The Nintendo DS is a brilliant platform; it’s got its limitations, but its design is perfect for some types of games, in particular racing games. Its handheld design makes it a natural choice and the genre doesn’t overstretch the DS’s limitations.

Mario is one of the most successful video game franchises ever, so making a racing game featuring the worlds most famous plumber seems like a natural thing to do, and Mario Kart doesn’t disappoint; it’s one of the most perfect, complete games ever.

Mario Kart made its debut on the Super NES in the ’90s, being updated over the years and featuring on just about every single Nintendo platform.

On the DS, it takes the form of a standard racing title, not too complex with simple controls, but adds in all of the classic Mario themes. You can pick up boxes which contain special items to give you boosts; koopa shells to throw at other racers, bombs, boos, mushrooms: classic Mario.

There’s a good mix of courses to race on, from actual racetracks to places like Bowser’s Castle and Luigi’s Mansion, you get to race in plenty of familiar Mario environments such as snow, desert, and beaches with enemies like Goombas and Pokeys making appearances to try and knock you out.

All the characters you would expect are here: Mario (obviously), Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Dry Bones and Nintendo’s R.O.B. robot. Each character has three karts to choose from and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses as racers, with their own characteristics that affect things like speed and handling and even the items they pick up.

There are three major kart classes which can be divided roughly by weight.

Heavy: Bowser, DK, Wario, and R.O.B. are in this category. They’re fast but have slow acceleration with their handling being a bit more unresponsive, but their big plus is that their weight stops them being pushed around by other racers.

Medium: Mario, Luigi, Waluigi, and Yoshi. These are the best of both worlds; average speed, acceleration, handling, and weight means they’re pretty good at most things but can be beaten at both ends of the scale by some karts in the other weight classes.

Light: Peach, Daisy, Dry Bones, and Toad. Their biggest plus is their acceleration which is the best of any kart. They can quickly take the lead on tracks with lots of corners and bends and recover quicker if knocked out. Unfortunately their light weight means they can easily be pushed around by heavy karts like Bowser and often end up being knocked off the edge on courses like Rainbow Road.

Pick of the bunch? 12 characters, 36 karts, which is the best? Out of all of them, on a mix of tracks with an assortment of different characters and difficulties, my favourite kart is Yoshi in his Egg 1. It’s not the fastest kart, not the best handling, not the quickest at accelerating, and it does take a bit of work to stay in the lead, but it’s the kart that strikes the best balance between them all, in my opinion. If there’s a big fault though, it’s with items. Mostly it’s banana skins, if you end up last you struggle to get any real boosts and can end up stuck in second place without getting anything good to chuck at your opponents.

The fun doesn’t stop at plain racing with Mario Kart, there’s plenty more to do. One of the best things about the game is its battle mode. You play against other racers in one of the two battles, Shine Runners or Balloon Battle.

In Shine Runners you race to get as many Shines as you can. When the time runs out, the players with the least Shines are knocked out, any players who have the same number of Shines stay in the game for another round, and so on until only one remains and is declared winner.

Balloon Battle is hugely entertaining. You’re given five balloons and do battle against seven other balloon-carrying opponents, using shells, bananas, etc to burst their balloons and knock them out of the race. You can use mushrooms to steal balloons off other players, but if all the balloons you have blown up are burst, you lose!

All in all, Mario Kart’s one of the most complete, fun, perfect games for DS you can buy. It’s a great Mario game and a great addition to the handheld racing genre; it’s unsurprising it’s the third best-selling game on the platform!