Mario Kart DS

About This Game

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of the Mario Kart series Mario Kart DS is a racing game in which the player, as a Mario franchise character, races in a kart against seven other characters. Each course features item boxes that the player can drive through to receive a randomly selected item. Some items allow the player to attack other racers to slow them down, while other items can be used to speed up their own kart to pass other racers more easily. The game features a base roster of the eight playable characters from Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit, along with four unlockable characters Daisy, Dry Bones, Waluigi, and R.O.B. for a total of 12. Each character has three unique karts to choose from, each of which vary in attributes such as top speed, acceleration, and handling. The game features five single-player game modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus, Battle, and Mission.–21 The Grand Prix and Versus modes require the player to choose an engine class from among 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. The classes serve as difficulty levels—the higher the engine class, the faster all karts go.

History

Nintendo announced on May 11, 2004, that they planned to release a Mario Kart game for the Nintendo DS, releasing some gameplay video footage at the same time. The company offered the game for the public to play for the first time at the 2005 Game Developers Conference, where the game's wireless feature was also showcased. Mario Kart DS was produced by Hideki Konno. The game runs at a consistent 60 frames per second and uses full 3D characters and environments. Mario Kart DS is the first Mario Kart iteration to support online play. Konno remarked that although both Mario Kart DS and the Halo series "Halo (series)") feature online play, he noted that most of the people who use the feature in Halo games were "hardcore gamers".