Mario Kart DS

 MARIO KART DS

Today, let's cover Mario Kart DS for the, well, Nintendo DS naturally. The game returns to the basic one-driver concept, but most everything else sticks pretty close to the standards set by 64 and Double Dash. If you asked my opinion, it is probably the best of the main handheld games for many different reasons that we'll likely at least touch on here.

For our character roster, we cut down to just the main eight once again as our base roster, but with Daisy, Waluigi, newcomer Dry Bones, and special guest ROB added in as unlockable characters. We also have a playable Shy Guy, although that one's a little weird. You can't access the character on the character select, but if you connect wirelessly with someone who has the game, but you don't, you will be defaulted to Shy Guy. Neat. I guess. Most items that return remain much the same as seen before, with lots of mushrooms, shells, bananas, and so on, but we do have two new items: the Bullet Bill, which transforms you into a bullet bill and rockets you along the track; and the Blooper, which squirts your opponents' screens with ink, reducing their visibility.

Now, this game has a very unique and distinct feature that requires I talk about our supporting characters. First up, obviously Lakitu returns as the ref, and the Angry Sun, Boos, Bubbas, Bullet Bills, Chain Chomps, Cheep Cheeps, Piranha Plants, Fire Snakes, Goombas, Monty Moles, Moo Moos, Piantas, Pokeys, Rocky Wrenches, Sidesteppers, Mr. Blizzards, Swoops, and Thwomps all appear as obstacles or in the background, but we also get a single-player mission mode that features several boss battles against familiar faces from Super Mario 64 DS specifically. These include Big Bully, who rams into you; Eyerok, who flies around and slams its fist down; Goomboss, who will race you while tossing out obstacles to get in your way; King Boo, who will turn invisible and steal your coins; King Bob-Omb, who will stomp around and throw Bob-Ombs; Chief Chilly, who will charge at you; and Wiggler, who will race you.

As for our standard sixteen tracks, we have: Figure-8 Circuit, the standard generic track; Yoshi Falls, a circular track with waterfalls running over it; Cheep Cheep Beach, a beach level; Luigi's Mansion, based on Luigi's Mansion; Desert Hills, a desert level; Delfino Square, based on Super Mario Sunshine; Waluigi Pinball, the BEST Mario Kart track; Shroom Ridge, a mountainous track with high cliffs on one side; DK Pass, a snow level; Tick Tock Clock, a course built inside a giant clock; Mario Circuit, a standard track around Peach's Castle; Airship Fortress, an awesome track that takes you through a scene of an airship bombarding a castle; Wario Stadium, another standard motocross arena; Peach Gardens, that take you through the garden in front of Peach's Castle; this game's rendition of Bowser's Castle, and this game's rendition of Rainbow Road. We also have sixteen more tracks for the retro cup, which are all recreations of tracks from previous games. As we've seen all those already, I won't go into them again.

Our battle tracks include: Nintendo DS, following after the last game's Game Cube track; Twilight House, a sprawling spooky maze with lots of rooms; Palm Shore, a beach level; and Tart Top, set on top of a giant tart. Block Fort and Pipe Maze also return from previous games. I believe that's it.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario Kart: drive, brake, jump, turn, skid, etc., Banana Peel, Green Shell, Red Shell, Feather, Mushroom, Star, Ghost, Coin, Lightning, Egg, Fireball, Poison Mushroom, Triple Mushroom, Super Mushroom, Fake Item, Banana Bunch, Triple Green Shells, Triple Red Shells, Spiny Shell, dual driver, Blooper, Bob-Omb, Bullet Bill

Mario: fireballs

Luigi: fireballs

Peach: heart

Yoshi: giant egg

Bowser: Bowser shell

Donkey Kong Jr.

Toad: golden mushroom

Koopa: triple shells

Donkey Kong: giant banana

Wario: bob-omb

Daisy: heart

Birdo: giant egg

Baby Mario: Chain Chomp

Baby Luigi: Chain Chomp

Toadette: golden mushroom

Paratroopa: triple shells

Diddy Kong: giant banana

Bowser Jr.: Bowser shell

Waluigi: bob-ombs

Petey Piranha

King Boo

Dry Bones

ROB

Shy Guy

Lakitu

Toadsworth

Kamek

Boo

Piranha Plant

Cheep Cheep

Monty Mole

Thwomp

Chain Chomp

Penguin

Mr. Blizzard

Bob-Omb

Hammer Bro

Little Mouser

Mechakoopa

Pianta

Goomba

Pokey

King Bob-Omb

Wiggler

Bosses:

Big Bully

Eyerok

Goomboss

King Boo

King Bob-Omb

Chief Chilly

Wiggler

Stages:

Mario Circuit

Donut Plains

Ghost Valley

Bowser's Castle

Choco Island

Koopa Beach

Vanilla Lake

Rainbow Road

Luigi Raceway

Moo Moo Farm

Koopa Troopa Beach

Kalimari Desert

Toad's Turnpike

Frappe Snowland

Choco Mountain

Mario Raceway

Wario Stadium

Sherbet Land

Royal Raceway

Bowser's Castle (64)

DK's Jungle Parkway

Yoshi Valley

Banshee Boardwalk

Rainbow Road (64)

Peach Circuit

Shy Guy Beach

Riverside Park

Mario Circuit (SC)

Boo Lake

Cheese Land

Luigi Circuit

Sky Garden

Cheep Cheep Island

Sunset Wilds

Snow Land

Ribbon Road

Yoshi Desert

Lakeside Park

Broken Pier

Bowser's Castle (SC)

Rainbow Road (SC)

Big Donut

Block Fort

Double Deck

Skyscraper

Luigi Circuit (DD)

Peach Beach

Baby Park

Dry Dry Desert

Mushroom Bridge

Mario Circuit (DD)

Daisy Cruiser

Waluigi Stadium

Sherbet Land (DD)

Mushroom City

Yoshi Circuit

DK Mountain

Wario Colosseum

Dino Dino Jungle

Bowser's Castle (DD)

Rainbow Road (DD)

Cookie Land

Block City

Nintendo Gamecube

Pipe Plaza

Luigi's Mansion

Tilt-a-Kart

Figure-8 Circuit

Yoshi Falls

Cheep Cheep Beach

Luigi's Mansion (DS)

Desert Hills

Delfino Square

Waluigi Pinball

Shroom Ridge

DK Pass

Tick Tock Clock

Mario Circuit (DS)

Airship Fortress

Wario Stadium (DS)

Peach Gardens

Bowser's Castle (DS)

Rainbow Road (DS)

Nintendo DS

Twilight House

Palm Shore

Tart Top

Thanks for reading! Next up, we will cover Mario Kart for the Wii!