Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...often cloned but never bettered. Mario Kart is such a title. In its various formats be it that of the original Super Nintendo, N64 or Gamecube versions it stands head and shoulders above other driving games in terms of track design, multiplayer fun and good old fashioned playability. However, despite Mario Karts various incarnations being great games in their own right, there has always been a sense that I had yet to see a complete Mario Kart title. ...
...considerable aplomb. Mario Kart DS is a racing game so as such has no plot. However, thanks to an array of ten familiar characters available for selection from across the length and breadth of the numerous Mario titles it is not difficult to see were racing rivalries take place. Fights between such characters as brothers Mario and Luigi and evil doppelganger Wario are commonplace. Of course, the plot to all racing games is largely superfluous to ...

Shortsharpshock 08.06.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...of the retro tracks include: Mario circuit 1 from the SNES, Moo Moo Farm from the N64 and Peach Circuit from the GBA to name but a few. There is the standard layout of single player and multiplayer (broadband internet connection needed for online play) which allows you to play against people around the world with the push of a button. Inside the single mode are five racing types: Grand Prix - Race 4 tracks in 3 difficulties, 50cc (easiest) past 100cc ...
...the most points at the end and win the Grand Prix. There are to start off with 4 "retro" grand prix - including the SNES N64 and GBA tracks, plus the "Nitro" grand prix which holds the newer tracks. Also, be ranked on your performance and try to get 2 stars!!! Time Trials - Try all of the grand prix tracks but with a twist, beat the time to get a higher rank, and use the item boxes to your advantage, see later in the review. VS - The most basic of ...

blackoboy07 30.06.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...Nintendo platform since the SNES, Mario Kart returns once more for an outing on the DS. Bringing his buddies into the mix, Mario lines up on the starting line again with the likes of Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong and many more for mayhem on the asphalt. Various bright and sometimes cutesy themes taken from the Mario universe translate into different racetracks. Exotic and exciting tracks like Luigi’s Mansion – a nod to the ghost-hunting ...
...the N64 and the Gamecube Mario Kart outings. Playing single player is satisfyingly difficult, although not overly so. From the beginning of Grand Prix you can start in 50cc mode, which is conquered fairly quickly, as it is the slowest and easiest. 100cc is a little quicker, while 150cc mode provides a good challenge and the computer is unrelenting. Each cup of Grand Prix is split into four tracks and getting the most points overall wins you the ...

dudeglove 03.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

Mario Kart bursts onto the DS after enjoying great success on the SNES and N64. Therefore after being so successful on home consoles, I was interested to see how this game would turn out when programmed onto the hand held console. The title pretty much says it all, you can star to race as one of your favourite mario characters including Mario, Luigi, Wario, Peach. You are given a host of tracks to race around but to ensure or at least help you get ...
...fire at your opponents cars, speed boost to give yourself extra acceleration and of course no kids game would be complete without the banana skin. The gameplay is excellent, controls are responsive and intuitive, in truth there is not really a lot to remember so your focus can be solely on mastering the cutting of corners. Also of course remembering to utilise the many potential shortcuts which come up so keep your eyes open. The game playing speed ...

grandchamp 07.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...have different abilities. For example Mario is a good all rounder but the larger characters such as Bowser have a higher top speed but slower acceleration. I always choose toad who has excellent acceleration, you will need it when you crash or are hit by a shell. The next thing to do is choose a single race and a track or a grand Prix where you race over different tracks. There are 8 grand Prix's to enter but you need to complete the easy ones first ...
...the basics but what makes Mario kart such a fun racer is the ability to pick up power ups on every lap, for example a mushroom gives you a turbo boost, a green shell that you can fire at enemys, and a red shell is like a homing missile taking out the first racer it locks onto. These power ups add a great dimension to the game, you can be comfortably in first position but get hit by a bomb or squid ink, you can go right back to last place, it's nail ...

monkeykong1 12.02.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

Overall Rating: 92% Mario Kart DS is one of the best DS games there is. The online play is fantastic, the single player is great, the difficulty, for the most part, is well balanced, and the graphics are some of the best seen on the DS (even though its an oldish game). I found it very hard to find a flaw with it. The gameplay is typical Mario Kart - it takes the best elements of all the Mario Kart games before it, and culls the stuff nobody liked. ...
...that it uses the classic Mario Kart "Rubber Band AI", where if you're winning by too much on a harder difficulty, the items you get and the speed of the enemies will become more harsh and unforgiving in an effort to make it more of a challenge. This makes it a bit frustrating sometimes, as it's easy to feel like you're being cheated. This doesn't happen against human players, however - in the world of online play everything becomes fair. The items ...

Ultima2876 01.10.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

Mario Kart is a superb game which is played on the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS is an extremely advanced gaming device, built for mainly young children?s entertainment, but can include games such as Brain Training; a game to test your knowledge on a variety of different games which are really fun even for adults! It also has a touch screen (bottom) which is very useful for creating thrilling games which can not be found on ?X-BOX? or ?PS3?. Mario ...
...has DK pass, Tick-Tock clock, Mario circuit and airship fortress in it), Special Cup ( which has Wario stadium, Peach garden?s, Bowser castle and rainbow road in it), Shell cup( which has Mario circuit 1, Moo Moo farm Peach circuit and Luigi circuit in it), Banana Cup ( which has Donut Plains 1, Frappe Snowland, Bowser castle 2 and baby park in it), leaf Cup ( which has Kooper beach 2, Choco Mountain, Luigi circuit and Mushroom bridge in it), Lightning ...

