Mario Kart: DS

[cracwhore]

In sum - excellent. Acquire it immediately.


First, the 'touch-screen gimmick'.

It's (surprise!) a map screen. However - the screen (which acts as a satellite view of the course) becomes useful by showing you what weapons the other players have - as well as hazards on the track (including enemy weapons).

Upon first booting the game - you will be prompted to enter a nickname, and to 'draw' your own emblem. This icon appears next to your name during online races - which floats above your character's kart. Also - it replaces the decals on the kart.

The single player game features courses from every Mario Kart title previous to this one (as well as four original courses). Sadly, I don't think it has every course from every title (which is a pitty - considering some of the '64' maps the title appears to be missing).

Not sure why they even bothered to include the SNES courses - but I believe three of them are there.

Overall - the game feels more like 'Mario Kart 64' than it does 'Double Dash'. My only regret is that it's not 'Mario Kart 64' (which I would argue - is one of the best games ever created).

The online races are a nice edition. It takes me about two minutes to find regional players and to boot the course. You can race with up to four players in a series of courses. First place after all of the courses takes the victory point.

What's mildly annoying about all of this is - you cannot disconnect from these games unless you power off the system.

The major downside to online racing - sadly - is that you cannot 'drag' items behind your kart in online races. Why they decided to do this - I'll never know. I'm sure they'll blame it on 'performance'. Either way, it really kills a lot of the strategy that has become synonymous with the series.

On the upside - the 'powerslide / hop' from 'Mario Kart 64' has returned.

Just remember - the system can only connect to 'B' nodes. So set your wireless G routers to 'mixed' in order for the DS to detect your connection. If you're connection is protected - much like the PSP - you will be prompted to enter a valid WEP key.

If that is too complicated for you - there is a USB 'key' that you can purchase to plug into your PC - effectively creating your own DS hotspot.

For $30-35 - I suggest that any owner of the DS pick the game up. It's well worth it - for the single player alone.

 

[MP_Lord_Kee]

From all the excellent games recently released you bring up Mario Kart....so I guess it has to be awesome. Too bad I don't own an DS :/

//Kee

 

[cracwhore]

What other good games were released this week?

 

[MP_Lord_Kee]

Dunno about how good they are, haven't played all of em but games released this month:
-The Movies
-The Matrix: Path of Neo
-Gun
-HP and the Goblet of Fire
-Earth 2160
-NFS Most Wanted
-Starship Troopers
-The Chronicles of Narnia
-Battlefield 2: Special Forces
-Call of Duty 2
-Operation Flashpoint: Elite
-Half life 2 (xbox)

Other "recent" games worth mentioning IMHO:
-Sniper Elite
-Civilization 4
-CoD2 (PC)
-Far Cry Instincts (xbox)
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006
-Ninja Gaiden: Black
-X3: Reunion

Next week Peter Jackson's King Kong is something look out for, apparently very good game.

Too many games really to keep track of :/

//K

 

[Rostam]

Civ 4 is probably great as well, but that's just about it, don't you think?

Mario Kart DS, I'm so going to get this. Right after I have some money. Then I STILL need to get that damned castlevania game (and some others of the same series). Then there are some others also on my wishlist that are coming out soon like Sonic Rush. I'll probably end up getting all these games somewhere in december, moving out pretty much drained my wallet dry.

By the way, nice way to sum things up. I had a feeling this one would be great because even IGN, that seems to be allergic to DS games, gave it a 9,5. Then again, they've been hyping this game, and they give every game they hype a 9,X. Oh well, don't mind me. Just rambling in the morning.

 

[MP_Lord_Kee]

Hmm...maybe I'll get a DS for the kid for xmas...but wife probably would put a stop to that.

Civ4, I have played it for some 10-15 hours and it is not bad at all. Basically more or less the same as Civ3, but 3d graphics and more terrain improvments and religion that works more or less like culture....
The hook is still in the game...one more turn addiction. It is quite heavy on the computer, and CTD are frequent. Music is awesome. But the thing that annoys me the most is the speed of the game. You can select 3 different speed settings, i.e how quickly you develop techs. and build stuff, and how many years a turn is in the different ages. Even the slowest pace is a bit too fast for my taste and the balance between technology and unit/building manufacturing is not done well. However, it can be modded inside and out, with both xml and pyton...so in the future I'm sure there will be available more or less anything you can ask for.. I'd say it is an awesome game.

CoD2 on PC, is great. Same as the old Cod but with some welcome improvments. And the atmosphere is thick as ever. It has smoke nades that really works well and confuses the enemy, sound and gfx are great, you can go prone, crouch, lean and use ironsights. You are surrounded by friendly troops most of the time, and they yell out things like, "Look out, sniper in the brown building, top floor right window", which is nice. Immersive in fact.
On the other hand, some of the bad things about the game are for instance that it is very heavily scripted. The story etc doesn't continue unless you cross a sertain spot on the map, so you can stay out for ages killing 100s of enemies but if you opt to rush, the level continues. Annoying. No healthpacks witch is good I think, but damage is dealth with in a stupid way. Basically, if you take a few bullets but escape death and take cover, you are back in full health after a short time. But overall, I enjoyed the game a lot.

