Mario Kart DS: the first Mario Kart playable online

GameMario Kart DSNintendo DS

The first Mario Kart playable online, and the only console Mario Kart to have a Mission mode. Released in November 2005, the fifth main entry in the series took racing onto the internet thanks to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, a service since shut down. This profile details that shift, the tracks, the pilots and the snaking that divided players.

In the timeline of Mario Kart, the Nintendo DS entry occupies the 2005 slot, between Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii. Our overview of the saga calls it aturning-point entry : this is where racing leaves the living room.

Developed by Nintendo EAD, it is the fifth main entry in the series and the first handheld Mario Kart in true polygonal 3D — Super Circuit, on Game Boy Advance, still stuck to the pseudo-3D rendering inherited from the Super Nintendo.

Contents

• November 2005: polygonal 3D in your pocket
• The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection: four strangers on the same grid
• Snaking, the technique that fractured the community
• Mission mode, the orphan of the series
• Pilots, tracks and items that set the standard
• Recap sheet
• FAQ

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November 2005: polygonal 3D in your pocket

The release schedule is an unusual one: North America is served first, on November 14, 2005, Europe on November 25, Japan only on December 8. For once, the archipelago comes last.

The game makes use of both screens without any gimmickry: the race is displayed in 3D at sixty frames per second on the top screen, the bottom touch screen acting as a real-time track map, and the two can be swapped over.

At the helm, Hideki Konno changes hats: he leaves the director's chair to become the dedicated producer of the series. That same year he produced Nintendogs: together with Brain Training, these titles established the DS with children and adults alike.

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The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection: four strangers on the same grid

This is the entry's break with the past: Mario Kart DS is the first in the series playable online. Launched at the end of 2005 alongside the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, it served as a showcase for Nintendo's arrival on the internet, with one knockout argument against a paid-for Xbox Live: it was free.

• Online races are contested by four pilots at most, and in racing only: battle mode was never playable remotely.
• Players add each other using twelve-digit friend codes, unique to each cartridge, and take on their friends, their region or the whole world.
• Locally, a single cartridge is enough for up to eight players in download play, with all the guests then driving the same character.

That character is Shy Guy, confined here to local multiplayer: he would not become a fully fledged unlockable pilot until Mario Kart 7, in 2011.

Nintendo even teamed up with American fast-food chains to offer free hotspots. Nothing of it remains: the service shut down on May 20, 2014.

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Snaking, the technique that fractured the community

Online play brought out a practice that our overview of the series sums up in a single sentence: snaking gives rise to a highly technical meta. The manoeuvre consists of zigzagging along the straights to chain mini-turbos endlessly, exploiting a drift that charges without any corner to negotiate.

The community split in two: on one side, the ultimate mastery of the game, on the other, cheating, with no way to report an opponent or to filter matches. Nintendo settled it in the code: drifting in the following entries was tightened up, and snaking in this form was never possible again.

The debate did not dent the game's reception, praised for its strategic items, its solid artificial intelligence and its balancing, judged exemplary. The press gave it an average of 91 out of 100 and the game passed 23 million copies: the best-selling handheld Mario Kart in history.

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Mission mode, the orphan of the series

The second major new feature, Mission mode marks the first real solo progression outside the Grand Prix : seven levels of eight short, timed challenges, where you have to pass through gates in order, burst balloons or shake off a rival.

Every mission ends with a rank, which encourages replaying it, and the eighth challenge of each level is a boss fight. These opponents come largely from Super Mario 64 DS, released a year earlier: Goomboss, the king of the Goombas, takes on the role of the level 3 boss.

Twenty years later, no console Mario Kart has ever brought back Mission mode. It remains the most surprising exclusive of the DS entry.

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Pilots, tracks and items that set the standard

The grid features twelve pilots : eight from the outset, four to unlock — Daisy, Waluigi, Dry Bones and R.O.B. Each of them has three karts with distinct handling, that is thirty-six chassis to conquer: the first time the vehicle counts for as much as the character.

Dry Bones here makes one of his first two playable appearances and is unlocked by winning every Nitro cup in 50cc. He is the lightest pilot in the game, ahead of Toad, Peach and Yoshi.

The final unlock is the most surprising of all: R.O.B. is the secret pilot, reserved for whoever wins every Retro cup in Mirror mode. Robotic Operating Buddy is not a character but a physical NES accessory released in 1985, which ended up serving only two games; the DS entry puts him behind the wheel, among the heavyweights, three years before Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

As for the layouts, thirty-two tracks in eight cups : sixteen new and sixteen retro, taken in equal measure from the four previous entries — Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and GameCube. The retro cup is not new, Super Circuit having opened the way in 2001, but this entry makes it systematic: the 16 + 16 format would become the template for the following entries, from Mario Kart Wii to Mario Kart 8.

Two layouts stand as in-house classics: Waluigi Pinball, for its neon atmosphere and its electrifying music, and Airship Fortress, where the slightest projectile sends the pilot flying — on DS, these are Bullet Bills, replaced by Banzai Bills since the track was brought back in Mario Kart 7. Then there are Cheep Cheep Beach and Desert Hills, guarded by the Pokeys.

The arsenal, lastly, gained lasting additions. Triple Bananas were born here, and Blooper became an item that sprays its ink over rivals' visors, which earns it a place among the most annoying items in the series. The Bullet Bill made its debut as a playable item; the blue spiked shell, for its part, still flew, and would not lose its wings until Mario Kart 7.

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Mario Kart DS at a glance

Type	Racing game
Developer	Nintendo EAD
Console	Nintendo DS
Release	November 14, 2005 (North America), November 25, 2005 (Europe)
Pilots	12, including 4 to unlock
Tracks	32 (16 new + 16 retro)
Online play	Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, shut down on May 20, 2014
Sales	More than 23 million copies

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FAQ

• Is Mario Kart DS still playable online?
  No. It was the first Mario Kart playable online, via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but that service shut down on May 20, 2014. Only local multiplayer remains, with up to eight players on one cartridge.
• How do you unlock R.O.B. in Mario Kart DS?
  R.O.B. is the secret pilot: he is unlocked by winning every Retro cup in Mirror mode, right at the end of the progression. He joins the heavyweights, with his own karts.
• How many tracks does Mario Kart DS have?
  Thirty-two tracks in eight cups: sixteen new and sixteen retro, taken in equal measure from the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy Advance and the GameCube.
• What is Mission mode?
  A solo mode of seven levels of eight timed challenges, each given a rank, the eighth of every level pitting the player against a boss. No console Mario Kart has brought it back since.
• What is snaking?
  Snaking consists of zigzagging along the straights to chain mini-turbos without interruption. It divided the online community, and Nintendo tightened the drift in the following entries to make it impossible in this form.

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