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Right on track

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 314 / 340
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It seems just like yesterday when the original Mario Kart made its debut on the SNES in 1992. The game was a hit back then, and it isn't difficult to understand why. A racing game that emphasizes on sabotaging your opponents with weapons like banana skins, flying shells and lightning bolts was almost unheard of then, and to do so with your favorite Nintendo characters was, quite simply, pure bliss. Not surprisingly, the game captured the hearts of many gamers then.

Fast forward to the year 2005. Fans of the series have seen a few sequels through the years, but the DS version of Mario Kart was greeted with much more anticipation than its predecessors. The main reason, obviously, is the game's inclusion of integrated online play. For the first time in Mario Kart's history, gamers can now take on players from all over the world as long as they're using a wireless router that is supported by Nintendo. The game also allows up to eight players to multiplay in close proximity with only one copy of the cartridge, which essentially means that a gamer who decides not to buy the game can still perform a download play and race against a friend who owns a cartridge.

Of course, to enjoy the other features in Mario Kart DS, you'll still have to purchase the game, especially when you're interested in taking on the single-player campaign. As with previous instalments, Mario Kart DS has a grand prix mode, which comprises of four races each that are span across eight different competitions. This means a total of 32 tracks for your racing pleasure. 16 of these tracks are brand new, but the rest consists of classic ones from previous renditions of Mario Kart. These include the Moo Moo Farm from N64, Peach Circuit from the GBA and even the original Mario Circuit from the SNES. These will no doubt bring much joy for Mario Kart fans.

Yet, even in the presence of the classic tracks, the newer tracks do not pale in comparison. The innovative minds at Nintendo have once again developed a series of circuits that are visually stunning, mildly challenging and always entertaining. You'll get to race through a pinball machine, a clock and even an airship fortress! The combination of both old and new tracks is indeed a masterstroke that allows you to engage new challenges, as well as indulge in some nostalgia.

Mario Kart DS also has a mission mode that requires you to perform a series of tasks within a certain time limit. These include collecting a designated number of coins, passing through a series of numbered gates in sequence, and even hitting specified enemies with specified weapons. The missions are divided into "worlds", and each world various stages. Completing all stages in a world will unlock a "boss fight", which could involve winning in a race against the boss, or even to knock him out from a platform. Defeating a boss unlocks the next world, up to a maximum of six worlds and a total of 54 missions. Obviously, the missions get tougher as the game progresses, but they aren't exactly impossible to complete. Gamers who enjoy more than merely racing should find the mission mode in Mario Kart DS a fun and captivating feature.

The other modes in the single player campaign include a VS challenge and a battle mode. The VS challenge basically pits you against seven CPU-controlled racers in a never-ending series of races. This is the perfect training ground for learning the techniques of the game. The battle mode consists of a balloon battle and a shine runners game. The balloon battle requires you to burst the balloons of your opponents, while the shine runners game requires you grab as many shines as possible. These two mini-games are quite forgettable when played alone, so it's recommended that you engage them with a friend or two. Bursting balloons has never been so much fun.

A Mario Kart game is never complete without an array of usable weapons against your fellow racers. In Mario Kart DS, the arsenal gets even better with the inclusion of some new items. One of these new weapons is the Bob-omb, which causes an explosion. If used accurately, the Bob-omb's impact on an opponent is tremendous, as it drastically slows down his or her progress. The Bullet Bill is another new item that is extremely cool. Using it will turn you into a flying bullet. You'll find yourself bursting forward with much speed, knocking over anyone who dares stand in your way, and most importantly, covering a lot of ground. The Blooper, one of Mario's nastiest enemies, is the third new addition. It'll squirt ink onto your opponent's windscreen, causing a temporary loss of vision. The range of old and new items more than complement each other, and you'll no doubt find great usage with them as you progress.

The controls of Mario Kart DS are extremely simple, making it a game that anyone could pick up and play without much hassle. Of course, learning more techniques are useful when you intend to go online for some real challenge, and the game does give you a repertoire of skills to master. One of them is turbo drifting, which requires you to drift, and then quickly press the left and right button on your D-pad to cause your tires to catch fire. Releasing the drift immediately after that will result in a temporary burst of speed. This technique is extremely useful in chasing a seemingly loss cause.

The real meat of the game, obviously, is the online feature. Once you get connected, you'll be able to search for players who're also online at the same time. It may take a while for you to get a full quota of four players, but the game works with one or two opponents as well. You'll have to race through a standard Grand Prix in an online game. You'll also get to vote on which track you want to race, so that you can at least gain an upper hand by (hopefully) getting a track that you're familiar with. It's also advisable for you to practise on the various tracks before proceeding, since you won't want to finish last all the time!

