Despite dissappointing online play, Mario Kart DS is one of the best, if not the best game on the Nintendo DS.
Gameplay: This game plays great, everything controls right. One cool feature is a power slide boost. While power sliding, if you move the D-pad from left to right repeatedly, sparks around your wheels will turn blue, then red. Once red, let go of everything and your player will boost. It's a great mechanic worked into the game well. Another cool thing to pull off is the start boost. When counting down to start a race, if you hold down the gas about a second after 2 comes up, you'll boost. These features are a great way to seperate the good players from the bad. If you're good, you can use more than luck to win now.
Graphics: AWESOME! I think this game looks actually better than the GameCube version of the game, which says a lot for a handheld. These graphics compete with the PSP's graphics, and make me wonder why not more games look like this on the DS.
Sound: Sounds like one of the best handheld games ever. The sound quality matches the GameCube version of the game's quality, which also says a lot. While hearing this you'll be shocked you're playing a console game.
Value: Lots! Whether you want to do missions that get harder as they progress and include boss battles, races, battles, and much more, this game's got it all. First off, the missions. There are enough missions here to keep you occupied for a long time. They range from collecting coins, destroying things, going through gates, and fighting bosses. Along with missions there's races, which include 16 maps, some of them from the classic games. The battles have 2 modes: a balloon battle and a unique coin-like experience. They're both fun and push this value rating up! Then there's online, which falls flat on its own head. The online play lets you search for opponents, whether they're regional, worldwide, friends, or rivals. The one problem; the game keeps searching! If you've ever played Xbox Live, you know that you actually join games. With this game, you have to be searching for opponents at the exact same time as someone else. You don't even have an account name, it just goes by your racing name, which does allow you to be named whatever you want online, but if you want to add someone to your friend's list, you have to enter a 10-digit code, which keeps changing! Searching for opponents takes forever, and though you'll never experience lag, this is the only bad part of the game. There's still lots of content in this game, but the online play sucks.
Tilt: Sadly, I had to tilt this rating down, because of the awful online play :(. Don't listen to Nintendo people that have never experienced online play before and say "it's AWESOME!" because if you've ever played Xbox Live, Playstation Online, or an online PC game, you will be disappointed.
Overall, GET THIS GAME!