Mario Kart DS

Mario Kart DS
Game developer(s)	Nintendo
Game publisher(s)	Nintendo
Franchise	Mario
Platforms	Nintendo DS
Release dates	November 14, 2005 November 17, 2005 November 25, 2005 December 8, 2005
Genre	Kart racing
Modes	Single player, multiplayer, online multiplayer
Ratings	ESRB: Everyone

Mario Kart DS is a kart racing video game for the Nintendo DS, and was first released in 2005. It is part of the Mario Kart series, and is family friendly like the other installments. It has received an E rating from the ESRB. Unlike most Mario titles, the game first released in America instead of Japan. It was Nintendo's first game to be compatible with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service, although since May 20, 2014, the service has been discontinued, therefore disabling online play. In 2015, Mario Kart DS has been re-released as a digital download for the Wii U's Virtual Console.

Modes

There are no unlockable modes in Mario Kart DS.

Grand Prix

In Grand Prix mode, the player competes against computer-controlled racers, or, in Multiplayer mode, other players. There are two Grand Prix in Mario Kart DS: Nitro GP and Retro GP, each having four cups that each have four race tracks. Nitro GP has sixteen tracks, which were newly created for the game, while Retro GP contains sixteen tracks from earlier Mario Kart games, hence the name. The game starts out with three engine classes that represent the difficulty levels: 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. A fourth engine class is unlockable, 150cc Mirror Mode, in which all the 150cc tracks are flipped horizontally.

Time Trials

In Time Trials, the player can choose any course for their racer to race on, with the objective being to complete it as quickly as possible. There are no items or opponents in this mode. The results of a Time Trial run are saved as "Ghost Data", which the player can compete against later (for a faster time), or traded with friends.

Battle Mode

Battle Mode was not available online, and is only available in single-player and multiplayer modes.

Balloon Battle

In Balloon Battle mode, the goal is for racer to try and pop each other's balloons, while keeping their own intact. Each racer starts with five balloons, which are either red or blue, depending on whether the racer is on the red team or the blue team. Every racer starts out with one of their balloons inflated. Players may inflate their racer's balloons by either holding the Select button or by blowing into the DS microphone while the kart is stationary. Only up to three balloons can be inflated at once.

A racer can pop another racer's balloon by attacking them with an item. If a racer has one or two inflated balloons, they can steal one from another racer by dashing into them with a Mushroom.

Players with fewer inflated balloons can gain more powerful items from Item Boxes, just like in races, where racers in lower positions can gain more powerful items. The last player or team remaining wins the battle. If a racer loses all of their balloons in Wireless Play mode, they become invisible and will periodically spawn Item Boxes for other racers to pick up.

Shine Runners

This mode is a reintroduction of the Shine Thief mode from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. The goal is for players to collect the most Shine Sprites, which are scattered throughout a course, within the time limit. If a racer gets hit, they lose one of their Shine Sprites. Whoever ends up with the most Shine Sprites wins.

Mission Mode

In the Mission Mode, which was newly introduced in Mario Kart DS, the goal is for players to clear each level, which consists of eight individual missions with objectives ranging from collecting coins to attacking enemies. Each mission has a specific character, as well as a kart pertaining to that character, that the player is forced to use. When a mission's goal has been completed, the player is ranked based on their performance, the highest ranking being three stars. After completing all eight missions of a level, a boss level is unlocked, and the player must complete it to unlock the next level. There is a hidden Level 7, which is unlocked after the player achieves a minimal of a one-star ranking on every mission of the previous six levels.

Options

The options menu has the usual options for adjusting audio or deleting one's data. However, there is an emblem maker unique to Mario Kart DS, in which players can create their own emblem on a character's vehicle. The player can create their own using a Paint-like interface or choose from a variety of pre-selected items. During races, they show up on the player's kart and are displayed prominently in the blurbs; players can see custom emblems when the racer is in front of them. During Wi-Fi, they are shown in the selection screen and in the blurb above the player during a race.

