Reviewed on:
Nintendo DSThe 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.
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."
