Second Opinion: Mario Kart DS
Another year, another Mario Kart. It's 2005 and the long awaited Mario Kart DS is finally released onto the shelves of video game stores nation-wide, the title originally preped for release in May of this year. This is for those that don't follow the series, the 5th Mario Kart to be released since it's ancestor: 'Super Mario Kart' on the good old SNES, these games are reborn fairly sparsely when compared to other Mario games, namely the Mario party series which seems to have a new incarnation with the changing of the guard.
Mario Kart DS is the first of it's kind to be released on the DS and is somewhat of a saving grace for the fledling console; with many great titles appearing on the DS, none of them seem to be having a huge impact on the gaming community and Mario Kart DS is just the sort of high profile game that the console needs to regain some of the gaming community's attention.
First of all lets get one thing out of the way for any doubters out there: the touch screen isn't used to control any aspect of the game bar menu navigation so there is very little change in the way the game is played from the other series. That having said, the second screen is an integral part of the game and is an incredible useful tool; it serves as a map of the current course (viewed either as an overview or as a close-up on your character, the more useful of the 2 in my opinion), this map shows you the current strectch of track that you;re on and any other items, hazards, terrain, opponents that are in the vacinity. You can even get through almost the entire game just using this screen, it's that useful as it shows you if an opponent has fired an item at you, enabling you to dodge it. One of the game's new power-ups; the 'Blooper' forces you to use this screen as the item squirts ink onto your top screen, temporarily blinding you. Other new power-ups include 'Bullet Bill' which works much like Chain Chomp in Mario Kart: Double Dash on the gamecube and a 'Bob-omb' which was featured in Double Dash in the multiplayer 'Battle' option but is now a regular power-up.
This as many of you will know, is the first Mario Kart (infact any game for that matter) to use Nintendo's new Wi-Fi connection, enabling you to play people from around the globe. This is essentially internet play, it has relatively trouble-free connection and near lag-less gameplay (a few of the features such as trailing items behind your kart as a shield have been removed to allow for smoother gameplay). However, you can't chose who you play with as such, Nintendo have included a friend code which enables you to find a friend who might be playing but this doesn't garuntee you a slot in their race. Also finding a decent public 'Hot Spot' (a place with a Wi-Fi connection) can be a bit tricky; some have poor reception, other aren't free, etc...
With all this talk on the multiplayer side, you're probably thinking that once again Nintendo has somewhat neglected the single player mode, well you're wrong! The big N have gone all out on the single player this time: There are now 8 cups each with 4 tracks, making a total of 32 tracks (16 new courses, 16 retro tracks from previous games), excluding the Battle tracks, of which there are 7. There is now the option of a single race is you want some good racing action but don't fancy playing a whole cup's worth of races (a feature which I'm supprised wasn't added to the series earlier). The game also features a mission mode in which you must accomplish various tasks such as driving through gates and you'll be given a rank at the end (3 stars being the best and 'E' grade being the worst), these missions will provide you with hours of fun.
So all in all, this has to be the best game of the series, Mario Kart is at it's peak. The game plays like a dream, better than any of the previous games, it's graphics, I think, are astounding; they manage to out-do the N64 and the machine is a quater of it's size! Even the gamecube tracks look fantastic. The game's fault for me, if any, is that despite all the extra single player action...It's still not enough! I want more! If there's one game this year that will eat away console player's valuable time, it's this.
10 out of 10
Mario Kart DS is the first of it's kind to be released on the DS and is somewhat of a saving grace for the fledling console; with many great titles appearing on the DS, none of them seem to be having a huge impact on the gaming community and Mario Kart DS is just the sort of high profile game that the console needs to regain some of the gaming community's attention.
First of all lets get one thing out of the way for any doubters out there: the touch screen isn't used to control any aspect of the game bar menu navigation so there is very little change in the way the game is played from the other series. That having said, the second screen is an integral part of the game and is an incredible useful tool; it serves as a map of the current course (viewed either as an overview or as a close-up on your character, the more useful of the 2 in my opinion), this map shows you the current strectch of track that you;re on and any other items, hazards, terrain, opponents that are in the vacinity. You can even get through almost the entire game just using this screen, it's that useful as it shows you if an opponent has fired an item at you, enabling you to dodge it. One of the game's new power-ups; the 'Blooper' forces you to use this screen as the item squirts ink onto your top screen, temporarily blinding you. Other new power-ups include 'Bullet Bill' which works much like Chain Chomp in Mario Kart: Double Dash on the gamecube and a 'Bob-omb' which was featured in Double Dash in the multiplayer 'Battle' option but is now a regular power-up.
This as many of you will know, is the first Mario Kart (infact any game for that matter) to use Nintendo's new Wi-Fi connection, enabling you to play people from around the globe. This is essentially internet play, it has relatively trouble-free connection and near lag-less gameplay (a few of the features such as trailing items behind your kart as a shield have been removed to allow for smoother gameplay). However, you can't chose who you play with as such, Nintendo have included a friend code which enables you to find a friend who might be playing but this doesn't garuntee you a slot in their race. Also finding a decent public 'Hot Spot' (a place with a Wi-Fi connection) can be a bit tricky; some have poor reception, other aren't free, etc...
With all this talk on the multiplayer side, you're probably thinking that once again Nintendo has somewhat neglected the single player mode, well you're wrong! The big N have gone all out on the single player this time: There are now 8 cups each with 4 tracks, making a total of 32 tracks (16 new courses, 16 retro tracks from previous games), excluding the Battle tracks, of which there are 7. There is now the option of a single race is you want some good racing action but don't fancy playing a whole cup's worth of races (a feature which I'm supprised wasn't added to the series earlier). The game also features a mission mode in which you must accomplish various tasks such as driving through gates and you'll be given a rank at the end (3 stars being the best and 'E' grade being the worst), these missions will provide you with hours of fun.
So all in all, this has to be the best game of the series, Mario Kart is at it's peak. The game plays like a dream, better than any of the previous games, it's graphics, I think, are astounding; they manage to out-do the N64 and the machine is a quater of it's size! Even the gamecube tracks look fantastic. The game's fault for me, if any, is that despite all the extra single player action...It's still not enough! I want more! If there's one game this year that will eat away console player's valuable time, it's this.
10 out of 10
posted by Anonymous at 12/29/2005 07:05:00 pm
2 Comments:
Superb first review Sam!
wtf? 'better the wangs?'
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