Mario Kart DS

Oooh, just saw a TV ad for Mario Kart on the DS. I didn't even know it was out.

Anyone got it and is it any good? I guess you can play multiplayer, wirelessly? *drool*

I don't have a DS and can't afford one but I've got a love of Mario Kart that could at least make me want a DS. :)

/me goes off to do some Googling...

It's great ... I love online play. It's a good combo of all the previous Mario Karts. Only bummer is that you can't play anything but racing online.

Owned the game for a week, already beat it on all difficulties & unlocked everything, that itself should say enough as to how much I love it.

Been working on my online score right now, currently 20-wins to 10-losses, would be alot more if the game didn't tally them up at the "end" of the grand-prix run, most people I play against usually quit on the last round if they know they're going to lose.

My friend-code be in my sig. if anyone wants to add me to their list.

Only problem I can see with the game is in that GCN level, forget its name, the one with vehicles, in Double Dash, when you hit the bridge porton of the map you could ride up it if yer careful and hit a few boost pads along it, in this "port" of it, it's all fenced off, which was a downer to me, as it required some skill to stay on them railings. I only take it they blocked it off was to keep the frame-rate silky smooth (game never chops up for me unless I get in a heated 8-player battle-mode with my sis & CPU AI) as it would have to draw quite a lot more polys from on top of it.



Single-cart play with limited level selection (8 racing maps, 4 battle maps I think), the people who play without cartridge are forced to play as a Shyguy, while those who do get to choose their own character, multi-cart with everything accessible, and 4-player online play on racing maps only.

Although the online play is super simple to setup, it's a bit "too" simple for my tastes, although it works well, the game automatically matches you up against other players, and you cant mix people from your friends list and strangers to my knowledge. Would have been real nice if all the friend-list info and what not was saved on the NintendoWifi server so I wouldnt have to create a new one for each Wifi-enabled game I buy.

Something like being able to host & have people join would have been nice, so I could at least boot those I know who quit when losing. Not to mention voice-messages or a means of text input between races.

Sounds good. Is the kart handling as good as it should be? That's the most important thing. :)

It handles excellently, everything just feels "right" to me when power-sliding along corners working up my boost. Even the camera work is done perfectly, still unsure as to whether or not this is better then the original thing, but right now I can say it quite possibly could be.

Not to mention each of the 36 Karts have different levels in their stats (Speed, Acceleration, Drifting, Weight, etc), and you will see the difference when trying out carts geared towards Speed>Accel, then say a Drifting & Accelerating machine.

Now that I think of it, the only thing I could really ask for aside from making online play have more functionality, is to add more Retro maps, I'm hungry for more, 16 aint enough. ><
(The retro grand prixs consist of maps from all previous Mario Kart games, the ported mode7-maps still look great even though they're mainly just flat maps with 3d-blockborders)

[EDIT] Damn, didn't think there were that Mario Kart owners with access to a wireless hot-spot : http://ds.ign.com/articles/668/668709p1.html

I myself purchased a wireless router, a LinkSys WRT54G (thankfully it works flawlessly with my DS as I didnt print-off the list beforehand that Eikon mentioned) when I bought the game just to try it out, will eventually upgrade my whole LAN system though to rid of all these damn wires.

I plan on picking this one up, but I want to get a wireless network in place first. You can find a list of compatible routers here

http://www.nintendowifi.com/customersupport/supportedRouters.do

There's a USB adapter available from Nintendo's site for $35, which is a little steep in my opinion.

We'll have to play a game whenever I get things working, Genexi :)

Mmmm, this is all sounding too good. I wanna play! :(

I have a wireless router already but don't know if it'd be compatible. Anyway, judging from Eikon's link, wifi isn't online in the UK yet!?

I still wanna play! :)

So how does it work then? Do you buy mario kart and then you can just connect automatically, is it free?

Or do you need to buy this router that you're talking about.

To play online you need to buy a router or the nintendo wifi usb thing first.

That doesn't sound very portable.

They also have a growing selection of official Wi-Fi hotspots, and a few other ways that may or may not work to get some others going.

A bit of a shame about not being able to easily play against friends, but it's actually kind of a good thing. Anonymous multiplayer is quite fun, and it usually ends up being more trouble than it's worth to arrange online multiplayer games with friends... even when it's made easy.

