What Made Mario Kart DS So Perfect?

on August 27 2001 the world saw the launch of the very first handheld Mario Kart game Mario Kart super Circuit this game was amazing it allowed you to experience Mario Kart anywhere at any time but there was one big problem with this game despite being the third game in the series and a follow-up to Mario Kart 64. it didn't feel like it at all it wasn't a next step in the Mario Kart series like you'd expect rather a step back and in 2005 only four years after the release of super Circuit Nintendo would release a game that redefined what a handheld Mario Kart could be a game that would change the Mario Kart series forever and one that still holds up incredibly well today that game is none other than Mario Kart DS and for my fifth video in my series covering all the Mario Kart games I want to revisit this Gem of a game and truly see what makes it such an amazing entry in the Mario Kart series my name is Mario Mikester and welcome to a Mario Kart DS retrospective released on November 14 2005 Mario Kart DS is the fifth entry in the Mario Kart series and the second to be released on a portable console development for this game started right after the release of Double Dash in late 2003 with the first instance of gameplay being shown off at E3 2004. this E3 demo showcased a bunch of different characters racing around what seems to be an early version of the track Yoshi circuit and it was until a year later at E3 2005 where the game was properly revealed as Mario Kart Diaz sporting an early logo that I honestly kind of like more than the final logo in a lot of ways during development the team really wanted to take advantage of the fact that this game was releasing on the DS a console with two screens with one of them being a touchscreen and brainstormed ideas for how they could make use of the dual screens one of the most popular ideas among the team was to allow players to place items like bananas anywhere they wanted on the track by simply tapping on a map that would be on the bottom screen but after putting this idea into action they realized just how much touchscreen mechanics take away from the game because of how involved Mario Kart already is and instead opted for minimal touchscreen capabilities which I honestly think was best for a game like Mario Kart and as the game wrapped up its short development period of around two years Mario Kart DS would receive its final more modern looking logo foreign [Music] opening the game you're greeted by three modes you got the classic single player multiplayer modes you come to expect from Mario Kart games but new to the series is a brand new third mode Nintendo WFC Nintendo WFC better known as Nintendo Wi-Fi connection was a service that allowed players to play select Nintendo games online for free without any external accessories the very first game to support this service and the game that released alongside it on the exact same day was none other than Mario Kart DS having the ability to play a Mario Kart game online was a pretty big deal back then but we'll get back to that a little more later for now let's talk about the actual game itself starting off with the single player one of the first things you're prompted to do when entering the single player mode or well any mode for the first time is create an emblem to create an emblem you simply draw on the bottom screen what you want to be displayed on your cart and it'll be there I remember messing around with this emblem Creator so much when I was younger it's such an amazing way to take advantage of the DSs touchscreen you could draw anything on your cart and whether it be a star coin Shameless advertisement or you know whatever and else you're on their cart when this game came out it was still an incredibly Charming addition to the game speaking of charming additions though we have the character selection and while at first this roster may seem a little disappointing as initially it is the exact same roster as Mario Kart 64 had there are actually Four unlockable characters here that you get through completing certain cops you have two returning characters Daisy and Waluigi but you also have two brand new characters to the Mario Kart series dry bones and Rob the robot for some reason I mean while dry bones is an incredibly cool new addition to the series eventually becoming a fan favorite Rob has always been one of the weirder characters added to Mario Kart I mean I'm not complaining that they're here but their inclusion has always left me wondering why moving on though returning from Mario Kart Double Dash is the ability to select what cart you'll use but while in that game each character only got one signature card that best represented them DS actually has two signature cards for each character and a lot of these cards are actually really cool looking Mario has the iconic B Dasher that's seen in almost every single piece of promotional artwork for the game but also as the shooting star Luigi has the Poltergeist 4000 along with the Streamliner Dry Bones has the banisher and the dry bomber I really wish some of these cards returned in later Mario Kart games they're so cool but hey maybe we'll see them in the booster course pass or something looking back at this game now it's kind of hard to appreciate the level of customization present in the different carts you can select here due to just how much Mario Kart 7 and 8 leaned into the customization aspect but I still really do appreciate the strategy that comes with selecting what cart to use with which character due to the stats they offer moving on we have one of the most important aspects in any Mario Kart game the controls and for a game that is primarily controlled using the d-pad Mario Kart DS controls surprisingly well you would think going from the full analog control you add in Double Dash to only having a d-pad that can go at most in eight directions would be jarring and hard to adjust to but it's actually not the last game in the Mario Kart series to use d-pad controls prior to DS was super Circuit and honestly I didn't enjoy the d-pad controls all that