• Difficulty: Just Right
• Time Spent: 40 to 100 Hours

"Been there, done that"

Mario Kart DS Boxart

The Mario Kart series is one of the successful Mario spin-offs, all Mario Kart sales totaling over 48.18 million. (This does not include sales on the Virtual Console for Wii) Mario Kart DS is the fifth installment in the series and is the first Mario Kart to be on a hand held system. Mario Kart DS is also the first game to take advantage of the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi capabilities.

Rainbow Road, one of the re-occurring tracks in Mario Kart

Mario Kart DS is a Kart Racing game featuring all of our favourite Nintendo characters, including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser and many more. The game contains 13 characters, four of which, are unlockable.

The single player aspect of the game has 5 modes you can play in:

In Grand Prix, (the main 'story' of the game) you pick a kart, a character, a kart and finally a grand prix. There are 8 grand prix's but only 4 are unlock-able from the start of the game. In each grand prix there are four tracks, the object is to place as high as you can to get points, at the end of all the races, the points are tallied up and if you are in the top three you unlock a new grand prix.

In time trial mode, you try and get the best time on a chosen track, you can try and beat the ghost time. A ghost time is when you race on a track for the first time, than it creates a ghost, and you can play again and try and beat that ghost. There is even a staff ghost which is really hard to beat!

Modern Day Rainbow Road (Mario Kart Wii)

In versus mode, it is basically a free race, you can have teams, you get to pick the course, etc and you get points as you keep racing. The good thing about this, is you can keep race infinity tracks and still not be done racking up the points.

Battle mode has two different games, first, balloon battle. When you begin balloon battle, you have two balloons and can blow into the mic to get a maximum of 3. When you get hit by an item, you lose a balloon, the object is to survive the longest. The next game is Shrine Runner, in this game, you go around collecting Shines, when you get hit by an item, you lose a shine, over time, people with less Shines will get booted, the object is to stay in the game for the longest amount of time. Both games have a team option.

In the final mode, mission mode, you are given tasks, once you complete 8 tasks, you have to defeat a boss. This is probably one of the best modes in MK DS because the objectives vary from driving through gates in order to performing power-slide turbo boosts.

The graphics in this game are amazing, you can see everything from the tire treads on the racing karts, the audience in the crowd on some of the tracks and there is lots of detail on all of the karts, but, the graphics are lacking on the touch screen, everything is pixel-y and looks ugly.

The sound in this game is okay, sometimes you can tell that the DS is doing this game no good sound-wise but other times you can hear everything from power-slide turbo boosts, items hitting the track and much more.

The multi-player features are fun, but there is nothing to separate the two things, they both feel like one mode, except now you can talk to people while doing local wi-fi and playing against a real player makes it harder.

I have not tried online, but if you don't own wi-fi, after you log about 100 hours on this game, it will get boring.

Overall, this game is just a graphically updated version of the older games with a few new items and characters, with little-to-no touch screen capabilities. But if you are looking for a good racing game on the Nintendo DS, you've found your game.

GS Score: 7.5
Real Score: 7.8



Please post a comment here in my blog and rate it thumbs up or down (truthfully, please) at the link below.

http://www.gamespot.com/ds/driving/mariokartds/player_review.html?id=587827

I was just thinking of a major goal, I am going to try and review all 134 of the games in my collection right now. I actually have more games, maybe around 150, but I just don't feel like looking them up on GameSpot. So, I have 81 days to review 110 games. (Subtacting the ones I've already reviewed.) Time to get down to buisness. My next blog posts for most of the summer will be my reviews. Wish me luck. I will be doing them in alphabetical order on consoles the best I can. Starting with the DS games...Again, wish me luck!

Skate - EA Games (Xbox 360)
Possibly my best purchase this first half of the year! I love free skating and the character customization is a little lacking in the clothing department, but its still amazing. This game I thought was going to be like Tony Hawk, with a different story, boy was I ever wrong! It is nothing like Tony Hawk! (Except some of the pros) The control scheme takes a little getting used to, but its way better than Tony Hawk's once you get used to them. You will fail a lot in this game, which is great because there is an achievement for breaking all of the bones in your body at least 10 times each.

