Not content with simply adapting the N64 version, Nintendo has gone the whole hog and delivered an all-new version with four new cups, plus four additional cups comprising classic tracks from Mario Kart history. Tracks are fully 3D and so are the karts themselves. It looks great, but that’s not really the point. The game is massive, its kart, character and track roster the greatest the series has seen to date. But that again isn’t the point. The point is – you can play it online from your house or almost anywhere that isn’t a barnyard thanks to Nintendo’s ingenious wi-fi system. Here’s what you do: Get home, eyeing your newly-purchased DS Wi-Fi Connector, wondering if it will be any good. You insert the disc that comes with the dongle and after a minute it tells you to plug the lovely white unit into a USB slot. Then a little light comes on and you instantly have your very own DS wireless environment that takes in your entire house and garden (though sadly doesn’t reach the pub at the end of the road). Then you turn on your DS, scan for network, allow yourself access to your own network (yes, you are the lord and master!) wait for about 30 seconds and then a race starts and your life is complete.
The mixture of player skill in Mario Kart is something wonderful to behold. You have thousands of people playing, the vast majority of whom have played lots of Mario Kart in the past. The way the item areas become riddled with banana skins; the perfect, repeated use of the reverse green shell; the timing of certain motions, jumps… It’s a proper coming together of fans, Nintendo fans (loathsome as many might be), who have finally been enabled to meet up in cyberspace and play. And play and play and play. There is a decent level of honour amongst the community at time of press. Disconnects are not as frequent as they could be, and the game is played in a good spirit.
The fact that this is the best game in the Mario Kart series without the Wi-Fi Connector should tell you what it is we’re dealing with here. Mario Kart DS is a monster of a game in every way. You need to get it online in your house. You’ll need the game of course and a DS if you’ve been too stupid/worried about what your cat will think of the way it looks to get one already. Then you’ll need the dongle. If you haven’t got a PC, you’re going to have to buy one, along with Windows XP. Then you’ll need a broadband connection. If you can’t get broadband where you live, you need to move house. You must have some interest in videogames to be gracing SPOnG with you eyeballs right now. Mario Kart is perhaps the best videogame ever so it stands to reason you should immediately buy it.
SPOnG rating: A+
Whatever else you’re doing right now, or at anytime ever, you need to immediately stop doing that and start playing Mario Kart DS. This is one of Nintendo's finest hours, a game so perfectly crafted as to be sublime, easily transcending the nearest handheld rival.
LUPOS 2 Dec 2005 18:27