Mario Kart has arrived on the DS, and judging by the reviews, it may go down as the best one yet. More importantly, it marks Nintendo's first real step into the world of online gaming. Now, I don't think Nintendo is anywhere near ready to challenge Microsoft's grip on this particular market, but already their setup is a lot better than Sony's "yeah, do what you want, just leave us out of it" plan. And of course, the best part is the price (free). I'm not trying to come off as a Nintendo shill here, because they damn sure have a lot of making up to do after the GBA Connector and the lamentable e-reader. But the reason I haven't had any desire to take my Xbox live (well, one of them...) is the category of games - namely, endless shooters, RPGs and Madden, genres I'm not particularly crazy about. But give me the opportunity to wirelessly ram a red shell up the exhaust pipe of someone from Buttfuck, MO from the comfort of my own toilet? I'm totally there.
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Here's how it works: Once you get connected, you register a name and pixely little MSPaint-ish icon drawn using your stylus with the Wifi service, and then you get a friend code. You can challenge in four different groups: Regional, Worldwide, Rivals & Friends. The first two are self-explanatory, Rivals gives you opponents with similar records (theoretically), and Friends lets you play anyone whose friend code you've added, as long as they're also on and have added you, obviously. It's not a perfect system by any stretch, but for a free first time, it gets the job done. With that said...
Now you have the ability to challenge Polas himself in a kart race to end all kart races. All you need to do is add me
and then send me your friend code, and I'll add you in return. Use this handy form to send it to me:
And you're done. I look forward to kicking you all the way up Choco Mountain and back down into the pits of Bowser's Castle.
...from the toilet.
