N-Philes

Mario Kart DS Online Impressions

Posted November 28th 2005 by Various Authors.

Here we're going to do something new. We already did two scintillating reviews on the game, so now the rest of the staff are going to give their impressions strictly on the online experience. Or at least, that's what they were supposed to do. Some of them didn't listen or understand and started writing about other stuff. But it's all good.

Steven: Mario Kart DS? It's okay, I guess. I like it better than Double Dash!!, anyway.

For me, the gameplay never really clicks together. After playing around with the game for a few days, I realized its major drawback to me. It's a well-made game, but that's besides the point; I don't think it's particularly fun. Playing the original Super Mario Kart in all of its Mode 7 glory was an accomplishment to me when I was younger. Then when Mario Kart 64 was announced for the Nintendo 64, I was wowed at how far the game had come in terms of graphics. Super Circuit introduced some F-Zero style levels with the classic formula, and playing a game like that on a handheld was quite a feat. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! had really colorful graphics that gave me headaches after playing for too long. What does Mario Kart DS have? It's got the internet. My exactly reaction when I opened up the packaging was, "Finally, after all of these years, I'm going to play a Mario game online."

And then I took it online.

My complaints with Nintendo's WFC network deserve its own write-up. I don't think I could go on enough about how bad of a service this is. Its problems lie in the fact that it's too organized - it gives you little freedom and it has no flare. I can't meet up in pre-game chat lobbies with friends or strangers. I can't even make strangers my friends. And when I want to play against my friends? Forget about it. I can't play specific friends, the service just launches me into a game with whoever on my friends list is searching. This would work really well if it would actually allow me to connect with my friends that are searching, even when the service is informing me that people on my list are doing the same thing I'm trying to do. Granted the service is still early in its stages and in the future may prove to be more flexible than I let on about it, but as far as this game sitting in front of me goes, I can't bring myself to play it online frequently anymore. This is a week after I bought it.

I'd like to throw in a quote from our forum user Dawson who posted in a thread on the subject of Nintendo's service. Usually I get proper permission to do this, but I'm sure he won't mind being on the front page. It's also pretty appropriate:

That's all I'll say about that.

I feel the real problems begin the second the light turns green. Mario Kart DS's gameplay is heavily unbalanced. I've never in my entire life had nearly a ten second lead on my opponent the entire race only to lose my lead at the final stretch thanks to an unexpected Star or red shell. I've never lost a race because my opponent suddenly got a burst of speed thanks to the rubber-band handicaps. I've never gotten frustrated at Mario Kart. I am frustrated with this game. These unfair losses and absurd handicaps given to people losing hard were obviously implemented so online play is fair-game. Anyone can win.

Do you know what my favorite part of playing a game online for the first time is? Losing. I'm not joking.

When I lost in Worms 2 for the first time back in 1997, the only thing that ran through my mind was "get better". I had to get better if I wanted to win. In Mario Kart DS I don't need to have much skill to win besides knowing when to press left and right on the D-Pad. The shortcuts in the maps don't give me the lead I deserve from saving up my mushrooms to jump gaps to discover them. I can lose that lead within a few seconds.

It's easy for others to counter my argument by stating that perhaps these unfair matches are good for people who are consistently awful at Mario Kart. To them, I submit this:

It's impossible. Everyone is good at Mario Kart. That's Nintendo's entire point.

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Posted in: Reviews

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