Sniper Elite, on xbox seems pretty cool. Graphics suck, especially the textures but the rest is not a bad game. (only played one level actually). Finally a game where sniping is not a game breaker tactic but essential to the gameplay. The enemy A.I is perhaps the best I have seen in a game (atleast as good as in Farcry, probably much better...). Ironsights and scopes, breathing affects aiming, bullet drop and wind affects your shot. If you wound an enemy, they try to crawl for cover, or another enemy can come and carry the wounded to safety. Stealth etc taken into account, the enemy snipers and solders are very hard to locate...and the enemies use cover, flanking tactics, try to pin you down while other flank etc...fantastic stuff.
You can pick up weapons etc from dead bodies, and the model is visible on your body...ala Inf. Haven't played it enough for any more comments but it sertainly seems like a well thought game.

Latest Harry Potter surprised. It has co-op which works out well so if you have kids, idea game to "share"

Going to try out the latest NFS tonight on Xbox...if handling is anywhere close to NFSU2 I'm happy. I enjoy arcadish games now and then

Sorry for the highjack crac I'm just bored at work and didn't have anything better to do...

//K

 

[yurch]

From what I've seen of Earth: 2160, it's horrible. Utterly forgettable and trash RTS. As in, please do both.

 

[AlmostAlive]

Ordered the new NFS for PC today. Been a fan of (most) of the games in the series since the first was released. I especially liked Porsche Unleased. The '78 Turbo was simply brilliant. Got high hopes for the newest addition to the series.

 

[TheWhaleShark]

Need to get in on that Mario Kart DS action. We can swap friend codes and whatnot!

Also, I must say, Kirby's Canvas Curse is the best usage of that hardware imaginable.

 

[MP_Lord_Kee]

Ordered the new NFS for PC today. Been a fan of (most) of the games in the series since the first was released. I especially liked Porsche Unleased. The '78 Turbo was simply brilliant. Got high hopes for the newest addition to the series.

Porsche was awesome, best one in the series I'd say. NFSU2 was great fun on the XBox, not so on PC IMHO.

Did you try the demo Almost? I'm a bit dissapointed in NFSMW on XBox...
First impressions after some 4 hours of gameplay:

The visual presentation of the game is top notch. The colors are vivid and has this "warmth" to it that I enjoy. Also the movies for the story are done artistically and over all quality is great. The main chick is hot, which is always a plus. I don't know what the technique is called but I haven't seen that kind of movies before; they have used real actors, done something to the lightning and shading whatnot, and mixed that to the computer gfx in the background and the cars etc. The effect is stunning but I'm sure the opinions will be mixed on this one. Then again, it is not the biggest part of the game..
The menus, the way things are presented are also top notch, especially the introduction to the rivals on the "blacklist" is done in a nice artsy way.

Music is your typical mix of noise you get with EA tracks. Some good, some bad, none so far been horrible. Engine sounds are not too shabby althou a sertain umpf factor is missing IMHO. I didn't use surround sound system so I probably did miss quite a lot of the actual ingame sounds..

The city is done well, with easy to navigate streets. The game depicts only daytime with weather variations, so no more nightly runs...which is a shame. The main graphical effect that is noticible is this HDR like effect with really bright shining sun at spots, like when you exit a tunnel you are blinded for a brief moment. I liked that effect and it doesn't affect the gameplay..

The cars are modelled nicely, and they are very shiny. Other traffic and the cops ain't too bad either. A lot of breakable stuff along the streets, but without a real damage model that is sort of too arcadish for me...

But over all, looks and presentation are of very high quality.

The gameplay...is where I have the biggest grief...because there are so many things "wrong" with it.
Handling has gone backwards. It just doesn't feel like driving a car anymore. Hard to pinpoint exactly what is wrong but it didn't feel as "good" as in NFSU2. Take for instance doing donuts. It just doesn't feel right. I had trouble telling if the car is FWD or RWD....and to my horror, I suspect the car is pivoting on some centre point and not on individual wheels...*sob*

