Mario Kart DS Preview

Nintendo gaming enthusiasts around the world, START YOUR ENGINES! Why do I say around the world you ask? Well that’s because it will indeed be that way come November 7 of this year! Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection will finally be going online around this time, and Mario Kart DS will be one of the very first titles to take advantage of this service! Mario Kart DS has been in development for quite some time and we’ve been constantly hearing different things about it. When the final product is released, it will support eight player LAN wireless play and four player fully online competitions!

During the Game Developers Conference of this year, NCL President Satoru Iwata did a little “tease” maneuver with the game. He allowed various members of the audience (mainly ones who happened to have a birthday) to come up on stage and take a hack at a beta form of the game. Because this was a LAN type connection, up to eight people were able to play the game at once, and based on the looks of the players’ faces, it seemed very fun! Iwata lightened the mood by constantly reminding everyone of how “he sucked.” His game just happens to be Smash Bros. which he prides himself on supposedly taking Reggie’s name.

In the demonstration the game ran at a very impressive 60 frames per second utilizing fully animated 3D characters and environments. There was only one track playable in that little play test, which happened to be a figure eight, but the people enjoyed it nonetheless. In it, we learned the gameplay is very much reminiscent of Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64.

Now when it comes to MK DS, don’t expect there to be any kind of revolutionary features that will take advantage of the DS’ touch screen. That’s not with this game is for. MK DS’s main focuses are the system’s capability to produce great 3D graphics AND the wireless multiplayer function that will be enabled once the game is released! So for those of you who are fans of that classic Super Mario Kart style gameplay and can’t wait to use it against your friends and complete strangers, your wait is almost over!

When it comes to how the game actually appears on the system, it couldn’t possibly be simpler. The top screen will be where all the action is taking place during a race. The lower screen will keep track of everyone that is currently racing along with a few nice perks. What are those perks? Well it’s the fact that the bottom screen can function as two separate entities. One function will show the whole track in its entirety. The other will offer a sort of “zoomed” in feel that will display a few more details. The zoomed-in feature will supposedly come in GREAT use by allowing players to see their opponents’ very location in regards to them. The view will also alert players when any particular in-game weapon may be headed their way, which will give them the advantage of having more opportune time to perform evasive maneuvers! To make things even more interesting, the feature will also display the ranking and position of each player, as well as whatever weapons each may be holding.

Another beauty of MK DS is that it will in fact allow you to feel the difference of handling between the various characters. Bowser is a big boy with tons of strength, so that will allow him very slow acceleration, high top speed, and a force to be reckoned with on the physical level! Yoshi will be a more standard racer, having average accounts with everything. Smaller characters will have a much easier time jumping and performing crazy handling maneuvers, which also makes them much more susceptible to attacks from heavier opponents.

MK DS will also utilize a racing tactic similar to that of the Nintendo 64 and GameCube iterations. While using the R shoulder button, you can begin “sliding” with your particular character. Then with the D-Pad you begin the side-to-side movement which will eventually trigger an extra boost of speed. It seems like it will take some tries to get used to though, since executing it without the usual analog stick seems a little trickier.

Also, just like all other iterations in the franchise, MK DS places heavy emphasis on the in-game weapons and power ups! Making a return are the green and red turtle shells, as well as individual and bunched bananas. Also borrowing a little from Wario’s arsenal from Double Dash, MK DS will feature a bomb that can be thrown in front of your kart. If placed effectively, it can take out whoever may be caught in the blast radius ahead of you! But of course with all given MK games, the most devastating one is the returning spiny blue shell! Just like always, it will go straight after whoever might be holding the first place position, but since it goes airborne straight after release, no other racers will be affected by it! But that of course is only until it reaches the first place racer, which like the bomb, can hurt other competitors with its blast radius. The game will also feature a heavy array of different tracks. Some are brand new, and some are returning one school features. But seeing the new ones in 3D should be eye candy at best!

As for how the game will work with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, that doesn’t seem to be set entirely in stone just yet. But if how the demo worked is how the service will end up being utilized, hours upon hours of fun seem to be in store for us! There doesn’t seem to be any kind of specific interface designed for the service to be used, it’s rather “seamless” just like Iwata and Reggie have stated. At the dedicated Mario Kart DS Wi-Fi screen, players simply pressed the A button and they were connected. Each are then issued a random character on a random track and race.

The awesome part of all of that is nothing ever seemed to malfunction. There were no frame rate drops, no kinds of lag and everyone was running just like they would be in a LAN competition! Now what was previously explained doesn’t mean you won’t be able to choose your character and place of racing yourself once the final product is released, that would be kind of ridiculous if you couldn’t. I’d say it’s pretty likely you’ll be able to choose whatever you wish, because having the gameplay be restricted like that would be totally bogus.

So come November 7, Nintendo supporters around the world will finally experience what it’s like to play people they know or don’t know once Mario Kart DS is released! With the game’s launch, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection will finally be enabled, and then a whole new era of Nintendo portable gaming will ensue!