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Mario Kart DS Review - DS

I'm not going to get into the description of the 'what' the game contains, since I've already outlined it pretty succinctly in this preview. I'm going to tell you 'how' it plays, and about just how great this game is.

But first, let me just clear up a few little mistakes made in the preview. L or X shoots, and Y can be used to change the bottom screen map from the close up one to the scaled back one (just like tapping the screen). Other than that, it's all pretty much accurate.

Mario Kart DS is awesome fun, no matter whether you're playing it by yourself, in a LAN or online. A great way to think of it is as a 'greatest hit's' game - all the best components of previous titles have come together to form a brand new, awesome title. The powerslide/boost from the console versions lands on a handheld, but in N64 style - with a jump beforehand. I've discovered that this jump comes in handy - especially after going off ramps. If you hit R just at the top of the slope, it seems to take you further and faster. Classic items return - with triple shells for all characters that spin around your (single person) kart, and triple bananas that trail behind you.

Better yet, classic courses have returned, and they look better than the originals. With four entire cups devoted to old tracks (from the SNES, N64, GBA and GC), there's plenty of retro gaming. The only ones that suffer are the Gamecube cups, with shortcuts and hidden paths removed (such as the pipe to the right of the starting line in Mushroom Bridge). Really, this isn't too bad, though I did want there to be more secret paths, or little tricks that could be pulled off.

Mario Kart DS is tough. Unlike Double Dash!!, where the AI could be demolished after just a few short hours of practice, you'll spend days getting gold trophies on all the (eight) cups. The other karters are clever, and will reliably boost into you to steal items, attack you, hold bananas behind themselves in defence and more. Once you get up to 150cc class and are rocketing through the tight alleyways of Delfino Square, one literal slip-up can knock you from first to fifth. Luckily, there's never a sense of impossibility - just the knowledge that you need to hone your skills further.

The brand new addition to single player is Missions, which consists of over 50 fiendish challenges. You'll have to drive backwards through hoops, powerslide, collect coins, beat bosses and more. Some of these seem simple, but when you try and get a three-star rating on all of them, you'll be putting in some real hours. And again, there's never frustration, just the feeling that you could do it if you can just take the corner smoothly, or just nudge Mario off the road. When ... (continued next page)