was no problem.
The cart sticked out of my SP by about a millimeter.