MarioKart DS is God

[Odonadon]

I haven't been hooked on a game for a long time.  MarioKart DS's done did it.  This is easily the best MarioKart game of them all, and the online play and other features (missions, alternate battle type, etc) really make a DS purchase worth while!  Hell, the wife and I enjoyed the game so much I went out and bought another DS and another copy of MKDS!

However, I am getting sick of being beaten by a bunch of 8 year olds online

OD

[tholly]

i've been hearing nothing but good things about this game....it looks like i might have to pick it up sometime, but first, i have the goals of saving up for an X360 and completing my 32x collection in mind

[TraderJake]

I learned through wifi that there are a lot of good people out there at this game, and I am not one of them. Needless though, this game is addicting, though I think Meteos may be up there in terms of addicting nature. I would agree though -- this game is by far the best Mario Kart to date. Hell, even our leader went out and bought a DS for this game (but moreso Castlevania).

[CatchFiveBats]

Yeah...this game is really awesome, although I suck big time at it.  I think all those 8-year-olds are hacking.  n00bs...  |D

- Zac

[TraderJake]

I agree, I played someone from Mexico and he was Godlike. I have never seen someone use the powerslide much like he did. He was powersliding so fast that it almost looked as though he was indeed cheating. But c'mon, are we really able to hack a DS right now?

[yap]

I love this game.

Although the people online seem like total dweebs.  Every single time I win a race, they disconnect.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Gotta agree with everything being said here.  Until now, I have never liked a Mario Kart game.  They always seemed to have good potential, but drab tracks and were horribly overbalanced.  This one is much much better in both respects, has better replay value, and of course the wifi online play is great.  Some people online are indeed really good, but then others kind of suck (but they always disconnect like yap mentioned).  

I'm glad I bought a DS last Friday, and I'm glad this was the first game I got for it.  I haven't been excited about a system since Dreamcast nor addicted to a game since Aria of Sorrow.  I can't wait to get my hands on Dawn of Sorrow, Age of Empires, and hopefully some more wifi enabled games.

[yap]

Nep: don't forget to pick up Advance Wars DS or Meteos if you happen to find them cheap.  Very good games too.

I still want to get Phoenix Wright and Trauma center.

The DS is my favorite console right now, and not just because of Mario Kart DS.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Does Advance Wars have a wifi mode?  Actually, this is sort of off topic, but what other wifi games will there be for DS in the upcoming months?  Anyone know of a list?

[yap]

Advance Wars has Wifi in that you can play with 8 locally linked DS's, but no Wifi internet.  

The only Internet DS games released are Tony Hawk: American Sk8land and Mario Kart DS.  Animal Crossing is the next game to allow you to play over the internet, I think it's released first week in December, then Metroid Prime Hunters which is out later next year.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Age of Empires had better have wifi internet.  I would be most unhappy if it doesn't.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Holy hell, this is amazing.

Article: http://ds.ign.com/articles/668/668709p1.html

Wi-Fi Mario Kart Zooming
A huge percentage of owners have gone online for your competing enjoyment.
by Craig Harris

November 21, 2005 - According to Nintendo, in one week more than 45% of the people who have purchased Mario Kart DS have taken their game online via the free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.

In just one week, more than 112,000 copies of Mario Kart DS have been sold in the US. Of that number more than 52,000 unique system/game pairs have connected to the online service for Wi-Fi multiplayer gaming.

"We are ecstatic with the results, and this definitely sets the standard for future Wi-Fi online gaming," said Beth Lewellyn, Nintendo's senior director of public relations. "Mario Kart should easily be a million seller in its life cycle, and we'd love for everyone with the game to touch the Wi-Fi experience. We've got Animal Crossing just around the corner, and Metroid Prime Hunters next year, with more to come."

Comparatively, Microsoft reported last year that after three weeks on store shelves, just 18 percent of Halo 2 owners had played that game on Xbox Live.

[Izret101]

I am actually probably going to get this game and a DS for Xmas from one parent.
I am asking the other parent for a PSP and Infected.

BTW i thought these where prety impressive stats too.
Though this is moreso because it is for one game in a much shorter amount of time. AND it is a handheld console.

[Lord Nepenthean]

I think those Xbox Live stats, while a little impressive, are pretty misleading.  For example, you know as well as I do that people like Laurel have been counted three times (and sometimes more) under that "2 million people" that have signed up.  Anyone who gets a free trial account would show up there, and LOTS of Live players do this.  This then also skews the friend list connections a lot, since the same people link to their friends and their other accounts twice.  Then again, who cares about the number of friend list connections?  What really matters is how many people have played and how many are playing right now - and by that I mean people, not accounts.  Microsoft has been very disappointed with their Xbox Live subscription sales.  Great online gaming service?  Yes.  MUCH better than what is out there for PS2 or GameCube no doubt...  but still not close to what they hoped for, especially considering those stats have had four years to compile.

Take World of Warcraft, for example.  The game has been out for only a fraction of the time Xbox Live has been, yet it has gained over 3 million users and has certainly compiled FAR more hours of game time.

[yap]

Did anyone see this?  From http://www.spong.com :

First up is an update on the sleeper hit (arguably sleeping monster) that is Animal Crossing: Wild World for Nintendo DS. NCL revealed that there are already 400,000 outstanding pre-orders for the game in Japan alone, with around 600,000 forecasted before the game goes on sale next Wednesday. Nintendo expects the game to shift around a million copies in the first few weeks on sale. This is big, folks; as big as a small game can get.

That's pretty huge.  I'm wondering how the PSP can possibly play catch-up to the threat of big-selling DS games that are now on the market.