much there I mean sure they functioned but they were just so slippery whereas DSS controls feel very responsive and sharp which is incredibly important for a Mario Kart game where you're always making split-second decisions and these sharpen responsive controls make drifting in this game incredibly fun the drifting mechanics from Double Dash return here and involve rapidly alternating between pressing left and right on the d-pad had in order to build up a drift instead of just holding a turn like you see in later Mario Kart games this drifting style is just so much more engaging than the style you see in later Mario Karts it makes drifting effectively something you have to plan as some places are harder to drift in than others and you have to account for if drifting will be worth it there to try and win the race or if you should just play it safe the only real issue with this drifting style is snaking since drifting here isn't dependent on how sharp you turn or how long you hold the turn for rather being based on how fast you can alternate between holding left and right you can actually continuously drift back and forth on straightaways given enough practice snaking was a huge problem back in the day on Mario Kart DS's online mode and is without a doubt the reason Nintendo simplified drifting in the later Mario Karts controls weren't the only thing Mario Kart DS did great though it also had an absolutely phenomenal track selection I absolutely adore the variety here you got tracks like Luigi's Mansion an incredibly cool course that takes you thrown around Luigi's Mansion Delfino square a track based off Delfino Plaza from Super Mario Sunshine featuring a bunch of piattas cheering you on around the course Airship Fortress a track inspired by the Airship levels of Super Mario Bros 3 in World which sees you swerving to avoid bullet bills and shooting out of a giant Cannon and of course the most iconic track from Mario Kart DS and honestly one of the most iconic courses in the entire series Waluigi pinball a track that takes place and a giant Waluigi themed pinball machine complete with amazing music the tracks in this game are nothing short of incredible all 60 new courses here are tons of fun to race on but Mario Kart DS's track selection doesn't just stop at new courses alongside its 16 brand new tracks Mario Kart DS also features 16 returning tracks taken from every single Mario Kart game that was released at that point these returning tracks were coined retro tracks and have become a staple of every single Mario Kart games track selection following DS though it's debated by some if Mario Kart DS was truly the first game to do retro tracks as super Circuit featured remakes of all 20 Super Mario kart tracks as unlockable cups and many see that as the start of retro tracks in the Mario Kart series personally though while super Circuit was the first bring back tracks even if it was just from Super Mario Kart these tracks were secret unlockables intended more as a bonus for people who took the time to unlock them whereas in DS the Retro tracks were a huge part of the game and was something Nintendo heavily promoted it's so cool to be able to see super Circuit and Super Mario kart tracks that were originally only in 2D now in 3D and having the ability to race on Mario Kart 61 fours and double dashes tracks that were already in 3D on the go was incredible back around the time this game released I mean Double Dash was only two years old when this game came out so being able to race on some of its tracks on a portable console that soon after its release was the coolest thing overall Mario Kart DS features one of the best track selections of any Mario Kart it not only fixed a major issue people had with Double Dash that being the small track selection by introducing returning tracks but it also introduced so many iconic brand new tracks the Retro tracks weren't the only big draw of Mario Kart DS though as I mentioned before this game offered something no other Mario Kart game at the time was able to offer online multiplayer Nintendo was really pushing this during their promotion for Mario Kart DS and I mean I don't blame them being able to play Mario Kart online for the first time was one thing but being able to play Mario Kart online for the first time on a portable console was just amazing sure you obviously couldn't play the online everywhere due to it requiring an internet connection and all but if you had an internet connection you could play it anywhere in your house or if a friend had an internet connection you could play there the convenience of the first Mario Kart game to support online play being portable was a big drawing for some people but since this was in the very early stages of online gaming and internet back then wasn't nearly as good as it is now there were some restrictions to the online play to ensure that there was an excessive lag for example instead of there being eight Racers the standard for Mario Karts back then you could only play with four Racers and due to some tracks having a lot more moving Parts than others like Tick-Tock clock swinging pendulums or Waluigi pinballs flippers and pinballs 12 of the 32 tracks in the game were completely omitted from online play now this unfortunately was pretty much a requirement to ensure that online play actually worked yeah can you believe it Nintendo used to actually care about their online games crazy looking back at reviews though it seems like a lot of people around the time of this game's release didn't really care about the online modes limitations they were either just so in love with the single player and local multiplayer modes that online didn't bother them or the novelty of being able to play a Mario Kart game online in the first place was just so strong that its shortcomings weren't that big of an issue either way though the limitations to this online mode without a doubt held it back in a lot of ways but uh it's not like you could play Mario Kart DS online today anyway hell you haven't been able to for almost a decade at this point speaking of multiplayer though despite Mario