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Karts are included in greater variety with this title. When racing, karts can be differentiated in terms of handling, drift, driver weight and even the unique ability of some karts to draw out better items.
In addition to drift, you'll also need to use opponent slip streams in order to achieve the fastest time. This was featured in previous titles, and makes it easy to turn the race around even without the use of items.
A few new details are also revealed on the game's Online mode.
The game will allow players to use a decal editor to design their own 32x32 decal and show it off to opponents. On the topic of friend lists,
Konno reveals that the DS will store up to 60 people in this list. Once you've played someone in a local WiFi match, he's automatically entered into your friend list, although you can exchange friend codes with distant players in order to manually build up your list as well.
Multiplayer play includes classic modes such as time attack and balloon battle, with the game allowing you to equip five balloons to your car. New for MKDS is the "Atsumete Shine" (Collect Shine) mode of play where players race to collect the most Shines (those star-like happy-faces from Mario Sunshine).
But Mario Kart DS isn't just about multiplayer play.
The game will feature a new Mission Run mode where players are given a specific kart and asked to perform tasks on the raceway. Missions include making your kart move through tire-shaped gates in order and using items to take out crabs in a free-roaming battle stage. Your goal is to beat pre-set times, and doing so earns you new karts.
Nintendo is packing the game with new elements. In addition to a reappearance of all old items, you'll have access to new items such as the Golden Mushroom, which allows you to use infinite dash for a short period. As for courses, in addition to a retro cup featuring classic courses that were selected by the developers, the game includes the Nitro Cup, featuring a set of new, short, challenging courses: Puku Puku Beach (filled with crabs that, if touched, make you spin out), Luigi's Mansion, Eight Cross Circuit (shaped like an 8) and Yoshi Falls (which is banked to make falling off the course easy).
