SuperChis vs. EZ-Flash Air
Here are two useful finds for original Nintendo hardware.
For Nintendo DS: DSPico flash cartridge with USB-C.
For Game Boy Advance SP: an IPS-ready eXtremeRate replacement shell.
For the first time in many years, Game Boy Advance buyers can choose from three budget flash cartridges: SuperCard, EZ-Flash Air, and SuperChis.
We recently published a comparison of SuperCard and SuperChis, and SuperChis thoroughly outclassed its predecessor. Buying a classic SuperCard only makes sense now if it is extremely cheap.
Now it is time to put SuperChis up against EZ-Flash Air.
At first glance, the cartridges are quite similar. Both work with modern memory cards, let you simply copy a ROM to microSD, and can write games to built-in NOR memory. But their approaches are completely different.
EZ-Flash Air tries to remove unnecessary choices: a game must first be written to NOR, after which it launches like a normal cartridge. SuperChis, by contrast, offers several launch and save methods. That gives you more flexibility, but it also means learning at least a little about the settings.
One clarification up front: when I say SuperChis in this article, I mean SuperChis Prime. AliExpress still has old SuperCard units being passed off as SuperChis, and there is also the unsuccessful SuperChis 2.0. Before buying, it is worth checking the separate guide on how to tell SuperCard and SuperChis apart.
Price
SuperChis sells on AliExpress for roughly $21–23.
EZ-Flash Air costs around $35.
That is a substantial difference. For the price of one EZ-Flash Air, you can buy a SuperChis, a memory card, and still save a little money.
So the first point goes to SuperChis.
SuperChis — EZ-Flash Air: 1:0
Ease of use
Let us start with EZ-Flash Air. Copy the ROM files to the memory card, insert it into the cartridge, choose a game, and write it to NOR. Once written, the game stays in a separate list, and on the next power-up it launches almost immediately.
With the old firmware, that list quickly became annoying. You could not delete a game from the middle: entries could only be erased from the end. Sometimes removing a single ROM meant deleting everything added after it.
Firmware 4 / Kernel 1.05 finally fixed this. Now any game can be erased individually, and the freed space can be filled with another game. After updating the firmware, you only need to clear NOR completely once, and you will not need to repeat the procedure.
SuperChis works differently. You can quickly load a game from microSD into SDRAM, or write it to NOR and leave it there. It also offers several save modes, patches, and an in-game menu.
Most of the time, you can simply select a ROM and launch it with the default settings. But if a game starts to slow down, shows graphical glitches, or fails to save, you may have to adjust the settings manually: disable the in-game menu, change the save mode, or write the ROM to NOR after all.
For example, Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 can slow down when launched from SDRAM.
This creates a slightly paradoxical situation. EZ-Flash Air makes you wait while every game is written, but it requires almost no understanding of what is happening behind the scenes. SuperChis works faster and gives you more freedom, but occasionally asks you to step in.
If all you want is to "write it and play," EZ-Flash Air is more convenient.
The point goes to EZ-Flash Air.
SuperChis — EZ-Flash Air: 1:1
Launch speed and switching games
EZ-Flash Air has no RAM, so you cannot launch a game directly from microSD. It always has to be copied to NOR first.
In my tests, writing took:
- The Sims 2 (32 MB) — 2 min. 5 sec.;
- Mother 3 (32 MB) — 2 min. 11 sec.;
- Pokémon FireRed (16 MB) — 1 min. 7 sec.;
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (8 MB) — 33 sec.;
- The Lost Vikings (4 MB) — 17 sec.
Once the game is written, everything is great: the selected title launches almost instantly on every subsequent power-up. If you plan to spend several weeks playing through one Pokémon game, a two-minute wait will hardly matter.
But if you start switching games often, the setup quickly becomes annoying. EZ-Flash Air has 120 MB of NOR memory. Depending on ROM size, that is enough for roughly three to ten typical games. The rest will simply sit on the memory card until you free up space and write them to NOR.
SuperChis makes this easier: select any game on the microSD card and quickly load it into SDRAM. For example, my 32 MB copy of Mother 3 launched in 19 seconds. If a particular game slows down or does not work from SDRAM, you can write that game to NOR separately and launch it from there instead.
In other words, EZ-Flash Air is convenient once you have prepared a small set of favorite games in advance. SuperChis is noticeably better if you constantly want to try something new.
SuperChis gets the point here.