jollyjacob 18.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

Mario Kart for the DS is an exact replica of the original game launched on the 16 bit SNES back in the early 1990s. It is an iconic game involving a kart race between Mario, Luigi and a host of other characters appearing in their adventures. This is such a simple concept with the name of the game being to win as many races as possible. That?s it. There are no people to save, no puzzles to complete, no baddies to destroy it is a pure fun filled, ...
...such a bad thing since Mario Kart was a game all about the fun factor and playability. It was never at the cutting edge of graphics and this has always been the case with Nintendo. In my opinion, Nintendo have done the right thing in leaving the graphics as they are since if they had tried to improve them or changed them in any way this would not be Mario Kart. ****Playability**** This game is not used with the touch screen and stylus at all. ...

yackers1 15.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...a big fan of the Mario Kart series, having played them all from the SNES version back in the day, to the 21st Century offering of Double Dash, I was desperately hoping that this game would be good. I couldn't begin to think of how I would cope with the disapointment if this game turned out to be rubbish, all the other games having impressed me so much. I would probably seek councilling, or just give up on games altogether, my life would be a complete ...
...be big. So, was Mario Kart DS up to standard? Did it impress me as much as the first ever Mario Kart did all those years ago? Well heres the breakdown... Graphics ------------- As many will know, the graphical style of Nintendo's Mario games are a kind of colourful, cartoony style, and this has been carried through the many varying offerings of Mario and his chums, from Mario Paint (a naff Mario themed paint program for the SNES) to Mario 64 ...

jibro 03.09.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...DS, but in my view Mario Kart has to be one of the best and most addictive games out there for the DS - and i would certainly recommend getting it! On the basic level this is merely a racing game and very much similar to others as your aim is to race against a number of other opponents and win. However this game offers so much more than the required basics - it includes great features such as a variety of characters to play as, great tracks and ...
...and unlock and these include mario and yoshi and others such as Donkey Kong and Dry Bones. There are also up to 32 different tracks to race and each one is very unique with many different themes from a haunted manor, to a typical race track to a bowling alley. All the tracks are very much alive and include many cool features such as bowling balls in the bowling alley which you must avoid. There are also several classic tracks such as chocolate mountain ...

shamis4 03.08.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...the release of the 5th Mario Kart game. Many companies have unsuccessfully tried to mimic the success of Mario Kart, we've had Wacky Racers and Crash racing just to name a few knock-offs. Its been 13 years since Super Mario Kart graced the Super Nintendo and became a timeless classic. So how can Mario Kart DS possibly compete with such brilliance? Mario Kart DS (MKDS) is easily the best of all of these. I can say this because I own all five of them ...
...back to the Mario Kart basics with fresh new graphics and an array of new features. What makes the Nintendo Dual Screen's rendition the best? --- 32 Racing Tracks --- The great thing about MKDS is that it comes with 32 playable tracks. Of these 16 are new to the game while the 16 are classic tracks from the 4 previous versions of the Mario Kart franchise. In my opinion the two classic tracks that are missing are Wario Stadium from SK64 and Kooper ...

MotoAthan 29.11.2005 (30.11.2005) · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

Mario Kart is a game that originated on the Super nintendo back in the nineties and from then onwards it has been a hugely successful nintendo franchise. Mario Kart DS is the fifth Mario Kart game, but the game has lost none of it's original flair and is still as successful as ever. The aim is to race against 7 opponents in Grand prix mode and try to come in at first place at the end of four races to win a cup and hopefully unlock some goodies. There ...
...Gameplay 9/10 : It's Mario Kart, what can I say. This is probably one of the most fun racing games you could possibly play. Race around courses with odd obstacles such as flamethrowers and zombie trees to try and come in first place. In order to up the anti in any Mario Kart race there are, of course the old item boxes: Drive through one of these and you will get a random item to either use on yourself or your competitors. These can range from Blue ...

neostronghold 11.12.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

...need to have to appreciate Mario and pals going around a track, in fact not having any experience might incline you to take on board the fact that in this go-karting race you can fire shells at opponents and use mushrooms to get a boost past other racers. Hey, what would gaming be without a little unrealism? Ok. A lot. If you have ever experienced a Mario Kart game don't feel like you've seen it all already because this is simply the best Mario ...
...while you should be able to pick Mario Kart DS up at a very nice price. If you're worried about getting a game that has been out for a few months though take it from me, this game will stand the test of time for a few more years yet. ...

Nathan_Innit 07.11.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

Mario Kart for DS is a very addictive racing game, whilst theirs no plots or quests to complete, this game is fun and multiplayer. You have ten familiar characters to select as your driver and lots of fun tracks from the regular race track to a tropical island. You can pick from Grand Prix which is regular racing, Time Trial which allows you to compete against time and then one on one racing. All provide hours of fun, I can't stress enough how this ...
...two cars, the cars and characters must be unlocked which is done by you winning the races. The game itself is very simplistic but I think it's this quality that makes it so appealing to all ages. It's great that you have the option to play alone or play other people using wi-fi. To race on your own you are trying to be first in the race which allows you to unlock tracks, characters and cars. When playing against others you verse each other to be ...

ItalianFran92 19.06.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)

As far as Mario Kart games have been, they have all been amazing, and this is no exception. The DS incarnation is arguably one of the best Mario Kart games to date. Being one of Nintendo's most popular franchises you'd expect no less. The game is the first Mario Kart and indeed the first DS game to have Wi-Fi capabilities. Not only does this feature give this game an edge over previous Mario Kart titles, it is also a landmark for Nintendo as this ...
...'cheating' that has developed on Mario Kart called snaking. This is a technique where by the player drifts and turbo boosts their way through the whole track. This can ruin the game for unexperienced racers, and suck the fun out of it. Snaker vs snaker can be a lot of fun though. After the race has finished, you get the ranking for the race. Dependant on your rank, your win/loss record can be affected. A win/loss record is basically an indicator ...

Nima07 16.09.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)