Here in the USA, a LOT of the McDonalds will soon be providing free WiFi access for Nintendo DS

Here I can find Wi Fi hotspots everywhere ... I sat in my truck and played on the street in a random neighborhood where there were about 3 unlocked Wi Fi signals. I was playing Mario Kart online and browsing the net from my PSP ... it just doesn't get better than that!

WAR driving with your PSP... Not a bad idea.

I don't get it. Are these wi-fi hotspots other peaoples' private networks that you're sneakily using, or are they public access points. If so, who provides and pays for them? Sorry for my ignorance. :P

Could be in his case, just people using a wireless router without some form of WEP encryption I take it.



There are set wireless hot-spots around the world, alot of them seemingly in places like colleges/universities, those PC Cafe, McDonalds (soon), and etc. As for who pays, depends if those places charge you for access to it or not.

Dont know how you can stand surfing on your PSP Jeremy, just updated my PSP to 2.0 yesterday (using a new exploit to run my home-brew programs >.> ), and that system takes forever to process web-pages that are built around the use of images in their layout. Btw, do you know how to make the system save its cookies?
(gettin used to it's input panel, 3-5 WPM here be my average =\)

Yeah I'm using wireless routers that are unprotected. Most people just leave them open. I also use hotspots at restaurants etc... I've yet to go anywhere in the past few weeks where I can't find one. And yes, the PSP is a pain to type and surf with ... but it works!

Wow. I can't believe some people don't encript their wireless routers.

I don't encrypt my wireless router... I lost the password a couple of house moves ago and the "reset to factory default" button doesn't actually do anything.

... but then again I am competing with the seven other wireless networks that sprung up around me when University term started, so it's no biggie !

if its a linksys, hold it in for 60 seconds- it will reset twice, then the third will take a bit longer. Voila- password reset to ADMIN.

Genexi: I added your friend code. Mine is: 249168-150319

We probably won't end up playing though, as I don't have a wireless router. I know a few coffe shops that do though. Maybe I should walk around my neighborhood and see if I can pick up anything on my DS :)

It varies on where you are located, but according to some studies a full 3/4 of them aren't protected.

Keep in mind, your 'average' computer user simply goes to bestbuy, grabs a cheap wireless router from a shelve, goes home, plugs it in, and find it 'magically' works so they won't spend the extra 5 minutes to to change any of the default configuration settings.

Pretty much all wireless routers default to 'open for all', so they can sell their devices as 'easy to use', 'installs in minutes'. It also saves a lot of money on tech support calls from people that otherwise wouldn't be able to figure out how to use their new shiney thing, and prevents them from returning it to the store for a different brand that does 'work'.

If said 'easy' router is wide open leaving the bandwidth ot the unsuspecting owner to be (ab)used, that's not really the hardware manufaturers problem, after all.

Can someone tell me how wireless routers work? I'm thinking of getting one.
Does the router need to be connected to a computer to work? Or can I somehow plug it in to an outlet and internet connection and have all the computers in my house connected?
It's a one time payment right? Or do I have to pay some kind of subscription?
Are there router brands that are better than others(longer range and such)?
Do I replace my black TeraPro router thing with the wireless one?
What about hardware firewalls, how does the wireless router connect with it?
Does having a wireless router slow internet at all?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm curious :)

Wireless router is pretty much the same as a wired router, except with the added benefits of being able to send/receive connections wirelessly.

Mine has 4 ports in it for wired stuff which I currently use for my PCs, as to use my PCs with it wirelessly I'd have to purchase new ethernet cards for them....and those things cost quite a bit for my budget.

As for fees, only fee involved is buying the router itself, and new ethernet/lan cards if you want your PCs to interact with it wirelessly.

The hardware firewall is pretty much dependent on the router, my LinkSys WRT54G has the standard options you'd get like on other routers, like blocking out anonymous packet requests and so forth.

As for slowing the internet down at all, depends if you set it up correctly, because as mentioned above, if you dont set an encryption key (I use a 64bit WEP key on mine, which works with both my DS & PSP), nearby users can just hook-up with it and possibly slow down your bandwidth. Other then that, cant see any problems speed-wise connecting to the internet, unless your connection exceeds the wireless throughput of the router, or there is some wireless inteference from other obstacles
("B" routers do 2mbps I believe, while "G" go up to 54mbps)


Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Thanks for the info.