Multiplayer

The game features 8-player single-card and multi-card LAN play. Single-card play can be played with a mix of players using either a game cartridge or Nintendo DS's built-in wireless service, DS Download Play. In single-card play, players with a cartridge can choose their characters, but those using DS Download Play are forced to play as a randomly colored Shy Guy. In single-card play, only the courses from Mushroom Cup and Shell Cup are available, but if all players are using a Mario Kart DS game cartridge, then all of the tracks become available. In wireless play, in which every character chooses their own.

Nintendo WFC

Before Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection was shutdown on May 20, 2014, players could use either a wireless router, an access point or a Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector to connect to Nintendo's service and access the mode. Players could choose to gather opponents worldwide, locally, or only with friends. Up to four players can race online, so for a short while, the game would search for up to three opponents. After this, players would each select a kart and vote on the track that they want to race on, and the game would select the track with the most votes for players to play on. However, in cases where none of the tracks were voted for more than once or if two tracks were each voted for twice, the game would choose a track randomly. After a set of four tracks were played, the winning and losing players were chosen based on the points they receive after each race, like in Grand Prix mode. All of the online races were at 100cc.

Only twenty courses can be played over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Several of the more complex and/or obstacle-ridden courses were likely disabled from online play because of possible latency issues.

Each copy of Mario Kart DS stores a player's online win/loss record, which was displayed to other players when opponents were found via Wi-Fi. Whenever online racers completed a set of four courses, a number of wins were added to the record depending on how many opponents that racer placed ahead of. Likewise, with losses, their number is equal to the number opponents that they lost to. If any racer disconnected during an online play, the other racers automatically receive a win at the end of the series, regardless of their performance. If a player won first place in a set of four races, a loss is subtracted from their record. Any player that disconnects from online play during an active match is penalized with a number of losses equal to how many opponents were in the race that they disconnected from.

Characters

Starting characters
Mario	Luigi
Peach	Yoshi
Toad	Donkey Kong
Wario	Bowser
Unlockable characters
Character	Unlocked by
Daisy	Winning a gold trophy from each of the four cups of 50cc Retro GP
Dry Bones	Winning a gold trophy from each of the four cups of 50cc Nitro GP
Waluigi	Winning a gold trophy from each of the four cups of 100cc Retro GP
R.O.B.	Winning a gold trophy from each of the Nitro or Retro GP cups in 150cc Mirror mode.

Note: Shy Guy can only be played by DS Download Play users in multiplayer mode.

Courses

All of the Retro GP cups have one course from each of the previous Mario Kart titles. The courses in each of the cups are sorted chronologically from earliest to latest game, and have a console abbreviation at the start of their title to indicate the game of origin: SNES (Super Mario Kart), N64 (Mario Kart 64), GBA (Mario Kart: Super Circuit), and GCN (Mario Kart: Double Dash!!).

Nitro Grand Prix
#	Mushroom Cup	Flower Cup	Star Cup	Special Cup
1	Figure-8 Circuit	Desert Hills	DK Pass	Wario Stadium
2	Yoshi Falls	Delfino Square	Tick-Tock Clock	Peach Gardens
3	Cheep Cheep Beach	Waluigi Pinball	Mario Circuit	Bowser Castle
4	Luigi's Mansion	Shroom Ridge	Airship Fortress	Rainbow Road
Retro Grand Prix
#	Shell Cup	Banana Cup	Leaf Cup	Lightning Cup
1	SNES Mario Circuit 1	SNES Donut Plains 1	SNES Koopa Beach 2	SNES Choco Island 2
2	N64 Moo Moo Farm	N64 Frappe Snowland	N64 Choco Mountain	N64 Banshee Boardwalk
3	GBA Peach Circuit	GBA Bowser Castle 2	GBA Luigi Circuit	GBA Sky Garden
4	GCN Luigi Circuit	GCN Baby Park	GCN Mushroom Bridge	Yoshi Circuit

