MARIO KART DS


Mario Kart DS is a fun expansion to the anticipated Mario Kart series. Like any DS game, it has the flaw of subpar graphics, but overlooking that bit, we see an addicting game.

There are eight cups: Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Shell Cup, Banana Cup, Star Cup, Leaf Cup, Special Cup, and Lightning Cup. Like Mario Kart: Double Dash, its preceeder, it includes the three standard cups: Mushroom, Flower, and Star, except in this game they Star is replaced with the Shell Cup and placed as an unlockable cup. These first three cups have the somewhat easy levels, while the next cups gradually get harder.

Also like Mario Kart: Double Dash, and for that matter, all the games in the series starting from the original SNES game, this game includes the Special Cup, which includes the never-changing last two, and commonly cited hardest levels of the game: Bowser Castle and Rainbow Road. Bowser Castle has a dark and spooky appearance with unpredictable twists and turns, while Rainbow Road is a very difficult track with tight curves and a narrow track. To add to Rainbow Road's danger is that fact that most of the track has no sidewalls.

In conclusion, you shouldn't expect the game to be a masterpiece, as it is on the DS, and part of the simplistic Mario Kart series. But you should expect the game to be addictively fun and eye-catching, despite its short length.

I beat a staff time by 8 seconds once. That was fun. Dry Bones could ride on the grass hardly slowing down.

I played this a lot when it first came out
Nice review.