Mario kart ds is a superb racing game. With an improved single player, and wi-fi, you will be playing this a lot!
Gameplay 9.8/10 - The gameplay is superb. The game has grand prix mode, and also the new mission mode. Which I think is great, because they never had mission mode in the past mario kart's. When you play the game, it's a lot of fun once you get use to it. No, the items are not un-balanced, so if you are truly good at the game, you will most likely win most of the time. Overall the gameplay is great.
Sound 9.5/10 - I don't have much to say, in racing games, sound really isn't a big deal. The music is great, and the characters voices are good also. Thats really about it.
Graphics 9.0/10 - Now this is a ds game, so I can't really expect much. But I was a little disappointed. The characters look very blurry, and it has an ugly look to them. But on the flip-side, the courses look spectacular, and overall the graphics are great.
WI-FI 9.8/10 - Lets not forget about wi-fi mode! This is probably the best feature of the game, and you will love it! For a ds game to have online mode, I was very impressed. Now when I say wi-fi, i'm also talking about the multiplayer mode as well. In wi-fi mode, you can race up to 4 players, which isn't that much. But hey, it's better then nothing. There is also a rank system, that shows all the players how much wins/losses you have so far. Also, you can create an icon & a profile name to show up as you race. It's a great feature, and i'm glad they added it. You can also race your friends with friend codes, and the multiplayer mode is good to. You can race up to 3 other friends, and the best part is that only 1 person needs the game card! Thats about it, I wrote way to much, and overall online as you see is definitely the best feature of mario kart ds.
This is a must have ds game, you'll be playing this for a long time, because theres a lot to do!