Mario Kart (DS)

My family always goes out with two other familys, altogether including a 13-year-old, a 11-year-old, two 8-year-olds, and a 5-year old. We were all searching for a brilliant multiplayer game that we could all play wihtout getting bored. When I bought this game, we immediatly went onto multiplayer against each other. Despite the eight year age range, everyone was laughing at the end of the first race. This is a brilliant, addictive game that any age can play. We never get bored with all the possible racetracs. Will never go anywhere without this game now :)

Another great title from Nintendo. This racing game features Mario and pals embarking on races in their own specialised vehicles. Unlock new characters, courses and cars, perfect shortcuts and even showcase your talents to friends via WiFi.

The nice 3D graphics work well on the sweet little courses, some of which have been specially designed for the DS version of the game.

There are also mini challenges and alternative driving games such as 'Balloon Battle' for when straight-up racing just isn't what you feel like doing. All in all, a nicely designed game that probably couldn't be improved upon that much.

Great graphics not to hard suitable for all ages love the game myself, a big range of different race courses which you will get as you go along different level types. Brilliant game! Well recommend Mario Kart DS.

Enjoy all of the thrills of the great game, now gone portable! The game incorporates old tracks and new tracks exclusively for the DS, including Yoshi falls. Some of the retro tracks include: Mario circuit 1 from the SNES, Moo Moo Farm from the N64 and Peach Circuit from the GBA to name but a few. There is the standard layout of single player and multiplayer (broadband internet connection needed for online play) which allows you to play against people around the world with the push of a button. Inside the single mode are five racing types:

Grand Prix - Race 4 tracks in 3 difficulties, 50cc (easiest) past 100cc (middle) up to 150cc (hardest)! Be the person to have the most points at the end and win the Grand Prix. There are to start off with 4 "retro" grand prix - including the SNES N64 and GBA tracks, plus the "Nitro" grand prix which holds the newer tracks. Also, be ranked on your performance and try to get 2 stars!!!

Time Trials - Try all of the grand prix tracks but with a twist, beat the time to get a higher rank, and use the item boxes to your advantage, see later in the review.

VS - The most basic of the race types, simply pick your racer and the CPU's are picked at random. Then have free choice with the class, the difficulty of the CPU's, how the courses are chosen, the rules (how many wins, how many races or free) and whether it's a team race, 4 vs 4. Then you have a free choice of any grand prix that you have unlocked at that difficulty level.

Battle Mode - Battle mode is split down into two sub-sections:

Balloon Battle - This mode allows you to make good use of the item boxes and burst your opponents balloons with them, if all of your balloons pop, you lose. Balloon Battle makes use of the inbuilt microphone, simply blow into the microphone to inflate your balloons. Pick any of an initial 6 'play' circuits and BURST THOSE BALLOONS!!!

Shine Runners - Collect shines from around the circuit and steal your opponents by using item boxes, but be careful as after a certain time, the lower amounts are booted out so keep hold of your shines and steal others. The person with the most shines at the end wins obviously. This mode also operates on the same system as the VS mode as in the choosing your racer and then the race options.

Mission - Collect item boxes, go through the gates and beat the boss of each level and recieve a grade for the level. To start with you have 6 levels, each with 8 sub-levels and a final boss level.

Each of those five racing modes has its own advantages and thrills, but are made more excitable with the use of item boxes which can win you and can also lose you a race. Some of the 'booty' acquired from the item boxes include:

Mushrooms - Small burst of speed

Golden Mushroom - Unlimited use of bursts of speed for a certain amount of time.

Rocket - Controls your kart and races at fast pace for an amount of time.

Green Shell - Unguided missile that is flung from the front of your kart.

Red Shell - Guided missile flung from the front of your kart.

Those are just a few of the items that you acquire from the boxes that are used to your advantage. Many of races I have won using these boxes.

Circuit records are saved onto the game card and are accessible through the main screen which can help you be the best!

Overall, this game is an amazing representation of the previous versions, with updated graphics and race tracks. Definately recommended to anyone who has enjoyed this games amazing ancestors. Thumbs Up!

A beautiful game with smooth graphics that any Kart fan should try. Trust me you will love it!!!

Overall, the best Mario Kart for it's time. The graphics are about as good as you can get for the DS. The feel is perfect for Mario Kart and being able to play it on a portable system is great!

As the Mario Kart game for the Nintendo DS, Mario kart DS has a lot to live up to. And, fortunately, it was a great success. With online play and multi player support, Mario Kart DS has brought high-quality racing into your hands to travel anywhere and also race with anyone anywhere, as well.