I finally got gold on all the grand prix's on all classes (including mirror) and unlocked all the characters and karts, and I got a star or higher on all the challenges (including the 7th). The only thing left to do is unlock all of the staff ghosts. :(

Staff ghosts, easy to unlock, hard as freaking hell to beat using a kart other then the ones they selected......for some reason though I find myself boosting via power slides alot more often then they do.

Easy to unlock eh?? I try my best to beat the tracks as fast as possible (in time trials) yet I can't seem to unlock anything..

Actually, 802.11b can communicate at 11Mbit when there is a good strong signal, falls back to 5.5MBit when 11Mbit is not reliable, and only goes down to 2Mbit when 5.5 won't work either. So if you mainly care about communicating with the internet and not so much ultra-highspeed LAN connections, 802.11B will be all anyone really needs.

Standard G goes up to 54MBit, but there are also some dual-channel models that can communicate over two seperate 54MBit channels simultaneously, giving you 108MBit usable bandwidth if your network adapters also support this.

Finally there is 802.11N, which has not yet been finalized. The IEEE is working on some proposed protocols for this, and apparently two different ones are currently in the running. The expected maximum speed of 802.11N is between 100MBit and 540Mbit/second, depending on implementation.
Since this is still in the design phase, you cannot buy 802.11N equipment yet, although some routers are sold as "Pre-N" which means that they should be software upgradable (reflash the firmware) to support the 802.11N standard once it has been finalized.

Luckily, my ISP provided me with my wireless router/modem so all the security settings were done for me. They make the installation pretty much idiot-proof. :)

- So they enabled encryption and gave you the passphrase needed for your laptop(s) to connect to it?

If not, then you're wide open.

- If they did give you a passphrase: does it look very 'simple'?

If so, then they likely used the same for all their customers, and you're pretty much wide open to all their other customers and their extended families and friends.

- They also hard-coded the MAC addresses of your computer(s) so noone but your own 'pre-authorized'' devices can connect to it?

If not, then you're half open.

- If they they enable encryption for you, did they set the highest encryption level?

There are several levels of encryption, and especially the lower ones are trivial to break through. Always set the highest strength. Did your ISP do that for you? Surprisingly many won't because it means a longer 'harder to remember' password which leads to more support calls for them.

In my experience, most ISP's that pre-configure a wireless modem/router only set up the basics such as the DNS information, and possible the internet username/password authentication settings. They wouldn't touch the encryption or MAC address lists. without those, your modem is pretty much a free-for-all.

It can be dangerous to assume you're safe. It only takes a couple of minutes to do it right, and can safe you a lot of problems along the line. You won't mysteriously lose the majority of your bandwidth to the kid next door so he can download the latest movies and illegal software from the internet all day long. Apart from slowing down your connection, it also means that when 'they' come knocking down a door, it will be your door.

The modem/router I have is actually manufactured specifically for my ISP - it's not one you can buy in the shops. It uses WEP security on the highest level, as standard.

Unfortunately, WEP, even at 128 bit, is pretty much pointless. At an ISSA conference, an FBI guest speaker demonstrated that a 128-bit WEP encryption key can be broken in just a couple of minutes with off-the-shelve software. (Google is your friend if you want more information)

WEP was shown to be insufficient pretty much right after it first hit the market, and the industry has been playing catch-up ever since. Currently there are two newer protocols, WPA and WPA2, that are significantly better, but you still need a 'good' long password for it to be most effective.

That said, WEP is still better than nothing at all, but don't assume noone can piggy-back over your connection 'just' because you have WEP enabled. Of course, given that ~70% of the wireless routers are *completely* open, its much more likely that someone would (ab)use those before trying to break your WEP instead.

Hmm, I admit I don't know much about these things but looking at my wireless connection app, it says "WPA security", so that sounds good. ;) Also, any machine connecting to my modem/router needs to know the MAC number.

I'm all wireless now :)
I can't connect to it through my DS though. I have it set as 64 bit, I put the right key and name into my DS, but it won't work. :(