I do believe this is the best in the series. sure I'm swayed by it being the best DS game I grew up with (the only non-shovelware one), but it brings a lot to the table: good music, mission mode, customizable kart emblems, R.O.B., the map on the lower screen.

it certainly has the best battle mode in the series. the battle maps are intimate, making it exciting and easy to engage in combat. compare that to any other mario kart game, in which the battle maps are so large you're lucky to hit anything at all.

being a young kid, I didn't understand how to unlock characters, so I was surprised a couple years back when I learned there were two or three I never even knew existed. it made me appreciate the game anew, like it still had secrets for me. and what a hard time I had unlocking them, at 20 years old! this game has a surprisingly challenging single player mode.

one of the first games i got to play on a console i got to call my own. finally got around to revisiting it to see if its actually as good as i remember and it really is, i just adore everything about this game. the gameplay being so unique with the way drifting works and snaking, some super iconic and really fun tracks, great character roster with the addition of rob who when i was a kid i thought was a mod and not real, just so much good here. theres also plenty of content not related to racing thats great here like the battle modes with great battle mode tracks and the mission mode with really cool objectives. this game is just a great all in one package as far as mario kart goes, probably tied for being my favorite in the series with double dash

Mario Kart really began to hit its stride as a series with this entry, in my opinion. This is the first one that truly got the feel of the controls perfectly to me, it’s just so smooth and responsive.

While it’s hard to pry my own nostalgia away from this review, I can barely help it. This is easily the best suite of brand new tracks any Mario Kart game has brought with it. Airship Fortress, Delfino Square, Rainbow Road, Wario Stadium, Waluigi Pinball, Peach Garden, and Tick Tock Clock are all some of the best tracks in the whole series… and that makes up nearly half of the new tracks!! The music on all these tracks are great, the synthy sounds are so fantastic. I love Rainbow Road and Figure-8 Circuits’ tracks in particular.

Plus, this game introduced online play not just for Mario Kart, but as one of the earliest Nintendo games to do it. It works so well with Mario Kart and makes it more convenient to have multiplayer fun.

Something (almost) unique to this entry is the Mission Mode, something that I feel many sleep on. They add a lot of replay ability to go for better ranks, enjoy fun twists on stages, and extend the single player offerings.

The only major downside here, is another series-first, the Retro tracks. While there are some that I enjoy like Banshee Boardwalk and Sky Garden, sadly a large chunk of the retro tracks are very simple 1st tracks from the previous entries or flat-out not fun.

This is definitely a top-shelf Mario Kart game absolutely worth playing though, even though there are newer entries people usually default to.

ill never forget the time me and my sister were playing this in an airport and one of us yelled out about someone throwing a bob-omb

our mother was very annoyed with us and confiscated both of our devices

this was my go-to game on any and all trips out of the house

Continuing my holy crusade to play every Mario Kart. There are some things I loved and some stuff that I didn't like at all. First of all, I think I should address the drifting. It's definelty more of a skill this time around. I prefer drifting in later games it's still a ton of fun and considering it lacks air tricks and gliders, it definelty gives this game more of an identity. Then there's the courses, the nitro courses almost all slap they introduced some of the best of the best here: Peach Gardens, Airship Fortress, Bowser's Castle DS, Tick Tock Clock, WALUIGI PINBALL oh my GAWD they cooked like crazy with these. But then there's the retros. And honestly most of them suck. I get they couldn't bring a lot of double dash courses but in that case they could've just focused on 64 courses because the snes ones are so short it feels like they are over before they begin. The Super Circuit ones are also just eh. I will be giving some slack though since this the first game to have retro courses. And there's mission mode: it's good. Nothing super fantastic, but it's a fun relaxing little pace breaker that I honestly wish returned in later games. Mario Kart DS isn't a "generically good" game like what I used to think Mario Kart 7 was (I now think 7 is freakin great), it's a good game that has quite a few things holding it back which is better if you ask me since that makes its pros stand out all the more.