Review: Mario Kart DS

Mario Kart DS

An early trend in DS gaming to this point has been the tendancy by developers to rely heavily, almost to a fault, on the DS's many innovative features; whether it's the touch screen, dual screens, or microphone, some games (polarium, anyone?) feel more like demos exploiting new features. Now that the "second wave" of games are coming out, a new, much more promising trend is developing: take a franchise that's gone somewhat ary recently, strip it down to its essential elements, and add a few new features that effectively make use of the new hardware. Mario Kart DS is a perfect example of this new type of game.

Mario Kart on the SNES and N64 were great games, though I personally felt that the GameCube edition tried to do too much and as a result fell short on the fun factor. The new DS version remedies that completely with a mix of old and new tracks, perfect control, a surprisingly useful bottom screen map, unlockable characters (including R.O.B.???), and the introduction of Nintendo WiFi. Nintendo WiFi was incredibly easy to set up, finding opponents was quick and painless, and within minutes I was beating up on kids probably half my age. In one match on Thanksgiving Day, in fact, I got beat pretty handily by a member of Nintendo of America (easily recognized by their "NOA ____" handle). The jury is still out on just how good Nintendo WiFi will be (no chat?), but if nothing else it lends itself well to a game like Mario Kart.

Replayability is a big concern for me when buying a game, and MKDS has tons of it. There are eight circuits of four tracks each, playable at three difficulty levels plus an unlockable mirror mode. You do the math. As if that weren't enough, there's also the standard battle mode, vs. mode, and a new Grand Turismo-style challenge mode, where you are charged with completing certain goals within a set time limit. This proved to be a lot of fun and a great diversion while playing through the Gran Prix races. Couple that with the aforementioned online mode, and I can't imagine ever really getting tired of this one.

There are a couple small gripes I have with the game. Nothing is more annoying than completely dominating a race and then losing at the end because of an unblockable flying blue turtle shell. I understand the need to keep lagging players interested, but without any way to dodge them it just feels cheap. When playing online, players in last place tend to drop out before the second race is even over, meaning that by the end of four races it's usually just one-on-one. These are pretty small gripes in an otherwise great game.

People talk a lot about "killer apps," and while I'm not sure that what is essentially a remake qualifies as one, Mario Kart DS is a must-have for DS owners. This is easily my favorite DS game so far, and hopefully Nintendo can live up to its own standards and keep releasing quality games like this. 9/10.

introduction

well now that we've got something resembling a blog, i'm going to start writing my first-ever video game review. it occurs to me that something like a video game review blog is lame for two reasons, double-dorky even, but i was talking with stacey and we're both really excited about the DS as a platform. when i was growing up, video games were not allowed in my house, in theory because the temptation to play them instead of doing homework would be too great (suckers: i didn't do my homework anyway). for some reason, however, i was allowed to save up my money and eventually buy a gameboy, and from that point on i've always preferred hand-held games to the standard TV systems. the DS is both a return to the golden age of SNES and N64 pick-up-and-playability, and incredibly innovative in a number of fundamental ways. i've barely touched my PS2 since it came out; before the DS's release i was, like many gamers my age, pretty fed up with the shit being pumped out on the "big" systems. Halo and its ilk have never interested me and i just didn't see the innovation that was happening constantly in the early days of video games: games were in a rut. the DS is making games fun again, a trend i'm hoping to see Nintendo carry over to the Revolution. until then we have the DS, and we all look forward to writing some reviews that you don't have to be a shut-in pimply lonely male to appreciate.