The first car I "owned" after loosing that pimped out BMW in the begining of the game, felt bad as well. I use manual gears and that is screwed up as well. You really need to have the right gear to accelerate. For instance, if you are drivig say 20 km/h and are in 2nd gear, the car just refuses to accelerate, flip it to 1st, it goes to top revs in a nanosecond etc...it just doesn't feel right. If you don't press the gas pedal, the car comes to a halt, like you'd be breaking!?!. In a city cruising game like this with open and free roaming...makes it quite hard to enjoy it all if you have to "step on it" the whole time...ok, you can ofcourse just keep the gas like on half or something like that... Next, when you downshift, the breaking effect is way too powerful as well. And finally, my all time favourite design flaw in any car game, for some reason you reverse by using the break? Even with manual gears? Wtf? To change that wouldn't take that many lines of code..or even have an option to change it... You can take corners at amazingly fast speeds with no need to slow down really. Or you can grind the walls to get past the harder turns. No big impact on your speeds either. So no skill really required. If you downshift before a turn you will go too slow and hitting the gas pedal at apex only puts you in redline and still too slow speed...
Also, no powersliding atleast with a standard car..and no sense of weightshifting..which was done pretty well in NFSU2 if my memory serves me correctly..
Also, gone is the drafting effect. And drifting events.

Tuning is nerfed down compared to NFSU2. You can only apply body kits, i.e front/back spoiler and wide body stuff. No longer the option to choose individual parts. Sucks. Also, you can only apply one vinyl (atleast I haven't figured out how to apply more), so say you put Viper type stripes on the hood, you can't have flames etc on the sides... Performance etc is done in similar fashion in steps as in NFSU2, but no longer can you choose manufacturer etc..come to think of it, no sponsors either in the game...and no magazine covers (atleast so far)...

You get all your shopping done in the same store, and those are known from the start, so no longer do you need to search and find new stuff. I sort of liked that in the earlier game. Also, seems to me there are much less optional races to be done, and the icon blinker thingie on the street is covering the whole street...not just a small spot as earlier. You can access all the races from a menu when in safe house as well...which is good I guess if you don't like to drive around the city.

No hidden stuff to be found in the city it seems, like money piles etc. So no need to explore that much...

The cops are fun, that I have to admit. And the radio chatter is great. But in the begining there is really no difficulty in avoiding beeing caught. Over all the game seems way too easy...I haven't lost a race yet.

I got two rivals done of 15 so to me it seems that the game is not as involving as NFSU2 and it is much more stright forward with less options.

I'm not really enjoying the game because I expected much more. I had hoped for a pimped out NFSU2 with more options, more gameplay but seems a lot of things had to go for the cops to enter the game. With some fine tuning this game could had been just awesome but as it is now...at best mediocre.

//Kee

 

[AlmostAlive]

I played Porsche Unleashed mostly for the online experience, which was great. I actually ranked pretty high (I was number 4 on the world ranking at some point), which added to the fun of it.

I enjoyed PU more than I liked NFS:U and if the game has taken a turn for the worse from that, I might have to reconsider it. Or at least try the demo first. Thanks for the review, Kee.

 

[MP_Lord_Kee]

My pleasure Almost.

The experience is probably quite different on the PC though...

After getting some tuning parts for my car you can adjust the handling and other settings...(from pause menu when driving of all places). And it actually improved the driving experience....so not as bad as my initial thoughts. But still, so much could have been achieved with really minor modifications to the gameplay...:/ Running away from the cops is fun, lots of fun.

//Kee

 

[cracwhore]

You thread pirates...

 

[Crowze]

Good review Kee . I definitely agree on the handling - both NFS:MW and ToCA 3 really have gimped handling which for me really detracts from the experience. Still, I've always got RBR and LFS for my realism fix, and I agree that outrunning the cops around the golf course is a lot of fun .

 

[mat69]

Do you run homebrew on your DS too cracwhore?

 

[cracwhore]

Not yet.

I don't have the GBA flash memory cart. Last I checked - that was the only way to load apps.

 

[mat69]

There are many ways now. (good resource: http://nintendo-ds.dcemu.co.uk/)
Allthough I'm not sure what aproach to choose. M3 looks nice but is having problems, so I guess this way is the best.

 

[Rostam]

I got this one and sonic rush, I love both. I don't think online is that good, but it is very easy and fast which arguably is more important for a handheld system.

How I managed to pay for these 2 games, I'll never know.

 

[cracwhore]

I did say that they removed the best multiplayer strategies in the online modes. It's not like I hyped that up at all.

It's a shame, really. Single player is simply more fun because of those few deletions from the multiplayer mode.

But still - I enjoy an online game or two every now and then. Items seem to matter less online.

As for 'Sonic Rush' - I have to say - haven't enjoyed a 'Sonic' title since the second game. The videos looked interesting at least.

 

[Rostam]

My problem with online is the way you have absolutely no control about game settings. I was expecting a lobby, at the very least. But yeah single player is excellent and I still have to try wireless multiplayer, without going online. My guess is that that will be great.

Sonic Rush finally has the same speed as the old ones, and the boss fights are amazing. Plus it's pretty difficult (that or I suck) and deep so it has a lot of replay value.