As Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s fifth wave of DLC arrives so does a review of a previous entry! Mario Kart DS was easily the DS game I played the most thanks to my friend having a copy and bringing his DS round so we could play multiplayer. Playing it now I still have to applaud both the level design and graphics for the handheld, plus the amount of modes on offer. It was certainly no throw away effort, that’s for sure! Let’s take a look…
Background:
Tick Tock Clock is one of the levels I most associate with this game, even if I’ve played it more as a retro track in other games by now…
Mario Kart DS released on November 14th 2005 in the US and on the 25th in Europe, with a Japanese release following on December 8 2005. It was actually re-released on the Wii U e-shop in April 2015 for US and PAL regions, with Japan getting it May 2016 (what is it with Japan and getting this game later than everyone else?), though with the e-shop gone the original cart is once again the only (legal) way to play the game!
Returning characters Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Bowser, Toad, Donkey Kong and Wario make up your base roster, with Daisy and Waluigi returning from Double Dash!! and new characters Dry Bones and R.O.B. (for some reason) making up the unlockables. Most of the tracks are well designed but don’t necessarily offer much new, like your standard Mario circuit, DK jungle level, desert level, beach level, Toad level based on a real looking road, a more realistic-looking indoor stadium and of course a Bowser’s Castle and Rainbow Road to finish off; but there are some unique tracks like Tick-Tock Clock (based on the inside of a clock, in case you couldn’t tell), a level based on Luigi’s Mansion, Defino Square (based on the location from Mario Sunshine), Waluigi Pinball is basically a massive pinball machine, Peach Gardens takes us around her classic castle’s gardens rather than outside it, and Airship Fortress is a big love letter to Super Mario Bros. 3 and one of my personal favourites.
It also has to be pointed out that Mario Kart DS is the game that properly introduced the Retro Cups featuring remastered old tracks from previous games, something that is now a staple of the series. You certainly got a lot of Mario Kart action for your money, that’s for sure!
Gameplay:
I honestly completely forgot R.O.B. was ever in Mario Kart. I can’t remember if this predated his appearance in Smash Brawl but he was certainly popular for a while there…
I mentioned in the Double Dash!! review that it was there where the Mario Kart formula was pretty much perfected and that holds true here. We’re back to one person in a kart but otherwise it feels very similar to DD!! and the games that come after it: driving around 3D courses, three levels of drift boosts, picking a speed level of 50cc, 100cc, 150cc or Mirror mode and all that good stuff that came about during the previous entries. I do remember DS having an issue with “snaking” where you could keep boosting across the whole course, leading to me immediately stopping any attempts to play online with other players once I saw someone just vanish into the distance, but overall the gameplay is perfect Mario Kart, just on a handheld. The bottom DS screen shows your overhead map instead of it appearing on the HUD, and that’s about all for your touchscreen, but that’s fine. Even the weapons at this point had been pretty much set in stone, though DS did introduce the Blooper, which covers part of your opponent’s screen in “ink”, making it hard to see (obviously, don’t know why I bothered writing that…) as well as now-classic last place item the Bullet Bill, which fires you forward automatically for a brief time, knocking other people out of the way in the process.
In terms of modes the DS stands out thanks to having an exclusive single player mode called “Mission Mode”, where you select one of the missions (normally collect coins, hit opponent with a specific weapon, that sort of thing) and make your way to a boss level, which plays out like Battle Mode in you being able to take limited hits in an arena, but instead of an enemy kart there’s a large boss ported over from Mario 64 DS. It’s actually quite fun, though definitely a “one and done” thing as at the end of the day you brought Mario Kart to play races or fight against friends…
Taking on King Boo in Mission Mode. He may not be playable any more but he still puts in an appearance at least!
Speaking of which! Yes, the rest of the modes are your standard Grand Prix (pick a cup and win all four races to get the gold), Time Trial (get the fastest time on a specific track), Versus (race against your friend or the CPU on one specific track), and Battle Mode, which once again has the normal versus mode with balloons signifying health and the return of Shine Thief where you try and keep the Shine on you for as long as you can, though now it’s called “Shine Runners” instead. Most of these modes can be played in multiplayer locally, including if your friend doesn’t have the game (they’re forced to play as a Shyguy, but apart from that you’re good to go!), and online though as mentioned earlier I wouldn’t recommend it… not that the servers are still active, but still, if they were I wouldn’t recommend it!
Graphics and Sound:
Nice textures, good draw distance, a background that looks exactly like Hell from Dragon Ball Z, all good stuff!
For a DS game the graphics are great, the 3D models and levels may lack detail but they don’t lack colour and personality. Blown up on a big screen via emulation or the Wii U port might make them look less stellar, however…
Sound is of course great, catchy music, fun sound effects and the odd funny soundbite. No complaints there either.
Thoughts Then:
How come Airship Fortress hasn’t reappeared as a Retro Track yet? It’s so good!
When it came out I was excited for new Mario Kart and thrilled that despite it being handheld I could continue the trend of playing with my friends all the time. The tracks were great, especially the retro ones, and even Mission Mode gave me something different to do when friends weren’t around. I had no complaints, to but it simply.
Thoughts Now:
and of course ending with Rainbow Road. The DS version has some fun bends and such but is otherwise pretty generic…
Due to having already perfected the formula Mario Kart DS plays just like Mario Kart 8 only less in the driver, course and graphics departments and no track gimmicks. The Mission Mode is a fun oddity but I can understand why they didn’t bother porting it across, there wasn’t much to do once you’ve done them once. So overall it’s still great to play, even if I’d still pick 8 Deluxe if I wanted to play a Mario Kart game right now.
Hogan Reviews 