Mario Kart DS

Mario Kart DS is a stunning game in the six title Mario Kart sub-series, featuring WiFi Multiplayer and a mission system.

Mario Kart DS is the first Mario Kart game to appear on the Nintendo DS, and the first to support eight-person play, WiFi/Internet play, and a nifty map that even showed incoming projectiles, which took use of the DS' bottom screen.

Playable Characters
A total of twelve Nintendo mascots take part in the fifth installment of the fourteen-year series. The eight that made it happen in Mario Kart 64 can be chosen at the beginning, but the player must win trophies in Grand Prix mode to unlock four bonus characters:

Grand Prix, Time Trials, Versus Modes
As per the N64 and Double Dash!! versions of the series, sixteen new courses were added into the game (in the usual Mushroom, Flower, Star, and Special Cups). But, sixteen old courses, four from each of the SNES, N64, GBA and GCN versions reappeared in four new cups, totaling thirty-two courses in eight cups. In addition, six battle courses appeared, two being reused from previous games.

The non-battle courses appear in three modes:
 * In Grand Prix mode (single-player only), a player competes in each cup in 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and Mirror 150cc engine classes, with ascending speed and difficulty. The game takes the point system of Double Dash!! by awarding 10/8/6/4/3/2/1/0 points for 1st-8th place. Also, a rating of how well a player performed is shown after the trophy presentation: ***, **, *, A, B, and C. An overall "game ranking" of *, **, or *** is shown in the Records area if the player has earned the designated ratings in all cups, all classes.
 * In Time Trial mode (single-player only), a player goes for the fastest time on a course. Interestingly, the items rating of a kart determines how many mushrooms a player has to boost with (3.3 = 1, 6.7 = 2, 10.0 = 3). Players can choose to race against their best time as a ghost, the staff ghost (raced by a Japanese Nintendo staff player with a * game ranking), or no ghost.
 * In Versus mode (single/multiplayer), player(s) choose their karts and head out on the race track for some quick fun. Up to 8 players can play locally via wireless play – simple mode only uses one game card but is limited and everyone having a game card creates the full experience. In single-player mode, the player can choose a) engine class, b) how hard the CPU will be, c) whether the courses will be chosen, in order, or random, whether the rules are d) free (neverending), # of wins (1st place only counts), or # of races raced (going up to 32 creates the "All-Cup" of Mario Kart DS), and e) activating teams.

The following is a table that shows a) all courses, separated by cup, b) * signifies that the course is playable via Wi-Fi, c) Time Trial staff ghost time, and d) Time Trial staff ghost character and kart combo (see below for kart stats). __HIDER__

Battle Mode

 * Nintendo DS
 * Twilight House
 * Palm Shore
 * Tart Top
 * Block Fort (N64)
 * Pipe Plaza (GCN)

Karts
Also unique about Mario Kart DS is its 36 different karts (excluding Shy Guy), 12 being standard karts similar to Mario Kart 64. Originally, only 3 karts are available to each character, each related to him or her in some way (1 standard kart). As the player wins Grand Prix tournaments, it's up to 7 karts, adding four karts from other characters. Once winning every tournament possible in 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and Mirror, each character can be paired in any of the 36 karts, making 432 combinations (excluding Shy Guy). Each Kart has six ratings:


 * Speed: How high the top speed of the kart can go.
 * Acceleration: How quickly the top speed is acheived.
 * Weight: A heavier kart can knock over a lighter kart to the side.
 * Handling: How tight the kart normally turns.
 * Drift: How tight the kart turns while drifting.
 * Items: When a ? Block is hit, how good the item will be (a high items rating signifies a higher chance of getting a Banana Bunch in first place, Triple Mushrooms in 3rd/4th, etc).

Ratings Chart
The ratings are from 0 to 10 in one-tenth intervals. The Items rating will be either 3.3, 6.7, or 10. For the three karts related to a character, each one will have those different three ratings, the standard kart always being 6.7. In addition, not only does the kart affect weight, but the character (Bowser will make one of Peach's karts much heavier), so weight is omitted.

Highs are shown in green and lows are shown in red (except for Items). To conserve space, it has been split into two rows. Look to the right of the Kart name for stats.

Note: Margin of error &plusmn; .2 points