mabs
15-02-2006, 12:40 AM
I just bought myself a new DS + Mario Kart pack on Friday just passed, and it's now only Tuesday, and I think I've finished about half of the game, enough I believe to write a review. Mario Kart DS also features "Nintendo WiFi", but this does not mean it is limited to the AU$50 Nintendo WiFi adaptor and "Nintendo WiFi" hotspots, this game will work with a lot of wireless broadband routers (See here for a know to work list (http://www.nintendowifi.com.au/customersupport/supportedRouters.do)), unlike some other Nintendo WiFi games.
The game has 3 modes of play, Single player, Multiplayer & WIFI Cup. I have not had the opportunity to play multiplayer or WFC, so i'll mostly cover the single player experience.
Anyone who has played Mario Kart before will be familiar with many of the single player options, Grand Prix, Time Trial, VS, Battle & Missions. I myself have only played the SNES version of Mario Kart previous to this, so I can't say how new this Missions mode is, but it does add to the playability time.
Grand Prix mode consists of the usual 50cc, 100cc & 200cc groups, and each character has 2 Karts to choose from each with different characteristics, a bit of practice can get you familiar to how the variables affect game play. And from my experimenting, they do feel consistent. Each of the four rounds of the "Retro Cup" has four tracks from each of SNES, N64, GBA & GameCube versions of the game.
Mission mode does have the feel of the traditional Mario games. There are 6 mission levels, each with 8 stages, plus a boss stage. There are no fancy maps for the levels or stages, just a simple array of boxes on the screen, ready for your stylus, or even finger/thumb. The missions are normally fairly simple, such as "collect all 20 coins", but as it moves along, some small tricks are added into the mix, such as putting coins in obscure places. Mission mode also introduces new maps that aren't available otherwise in normal game play, although the areas are limited in size, they remind me of the missions in games like "NFS: Porche 2000".
And now for a short word on the Graphics. The game does feel a little bright and cheery, for me, but for those familiar with the game won't notice much of a difference. The 3D look and feel is fast and consistent, as you would expect, I never had problems with frame rate, although most areas are limited in size and detail, for this I was only able to give an 8.
Time trials mode is as you would expect. For each track you get to save ghost data of your best lap, plus you can share your ghost data with your friends via WiFi, which can be a handy way to see how your friends get around the track so easily, or just to see if you can get a better time.
At this stage I have not been able to get the game to lock up or crash, although I have tried, so most players should be happy to know that it would be unlikely that you will loose your best lap data just before the end of the race, unless you have a prankster friend/sibling/enemy that likes to eject games mid race (in which case the console will tell you the game has been ejected and to power down).
Although I have not played multiplayer, I am judging my 7 on demos and reports from friends. A friend with a DS console can play you even if they do not have the game, as it supports download play, but is seriously limiting as far as I am concerned, as it only has one character, which isn't explained well in the manual. I have also listed Co-op as 3, as there is a team play ability, but it adds little to the game play. To play other online, you need to sign up to nintendowifi.com (http://www.nintendowifi.com/), and you will be given a 12 digit code as your id code, which you can give to friends. This allows you to communicate with friends and limit your races to online friends.
The sound is also repetitive, and is really nothing new to previous Mario Kart owners, but the audio quality of the output is great, it may have been re-touched since previous versions, but it is hard to tell, and is limited by the fact that it is only a cartridge.
Playability initially is excellent, but re-playability may get tedious for some, but the various ways you can better your score or times in many different ways means re-playability is average to good albeit repetitive. But once you have reached 3 stars (highest score) on all tracks and missions, all that is really left is online and Time Trials.
Controls was only given 6 because of many reasons, firstly the lack of fine control, which is mostly due to the simple d-pad on the console, and also that the touch screen is not really taken advantage of at all in this game. There is also no option to re-map the keys, which is a big over-sight to me, as I do prefer my buttons laid out differently for racing, a legacy of owning a Gravis Exterminator game pad.
