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Mario Kart DS

Posted November 28th 2005 by Dan Biersdorf.

Can you believe it? With over twenty years in the video game industry, Mario Kart DS marks Nintendo's first largescale entry into the online gaming scene. All of those years of, "How sweet would this game be online!?" are over folks, because Nintendo's recent stance on online gaming sounds promising, and within time we'll be playing some of our favorite Nintendo games against players all over the globe. But with inexperience in the field, does Nintendo truly know what they are doing? Well if Mario Kart DS says anything you'll be able to rest easy from here on out.

Ever since Nintendo released the original Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo all those years back, it paved the path for all future kart racing games to come. Konami Krazy Racers, Crash Team Racing, and Diddy Kong Racing all come to mind as some high quality kart racers, but at the end of the day it was obvious that Mario Kart ruled the scene. With the GameCube's addition of 16 player we got a taste of frantic local multiplayer, now we can finally take on the world and put our skills to the test.

The most obvious addition (or replacement in this case) to anyone who played Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the GameCube is that you no longer take control of two characters at the same time. Mario Kart DS goes to its hierarchy roots with a single-person kart with the driver reassuming his role as both driver and attacker. You'll also see the return of the hop, a feature that was mysteriously missing from the GameCube alteration. The character selection has dramatically decreased since Double Dash!! as well; you won't find Toadette or Paratroopa this time around, however there are one or two new faces that I won't ruin for you.

The single player contains five individual game modes. The most obvious is Grand Prix in which you'll enter a tournament with eight players (including yourself) and take them on over four courses. The higher your rank in the listings, the more points you get, and the top three racers walk away with trophies. You'll be able to race through eight different tournaments (referred to as eight different "Cups") with a grand total of thirty-two unique race tracks. Sixteen of these are classic playgrounds taken directly from previous Mario Kart titles. You can also enter three different difficulty levels, 50cc (beginners), 100cc (intermediaries), and 150cc (experts), which you must compete in all of in order to unlock every secret. Eventually you can unlock the standard Mirror Mode that mixes things up more than such a simple concept really should.

Time Trial is fairly self-explanatory as you can choose from any of the thirty-two tracks and shoot for the best possible time. With the use of the DS' Wi-Fi (local only) you can also send and receive time trial ghosts to try to out-best your friends. Other modes include VS and Battle where you can take on eight computer controlled players in either a race or deathmatch (and for all you N64 lovers, the famous Block Fort makes a return).

Possibly the most exciting and unique mode of play is the new Missions, in which you'll go through a series of mini games such as collecting a certain amount of coins or racing through a certain number of marked rings. Things can get pretty bizarre, such as playing a "whac-a-mole" esque, and completing eight missions in each level eventually leads to a boss battle against some classic Mario baddies. Since each mission only lasts a minute or less, they go by quickly, but with seven different levels with nine individual missions each it'll take some time to complete.

Gameplay remains almost untouched, and that's a good thing. Double Dash!! was a hate or love it game; I for one despised every minute of it and was pretty let down seeing how the mighty had fallen from with the amazing N64 and GBA editions. So I admit I was fairly skeptical coming into this, but within a race or two my worries were set aside. Mario Kart DS plays and feels much like its N64 predecessor, especially with the return of the jump button. The one major makeover would be the power slide, which didn't really take off until Double Dash!!, and with the use of the D-pad it's so much easier to take advantage of compared to an analog stick.

My biggest gripe about Mario Kart DS would be the ever-so-cheap and horrid computer players. As you race you'll notice that each racer is on a sort of rail where they will continually make the same moves (and mistakes) on each lap, making it very easy to plant banana's and other traps. But why would I be upset about something that benefits my standing outcome? Well it doesn't really, because it seemed that in the later races (i.e. 150cc) when I was in first place the computer would manage to just gain speed for no explanable reason other then just to catch up to me. Maybe I just have bad luck, but I've also experienced a good amount of blue spikey shells (unavoidable projectiles that will seek out the first place player) near the end of the race and because of it end up in third or forth. It was extremely frustrating, and because I'm a perfectionist and need to get first place in each race I end up quitting and starting all over again.

This time around each character has a very detailed amount of stats, depending on the individual and their kart. From the get-go you can pick between two karts for each characters, and by the end you'll be able to use all thirty-six with each character. However, the detailed stats make you choose the best rather than picking based on a personal affinity for one character over the other. For example, in the SNES and N64 days there were just three weight classes - light, medium and heavy - and wins weren't determined on how good your character was but rather your skill; I for one always used Peach. But when Double Dash!! rolled around each character had a special attack, and well, Peach's blew, so I was disappointed that I could never really use her. This time around Peach's control is very weak, so again I don't use her, and so I was forced to resort to Toad. After a while, opening up all thirty-six karts helps equal the playing field again, but that crucial learning curve early on in the game could very well be spent with a character you can't stand.

Of course, we all know Mario Kart is about multiplayer with other people, and that's where it shines. Eight-player single cart play is great and I give Nintendo the thumbs up for not being jackasses and forcing multi-cart play because God knows when my friends will buy Mario Kart (or if they ever will). Multiplayer also homes an exclusive character, Shy Guy, and is the only place you can use him in the game.

Yet the meat of the game is of course the online play. I was smart to play through the single player first before jumping online and getting rocked, so when I felt I was ready I connected to my router and... got an error. "No IP address found" it said, well so I went to the manual set up and plugged all the numbers in and again an error. After searching dozens of FAQ pages on Nintendo's official site, I realized what was wrong, the site told me I needed to add one digit to my IP address, so I quickly fixed and it and tried to connect. Low and behold another error. At this point I said "easy my ass Nintendo" and went to vent on our local forums. Turns out some of our members are actually smarter than Nintendo and instead of adding one digit to your IP, you need to add ten.

So I changed it, connected to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and of course crossed my fingers. It worked! I frantically started giving out my friend number to play others, and began searhing for players. A couple minutes roll by, still searching. Ten minutes, still searching. I tried every mode and no matter what I did, the game just wouldn't connect to find other players. So I still don't know what is wrong with it, because I've yet to connect from my house, and my router isn't listed on Nintendo's site. If I can connect to the service I can only imagine it is compatible, I just have no idea why it won't connect to friends.

I did go to a friend's house to play though, and it is fun. Nintendo did a pretty good job with its first time with an online game. It would have been perfect if it was possible to play with eight players instead of four, especially since eight player local is so impractical. It's Mario Kart online, it's everything you would think it would be, the service is fairly basic, the friend system is rather mundane, but then again I might just be spoiled with Xbox Live, and this is a handheld, not a console. I just can't imagine a little kid managing to connect with all the problems I had with just getting on. Nintendo said to keep it simple, and while apparently it's simple for 45% or so of the people who own the game, it really wasn't simple to me, and I even know about how these things work together. I'm hoping future titles pull a better online service, but this does get the job done, and is certainly one of Nintendo's best franchises to kick off the online.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B.

While Mario Kart DS is by no means a perfect game, it really brings handheld multiplayer to a new level. With almost endless playability this one won't be leaving your side for quite some time. But what about all those who can't get online? Sadly you're out of luck, because the single player is fairly repetitive and the cheap computer players don't help it. If you're even somewhat skilled at the game, though, you'll blaze through the single player in no time at all. I for one have no wireless connection working at home and have already stopped playing the game because I can't get online. Fun in every which way, but only depending on your situation.