What you should know about Mario Kart DS

Nintendo's first experiment with online gaming is going to hit the shelves this Monday. But you should know that this is not gonna be an Xbox Live type of online gaming experience quite yet. And here's why:

MKDS's development had to be rushed in order to get the game ready for the holiday shopping season. Therefore many of the online features that I'm sure many of you have dreamed about will not be available. For example:

-Only 20 of the available 32 tracks will be playable

-Battle Mode will not be an option

-There is absolutely no way to communicate with other players during the race. Pictochat is disabled in the game. This is really bad considering that in order to add someone to your friends list, you have to have their "friend code" and they have to have yours. Therefore it is virtually impossible to add strangers you met in a race to your friends list.

-No specific match-ups. There is no way to pick a specific person on your friends list to race against. You race against whoever the game feels like pairing you up with.

-And more. For the rest of the details check out IGN's article which goes into great detail on the pros and cons of the game.

However, don't expect the same lack of playability from future games using Nintendo's Wi-Fi service. Because of the absence of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the holiday season, it was imperative that Nintendo push this title for release before the holidays. Regardless I'm going to get this game the first day it comes out and have a great time playing it I'm sure.