Action Replay Max Review

Good Points
When it works, the game codes are quite good.

Bad Points
Nothing advertised works.
It won't save new codes.
The megadrive emulator is poor.
The MP3 playback is useless.
The disc is poorly mastered and usually causes a PS2 read error.

General Comments
The Action Replay Ma is such a promising device. The number of features it's supposed to have make it seem like the ultimate PS2 solution. What they don't tell you on the shiny packaging, though, is that they've spent all of about 30 seconds actually testing anything.



You're supposed to be able to update codes online. Doesn't work. You're supposed to be able to enter new codes manually and have them saved to your memory card. Doesn't work.



It's got an emulator to play Megadrive games. Works, but the sound is so poor and the framerate so abysmal it's just not worth it. You can play MP3 music - which you can, as long as you like random bursts of static mixed in with your tunes.



And to cap it all off, the disc is dreadfully mastered and causes constant read errors. Even the menu music (and I'd rather have a working product than music in the menu...) is irritating the second time you hear it.