SuperChis — EZ-Flash Air: 2:1
Compatibility and stability
There is a downside to SuperChis's fast loading, however. Its SDRAM controller is still not perfect. That is why Super Mario Advance 2 suffered from the same slowdowns seen on an old SuperCard in a level with lots of Koopa Troopas. Moving the game to NOR made them disappear.
SuperChis behaves the same way with some other games: the fast mode may not work properly, while NOR fixes the problem. Technically, the game is compatible, but the owner has to figure out that it should be launched in a different way.
EZ-Flash Air does not give you that choice. Every game runs from NOR, so the cartridge uses the most compatible and predictable mode from the start. That does not mean the Air is immune to bad ROMs, incompatible translation patches, or firmware bugs. But with ordinary clean dumps, unpleasant surprises are noticeably less likely.
SuperChis has one more caveat. According to the developer, the cartridge may not work with a rare revision of the original Game Boy Advance motherboard marked "02" in the battery compartment. In my tests, SuperChis also worked on most GBA clones, but not on the Pocket XP.
The photo shows the compatible "03" revision. The rare problematic revision is marked "02" instead.
EZ-Flash Air gets the point here because it lets you write a game and forget which type of memory it should run from.
SuperChis — EZ-Flash Air: 2:2
Saves
On EZ-Flash Air, save data is first written to the built-in SRAM. This memory is volatile, so it is backed by a replaceable CR1220 battery. The cartridge then copies the save to microSD, usually the next time you enter the menu. If the game was written with add-ons enabled, you can return to the menu with a button combination and start the copy immediately.
The system works, but it has a weak point. If the battery dies before the save has been copied to the memory card, your current progress will be lost. It is therefore a good idea to power on the Air with the microSD card installed from time to time and let it finish the copy.
SuperChis comes in two hardware variants: one with SRAM and one with FRAM. The former also needs a battery; the latter does not.
But the main advantage of SuperChis is DirectSave. Games that use Flash or EEPROM saves can be patched at launch so that they write data directly to the microSD card. In this mode, there is no need for a battery or an intermediate copy at all.
For games that natively use SRAM, the developer still recommends SRAM mode. So there is no single perfect option here, but SuperChis lets you choose the most suitable method for each game. The FRAM version also removes any dependence on a battery for preserving saves.
For its more flexible save system and the ability to write directly to the memory card, SuperChis gets the point.
SuperChis — EZ-Flash Air: 3:2
Extra features
When it comes to features for GBA games themselves, SuperChis is more interesting. SuperFW includes an in-game menu, a return-to-game-list option, cheats, and save states. The firmware can also emulate a real-time clock in software.
However, all of this is achieved by patching the game. In some titles, the in-game menu or save states can cause graphical glitches, so there is no absolute guarantee. If a game starts behaving strangely, it is better to disable the extra features.
EZ-Flash Air does not support save states or sleep mode. On the other hand, it has a real RTC, built-in rumble, and Mode B. The latter lets you use the cartridge as a Rumble Pak for Nintendo DS, or present the first compatible game stored in NOR as a normal GBA cartridge. This is useful, for example, when transferring Pokémon from third-generation games to Nintendo DS titles.
Do not confuse the Air with the EZ-Flash Definitive Edition here: the Air does not have the RAM expansion mode used by Nintendo DS Browser.
Ultimately, these are two very different feature sets. SuperChis is better equipped specifically as a GBA flash cartridge, while EZ-Flash Air offers hardware features that SuperChis does not have.
So each cartridge gets one point in this round.
SuperChis — EZ-Flash Air: 4:3
SuperChis Won 4–3, but EZ-Flash Air Is Simpler
The final score is 4:3 in favor of SuperChis. That is hardly surprising: it is cheaper, lets you switch games faster, offers a more flexible save system, and supports save states.
But that does not make EZ-Flash Air a bad purchase. It simply follows a different idea: first you wait for the game's ROM image to be written to NOR, and after that you can mostly forget about the settings. You do not need to remember which game slows down from SDRAM, where the in-game menu should be disabled, or which save mode to choose.
Personally, I would choose SuperChis. It is a better fit for people who often try different games, want to save money, and do not mind adjusting settings occasionally. The important thing is to check carefully before ordering that the seller is actually offering SuperChis Prime, not an old SuperCard or SuperChis 2.0.
I would recommend EZ-Flash Air in a different situation: if you want a straightforward cartridge for a few favorite games, or if you need a real RTC, rumble, and GBA-DS Link. Writing games takes time, of course, but you only have to wait when adding a new one. The roughly $12 premium is essentially the price of not having to fuss with settings.