It is frustrating when you buy your favorite Pokemon game for the Nintendo DS, and it doesn’t load. It is even worse when it turns out to be FAKE! Luckily, there are some methods on how to identify fake Pokemon Nintendo DS Games. Wondering what the methods are?
Let’s dive deeper!
9 Tips On How To Identify Fake Pokemon Nintendo DS Games
Here are the ‘MOST GENUINE’ tips to spot counterfeit Pokemon games on Nintendo DS.
1. Buy from a Genuine Retailer
Most important than anything – Do not buy your game copy from a store that has no credibility. Check the authenticity of the retail store by researching its reviews and social media channels.
Always go for a genuine game retailer to avoid getting a fake Nintendo DS game.
2. Don’t Go After the Cheapest One
Guess why some Pokemon games are cheap?
Because they are duplicate or fake…
I understand that cheap games always attract an individual — But it is not sane to save your few bucks and get a game that you can’t play.
The fake game retailers want to sell as much as games as they can to make a hefty profit. If you look closely at the price tag and compare it, you can easily identify which is fake and which is not.
3. Avoid eCommerce Giants
It may sound strange, but buying Nintendo DS games from big eCommerce websites like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba isn’t safe.
Most fakers try to pass off their duplicate games through this platform and tweak the pictures to make it seem original.
All of these websites offer buyer protection, and you can’t do quite anything about it.
4. Check Plastic Color
Fakers can’t copy the exact plastic color of the casing. That’s your plus point to identify the counterfeit ones.
If you see Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum in other than the dark-grey color casing, the game is probably fake.
Similarly, Heartgold, Soulsilver, Black, White, Black 2, and White 2 can’t be in a white color casing (they are always in a black colored one).
The black cartridges glow reddish when you hold them in light because of the original infrared feature.
5. Check Label Print
Fakers lack one more thing in their duplication process, and it is a good ‘label print.’
Since they do not have the great technology as Nintendo has, they make fuzzy labels that aren’t clear.
Original Pokemon Nintendo DS games have their labels printed by robust and fool-proof technology.
6. Check Label Size
Sometimes, you get to see the Pokemon game label a little bit small, outsized, and improperly aligned. These all are signs of fake Nintendo game cartridges.
Their stickers vary with every game cartridge, and they do not have a standard size for each copy. This results in different label sizes.
7. Identify Label Mistakes
The fake label mistakes can simply be in the form of misspelling or font duplication. Keep close attention to the ‘o’ at the end of ‘Nintendo.’ If the o’s width is the same throughout, that’s one way to identify that it’s a fake Pokemon copy.
If you’re a ‘grammar nazi,’ you can easily identify that mistake.
The font of ‘o’ is thicker on the sides and thinner on the top and bottom in the original Pokemon Nintendo DS games.
8. Inspect the Back
It’s one common way of spotting fake Pokemon Nintendo DS games.
You can even do it with your eyes closed — No, I’m not joking…
Just feel the debossing (or indentation) of the Nintendo logo patent; you’ll barely feel it. The original game debossing is very shallow in comparison to the fake debossing, which is deeper.
9. Examine the Circuit board
A real Pokemon game cartridge will have ‘white’ color circuit board printing. The fakers often escape using the white color for the circuit board and use the same color as they did for the contacts.
Final Words on How To Identify Fake Pokemon Nintendo DS Games
The longest and hardest way of spotting a fake Pokemon game is to keep playing it until you find a glitch, and it stops working. In this way, it’ll be more irritating as you lose all of your game progress – But that will be too late to discover.
Being a hardcore Nintendo DS gamer, I hope that the information I passed on will help to reduce the circulation of fake Pokemon games.
If you don’t want to fall for a fake Nintendo DS game, buy it now from our trusted retro store!
Need more information? Check this video out!
Must read: [FIXED] Nintendo DS Not Charging.
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