Blazing Mushrooms

Mario Kart will be the very first game you can play across the Internet on your DS.
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Nintendo reps showed off a new playable version of Mario Kart DS, the upcoming DS kart game based on the classic Nintendo kart-racing franchise, at an event in Seattle earlier today. The highly anticipated game will break new ground for the portable system when it hits in a few short weeks. It will be the first title to take advantage of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service, letting players compete against each other from hotspots around the globe. Given the company's reticence to throw its "M"-emblazoned red hat into the online ring, we've been curious to see if the game will be able to pull off Nintendo's claims. After seeing the demo and playing a new work-in-progress version of the game, we're pleased to report that all signs point to Nintendo's online debut being a powersliding, power-up-collecting success.

The presentation on the game, led by a member of Nintendo's Tree House crew named Nate Bildorf, was the most comprehensive look we've had at the game to date. The game will feature the same core modes we've seen in the previous entries in the series--single- and multiplayer--along with a new NWFC or "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection" option. The single-player mode was the first mode to be shown. The mode will once again feature a grand prix, which will initially feature three engine classes and a fourth that you'll have to unlock. You'll pick a racer from an assortment of familiar faces from the Mario universe; our version had Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser. As always this selection of characters is just the tip of the iceberg, the game will contain a handful of unlockable character as well a ton of unlockable karts.

Chances are, you've raced against all of these guys before.

A new addition to the experience will be found in the racer stats, which you'll want to take into account when choosing a racer. In addition to the traditional speed, acceleration, weight, handling, and drift attributes, you'll now have an "items" stat that will determine the quality of items you get. As in previous incarnations, the game will cough up better items for fourth-placers as opposed to first--so this stat will actually let you get better-than-normal items when you're in first or second place when you'd typically get. The other tweak to the experience is that you'll now have a selection of karts to choose from, as seen in Mario Kart: Double Dash on the GameCube.

After you finish picking tracks, you'll find a nitro grand prix that contains the typical selection of three cups with four tracks each: mushroom, flower, and star, along with a fourth, unlockable special cup. In addition, you'll find a retro grand prix that has the same structure for cups: shell, banana, and leaf, with a special lightning cup to unlock. The tracks in the retro cups will, as previously mentioned, be recognizable from previous Mario Kart games as seen on the SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and GameCube.

Veteran Mario Kart players will notice some new additions to the array of power ups in the game. The first that we saw is the "blooper" power up, which obstructs an opponent's top screen with what looks like ink. While this can be devastating, you can mitigate the damage by using the lower touch screen to navigate. The camera will offer two levels of zoom: When zoomed in you'll get detailed view of the track, and when you zoom out you'll be able to get a feel for your position relative to all your opponents. Another new power up will transform you into a Bullet Bill, and offers a mighty speed boost that mows down anything in your path. The nice perk of this is that, unlike the star power up, you'll be rolling on cruise control for the duration of the power up ensuring you get the most out of it.

All-new circuits will be joined by memorable classics.

Finally we also the game's drafting mechanic, which you'll use by tucking up behind an opponent and staying on their tail for a set amount of time before being awarded a speed burst. You'll also get speed bursts from the power drifts. as in the Nintendo 64 and GameCube versions, by power sliding and quickly tapping left and right on the D pad, causing different colored sparks to kick up. If you manage to sustain your drift while pumping the D pad left and right, your sparks will cycle from blue to red which will yield the best speed burst.