Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)
How to begin? Briefly – best version ever of the best racing game ever (even if you hate racing games, like me) on the best handheld ever. With wireless online multiplayer. This is an absolute triumph. It really is. There’s your four basic grand prix races – 16 tracks in total. Then there’s the retro grand pri – another 16, made up of some of the best tracks in the game’s long and noble history. All off which are available in 50cc, 100cc and 150cc classes. Then there’s missions. And time trials. And balloon fight. And unlockable cars and characters. And everything.
 
The online multiplayer mode lets you compete with four players from either a worldwide audience, a regional (i.e. country) audience, people in your friends list and rivals. Rivals is particularly good as it seems to select people who have very similar abilities to your own, making multiplayer fun and challenging in the wee small hours when your more sensible friends are safely tucked up in bed. It’s also remarkably child friendly (although I have seen a couple of slightly dubious emblems floating around – fortunately the colour palette is limited enough to make these non-realistic ;-)).
So far, I’ve completed everything in 50cc mode with really awful D/E ratings. Next I can go onto 100cc mode, then 150. Then I can start improving my ratings. Then there’s time trials. And so on. I can see I’m going to spend just as much time on the DS as I did on the SNES and N64. SUPARACEBEST.
