News

• Reviewed on: Nintendo DS
• The Good: Wireless on-line multiplayer! Racing response time on-line is excellent. Lots of modes. New maps, and maps from the entire history of the franchise. Good, simple, clean fun.
• The Bad: Only race modes are played on-line, none of the battle modes are supported. Depending on where you live, you might not have a supported hotspot near you, so you will need to purchase the Wi-Fi Connector if you want to play on-line.
• The Verdict: Get it. Now.
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REVIEW:

Nintendo has released the latest version of Mario Kart for its Dualscreen handheld system, and if you haven't played it yet, it's good. It's really, really good.

At last check, Gamerankings.com had 97 reviews of the game, with an average rating of 92.5 per cent . You can add @Play's five red dots rating to that tally.

"Mario Kart DS will be the game of the holidays," confidently stated David Le, Marketing Manager, Nintendo of Canada in a recent phone interview. "Absolutely I believe that."

You've probably played Mario Kart before, on the Super NES, on the N64, on the GameCube. It's a game that never gets old. It's a simple game of racing and combat using Mario and his friends and foes — Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Bowser. The new edition is loaded with maps — 16 new maps, and 16 "retro" maps — maps featured in previous Mario Kart games. The top screen shows you racing around the track, the lower screen shows a map of the track. It's very helpful for detecting and dodging obstacles like turtle shells and banana peels, or for navigating when squid ink blinds you.

With simple, intuitive controls, the game is very easy to learn, and more habit-forming than extra-salty popcorn.

"Mario Kart is so accessible to everybody," says Mr. Le. "You only need to know two things: how to accelerate, and how to drift. Because nobody hits the brakes in Mario Kart."

There's a lot of stuff packed in that little game card. The old classic modes have returned, but some have a DS twist. For example, in Balloon Battle, you blow on the DS' microphone in order to inflate the balloons. There's also a new collection-style battle, Shine Runners. You drive around collecting stars, and using weapons to stop the other players from getting stars. Or, getting them to spill ones they've already collected.

But, by far the most appealing thing about the new Mario Kart is that you can go on-line with it and race people wirelessly on your DS. You can have your DS detect people within range, or you can play people from all over the country — or even the world — on Nintendo's new service, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. We've tried it, and it's amazing how quick and smooth the game is. Although it can take a few minutes to match you up with racers (it compares your win/loss records), once it's race time, Mario Kart DS' response is surprisingly lag-free.

"We're really excited about it," says David Le of the new on-line abilities of the DS. "We really want on-line gaming to be for everybody, and our vision for Mario Kart was everyone who purchased it to be able to try it on-line at least once."

According to Mr. Le's stats, they're pretty close to that vision.

"When you take a look at the [overall] gaming market, only about eight per cent are playing on-line, which is a very small percentage considering how big the actual market is," says Mr. Le. "The first week [of availability], the percentage of people that have purchased Kart and played it on-line is 45 per cent , which is a huge number."

There are several ways in which you can play Mario Kart DS on-line. The first is to locate one of the compatible hotspots in your town. Nintendo of Canada has partnered with FatPort, a provider of wireless broadband service. FatPort hotspots, which are located in malls, hotels, bars etc., around the country, will support on-line play without any additional hardware. And it's free. All you have to do is stand within the hotspot, get your DS to detect it, select one a multiplayer game, and off you go.

The number of hotspots in a given region varies. More are being added all the time, but there's greater penetration out west. Greater Vancouver, for example, currently has over 150 FatPort hotspots in all kinds of locations, from bars to law offices, whereas the Greater Toronto Area has just 11.

There is, however, another option that will turn virtually any machine into a hotspot. Nintendo sells a device called the Nintendo USB Wi-Fi Connector. As the name suggests, this is a small peripheral that's about the size of a USB drive If you install the software and plug the Connector into a PC running Window XP (Macs are unfortunately not supported) with a high speed connection, you will turn it into a compatible hotspot.

