Nintendo DS Review: Mario Kart DS - Page 5

Using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection you can play with up to three other people worldwide. Setting up a match takes on average one to one and a half minutes. If it takes any longer, you will be paired with one or two other people. Before the first match, and between matches you vote on a track to use. The track is then selected at random based on the player’s votes. You are limited to 20 of the 32 tracks online. Some people have been complaining about this. I think 20 tracks for Wi-Fi play are plenty for a game like Mario Kart.

I have experienced a couple disconnects while in game. An error message is displayed and you are dropped out to the “lobby” screen. This is aggravating, but it is handled well. There is no way to tell if someone willingly disconnected or got bumped out because of connection problems. There is also no stat to track user disconnects. There should be. Players should also be penalized for quitting a game just because they were losing.

The one major downfall to Wi-Fi gaming in Mario Kart DS is that you cannot share your 12 digit Friend Code with others you play against. You have to share your Friend Code offline. This defeats the purpose of finding people online that you like to game with. The Friend Codes are great if you find a bunch of people locally or you share them via email or the like. Although Nintendo does not want you sharing your Friend Code online. This is very limiting, especially when you see Xbox gamertags displayed all over the place. In that same vain you cannot share ghost data online either. This feature is for local multiplayer only.

Even more frustrating is the limit of the Friend Roster (36) and limit to available slots for saving other people's ghost data (10). You might not think this is an issue, but imagine living around a campus that has a lot of Nintendo DS owners who have Mario Kart DS. These limitations are most likely due to storage space on the DS cartridge.

Given that Mario Kart is the greatest kart series ever made, Mario Kart DS is the best kart game ever produced. Superb production values have been poured into both the single and multiplayer experience equally well. Neither feels like it got the short end of the stick. Mario Kart DS has limitless replay value no matter if you are deprived of the Internet or not. No game is perfect, however the few shortcomings to gripe about do not prevent Mario Kart DS from becoming an instant classic.

Article Author: Ken Edwards

Ken Edwards is the Gaming Editor at Blogcritics, and calls Breaking Windows home. Ken works part time for Student Publications at BGSU as the Webmaster and System Administrator. He is also a freelance web developer.

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