As mentioned earlier, you can also play with fellow friends with the use of only one cartridge, but the player who doesn't have a cartridge will, by default, be using Shy Guy as a character. The player only needs to turn on his DS when another player hosts the game, and he should be able to "download" the game into his DS for a quick race. As with online play, it takes a while for the connection to be established, but my experience with multiplaying has found no lag at all during the gameplay, which is definitely great. Beware, however, when you send a bolt of lightning towards your friend - regular attempts at this could possibly lead to a loss of friendship at the end of the races!

If you're a fan of Nintendo-style graphics, Mario Kart DS will not disappoint you. The game retains the usual awesome graphics from the past, and provides a great sense of details even for a supposedly "cartoony" presentation. The DS' dual screen also comes in handy here, as you can watch the action on the top screen, while still referring to the touch screen for a real-time map. The map is especially useful for dodging attacks from behind. The audios are also highly enjoyable, combining great music and sound effects seamlessly. Somehow, the sound of "vroom vroom" seems to blend perfectly to the lively, catchy tunes in the background. If only prime time radio is that good.

In summary, Mario Kart DS is everything you can expect from a Mario Kart game, and perhaps just a little more. The inclusion of online play makes the experience a little better, but even if you've no access to it, the single player campaign should still be good enough to keep you going back for more. Just remember to change your underpants.

Best portable game ever!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge huge huge PSP fan. However, that being said I do own both systems and when I picked this game up today, I couldn't put it down. This game is way more than any other console installiation of Mario Kart. The career mode of this game is still the same. You start off on 50 cc and try to beat the first cup, and you unlock one of the new 30 courses of this game and you also unlock new speed classes, 100 cc and 150 cc. The graphics for a handheld game are great, the character models, weapons and courses are very clear and colorful. There are 8 characters to choose from, just like the SNES and N64 games. You can race with Mario, Peach, DK, Bowser, Luigi, Toad, Yoshi and Wario. Along the way you unlock 4 more characters, Dry Bones, Daisy, Wario and Robot. You can unlock up to 5 cars for each person so each character has 7 cars, although you need to be certain people to play with certain vehicles. As far as the weapons go, there are three new ones, but gone are the specials from Double Dash. This game seems like a slimmer version of Double Dash, the Gamecube version of Mario Kart, and it is in characters and vehicles. But there is one thing that makes up for this, multiplayer. This game can play 8 way multiplayer with only one game card. Even better, this game has online!!! Set up is minimal as long as you are in a hotspot. The way it works is there is a tournament with four players. There are four races in the tournament with a points system. Each race, a different person selects a course to race at. Overall, this is a must buy if you own a DS.

omg!!!!!! who would have thought this amazing@!@!@!@!@!@!!@

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 13
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

ok i own an xbox with xbox live and of course a ds but when i herd wi fi was comming out i was like ooook kinda like my xbox live kinda thing so thats cool so i went to the store bought the game it is sooooo amzing its not even funny if u dont have this u better get it u get 8 chars marior luigi peach dk bowser wario toad and yoshi yoshia is my guy but w/e the best thing is the tracks are all from the old games super mario kart mario kart 64 mario kart super cuicit and double dash and there are even more courses!!!!

my rating for this game are

game play--5 hands down going online owning eveyone and even getting owned myself is fun just wanting to paly again and again.

graphics--after having xbox live the graphics are about a 4.5 thats amzing for a halndheld trust me!!!

features--u get alot of featers liek versus battle mode grand pix tie trial and mission features i give it a 5++++ way way worth 35 bucks!!!!!!!

and it gets even better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if u look on the bottom screen of the ds u can see if a there is things that u are about to hit lke a banana is on the ground u can see and move out of the way!!!!

best game ever!!!!!!! just wait till animal crossing man i have been playing this almsot as much as halo 2 on my xbox!!!!!

if u dont get a wi fi game u arnt use the potensial thast the nintendo ds has

hope this was helpfull get this game!@@!@!@!!@@!@!

i havent been playing long

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

as the game just came out today, and i JUST got it, so all i can say is it looks superb, very nice graphics music etc oh and some cool new power ups, so far this is awsome..so yeah i would buy it if i were you.

Mario Kart DS is easily the best in series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I had my doubts about Mario Kart DS in the early stages of its development. Mario Kart: Double Dash (Gamecube) was never one of my favorite games, and I was hoping that Nintendo would stick to the roots with their DS edition of the high-selling, fan-favorite racing game. With Mario Kart DS, they've done just that.

