Better then expected, far better.
Story: Sonic was running along through the world when he spotted a flier for a kart race, and Tails standing next to it. "Tails, what's up with this?" he asked. "It's a kart race, you race in small cars called karts around a track." answered Tails. "Oh yeah, I did that once, racing that slow wasn't very fun." Said the supersonic hedgehog. Tails replied: "Come on Sonic, it'll be fun. And besides, it's hosted by Dr. Eggman!" "Dr. Eggman's hosting it? Sounds like trouble, I'd better join to see what he's up to." said Sonic as he ran towards the course. Tails said "Hold on Sonic, I made this kart for you, it's got the latest in Eggman beating technology." "Thanks Tails. I'm off to kart race." Said Sonic. He drove off, and Dr. Eggman came out of hiding, giving Tails the thumbs up.
Characters: The Sonic half gets a good selection mostly, with main characters Sonic and Dr. Eggman, sidekicks Tails and Knuckles, and fan favorites Amy and Shadow, but also has the hated joke character Big the cat. Toss him out and add Vectorman please. Sega's side is underwhelming mostly. Good characters are present, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue is here, as well as Jacky Bryant from Virtua Fighter, Ai Ai from Monkey Ball, BD Joe from Crazy Taxi, Ulala from Space Channel 5, and Alex Kidd from the series of the same name. But obscure characters also appear: Zobio from House of the Dead EX (Not released in North America) somehow got in, as did Chuih (Only Chuih) from Chu Chu Rocket. Where's Gilius from Golden Axe, or Ristar, or the above mentioned Vectorman? DLC, except it's not supposed to be on the DS. Oh well. Sidenote: Due to some issues in Germany Zobio isn't called a zombie, House of the Dead is called Curien Mansion, and the zombies roaming it are either creatures (In game) or wild animals (The instruction manual).
Gameplay: You've played Mario Kart, right? Well, it's similar. Now that that's out of the way I can discuss how good it is. You race as one of 20 Sonic or Sega characters around 24 Sonic and Sega courses in an effort to beat up to five other racers. Yes five, the DS only supports up to five CPUs, plus you. But that gives you less characters to worry about, and less for the game to keep track of. The winner is the one who crosses the finish first, of course. You also have to worry about items to attack with and gimmicks to dodge. The basic racing is the principle focus of the game, and it mostly does that well. In easy mode the opponents are rather a pushover, easy to beat and they don't do much to attack you. In normal they gain intelligence, and it's actually fun since you don't always win no matter how good you are, so you've always got a challenge. Be wary of hard mode, where the CPUs get impossible speed and acceleration, and always have the items they need to kill you. Fortunately it isn't necessary to beat the game in hard mode, so you might as well skip it. If you do play it, play in single race with items turned off and gimmicks on (Even hard CPUs still hit them occasionally).
Items: Items are basic things, a boxing glove as your missile, a homing missile, a big blue missile to detonate at will, mines to drop behind you (They're mines in the instructions, but look like traffic cones), and a shoe that gives you a boost, plus a few new ones like the rainbow to blind your opponents, the shooting star to flip their screen upside down, and the green shield to defend against blows. There's also the All-Star item, that gives your character the ability to perform their (What else?) All-Star move, which makes Beat roller skate, BD Joe bounce up and down like crazy, Knuckles start to glide and become hyper, Amy to get out her hammer, Opa Opa starts to fire fireball type objects, and Sonic becomes super. However there are only four basic types of All-Star moves, Amy has her unique hammer, Dr. Eggman, Alex Kidd, and Opa Opa all start (Or continue) to fly and can fire tons of missiles, and everyone else just gets to be super speed and invincibility, some can press the L button to move even faster while others can actually control the direction of their move. But they're still cool. Gimmicks merely refers to the items that are scattered on the courses to trip you up, Seaside Hill has crabs and fish, Final Fortress has Egg Pawns, Monkey Ball gets bananas, etc. A few courses have no obstacles (Jet Set Radio and most of Samba de Amigo), but are still fun without them.
