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Mario Kart DS Game Review

Mario Kart DS is a 2005 kart racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It is the fifth entry in the series and one of the weakest.

When this game was released, it received incredibly positive reviews. It’s still regarded well among fans and critics. But I personally disagree with that assessment as this is one of the more lackluster and uninspired entries in the series, one that failed to give us anything fresh or new.

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Because this is a handheld game, the graphics are quite rough. The character designs are fine, though safe. The level design is also solid. But the backgrounds are quite unpolished and the game did not look good for 2005 given that it’s in 3D, but the DS wasn’t great for that medium.

The sound and score are also far from memorable. The game sounds good, don’t get me wrong. Some of the tunes are fun and interesting. But for the most part I wasn’t vibing with any of its tracks all that much. So, when it comes to its audio-visual presentation, this is one of the worst in the series when put into historical context.

Now, the gameplay. This is your standard Mario Kart game as most of the mechanics are repeated from previous installments. The power-ups stall the opponent as always and most of them are not original to this game with the exception of that one item that steals the opponents’ power-up items. That was a fun one.

The roster consists of 12 characters, six of which are unique to this entry. Dry Bones was the most interesting and competent of the bunch when it comes to computer opponents, but I ended up playing with Mario and his Shooting Star kart for the most part as that one was just fast and strong enough. Yes, there are different karts here and that was a solid new element that I wish returns in future installments.

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I am a single-player gamer, so I cannot comment how good the multiplayer for this game is and because it is no longer supported obviously. Apparently, it was quite great. Playing the game on an emulator was a smooth experience and I found the different modes and mini-games quite solid. But naturally, I focused most of my attention on Grand Prix as I always do. Once again, there are three difficulty levels and the game could get quite difficult on that hardest and fastest level. The A.I. is fantastic and reasonably smart and thankfully the rubber banding wasn’t as terrible here as it was in some previous installments.

There are 32 courses across eight cups in Mario Kart DS. Half of these courses are new to this game, but half are retro tracks from its four predecessors. I loved playing the classics in particular as they chose some of the best tracks from all of those games and once again I was reminded of the greatness of ‘Double Dash’. But the new tracks are for the most part quite forgettable unfortunately.

My issue with most of the tracks is that many of them are too huge and empty with nothing going on in them and blocking you from interacting with other players more. The generic nature of many of these tracks was also problematic, though I did like some interesting additions to the tracks from previous games, such as the addition of bats flying at you in a castle etc.

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I liked that this game incorporated some famous levels and imagery from various Mario and Mario-related franchises – for example we get a ‘Luigi’s Mansion’ track that is annoying in its slow swamp areas, but otherwise quite stellar. My favorite tracks include the very fun and beautifully designed Delfino Square from ‘Sunshine’, the mazelike Peach Gardens and the highly entertaining Shroom Ridge. But for the most part the tracks here are quite forgettable.