It seems that the developers took everything great from Super Mario Kart (SNES), Mario Kart 64 (N64), Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA), and Mario Kart: Double Dash (GC) and put all of those elements into a single Mario Kart game. When you consider how wonderful all of these games have been and how much fun they still are today, that's quite an achievement. Mario Kart DS features some of the same gameplay modes that fans have seen for years: Grand Prix, Time Trial, and Battle. They're the same as always, with three ranks of difficulty in Grand Prix and several different battle modes in Battle.

Nintendo didn't stop with the classic game modes. In fact, they added another interesting mode called "Challenge" in which you pick up certain numbers of coins or do a set number of power slides in a lap under a certain amount of time. These challenges can be excruciatingly difficult but they make you a much more weathered Mario Kart player and therefore are a great addition to the game. Also, Multiplayer has come in the form of Nintendo's first WiFi-enabled online multiplayer DS game. The races in WiFi multiplayer are relatively simple but it's a great addition to the game nonetheless.

On the track itself, the controls are easy but don't utilize the DS very much--driving is done with the directional pad, acceleration and braking are done with the A and B buttons, power sliding is done with the R trigger, and item usage comes from the L trigger. This simple system goes alongside several classic items and three new ones. The Bullet Bill thrusts you forward knocking anyone in your path off of the track. The Bob-Omb explodes, causing anything in its blast radius to spin out and slow down considerably. Last of all, the Blooper spits ink on every other racer's screen, making steering very difficult due to limited visibility.

Visually Mario Kart DS stands out as one of the best-looking Nintendo DS games to date. It faithfully recreates some of the classic 3D tracks from Mario Kart 64 and Double Dash (like the ghost house level from MK64 and Luigi's Circuit from MKDD) while also bringing SNES and GBA tracks to life in 3D. Of course, there have also been sixteen new tracks added to the mix, making a grand total of 32 different tracks that all look unique but beautifully show off the wacky Nintendo universe. The music from all of the classic tracks return as well (even the GBA tracks) and the new beats are as catchy as the old ones. Sound bytes, like the different celebrations and yelps of pain when a character is hit with a shell, sound just like they always have.

Mario Kart DS is the essential Nintendo DS game. If you've almost given up on the DS, than you clearly haven't played Mario Kart DS and for that reason you're missing out. MKDS is being sold for $35, and if you see it how I do, that's $1.09 per race track and you could easily get more than a few dozen hours of enjoyment out of this before you want to play something else. Is Mario Kart DS worth it? I'd say so.

Mario Kart Online at last!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm terrible with sport or sport related games. Yet despite that I have a love for the Mario Kart series simply because it's always been just pure fun! This game is no different, and improves on the formula by including the long awaited online play, and best of all, there's no charge for it! (Pay attention Sony, Square and M$, free online!)
The game play really hasn't changed all that much from the GBA edition, the player selects one of a handful of classic Mario characters and then chooses between two carts, then participates in a series of themed race tracks. The game has two modes, nitro, and retro. Retro collects a handful of fan favorites from previous games. Disappointingly a couple of them seem pretty similar to the new tracks, but there's still enough different to get excited about.
I haven't really learned the tricks to this game yet, the ones you have to master if you want any hope of competing on even ground in 100cc and 150cc, like how Double Dash had the skid maneuver which allowed you to build blue flames that would boost your speed... 100cc and 150cc is where things get really hard, and mastery of this clever racer does take some doing. I haven't toyed with the online stuff yet, but it's there and it's free, and you can't beat that.
The game does not appear to make much use of the touch screen that I have found yet but I think that's a good thing, as the second screen is somewhat of a distraction in this case. The game therefore plays almost identically to the SNES original.
Graphically the game surpasses anything that I've seen on the DS so far, and is on par with the N64 edition. It's nice to the pixilazation the DS is notorious for brought to a minimum, it's barely noticeable. Best of all there are no framerate issues, and minimal clipping. Nintendo did a great job here.
The music is kind of age old traditional midi, and not as good as the GCN edition, but its still one of the better sounding DS games.
In all no DS owner should pass on this! Though not much has changed game play wise, and some of the tracks may be just rehash, its still one of the better installments of this series!

