Hideki Konno, the producer of Mario Kart DS, recently revealed a few new details of this new Kart game in a recent interview. He first told us that the game will feature over 30 tracks for players to race on. About half of these tracks are new, while the rest are carefully selected favorites from past titles in the series. He also restated that up to 4 players can race together via Nintendo's wi-fi service which will be up later this year, and that up to 8 players can race via LAN (Local Area Network). However, we pretty much knew all of this information, so why don't we tell you what's new, hmmm?

Along with multiplayer racing, a battle mode was also confirmed for the game. However, a co-op mode which gamers have been asking for won't be present in the game as of now. Another new feature for the multiplayer is the ability for every racer to choose the same character (i.e. everyone could choose Mario but their would be obvious color differences, and it would display the players username above their racer). Another way to tell other racers apart, that was mentioned in the interview was the ability to create your very own designs or decals on your karts with the DS touch screen.

As for new items to the series, not much has been revealed as of yet. Konno explained that he wanted to use DS specific items for the game that will utilize the systems unique features. He told interviewers that ideas such as a baloon you could blow up with the DS microphone, then use as a weapon were defintely being considered. Fans of the SNES original will be excited to hear that the game developers are considering bringing back old items such as the feather, which allowed carts to jump.

As for actual racing the game, Konno promised that the AI for single player will be completely redone and will be a lot better at racing than in previous games. This could actually be better or worse for gamers depending on their skill level. He also told interviews that several touch screen extras will be implemented into the game. One such "extra" was the possible ability for players to control their kart using the touch screen. From what I've seen of controlling with the touch screen so far, I'm not sure if this will be very practical. Hopefully there'll be an option to control with the d-pad as well. The touch screen will also be used to display an in-game map if you please. Another touch screen feature was the ability to create decals for your karts, which was mentioned earlier.

This game is surely going to be the best in the series to most gamers. Keep your eyes on Ninformer.com for more information about this crazy kart racing game as it becomes available!