Any laptop that can detect and run off wireless networks becomes a mobile hotspot. I brought my laptop into a local Starbucks that had what Nintendo calls a "non-partner" hotspot, and was able to use the Connector to play Mario Kart on-line. There is a bit of software set-up, but it's far easier than setting up a router yourself. Most of it is auto-detected and done for you. The Connector is now in stores, and retails for about $34.95 (Cdn.).

Nintendo's rivals have already ventured into the on-line sphere with their systems, and created quite a presence. While Nintendo's GameCube has on-line adaptors, the company is not as associated with on-line gaming as is, say, Microsoft with Xbox Live. Mr. Le has no problem with Nintendo's seemingly late arrival.

"Nintendo historically has been a quite patient company," says Mr. Le. "We're really careful about how we bring things to market. Part of what we're trying to do is appeal to broadest base possible. We took the last, I'd say five years to really study what was going on-line, how do you make it a lucrative business, something that's sustainable, but at the same how do you address the fact that only eight per cent are playing on-line? More people should be playing on-line."

Mr. Le says that on-line gaming it its current state can be "difficult" and "intimidating" for casual gamers. It's something that he says Nintendo set out to solve in the creation of Nintendo Wi-Fi.

"Our on-line vision is very different. The first thing, it's free. There's not set-up fee, no subscription fee for Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. In terms of making it easier for people to access, it's pretty simple. You pick up your DS system and one of the games that's Wi-Fi enabled, [like] Mario Kart. There's only three places you need go through: checking to see what your connection is, clicking to see that you've got access, and then away you go."

Currently, three DS games support on-line play. Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk: American Ska8land, and Animal Crossing: Wild World. More games are coming. Mr Le was unable to give specific numbers, but he did confirm that Metroid Prime Hunters will support Wi-Fi and will be released March 22, 2006.

Mr. Le said that you can get the measure of the DS on-line community through www.nintendowifi.com. "You can see high scores for select games, you can see who's on, what cities have the most usage."

The site also provides tech support.

"For people who just use their computers for e-mail, learning about the Wi-Fi router and how to set it up and how to connect your DS may be a little bit difficult," says Mr. Le. "But we think that when you go to Nintendowifi.com, there's just a ton of tech support information. Frequently asked questions, getting started, what routers to buy if you're looking for [one], how to connect. We feel that any issues that people have, if they go to the website, they'll be able to figure them out."

Gamers can also hook up and play each other on-line by exchanging 12 digit friend codes. This exchange is mostly done outside the Nintendo Wi-Fi service though. Mario Kart does not have a means of communication, although Animal Crossing does allow chatting. The Nintendo Wi-Fi service also does not support Pictochat. Mr. Le says Nintendo gets a lot of requests for that and the company is contemplating communication over the new service, but "We don't have any confirmed plans."

Mr. Le says the problem is that there are "a lot of different issues from a social standpoint." Though Mr. Le did not name one specifically, anybody who has used an on-line gaming service knows that all sorts of things get communicated on them, and not all of them are friendly. Nintendo likely wants to minimize some of the less desirable elements.

As usual, Nintendo is secretive about future plans in general. When asked how Nintendo's new on-line presence will factor into the Revolution (the working name of its new home console) Mr. Le would only say "I know that right now there are tentative plans for the Revolution to be Wi-Fi enabled. In terms of specifics, we're waiting until E3."

In the meanwhile, we'll have to play Mario Kart DS on-line, but that's not difficult. It's amazing how such simple game hooked us yet again, just like it did back it the days of the SNES.

"Mario is by far and away the No. 1 franchise in videogaming," says Mr. Le. "We're talking about a character who's been able to move 182 million games worldwide. But what a lot of people don't realize is that Mario Kart is the number one franchise within the Mario family. Partly because it's so accessible.

"When people try [Mario Kart DS], specifically on-line, they won't be able to put it down, because it's a great game," says Mr. Le.

We heartily agree.