Video: Mario Kart DS Skids Onto Wii U Virtual Console

I played the heck out of this game. I remember being impressed how great the game looked at the time, it felt like having a game whose graphics were as good as consoles in the palm of my hand.

To anyone in Europe who has this, how is it. Us Americans got Yoshi's Island DS. I'm guessing this game has to be played with the Wii U gamepad?

Bit gutted that I bought the cart for this 2 days before the reveal!! I'm really skint and always had people telling me how good this game was so got it despite not really being into handhelds. I'd much rather play on my Wii u so want to start it on that now.....when I can afford.....NEXT month =(

I assume there is no multiplayer, is that correct?

In Mario Kart DS I really liked that you were able to make your own emblems, and I wish they would bring back mission modes in the newer Mario karts. I have the original so I will not be buying this on my Wii U.

Without the multiplayer, it seems a bit pointless releasing this.
I think an rpg would of sold better...

Is it confirmed that there's no multiplayer at all?

Kinda weird seeing DS games on the Virtual Console. Way to make me feel old Nintendo!

Looks terrible to be honest. Doesn't make me keen to get it. But good for the fans

@leo13 If you watch the video, you'll see me failing to get online. You can access the DS's online connections menu, but it doesn't allow you to add a connection. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection was shut down a while ago as well.

Dry Bones + Snaking = Instant Purchase.

This is like 90s music being considered classic rock.

If only the Wii U emulated DS games like PC.

@Sonicfan11589 you can play it with a classic controller.

This game is alright, the display options are OK but you can't customise the gamepad controls so ZR is always "VC Menu" when it is much nicer to play with ZR for drifting. To me it ruins the whole off-tv feature of this game. Hope they can update this.

Ugh, not giving the DS VC games local multiplayer was such a missed opportunity, especially since they were launching with a Mariokart game. I find it hard to believe that they'll put a Mariokart game on VC with absolutely no multiplayer options, yet they won't put any main series Pokemon games on VC. Pokemon might have a huge emphasis on the multiplayer aspects but there's a much stronger single player experience there than in Mariokart.

Why not put Metroid Prime Hunters on VC? Huh, anyone?

Pointless without multiplayer. Why didn't they at least release this on the 3DS eShop instead, since the 3DS can actually do DS download play? Fail, fail, fail.

@ToastyYogurt

Gamefreak is run independently, and although i'm not a Pokemon fan iirc the decision not to put Pokemon games on VC was a Gamefreak decision and not Nintendo's.

@LeeGarbutt I don't think anyone was expecting online, and you did mention the lack of download multiplayer, but what about local where everyone has the DS cart? I'm sure the manual would definitively state no connectivity if it were not possible.

@LucasOne I'm afraid not!

@DarthKirby64 I don't have a physical copy of Mario Kart DS to test, but I think it's highly unlikely, considering Download Play doesn't work at all. When loading this VC release, you do get a message stating some features won't work as intended.

@FilmerNgameR
I am a huge fan of Metroid Prime Hunters. I wouldn't mind a remake of the multiplayer for 3DS.

@Nintenjoe64 Oh really u can use the Wii U Pro Controller? I tried to play Yoshi's Island DS with it but couldn't.

@FilmerNgameR I didn't even figure that. Yes definitely. I had a hard time liking the game because of the controls.

@Sonicfan11589 I'm not 100% sure now. I thought I did but I was so annoyed about having to use R instead of ZR I might be confusing using the classic controller with M64 or DK64.

Should have had a button to switch screens on gamepad without having to go to the menu.

@LeeGarbutt I have a DS copy and that was one of the first things I tested. I can confirm that it doesn't work like that either, unfortunately.

MKDS online was shut down a year ago
+
MKDS was released on WiiU yesterday
=
WHY isn't there online in it? You've had a year to figure out a new way to get online into the game! Asking people to pay for it when the game is a gimped version of the original removes any reason to buy.

MKDS was THE BEST in the series at Kart interactions. I loved bouncing into and off of the other Karts. Still a great game for local Multiplayer. I can't fathom how they could release the game knowing about online not being there and NOT fix the problem.
Shame!

I wouldn't have expected online. VC games have always been ROM dumps, they don't do any updates to the code. It's why it's frustrating watching how slowly the games roll out when there's no work involved at all.

@Sonicfan11589 It hasn't.

@Nintenjoe64 I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes to remap L/R to ZL and ZR! I agree it's a real pain the controls can't be customised. I wouldnt mind being able to remap B/A to Y/B too...

I'm not surprised at all that the online mode doesn't work as I would be surprised if they reactivated it for this one game. At the same time, I'm really disappointed that Nintendo is not taking advantage of the Wii U's built-in capability to communicate wireless with the 3DS to at least give owners of that system the ability to play multiplayer with the system. It seems like a no-brainer for this type of game. If they're not going to invest in the little bit of effort it would have taken to enable that feature, why even release a Mario Kart title at all?

If they would had made a DS Player for Wii U instead of just releasing digital rom games, we would had local multiplayer just like Game Boy Player for GameCube.

Question. Is online play in Mario Kart DS active?

No multiplayer (online and local) really makes Mario Kart DS not that appealing on the Wii U. I still have my cart, so I'll probably pass unless it gets a huge discount.

I may bite on WarioWare: Touched!!, Super Mario 64 DS, 999, and the Kingdom Hearts games if all of them appear.

