This is the best thing that could happen to the Mario Kart series.
Graphics: Mario Kart's graphics are phenominal on the DS. All the courses are clear, colorful, and good looking. The frame rate is great, and never slows down. The models are also very good, but the game is lacking in animations. The game is in full 3D, and is an impressive job for a handheld system.
Sound: The music is pretty good in this game. There's different music for every course, and it's all enjoyable and good to listen to. Some of the courses will stay in your head, and there's audio for every character if they're hit, pass someone, win, or lose. Everything in the game sounds clear and the game actually uses a stereo system, but it's not noticable due to the speakers being so close.
Value: You get a lot of gameplay for a 30 dollar game. There are a lot of different things to do and play. There's plenty to unlock and the gameplay is addicting.
Reviewer's Tilt: I love this game, I love Nintendo, I love my DS, and I love the things this game has done for me. I have nothing else to do but give this a ten.
Gameplay: Mario Kart has several great features. They're Single Player, Multiplayer, and Wi-Fi. In single player you can choose a grand prix mode like every other Mario Kart with different and more difficult classes to choose from. You can unlock content and get better here. There's a time trial mode to compete with your friends or to master a certain course and get the fastest time. This also has staff ghosts, the best of the best (in non-snaking). They can provide a good challenge, and will even show you the best ways through courses. Then there's VS mode, which has everything you've unlocked, and is a race if you just feel like playing the game a little. You set your own rules, like if you want team play, how many rounds to win, and the class. There's a battle mode, which will pit you against 8 cpus, but it's not very fun with them. They just go around in circles and shoot if you're in front of them. There's a battle mode and shine catcher mode. Battle mode is just smacking each other with items and the sole survivor wins. You have a storage of 4 balloons, and can blow them up with either the mic or holding select. Blowing into the mic is faster though. Then the shine catcher mode is getting the most shine sprites for the longest time. You can hit other players and take their shine sprites. The one with the most shines after a period of time is the winner. This will last you while, but it's not long until you race again. Finally there's a mission mode. This mode allows you to get better at the game by doing specific things. Things like killing a set amount of enemies before time runs out, or going through 8 loops as fast as possible. There are bosses here, and you're ranked from C to *** (triple stars). This is fun at first, but becomes something on the side as you play the game.
Multiplayer is single card and multi-card play. In single-card play you go against your friends who don't own the game but have DS's. They play as shy guys, who is middle with every stat. You have limited options here, but it's still fun. Almost like if they had the game. The multi-card play allows you to choose from everything. I'm not sure if you can have bots (none of my friend's have this game), but they're probably there, as well as everything in the normal VS mode. You can probably choose from every course as well. Your friends can choose their own characters and karts, and is probably a little more lasting then single card play will be.
Finally, Mario Kart has Wi-FI. Wi-Fi is, in general, online play. This allows you to connect and play against random people to show your skill. You can also play against your friends via friend codes if you both have wi-fi and set up a match without being in the same place. In Wi-Fi you can customize your Kart to have a symbol of whatever you want to draw. You can draw it with the stylus, and make yourself original with this emblem. There's a win and loss count for Wi-Fi too. Normally it tells you just how good someone is, and it gained at the end of matches. If you're in first place and there are 3 other people, you'll get three wins and no losses. If you're in last place, you'll get 3 losses and no wins. This game is set up just like grand prix. There are limited courses though with a different selection screen, but they're all in course order from the first new tracks to the last retro tracks. The one with the most points wins first, and the least in last. Respectively with second and third. There are some major issues with Wi-Fi though, and it can either be annoying to some or greatful to some. This is snaking. It's a technique, one that I even use, that allows you to mini-turbo constantly. In the end, this is a lot more competitive and fun then using and getting the right items to keep your lead. It takes decent skill, but it shows who has more skill in the end of a match.
The basic gameplay for this game has you racing in a Kart with certain statistics. Every character has there own karts. At the beggining it's two, but you can unlock three for every character. These Kart's all are different, with their own advantages and disadvantages. Some kart's aren't worth looking at, because there are some other karts that are just plain better then some others. Examples are Wario's Brute to the Waluigi Kart, or Mario's shooting star compared to waluigi's construction machine (don't know name). Waluigi's kart is better then Mario's final kart. The karts vary mostly from items. The best item karts are usually the worst performing veichles while the ones with least items stat performs better, but gets worse items. The gameplay is fast paced and fun, and can be a competitive and brutal race to be the one in first. There's not much of the stylus and other DS features, other then selecting things on the screen and battle mode. Majority of the game will see no bonus features, but it doesn't take away from the game at all.
If you have a DS, then there's no reason to miss out on this game. It's addicting gameplay and top of the line graphics are really a treat on the DS, and is worth checking out. It can be the only game on your DS, and you'll still have fun with it. Mario Kart is back, and it dominates this system.