Staff Ghost times

Staff Ghost times
Name	Track	Character	Kart	Time
Mushroom Cup
Ninten☆たなか	Figure-8 Circut	Mario	Standard MR	1:36:481
Ninten☆まフは	Yoshi Falls	Yoshi	Egg1	0:57:677
Ninten☆しんご	Cheep Cheep Beach	Donkey Kong	Standard DK	1:43:654
Ninten☆しんご	Luigi's Mansion	Luigi	Streamliner	1:59:357
Flower Cup
Ninten☆かつ	Desert Hills	R.O.B.	ROB-LGS	1:31:262
Ninten☆いわ	Delfino Square	Peach	Royale	1:54:601
Ninten☆しんや	Waluigi Pinball	Waluigi	Gold Mantis	2:23:288
Ninten☆ジョ-	Shroom Ridge	Toad	Mushmellow	2:05:123
Star Cup
Ninten☆™NN	DK Pass	Donkey Kong	Wildlife	2:14:607
Ninten☆だい8	Tick-Tock Clock	Daisy	Light Dancer	1:54:903
Ninten☆モリオ	Mario Circut	Mario	Shooting Star	1:56:533
Ninten☆ツュソ	Airship Fortress	Bowser	Hurricane	2:07:748
Special Cup
Ninten☆マトゥ	Wario Stadium	Wario	Brute	2:14:868
Ninten☆めキつ	Peach Gardens	Peach	Royale	1:52:989
Ninten☆ひろむ	Bowser Castle	Boswer	Hurricane	2:19:661
Ninten☆たえこ	Rainbow Road	R.O.B.	ROB-BLS	2:16:246
Shell Cup
Ninten☆いわ	SNES Mario Circut 1	Mario	Standard MR	0:50:688
Ninten☆だる®	N64 Moo Moo Farms	Donkey Kong	Wildlife	1:17:751
Ninten☆だい8	GBA Peach Circut	Peach	Royale	1:12:011
Ninten☆おつぱ	GCN Luigi Circut	Luigi	Poultergust 4000	1:29:759
Banana Cup
Ninten☆しぱた	SNES Donut Plains 1	Dry Bones	Dry Bomber	1:08:027
Ninten☆ジョ-	N64 Frappe Snowland	Wario	Brute	2:08:781
Ninten☆ジョ-	GBA Bowser Castle 2	Bowser	Standard BW	1:52:258
Ninten☆ひょう	GCN Baby Park	Toad	Mushmellow	0:50:920
Leaf Cup
Ninten☆しんや	SNES Koopa Beach	Yoshi	Egg1	0:54:847
Ninten☆イシビ	N64 Choco Mountain	Wario	Dragonfly	2:15:571
Ninten☆モソオ	GBA Luigi Circut	Luigi	Poultergust 4000	1:46:581
Ninten☆ひょう	GCN Mushroom Bridge	Toad	Mushmellow	1:30:600
Lightning Cup
Ninten☆おつぱ	SNES Choco Island 2	Waluigi	Zipper	1:01:620
Ninten☆ま?	N64 Banshee Boardwalk	Dry Bones	Dry Bomber	2:14:403
Ninten☆ドリ-	GBA Sky Garden	Daisy	Power Flower	1:44:400
Ninten☆たろう	GCN Yoshi Circut	Yoshi	Standard Yoshi	1:48:793

Battle courses

There are six courses:

• Nintendo DS
• Twilight House
• Palm Shore
• Tart Top
• N64 Block Fort
• GCN Pipe Plaza

Reception

Mario Kart DS has been met with large critical and commercial success. It is one of the best-selling Nintendo DS titles.

Christ Centered Gamer

A Christian video game review website, Christ Centered Gamer, gave the game a score of 95/100, and also gave the following ratings:

• Gameplay: 19/20
• Graphics: 8/10
• Sound: 9/10
• Stability: 5/5
• Controls/Interface: 5/5
• Violence: 10/10
• Language: 10/10
• Sexual Content: 10/10
• Occult/Supernatural: 9/10
• Cultural/Moral/Ethical: 10/10

External links

• Game manual