Over the weekend I finally picked up a Nintendo DS. I’ve wanted to trade up from my Gameboy SP and finally did. I also picked up Mario Kart DS, which is shaping up to be the game for the DS this year. It is the first WiFi enabled game for the DS, ushering in the new era of online gaming for Nintendo systems.

So far I’ve been able to configure my home wireless setup, which took be a bit to do, but if I actually knew what I was doing(instead of jumping in headfirst, as I normally do), it would have been alot less painful. I managed to get my Netgear MR814v2 router to work, even though it wasn’t on the compatibility list published by Nintendo. On the first night I was unsuccessful in finding some people to play against, but on the game status website it was reporting they were having issues with Mario Kart. Odds are they were just innundated with new players given all the new players who would have just gotten the game.

I played a fair bit of the game last night and have to say it was just plain awesome. It’s a mix of the classic, original Mario Kart for Super Nintendo, Mario Kart 64 for Nintendo 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit for Gameboy Advance and Mario Kart: Double Dash for Gamecube. It features lots of oldie, but goodie tracks from those games, meshing them well into a cohesive gaming experience. The game itself is pretty easy to start off, but gradually gets tougher as things start to pick up. There are also lots of cool game modes for multiplayer and single player. I really like that you can play the numerous different battle modes against 7 other computer players instead of having to have other people to play against. There is also a new ranked mission mode, which gets you to do a bunch of driving related levels which are then graded, so you need to keep at it to get the best score. The game utilizes the second screen well, giving you an overtop view of the track and shows you when the pain might be coming your way from other players on the track.

I think the game is pretty phenomenal and seems almost more well rounded then the last Mario Kart game for Gamecube. Hopefully tonight I’ll get to have a shot at kicking some ass over the interwebs.

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