Kart DS having a heavily limited online play mode it's local multiplayer is anything but limited in local multiplayer you have the option between playing in normal mode or simple mode in normal mode each player is required to have their own cartridge with up to 8 people being able to play together locally without the need of a Link cable or anything while in simple mode only the host needs a cartridge with all the other participants being able to join wirelessly through the DSs download play feature but being forced to play a shy guy which I've always found hilarious and although Mario Kart DS allows you to play the battle mode in single player being the first Mario Kart to do so the most fun you'll have with this mode is without a doubt in multiplayer and Mario Kart DS's battle mode is pretty good it's a relatively simple battle mode but it honestly works well that way you have two modes here balloon battle and shine Runners balloon battle is just about what you'd expect from a balloon battle in a Mario card game although it does feature this pretty unique mechanic where you actually have to blow into your DS's built-in microphone in order to blow up your balloons I've always found this feature to be kind of gimmicky but it's an interesting mechanic nonetheless shine Runners though is where this battle mode gets a lot more unique this mode is very similar to shine thief from Mario Kart Double Dash but instead of only one shine Sprite being on the map and the goal being to hold on to it till the very end of the match nine shine Sprites are spread throughout the map and the person with the most at the end of the time limit wins I really like this mode it's such a great spin on shine thief the courses in this battle mode are also really good as well you got one that takes place on a giant DS one that takes place on a beach and even returning courses from older Mario Karts like pipe Plaza from Mario Kart Double Dash and Block Fort from Mario Kart 64. overall the multiplayer is great in this game but it doesn't even come close to Mario Kart DS's absolute best mode mission mode a fully single player mode featuring over 48 unique missions complete with 7 actual boss fights mission mode is something I never hear people talk about anymore this is without a doubt one of the coolest modes in any Mario Kart tour tries to replicate this mode in a lot of ways with its missions but it doesn't come anywhere close to how incredible DS's mission mode is not only do a lot of them take amazing advantage of the tracks and characters they use to create engaging and fun missions but they also very subtly teach you things you might not know like for example this mission's goal is to avoid all the fake item boxes and collect the real ones but a lot of people might not be able to tell the difference between fake and real item boxes so by playing this mode they're able to actually learn to see the difference between them and be able to apply that knowledge into races in order to get better at the game and then there's this other mission that takes place on the track Desert Hills that has you going through a bunch of rings with some going off the track and requiring you to use a mushroom when I played this Mission I actually learned of a shortcut that I didn't know you could do on this map that I eventually applied into a race and doing so was incredibly satisfying a lot of the missions in this game geniusly disguised themselves as challenges when they're actually tips to help the player improve without outright saying it and then you have the boss fights almost all of them are enemies or bosses from Mario 64 and Mario 64 DS and are a ton of fun to fight racing against Goombas on baby Park trying to avoid the obstacles he throws at you or trying to avoid kingba bombs bombs and throwing them back at him to defeat him are so fun these fights like the mission mode itself take great advantage of the fact that you're moving around in a cart and do a great job at making it feel like less of a disadvantage and more of a unique play style Mario Kart DS's mission mode is easily some of the most fun I've had with this game and is something I would absolutely love to be included in my Mario Kart 9 please make it happen Nintendo Mario kartes is an amazing game I mean what else is there to say about it it showed us that handheld Mario Karts could genuinely live up to and be comparable to their Home console counterparts it showed us that not every DS game needed to have extensive touch controls and instead used the DS's bottom screen to display a convenient map that you could glare down at with ease this was the first Mario Kart game to feature online play and although it was limited it was damn good for the time period it was released in its track selection was easily one of if not the best in the series at the time it released offering 16 phenomenal new tracks and 16 returning tracks from all four Mario Karts that were out at the time with almost every single new track here still holding up today with some even becoming fan favorites the mission mode is without a doubt the best side content any Mario Kart game has ever offered and it genuinely surprises me that we've never seen this return outside of tour's sad attempt to replicate it Mario kartes is a game I have a lot of nostalgia for and when working on this video I tried my very best to not let that Nostalgia blind me I wanted to truly see this game for what it is today and not what I saw it as back then and to my surprise this game holds up just as good and in some cases even better than I thought it did Mario Kart DS isn't just one of the best Mario Kart games of all time it's one of the best video games ever made and is one I will always love returning back to [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Mariomikester

Views: 41,265

Keywords: mario kart ds, mario kart, nintendo, mariomikester, mario mikester, nintendo ds, ds mario kart, mario kart ds retrospective, mario kart ds review, mario, mario kart ds missions

Id: 3k7FANgFD80

Length: 18min 26sec (1106 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023