Source - Eurogamer

But let's start with the basics and the stuff that will be familiar to Mario Kart Fans. For single players, there's a Grand Prix with four classes - 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and the unlockable 150cc "mirror" class, where tracks are reversed. Then there are eight familiar characters to choose from, with more to unlock (such as Waluigi, Princess Daisy and R.O.B.) as you progress.

It doesn't matter which character you choose, but it's important to get your kart selection right. As in Mario Kart Double Dash!!, stats for each kart's speed, acceleration, weight and so on are shown - but now there's also an "items" category. The higher the items stat, the better power-ups and weapons you're likely to get - but don't worry, the game's still finely tuned so that you'll get better power-ups the further behind you are and vice versa.

There are loads of karts to choose from, and you can also customise whichever one you select by designing your own emblem using a simple paint programme. Note that this is open to Pictochat-style abuse, especially since there are two different shades of pink.

Once your character and kart are sorted, it's time to choose your cup - say hello to our old friends Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special. These offer a total of 16 new tracks, many of which are based on old classics - it's good to see a new iteration of Rainbow Road that makes you feel just as sick as all the others.

Then there's the Retro Grand Prix, which also has four cups - Shell, Banana, Leaf and Lightning. Highlights include Mario Circuit 1 from the SNES game, Choco Mountain from the N64 and Sky Garden from the GBA. But whichever your favourite Mario Kart game, you're sure to find some of your favourite tracks here.

Turbo powered
So what of the actual gameplay? Well, lots of familiar elements are back - you can get a turbo boost by pressing accelerate at precisely the right moment during the countdown to the start of the race, for example. And just like in Mario Kart N64 and GC, you can get a boost by pressing the D-pad as you slide.

There's also a new slipstreaming feature. If you keep right up behind an opponent for long enough (you can tell if you're doing this correctly as little sparks will fly) you'll be rewarded with a burst of speed which will give you the power to zoom past them, laughing in their STUPID FACE.

During races the action takes place on the top screen, while a map is displayed on the touch screen. Helpfully, you can zoom in and out at any time by pressing the X and Y buttons - so you can get a general overview of how the race is progressing, or take a more detailed look to see just how much of a lead you've got.

The weapons and power-up system works just as it does in previous Mario Karts - you pick items up by running into boxes, and then they're displayed in a little box at the top of your screen. You can tag items like banana skins and shells to the back of your kart by pressing and holding the left shoulder button, protecting yourself from attacks in the process and leaving you free to pick up another object.

As well as familiar items like trick boxes, lightning strikes and ghosts, there are new weapons such as the blooper - a flying squid that squirts ink all over the screen, making it hard to see where you're going and avoid obstacles. The touch screen map comes into play here as a useful navigational aid.

Then there's a bomb which you can lob ahead of you, where it will explode into a big fiery dome thing. But our favourite has to be the power-up that turns you into a giant bullet and sends you speeding round the track on auto pilot, taking out anyone who gets in your way. Hurrah!

Time for a change
Who says women aren't good drivers? Oh. She's in seventh.
If you fancy a change from Grand Prix mode, you might like to have a go at Time Trial. We've never much seen the point of racing round a track on your own with no weapons and no one to hit them with anyway, but things are made more interesting by the fact that you can save time trial ghosts and exchange them with other players wirelessly. Plus, if you reckon you're extra good, you can race against unlockable "staff ghosts". That should bring you back down to earth a bit.

Alternatively there's the Mission mode - there are six levels to work your way through here, each with eight missions and a boss stage to complete. Objectives are things like driving through a series of numbered gates, collecting a load of coins, racing round tracks backwards and so on. Do badly and you'll get a boring old letter grade, do well and you can earn up to three shiny gold stars.

It's all good fun, but not quite as much fun as the excellent Battle mode. There are two variations on this in Mario Kart DS, the first of which is Balloon Battle - and this time round there are a few twists.

For starters, you begin the battle with just one balloon attached to your kart instead of the traditional three. But fear not - look at the top right corner of the screen and you'll see that you've got a further four balloons in reserve.

So how do you attach them to your kart? Well, first of all you ...