Racing modes: In Grand Prix mode both items and gimmicks are present as you race against five CPU players to gain the most points from winning races. There are six Grand Prixs, each with four courses in them, and the higher you place in each race the more points you'll gain. In single race you have no tournament racing, and can adjust the number of opponents (From 1 to 5), the number of laps (1 to 5), whether items are on, off, or basic (No All-Stars), and whether gimmicks are on or off. Unlike the consoles you have no announcer, which isn't necessarily a bad thing... In time trial both gimmicks and items are gone, as are CPU opponents, and the goal is to reach the finish as fast as possible over the course of three laps, with your only item being three shoe speed boosts. Mission mode is rather unique in that you are given a goal to perform, whether it's win a race, destroy the gimmicks, dodge the gimmicks, defeat your opponents, collect the coins/rings/bananas, or drift a ton. You even get a final boss at the end, though I won't spoil it. There's also a battle mode, but it is multiplayer only.
Courses: Six games provide the courses; Sonic Heroes, Jet Set Radio Future, House of the Dead EX, Super Monkey Ball, a Sambo de Amigo game, and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. However there still manages to be a lot of variety. House of the Dead has wild plains, underground sewers, and Curien Mansion itself, while Bingo Highway provides a roulette stage, a pinball stage, and a bingo stage. The courses are well designed and extremely detailed, even though it's mostly decoration, and not overly difficult, except for the Super Monkey Ball stages that feature several 90 degree turns, and a stretch of six 180 degree turns in a row at the end of Monkey Target. And there isn't any slowdown, ever, likely because there are only six racers rather then eight.
Unlockables: You don't gain characters by beating grand prixs or get courses by racing on them, you get Sega Miles to purchase everything in the shop. A much better method since you're not forced to do impossible tasks to gain them, and you can buy everything in the order you want (Like saving the music until the end since it doesn't serve much purpose). You can also gain challenges, which don't do anything really besides show achievements, and play missions as explained above.
Technical Details: The graphics of the the game are outstanding in the amount of detail and precision in the game. The sound isn't quite as good, since Big the Cat is as annoying as ever, Zobio is a pain to listen to, and the music is simply average, especially since it sounds like the volume was turned down. A disapointment.
Multiplayer: DS Download Play allows you to race with one friend with any of the eight starter characters on any of the eight starter courses, you may race one race and then multiplayer disconnects. It's more like a demo then anything. I haven't played Wi-Fi, but it's four-player, supposed to be somewhat laggy (But not too bad), and unfortunately necessary for five of the challenges, making perfection impossible for someone without the ability to play it. DS Multicard is the best way to play, you can play with up to four friends (That have the card) and either play with any unlocked character on any unlocked course, or play one of two battle modes. There's normal battle mode, where you play on one of three battle courses and try to knock out your opponents with items. Every opponent has three health, and when you lose it all you're dead. Knockout mode takes place on a normal race course and acts like a normal race, except that after a set period of time last place is eliminated, and the last racer wins. Multicard provides the best experience, but is the most difficult to achieve.
Final score breakdown:
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sounds and Music: 5/10
Fun: 10/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Pros.
Great multiplayer
Great racing
Great graphics
No slowdown
Cons.
Hard CPUs are horrid
Sound is below average
Overall: 8.8/10. It isn't quite the best kart racer thanks to its extreme hard opponent difficulty and lower quality game music, but the graphics outperform Mario Kart and it play really way on easy/normal difficulties. If you are a racing game player you won't regret picking this up, but you might want a console version if you want Wi-Fi or multiplayer.
Differences between the DS and Wii/BOX 360/PS3 versions: Tutorial race is optional, announcer does not exist, you cannot choose which tune to play on courses (It just selects one randomly), online is smaller and less useful, slowdown is non-existent, price is lower, all racers are single character (Zobio versus Zobio and Zobiko and Chuih vs. four Chu Chu Rocket mice), plus several All-Star moves are different (Usually those that involve multiple people like Jacky Bryant's move and BD Joe's move). You only race five opponents at a time versus seven (Which means less to keep track off).
Signed mariostar0001