Nintendo DS Review: Mario Kart DS
Besides for Mario's main platforming adventures, the most recent being Super Mario Galaxy,
Mario's best sports-take would be his very own racing titles: the Mario
Kart franchise. The latest Mario Kart title (not including Mario Kart Wii)
is Mario Kart DS, and you guessed it; it's on the Nintendo DS platform.
Nintendo does a fine job of bringing their best racing franchise onto
another handheld, but how does it compare?
When you start the
game you will be greeted with a nice picture of Mario... jumping in his
Kart (not into his kart, but actually jumping while inside the kart).
Anyways, the karts themselves look nice, especially when you're
choosing which kart to go into in the Grand Prix mode. You can easily
find yourself killing time just to marvel at all the character's
specific karts. However, the characters just seems very bulky compared
to their rides. Mario's hat should not be so pointy and his fist should
not be a square, but what can we expect from the Nintendo DS
graphic-wise. Also the big characters, Donkey Kong and Bowser, look
rushed and not as polished as the others. In my opinion Yoshi is the
best looking character, but that's not important. When you actually
start racing though, none of that will matter as both the characters
and the kart look very smooth. However, the courses are often very
pixelated, whether you're going full speed or just looking around. You
shouldn't even be stopping to look at the scenery seeing how it is a
racing game.
Does
anybody remember Super Mario Bros.? Well, the people who composed SMB
has also composed for this game as well. Sound is one of Nintendo's
specialties right next to gameplay and it doesn't disappoint. The music
is elegantly composed. The whole tune, including the menu, has a very
Mario Kart-vibe. The music isn't the only great thing about Mario Kart
DS, but the overall sound is done quite well. From Mario's "Here we
go!" to Yoshi's "Ha-Hoo", the voice overs are spot on, though we only
really hear them when you use or get hit by an item. Speaking of items,
their sounds entertain as well. Even the banana's 'sploot' sounds
funny. However, my favorite item sound is the blue shell. It sounds
like a bomb is about to hit you (and it does). Before it hits you, you
can hear the whistling, a sign that it is coming for you and then
suddenly an explosion erupts.
As far as gameplay goes, it is
your standard racing game, with of course the Mario twist. The
objective of each race is to finish each course, with a total of three
laps, and try to get past the finish line in first place. The thing
that separates Mario Kart from all of the other racing games is the
idea of items. Within the courses there will usually be more than
opportune times to see a floating rainbow box. These rainbow boxes
contain one of many different kinds of items. Mario Kart DS also brings
some new items to the table such as Bullet Bill and the Octopus' Ink
Cover. In the Grand Prix mode, you have the choice of choosing 1 of 3
difficulties, 50cc, 100 cc, and 150cc. You can also unlock a 150cc
Mirror mode, where all of the courses are flipped horizontally. The
Battle mode also makes a return where you control a character and try
to pop each player's 3 balloons or stealing them. In battle mode you
can also play the Shine Runners, in which you try to collect the most
Shine Sprites. After the time runs out the person with the most shine
sprites wins. A new feature in Mario Kart DS is the mission mode, where
they give you an objective that you must complete. Snaking is also
persistent in this this game. Snaking is essentially where you perform
drifts to get a turbo. The controls are simple. A to accelerate forward
and B to do the reverse. The R button causes you to drift and to snake
repeatedly presses Left,Right,Left,Right on the D-Pad and then release
the R Button. To use an item press the L button. Very, very simple
controls.
With
this many features, you'll be finding yourself stick your Mario Kart DS
cartridge into the DS every now and then. With the four Grand Prix
options (50cc, 100cc,150cc, & 150 Mirror cc), the battle modes, and
mission modes all in one cartridge you can find yourself playing this
by yourself. If you have friends over with a ds and mario kart
cartridge of their own, You can race with your friends and battle and
everything the single player options let you do (except for Mission
Mode). If you friend has a DS, but not a Mario Kart , DS game, you can
use the DS download play feature to do the exact same thing that you
can do if they do have the game. The only thing that you cant do if you
use DS Download play is that anybody who downloads it cannot choose
their characters and are automatically Shyguys. Also, Mario Kart DS is
the 1st DS game to implement Wi-Fi features so you can battle and race
with anybody online. You'll come back to this game over and over again.