Imperfect is Perfect for Mario Kart
| Platform | Presentation |
Controls |
Variety |
Audio |
Depth |
Value & Fun | OVERALL |
| Nintendo DS | 9.00 |
9.00 |
9.50 |
8.50 |
8.50 |
8.75 | 9.20 |
| Presentation |
9.00 |
|
My first rule is that there shouldn't be slowdown, and you'll never find slowdown in Mario Kart DS. Everything is also very clear and colourful, and there are some nice effects to go along with the tracks (particularly Luigi's Mansion). The only downside are the character models, particularly Donkey Kong, can be a big ugly, although the karts all look very good.
|
| Controls |
9.00 |
|
One thing's for sure -- if you crash, it's your own fault. Controls are very tight and responsive, although it may take some adjustment from analog if that's what you've been playing the more recent Mario Karts with. There are a few minor problems, though -- the first is that it can be more difficult to drive while holding an item behind you, but since that's not really a necessity (and not even an option in online) it's not really a cause for concern. The second is that should you want to, it can be troublesome to use the break while still being able to press the item button (if you use the face buttons instead of "L" as I do); but no one uses the break, so once again, not really a cause for concern. The only real detractor from the controls is the fact that it can wear on your thumb to do the repeated power-slides after a while, which are unforgiving if you don't do it quite right.
|
| Variety |
9.50 |
|
This Mario Kart is easily the most feature packed. More tracks, characters, carts, and game modes than ever before make for a tremendous offering. The slight detractor is in the options, which can't be all that specifically defined. More in replay value on that, though. The unlockables are standard fare -- tracks, characters, carts and don't take all that long to unlock for someone familiar with the series.
|
| Audio |
8.50 |
|
Tracks have appropriate music and all the items are unique sounding and helpful to hear. I tend not to notice the music too much during the race, but end up with the tune in my head after I've stopped playing. It's rather strange 0_o.
|
| Depth |
8.50 |
|
The depth is tricky. You can outrace your opponents the entire race and lose by an unavoidable blue shell at the finish and lose. However, laying back for a better item and saving it and catching up without items is a trick you can pull, but a risky one at that. There are many ways to go about playing, and you can win in just about every way you can imagine -- if only you didn't feel so cheated by horrible items in a race sometimes. It also seems like the item rating doesn't affect what items you get except the number of mushrooms in Time Trials.
|
| Value & Fun |
8.75 |
When not online, I find myself playing the Time Trials, trying to beat all the staff ghosts and best my records. The missions aren't all that difficult to finish (or fun enough to go through again), and the unlockables easily gotten. What you're expected to go back for is the battle mode with AI opponents, the time trials, and your grades in Grand Prix and Mission modes.
Battle mode is not all that fun, surprisingly. You MUST have 8 participants -- there is no way to choose to play against only 3 AI opponents, which is a real letdown. Why they chose to do this is even moreso: The AI is dumb. Beyond dumb, really, because they just seem to travel along a scripted line repeatedly and shoot at random. Not only that, the courses are, for the most part, bad as well. The only shining instance is through LAN and the Block Fort level.
As I said, Time Trials take up most of my time as each track has a difficult, but not impossible, Staff Ghost to beat, as well as it keeps your own ghost. You can also send your friends your ghost (But make sure yours is the better time over your friends, because you can only have one non-staff ghost at a time and it will overwrite theirs). The grades are very difficult to achieve the highest grade, and in Grand Prix, you can get first place in every race and not get the highest grade of three stars, so I don't feel the desire to bother -- if winning's not enough, then forget it.
Ultimately, there are several things to do, and it should take up plenty of your time; but at the end of the day, it feels rather shallow on your own if you don't have (a) friend(s) to play with.
|
| Value & Fun (with online) |
9.75 |
|
Online adds an extra point to the replay as it adds real competitors to the mix. There's now more strategy, more competition and flat out more fun. You can't drag items behind you and there is no triple banana, but that's fine. One-on-One can be very fun as it becomes a real mental game also. You can't choose how many people to play against, and you can only play in the one way -- 5 races and see who ends up with the most points at the end. But it's all still the thing you'll want to go back to.
|
| Overall |
8.95 |
|
This is a great game, online or not. But the old nemesis of Replay value while alone comes back even with all the new modes and features in Mario Kart DS. You know what the feeling is like, but I do say this game absolutely destroys Double Dash.
|
| Overall (with online) |
9.20 |
|
With online, it seems GameSpot and I agree to the decimal. Mario Kart DS isn't perfect, but that's what Mario Kart is all about. Gritty, crazy races which you never know how it's going to turn out. It has never been easier to deem a game in a franchise this deep as best-in-series.
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Posted by Ellyoda Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:00:00
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