Easily my third favourite Mario Kart, Mario Kart DS offers a lot for such a small cartridge.
What's good about Mario Kart DS?
-Best Battle Mode
-Introduction of Retro Courses
-Mission Mode
-Good Kart Speed
-Kart Emblems
-Introduction to Mario Kart staples such as Bullet Bills (weaker Chain Chomps from Double Dash) and Bloopers (actually effective in this game)
What's bad about Mario Kart DS?
-The online is gone
-Item balancing is bad
-The course selection is meh
Why does this game have the best Battle Mode in my opinion?
Because the course selection is pretty good and the modes are pretty fun as well.
Balloon Battle in this game unlike in other Mario Kart games allows you to choose how many balloons you want to start off with, however the less balloons you have the better items you get and you get 5 balloons total. You start off with 1 balloon, and you can get more by blowing into the MIC (I recommend DSi as it has the best MIC between a test of the original DS, DS Lite, DSi, 3DS, and New 2DS XL) or the select button (which I recommend personally as someone who can easily have a shortness of breath). You can carry up to three balloons at a time. Personally, I recommend having two for the best chance of survival and normal item selection.
Shine Runners unlike in other Mario Kart games is an elimination round where 9 shines will spawn and you need at least one (or to not have the lowest amount) to not be eliminated after a certain amount of time and the game continues from there.
Also about the Track Selection and Retro Courses, there are "new" classics in this such as Yoshi Falls, Waluigi Pinball, Deflino Squares, and a few others but they're not as exciting I find as some other courses introduced in previous Mario Karts (especially Double Dash) for the most part (one exception being Waluigi pinball).
The retro courses are also kinda meh as they're more like direct ports of those older tracks meaning they weren't adjusted for Mario Kart DS much and there's just straight up bad picks. One of the one more questionable picks in my opinion is Baby Park, which in Double Dash was exciting and fun to play on, however without the fast pace action of Double Dash (like a lack of special items) this course just becomes an ordinary loop and pretty uneventful.
Overall, I recommend this game for the Battle Mode (and Mission Mode if you're into that), but I would stay clear of the Main Races themselves.
What's good about Mario Kart DS?
-Best Battle Mode
-Introduction of Retro Courses
-Mission Mode
-Good Kart Speed
-Kart Emblems
-Introduction to Mario Kart staples such as Bullet Bills (weaker Chain Chomps from Double Dash) and Bloopers (actually effective in this game)
What's bad about Mario Kart DS?
-The online is gone
-Item balancing is bad
-The course selection is meh
Why does this game have the best Battle Mode in my opinion?
Because the course selection is pretty good and the modes are pretty fun as well.
Balloon Battle in this game unlike in other Mario Kart games allows you to choose how many balloons you want to start off with, however the less balloons you have the better items you get and you get 5 balloons total. You start off with 1 balloon, and you can get more by blowing into the MIC (I recommend DSi as it has the best MIC between a test of the original DS, DS Lite, DSi, 3DS, and New 2DS XL) or the select button (which I recommend personally as someone who can easily have a shortness of breath). You can carry up to three balloons at a time. Personally, I recommend having two for the best chance of survival and normal item selection.
Shine Runners unlike in other Mario Kart games is an elimination round where 9 shines will spawn and you need at least one (or to not have the lowest amount) to not be eliminated after a certain amount of time and the game continues from there.
Also about the Track Selection and Retro Courses, there are "new" classics in this such as Yoshi Falls, Waluigi Pinball, Deflino Squares, and a few others but they're not as exciting I find as some other courses introduced in previous Mario Karts (especially Double Dash) for the most part (one exception being Waluigi pinball).
The retro courses are also kinda meh as they're more like direct ports of those older tracks meaning they weren't adjusted for Mario Kart DS much and there's just straight up bad picks. One of the one more questionable picks in my opinion is Baby Park, which in Double Dash was exciting and fun to play on, however without the fast pace action of Double Dash (like a lack of special items) this course just becomes an ordinary loop and pretty uneventful.
Overall, I recommend this game for the Battle Mode (and Mission Mode if you're into that), but I would stay clear of the Main Races themselves.