"Mario Kart is the undisputed king of kart racing games. Throughout 13 years and four games (soon to be five), weve been blessed with some of the finest four-wheeled action you could ever wish for.
With the arrival of Mario Kart DS on November 25, the series enters a new era - but it hasnt forgotten its illustrious past. Today we take a test drive around some of the classic circuits that make a welcome retro-themed reappearance in Mario Kart DS.
Out of the 32 tracks on offer, 16 are classic courses picked from the cream of Mario Kart history. As Mario Kart DS producer Hideki Konno revealed during our Games Convention interview: We identified 16 of the best courses that people really enjoyed playing in the pastI believe that the players who used to play these courses are going to have a very nostalgic feeling.
And indeed we had a nostalgic tear in our eye when we touched tarmac on tracks we hadnt seen in years. Boy, was it good to be back!
History repeating
Collected together as the Retro Grand Prix, the 16 classic circuits are split into four Cups - Shell, Banana, Leaf and Lightning - each containing four tracks taken from each of the previous Mario Kart games.
Fittingly, the first classic track youll come across in Mario Kart DS is also the first track from the first game - Mario Circuit 1 from the original Super Mario Kart on Super Nintendo.
If (like us) youre old enough to remember the track layout from all those years ago, youll be pleased to know that nothing has changed except the graphics, which are now rendered in proper 3D rather than the flat Mode 7 style of the SNES era. In fact, all of the graphics for the classic tracks have been rebuilt from scratch for this DS version.
After storming through the Super Mario Kart circuit in first place, next up was one of our favourite Mario Kart 64 circuits: Moo Moo Farm. The bumpy barnyard track was perfectly recreated - right down to the pesky moles that send your kart into a spin. Even the music has been brought over to DS intact, in all its banjo-twanging glory.
Super sounds
The sound effects have also been given a boost too. Thanks to the DSs superb surround sound you can hear the other characters racing around you - from Peachs giggling as she overtakes, to Donkey Kongs disgruntled grunting as you drop a banana in his path.
The next track we tried, in the Banana Cup, was from Mario Kart: Super Circuit on GBA. Fans will remember Bowser Castle 2 for its flame-spitting lava pits, Thwomps that hover menacingly above, and lanes littered with strategically placed speed boosters. Thankfully, the classic time-shaving tricks still remain, so if you get pasted by another player over Wi-Fi in November, theyre probably an old Mario Kart master.
For our final look at the classic circuits, we sampled one of the top tracks from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! on Nintendo GameCube - Mushroom Bridge. Centred around a giant iron bridge, the race takes place on a regular road packed with traffic - making an eight-player race a frantic vehicle-dodging affair.
The addition of 16 classic tracks - on top of 16 new tracks - not only gives the DS version more courses than any Mario Kart game before it, but it also allows newcomers to experience some of the best kart racing around. And Mario Kart fans neednt worry that their time-honoured tracks have been messed with, as these retro racetracks play as perfectly as ever. In fact, with the addition of new items (plus all the old favourites like red shells and bananas) theyre better than ever.
Sadly, thats all we can divulge for now about Mario Kart DS Retro Grand Prix, but well be back soon with info on the Nitro Grand Prix - featuring the brand new circuits created for the game - and many more details about the best Mario Kart ever!"