@ColdingLight No. It says so in the video, and there's no way to even find a 'wireless access point'.

"So many ways to play"? Don't make me laugh. It only lets you use the gamepad, never mind that MKDS doesn't even use touch controls...

@Peach64 I couldn't agree more.

I'm happy with MK 7&8, so I'll have to pass on this.

honestly. while the vc is a fine job, here's what should've been done.
wii u: nes,snes, n64 and gamecube announced at direct.
3ds:game boy,gbc,gba.
wii and ds vc for next gen consoles

It's whatever that this was released on the Wii U, but why the HELL would they not release DS games on the 3DS? Is it just because the 3DS can still play DS games? I don't get it.

Worth the 4.50 I paid for it. So was WarioWare Touched. Donkey Kong 64 is worth 9 and I had already downloaded Super Mario 64 on Wii. If there wasn't the deal on, I wouldn't have gotten Mario Kart DS. Just not worth it. I already own it on cartridge.

I will hesitate to download any more DS games though. Most aren't worth 9 and you can get them cheaper on cartridge. The addition of save states and suspended gameplay are very welcome. They make all the difference. I just think they're a little too expensive. Should have been 7.50 IMO.

They should let the DS Virtual Console render 3D games at 1080p before outputting instead of up-scalling the original DS resolution, look at how much better this game could look if they did it the way emulators already can:
http://i.imgur.com/HxrSvaI.png

@EonCow That would've been the perfect lineup.

@Kevlar44 Ah, that makes sense.

The fact that there's no multiplayer at all is absolutely ridiculous.

@Peach64 no there were some vc games they edited slightly

@Azikira
Me too. I would not want a DS upload on the Wii U. If they were to ever put it on Wii U, I'd rather have an HD remake of sorts, with online multiplayer.

As much as I love Mario Kard DS, I won't buy it without some sort of multiplayer option. I played that thing for hours online. Guess I'll only be buying Mario 64 and maybe Donkey Kong.

@bofis Wow, that looks really good!

And what??? No customizable controls??? Huh???

Didn't expect online... Would have been nice. They should have done SOMETHING for local multiplayer though... Ridiculous!!!!!

Of course America has to wait!! NOA!!

Only disappointment is the lack of online multiplayer and local multiplayer. Fingers crossed on updates fixing this problem?

@BlackSpy MK online is so much fun. You should give the multiplayer a chance.

@joey302 Reggie is on top of things as usual.

@iphys I know it's baffling, VC Nintendo DS games should be on 3DS. Local multiplayer, better screen resolution, it just makes the most since.

I don't see why they couldn't incorporate DS Download Play into this title. That would have made all the difference in cementing it as a must have game for the system. I just don't see much of a point to having this on the Wii U purely for single player when there are far superior options available for the system (i.e. Mario Kart 8 and Wii).

It's nice to have them available on Wii U for those who want them, but really, DS games should be cross-platform and cross-buy at launch. The 3DS already has the DS hardware built into it so there would be no emulation required at all. This would of course come at the expense of restore points as the game is being run on native hardware but I hardly see that as a detrimental omission. I wouldn't mind double dipping and having my DS library on my 3DS if the price is right.

hi

Nintendo does all wrong.

Those customization options look fantastic. I just hope they release some of the DS games I really want.

I loooved MKDS back when it came out. First game I ever played online.

So it's cool people get to play it on Wii U but... no online, and no multiplayer period. That's pretty rough. That takes a really huge portion of the game out

No multiplayer in this version of Mario Kart DS whatsoever? Come on guys, really? I'm happy to see more VC, but they can be so lazy with it...

If I want multiplayer, I'll play Mario Kart 8. I'll probably be picking this up soon but I have to remember to save money for when Bowser's Inside Story arrives.

I will be skipping this. I have the DS card so this is useless to me, especially with the lack of multiplayer. If they worked hard enough, they could have implemented multiplayer somehow.

On another note, this means that the only Mario Kart games not playable on Wii U are Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (not excusable, add GCN games already) and Mario Kart 7 (extremely understandable).

This is definitely a great game, the single player probably has the most content of any Mario Kart games to date with all the missions, so I honestly don't even mind that the online multiplayer is absent, especially considering how limited it was in terms of course selection. I only wish GBA and DS games were available on both the Wii U and 3DS eShops.

@Yellowtails I have been saying the same exact thing ever since GBA games were first announced for Wii U. I can definitely understand single player action and RPG's on the system but why release multiplayer-centric GBA/DS games on the Wii U and not work around to implementing some form of local/online multiplayer?

Even if they WERE released on the 3DS, I doubt they would retain the multiplayer features, especially not the GBA games as was proven with MKAC for the ambassadors. At least they had the good sense to finally start releasing N64 games to the service. I just hope that they release a few more than 20 in total and a few that they didn't already have on Wii's VC. (DK64 is a very good sign, but they have a long way to go to impress me.)

@FLUX_CAPACITOR Yoshi's Island DS is not the same game as the SNES/GBA game, it is the sequel to it.

I might buy this because of no multiplayer already have the DS card...

down with MP~!

I played this game more than any Mario Kart ever.

@Sonicfan11589 ikr. I kept getting cramps from playing on my small DS. Not cool Nintendo.

@Azikira That would be sick!

@FilmerNgameR Haha thank you!

@Azikira np