Be prepared for the best Mario Kart game ever!
First things first, don’t bother to take the stylus out! Mario Kart DS does play like any previous Mario Kart title, AB to accelerate and break, LR to slide and use items, and the cross to steer. Like Mario Kart: Double Dash!, it is possible to get a small boost if you slide successfully. However, every character has now very distinct characteristics. Thus, while some may be good at drifting and will need to use the slide as much as possible, others have better handling and won’t necessarily have to slide. Obviously characters with strong drift will have a weaker handling and the other way around. The same apply to speed and acceleration. Finally, heavy characters are advantaged during contacts with other racers and high items bar will get you strong items more often.
In Mario Kart DS, you can expect all the famous personages of the Mario Kart series, excluding the baby versions of the personages present in Mario Kart: Double Dash!. Of course 16 new circuits have been made especially for Mario Kart DS but 16 old races selected from the NES, GBA, N64, and NGC have been included! There’s also a new single player mode. It requires performing random missions such as driving trough gates, collecting coins, or battling a boss. One more notable addition is that it is now possible to save, send and receive ghost in the Time Trial mode (some developers have even save a few of their own ghost ;).
But all the big fuss about Mario Kart DS was about the ability to play online. It has been a worldwide success but let’s first talk about the negative aspects. An entrance in the online world is always approximately successful, but each attempt is a gain of experience, so we can be confident that the service will be improved in the future. Firstly Nintendo had to make some sacrifices, only four players racing at a time, only 20 circuits available, it is not possible to use a banana or a shell as protection, and no Battle mode (ouch!). Note that it is not possible to chat at all time either. However, the game doesn’t suffer from frame rate, it is easy to connect, and you are guarantied to find one to three opponents in 1-3 minutes. I’d personally recommend the worldwide research as it is quicker, you have more chance to find payers at all time, and that lags are rare (even when playing people from Europe, Asia, and America all in the same time).
To sum, Mario Kart DS brings together everything that made the success of the previous Mario Kart games. The gameplay is untouched, 32 circuits are available, the brand new Mission mode will add a few hours of fun, and the online possibilities, while not perfect, still brings an experience not possible in any other Mario Kart title. I thought that I would get bored with this old Mario Kart recipe, but once again Nintendo proves that it can add enough to their license to bring back the enthusiasm!