Rock Band - MTV Games, Activision, Electronic Arts (Xbox 360)
I was prepped for this game the moment I heard of it! Coming from the previous makers of Guitar Hero, I knew this game would not let me down! With some new kickass peripherals, its way more fun than Guitar Hero. And a great party game to boot! The price tag is the only thing that let me down. $160 for a video game and even more money for downloadable content, luckily, everything is of great quality!

Final Fantasy X
I got into the Final Fantasy series when I borrowed FFIV from my friend on GBA, I instantly fell in love (this was summer of '07), but the only drawback was the fact that it was on a handheld. I couldn't devote a lot of time during the summer to playing on a handheld, after all, I had recently got a Wii and PS2. So, I see FFX in EB Games sale rack, and I knew it was destiny. This game has awesome gameplay, from everything to turn-based battles to the sphere grid, every moment is amazing. The cutscenes are stunning and very interesting. The voice of Tidus fits the character well, along with all of the other character's voices.

Those were my top 3 gaming purchases this year, all of them from Q2, actually. Mainly because I don't buy a lot of games after the holidays because I get a lot during them. Now, what am I looking forward to?

The Sims 3
Wow, what's not to love about the Sims? Well, this just had to be on this list. I loved the Sims, going on vacation, building houses, killing off people and just playing the heck outta it. Sims 2, even better. I still play it to this very day! The only problem I have with the series is the high technical requirements for you PC, be it graphics cards, divers and other things. I'm hoping the new additions to the Sims 3 will feed my hunger for a new simulation game. I have my standards set high for this game, and expect them to be fulfilled.

That is the ONLY game I am looking forward to at the moment, I will probably think more about COD:WaW and othes when the release dates creep closer, but the Sims 3 is the only game I currently wish was out.

Woot, yeah, I just beat Halo 3 on legendary. Go me. I thought heroic was a bit hard but this seems easier than heroic. XD

That's all for now. I'm off to play the meta-game and get me my 2000 gamerscore!

All right! Finally, school is out for me. I am pumped for summer and have a few things planned, I'll be on GS for 3 days straight for E3, I'll be hanging with friends and going shopping out of town. Life is great. I don't need to go on trips, I'm good where I am.

I have 400 gamerscore until my goal of 2000, which I will be accomplishing. I haven't done any more GH FCing so that goals impossible now and in Animal Crossing, I have paid off 2 debts. Yay me.

Well, I hooked my Wii up to the internet, for some awesome fun. I downloaded Paper Mario and LoZ:OoT a couple days ago for the virtual console, I haven't played OoT that much but Paper Mario is the best N64 game I've ever played.

So, when did your school get out/when is it out?
How high is your X360 Gamerscore?
What is your favourite virtual console game for the Wii?

Real Life
Well, I stayed home from school again today, for the 4th day in a row. The first three days I had major stomach pains and had to get an x-ray, which tells me I've got too much crap in me. So 2 days of laxitives later, I feel nauseas and get 2 more days off. Than I'm piled with 3 poetry assignments and an essay for geography (that my mom picked up from my school). Man, I'm so glad I have the whole weekend to do my homework.

Gaming Goals
Guitar Hero III - I'm stepping down from my huge GH goal and sticking to FC'ing 5 tiers on easy. I've made no progress in this.
Animal Crossing - I haven't played ACWW since my last blog, so I'll have to wait and see how far I get on this.
Wii Sports - on my way to becoming pro (1000 points) in each sport, so far I have 400 in tennis, 100 in baseball, 0 in bowling, 150 in golf and 300 in boxing.

Other Stuff
Well, there's another Sims 2 Expansion! Sims 2 Apartment Life! I will get this no matter what.
I'm kind of bored, so check out some games I just added to my now plaing list and see what game I should review! I will pick my own if no one tells me, and it will be a Sims 2 one, so if you don't want a TS2 review, post now or forever break your keyboard. XD
I just discovered that if you hold down the CTRL button and use the scroll wheel on your mouse, it makes text smaller or bigger in Firefox! Yayy!