So much fun You'll Puke

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

OH MY GOSH, Nintendo really grabs you with this game. Be warned though, you'll be sucked in, you'll lose sleep playing, you'll giggle with glee finally being able to play MarioKart Online.
Finally, ever since the first MarioKart release back on the SNES we are given online play- and it's about time :)
There's a great mix of tracks to race here- you'll see some new ones, as well as earlier tracks from the N64, SNES and Cube Kart games that were previously released. There's just so much going on in my mind after playing this title that I don't know where to start.
First off, I have wireless internet & getting MarioKart DS hooked-up took about 1 minute to get it up & running for online play. Even if you don't have a clue how to get started, Nintendo graciously guides you through the process step-by-step. It's packaged with two instruction booklets: one for the gameplay & the other for getting set-up online. Even if you don't plan on playing online (you really should though), the nintendowifi.com website lists all their wi-fi hotspots you can use to play against other human opponents (You'll see that many are located at McDonalds).
The gameplay itself is simple and extremely addictive. Just like earlier versions of Mario Kart, in the DS version you choose a rider and a car- each character (Mario, Bowser, Princess Peach....etc) has different power-ups, and each car handles differently. There are also unlockable characters once you progress through the game far enough.
The framerate is fluid, the animations are bright and colorful, and I've found that there is absolutely no slow-down at all. The music is your typical bouncy/happy marioKart tunes.
You can choose to play online, a VS mode, battlemode, timetrial, circuit trial....there are quite a few modes to play through here so even expert "power-drifting" racers will be kept busy for a long time. Now, with the inclusion of on-line play, this game will never become tired....only your fingers.
I'm just so happy to have this game, I'm almost at the point of tears...tears of joy! WooT!

Another MUST HAVE Title

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Who says the DS doesn't have great games? Liars, that's who! And with DS Mario Kart you can say you've got one of the best titles to hit the DS! And with Nintendo DS now with Wi-Fi Connection, you can play online and enjoy the fun with up to seven other players!

Mario Kart DS, like all the others, features grand prix races for you to race in. Most of them won't be availible until you complete other races, but that's the fun of Mario Kart. The races are not too hard, and they're a load of fun! Four of these tracks are brand new, but several are taken from previous Mario Kart titles. From the SNES, to the GBA release just a couple of years ago. You can enter cups at 50cc, 100cc, or 150cc. This, of course, is the difficulty level. You'll not only notice your opponents get faster, but they'll get more aggressive as well.

There are eight characters with two vehciles each. Well, at first. As you progress through the game you'll unlock more. When deciding on a character you of course are looking at speed, acceleration, etc. but you may also want to look at things like... the drifting... or their item attribute. A low item attribute will often net you items that are pretty much useless.

This is NOT just a rehash of an old game, though. I noted that there are four new tracks, and that it actually combines earlier titles. But there are also new powerups in this one. You now have a Bullet Bill power up which will increase your speed (and send you temporarily into auto-pilot). You'll also be able to fire off a Bob-omb (that'll really mess your opponents up) and you can now release a blooper (those squid guys) to squirt ink on the screen of your opponents. These new editions are worth it.

In addition to the new power ups and tracks, you've also got "Mission" mode. This will pit you into courses where you'll have to perform certain task to move on. For example, you may need to pass through gates in a certain order. There are six groups with nine levels each. Each group ending with a boss.

Now let's move on to the best stuff. The reason a lot of us still play Mario Kart games. The battling! You can do the balloon battles and shine runners in a single player mode, but not do them on multi-player would be a sin. Mario Kart DS takes complete and total advantage of Nintendo's Wi-Fi usage. So challenge some people!

Getting on the Wi-Fi has great oppurtunities. You can have up to 36 rivals, and you can challenge people all over the world. The problem of course, being you could lose the connection. There's little problems with the Wi-Fi connection, though, and it's much more fun than it appears to be.

As you might have guessed, the game looks and sounds great! It's smooth, like the visuals of the N64 version, only smoother--not as blocky. The sounds are great and so are the sound effects. And because the DS in Stereo, you'll love it with all your heart.

Mario Kart DS is another must own DS title. It isn't just some port of an old game, it throws in a ton of new stuff. So don't think of passing this up by saying, "I've got it on N64!" The N64 version has nothing on this. So grab it!

The Good:

+FUN STUFF TO UNLOCK!
+Great Graphics
+Great Sound!
+You can play multiplayer with a single pack!
+Fully takes advantage of Nintedno Wi-Fi
+Not just a rehash of Super Mario Kart 64, it's actually it's own title!

The Bad

-Your friends and family will certainly feel neglected--unless they have this game!

A CLASSIC YOU WILL LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I got this for my birthday from my loving parents,and I love it!Cool levels,strange items,and awsome unlockables(such as a turtle skeleton character you can play as.)You will defently love it to,no matter what age you are,or who you are.YOU MUST BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!=)

Mario is racing back

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well were to start, of course the online is the best! You get 8 classic characters plus unlockable characters and tracks. The graphics are the best 3-d graphics yet. You get to pick some of the racing tracks for the super nintendo,n64,GBA,Nintendo gamecube and new levels from nintendo ds!!! Online is the biggest thing of course. My only complain is the online should have 8 people racing instead of 4, and there should be a chat room. Awesome game!!!!!!!!!!

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