Like previous Mario Kart games, Mario Kart DS has a single player racing mode, called the Grand Prix mode, where you race against 7 other computer controlled karts in hope to win the hold trophy after 4 races. There are 8 cups, 4 with new maps, 4 with old maps from previous games. In total, you have 16 new maps and 16 classic maps to race and rampage on.

There are also some new weapons in Mario Kart DS, like the inky Blooper, who can squirt ink onto other player's screens, Boo, who can steal items from your enemies, and the powerful Bullet Bill, who will race you along the track at fast speed, knocking anyone in his path far away! There are also the classic weapons, like the banana peel, the shells, the mushrooms, and the almighty blue spiny shell.

Also new is the mission mode, where you complete tasks and eventually fight the boss of the stage. The tasks vary from collecting coins to braking boxes to racing giant monsters!

There are new carts for all the characters and each has 3, once you unlock them! They each have their own specifications from speed to acceleration and weight to handling. Once you unlock to be able to use different characters in karts other than their own, you'll see that even the character's themselves have effects on the carts like Bowser in a really light kart will make it much heavier than a light character like dry bones.

The handling of the karts makes up for the lake of speed, making it easier to use techniques which were hard in other games like snaking, where people keep powersliding so they are never at normal speed.

The graphics are very detailed for a game on a handheld system. The karts are detailed and the map looks nice itself.

The audio may be a bit frantic, but it is still very good and takes use of the left and right speakers of the Nintendo DS.

Once you get online, I'm afraid to say that it isn't as simple as hosting a game and people joining. It is done by everyone being in a category (Worldwide, regional, etc...) and people randomly joining each other. The online racing itself it very fun, knowing that your racing against human brains instead of a computer chip. Unfortunately, there is a case of 'quitters'. It's where someone quits a game they know they'll lose by turning their Nintendo DS off, and it won't count as a loss on their online record.

The Mario kart series has been on every system so far and the one for the Nintendo DS is another landmark.

Mario Kart is a top notch game which i would recommend to anyone. It is great fun :D

Mario Kart is a special something Nintendo tends to only release once on each console, so when there's talk of a new console, you know a Mario Kart is never far behind, and that proved true for the DS. Ever since Super Mario Kart on the SNES, the series have always provided one of the best multiplayer games on a Nintendo system, although each game in the series has a worthwhile single player they truly excel when it comes to multiplayer, and Mario Kart DS goes one further by being the first Mario Kart playable online, and it even has single-kart link up, although this is restricted to only 4 playable tracks.

The online mode, whilst simplistic is fantastic fun. Some of the tracks are missing from the online mode, and sadly include some of the best, but playing against human characters from around the world beats playing AI controlled characters any day, and most importantly it's free!

And even for those of you without the ability to connect your DS online and have no one to play wirelessly with, Mario Kart DS also brings the most complete single player mode seen yet too. As well as the usual 50cc, 100cc and 150cc modes (ie easy, normal and hard settings), you now also get challenge mode, in which you're set a usually short task of collecting coins in a time limit or some daft ones such as winning a race in reverse.

The actual gameplay itself is arguably the best yet in any Mario Kart game. The graphics are similar to the N64 version, but the Gamecube tracks are still instantly recognisable. My only complaint about the gameplay is that it feels a little slow, even on 150cc, and that the online mode suffers from the occasional lag, but the biggest concern there is 'quitters'; generally as you're about to win a race the losing player(s) simply turns off their DS, thus ending the race, and as such they don't get a lose on their record, and equally you don't get a win. This lack of sportsmanship gets very frustrating, as players constantly quit and disrupt what is otherwise a decent service.

But ignore these and you've got one of the most balanced Mario Karts yet. The handling feels just right, and it's a true powerslider's dream. The more hardcore players have a technique called 'snaking', in which they constantly powerslide diagonally along the track, while earning speed boosts. It's a difficult manoeuvre to pull off, but with practice it becomes a fantastic trick for wining races.

It doesn't exactly use the DS's unique features much however, and the second screen simply becomes a place for the track map, and the touch screen isn't used at all whilst playing, (it does change the map display, but it is mostly pointless). It's purely for navigating the menu's and creating your own emblems which you can stick to the front of your kart. But despite that, it is still one of the best games on the DS right now, and it proves to be a great game on your own, but with friends and online it's a blast.

I think that Mario Kart DS is a great game. It is multi-player, so you can race against your friends, or play single. In MarioKart, you can do grand prix's and get graded on how well you did (A,B,C etc.). I think this is great as it allows you to test your skill and knowledge on driving. You can choose 50cc, 100cc or 150cc. These act as difficulty ratings. You race against characters. As you play the game, you unlock different racing courses and characters. There is also a mission option, in this, you can try and complete assorted tasks.

I also think the Wi-Fi connection option is great! It allows you to face players all over the world!