And finally, I give it a suck factor of 2 based purely on the sound and graphics designed mainly for a 6 year old, although this may well be the target audience, we have to remember that the original game came out well over 10 years ago, and many fans are likely to be teens or young adults by now.
The game has 3 modes of play, Single player, Multiplayer & WIFI Cup. I have not had the opportunity to play multiplayer or WFC, so i'll mostly cover the single player experience.
Anyone who has played Mario Kart before will be familiar with many of the single player options, Grand Prix, Time Trial, VS, Battle & Missions. I myself have only played the SNES version of Mario Kart previous to this, so I can't say how new this Missions mode is, but it does add to the playability time.
Grand Prix mode consists of the usual 50cc, 100cc & 200cc groups, and each character has 2 Karts to choose from each with different characteristics, a bit of practice can get you familiar to how the variables affect game play. And from my experimenting, they do feel consistent. Each of the four rounds of the "Retro Cup" has four tracks from each of SNES, N64, GBA & GameCube versions of the game.
Mission mode does have the feel of the traditional Mario games. There are 6 mission levels, each with 8 stages, plus a boss stage. There are no fancy maps for the levels or stages, just a simple array of boxes on the screen, ready for your stylus, or even finger/thumb. The missions are normally fairly simple, such as "collect all 20 coins", but as it moves along, some small tricks are added into the mix, such as putting coins in obscure places. Mission mode also introduces new maps that aren't available otherwise in normal game play, although the areas are limited in size, they remind me of the missions in games like "NFS: Porche 2000".
And now for a short word on the Graphics. The game does feel a little bright and cheery, for me, but for those familiar with the game won't notice much of a difference. The 3D look and feel is fast and consistent, as you would expect, I never had problems with frame rate, although most areas are limited in size and detail, for this I was only able to give an 8.
Time trials mode is as you would expect. For each track you get to save ghost data of your best lap, plus you can share your ghost data with your friends via WiFi, which can be a handy way to see how your friends get around the track so easily, or just to see if you can get a better time.
At this stage I have not been able to get the game to lock up or crash, although I have tried, so most players should be happy to know that it would be unlikely that you will loose your best lap data just before the end of the race, unless you have a prankster friend/sibling/enemy that likes to eject games mid race (in which case the console will tell you the game has been ejected and to power down).
Although I have not played multiplayer, I am judging my 7 on demos and reports from friends. A friend with a DS console can play you even if they do not have the game, as it supports download play, but is seriously limiting as far as I am concerned, as it only has one character, which isn't explained well in the manual. I have also listed Co-op as 3, as there is a team play ability, but it adds little to the game play. To play other online, you need to sign up to nintendowifi.com (http://www.nintendowifi.com/), and you will be given a 12 digit code as your id code, which you can give to friends. This allows you to communicate with friends and limit your races to online friends.
The sound is also repetitive, and is really nothing new to previous Mario Kart owners, but the audio quality of the output is great, it may have been re-touched since previous versions, but it is hard to tell, and is limited by the fact that it is only a cartridge.
Playability initially is excellent, but re-playability may get tedious for some, but the various ways you can better your score or times in many different ways means re-playability is average to good albeit repetitive. But once you have reached 3 stars (highest score) on all tracks and missions, all that is really left is online and Time Trials.
Controls was only given 6 because of many reasons, firstly the lack of fine control, which is mostly due to the simple d-pad on the console, and also that the touch screen is not really taken advantage of at all in this game. There is also no option to re-map the keys, which is a big over-sight to me, as I do prefer my buttons laid out differently for racing, a legacy of owning a Gravis Exterminator game pad.
And finally, I give it a suck factor of 2 based purely on the sound and graphics designed mainly for a 6 year old, although this may well be the target audience, we have to remember that the original game came out well over 10 years ago, and many fans are likely to be teens or young adults by now.