"Mario Kart DS": The Characters and Karts Quiz

Answer: Heavy

Obviously, Bowser is in the heavyweight category. His three karts are the Standard-BW, the Tyrant and the Hurricane. The Tyrant is his heaviest, with the best items, having full weight when used by Bowser or R.O.B. The Hurricane is his lighter kart, although it is still rather heavy.

It has low items but good stats compared to the Tyrant. Bowser has the joint-highest speed (with R.O.B.), but the lowest acceleration and handling. His drift is quite good, the Hurricane being able to drift round the spiral at the end of Airship Fortress in one go (not that it helps).

There are three tracks dedicated to Bowser: Bowser Castle, Bowser Castle 2 (from "Mario Kart: Super Circuit") and Airship Fortress.

Answer: Poltergust 4000

Based off the Poltergust 3000 that E. Gadd gives to Luigi in "Luigi's Mansion", the Poltergust 4000 has low items, meaning that it has the better stats of Luigi's three karts. Luigi's other karts are the Standard-LG and the Streamliner, a blue car with white stripes. Luigi has a good speed with a high acceleration and handling.

His drift is horrible, but that keeps him in better control. If you've ever tried Moo Moo Farm with one of Daisy's karts, you'll know what I mean. Luigi happens to be a medium character. Luigi's three tracks are Luigi's Mansion and the two Luigi Circuits (one from "Mario Kart: Double Dash" and the other from "Mario Kart: Super Circuit").

Answer: Yoshi

Yoshi's Cucumber looks exactly as it sounds, albeit the wheels. It is Yoshi's heavier kart. Yoshi's other two karts are the Standard-YS and the Egg1. Yoshi has an exceptional grip, with one of the highest acceleration and handling stats in the game. His drift and speed are rather low, but you can't have everything, can you? The Egg1 has the lowest weight in the game, even lighter than the Dry Bomber, belonging to Dry Bones. Yoshi has two tracks dedicated to him: The Yoshi Falls and the Yoshi Circuit (from "Mario Kart: Double Dash").

Answer: Waluigi

Toad is a light character, and the other three are mediums (together with Luigi). Daisy is the lightest medium, Luigi and Mario are the same weight and Waluigi is quite heavy, but not enough for the heavy class. His three karts, the Gold Mantis, the Standard-WL and the Zipper, are all pretty all-round karts.

The Gold Mantis is lighter with worse items, but is faster and handles better. The Zipper is heavier with better items. Waluigi Pinball is dedicated to him.

Answer: False

Despite the weight class, many of the light character's karts are heavier than the medium character's karts. For example, Peach's Royale is heavier than Mario's Shooting Star, and even Dry Bones' Banisher is heavier than Daisy's Light Dancer. However, if you compare two karts of the same type (out of heavier, standard and lighter), mediums are heavier.

Answer: Yellow

As with all "Mario Kart" games featuring Donkey Kong, his standard kart is yellow. As one of the heavy characters, his other two karts are the Rambi Rider and Wildlife. His Rambi Rider is huge, with a rhino's head, whilst the Wildlife is a tiny, green safari car with a flag. Like Bowser, DK's speed and drift are high, with bad acceleration and handling. He has DK Pass dedicated to him.

Answer: B Dasher

Every heavier kart has full items, so obviously the B Dasher's highest stat is items. The acceleration is the next highest, with a close third from drift. Almost all of Mario's stats are all-round on his Standard-MR, B Dasher and Shooting Star. His three dedicated tracks are: Figure-8 Circuit, Mario Circuit and Mario Circuit 1, which was taken from "Super Mario Kart".

Answer: Standard-TD

Every standard kart only uses consonants as their two letter suffix. These are the two letters that make up most of the name, such as DK for Donkey Kong or PC for Peach. Toad's acceleration is very good, and his handling and drift are also good enough.

His karts are the Standard-TD, Mushmellow and 4-Wheel Cradle. His dedicated tracks are Shroom Ridge and the Mushroom Bridge from "Mario Kart: Double Dash".

Answer: True

Wario Stadium is a mixture of Wario Colosseum and Waluigi Stadium from earlier games, and is also incredibly long. Wario himself is fast and heavy, but bad on everything else. His three karts are the Brute, Standard-WR and Dragonfly.

Answer: Donkey Kong

Surprisingly, Donkey Kong is lighter than Wario in this game. It must be a bit embarrassing for Wario, being heavier than a gorilla. Every heavy character has high speed and weight, and the first three have low acceleration and handling. Similarly, all light characters have low speed and high acceleration and handling.

Answer: Complete 50cc Retro Grand Prix (Lightning Cup)

In my opinion, Daisy is a terrible character to try and unlock. Although Nintendo may have meant her to be a better version of Peach, Peach has a better acceleration and can actually handle without bumping into every obstacle in the area. Bar Bowser, Daisy's Power Flower has the worst handling in the game, as well as the second-highest drift, making her uncontrollable.

Her other karts are the Standard-DS and Light Dancer.

Answer: ROB-LGS

The ROB-LGS is a seldom seen bike from real life, and is the heavier of R.O.B.'s karts. The ROB-BLS is a copy of a kit for a game, "Stack-Up", which was one of the games intended for R.O.B., the game console. R.O.B. is arguably the best character in the game, having top speed, good acceleration, good handling and a heavy weight.

It has the lowest drift, which keeps it in control, although hinders it in several places, such as Airship Fortress and Waluigi Pinball.

Answer: Light Tripper

The Light Tripper, Standard-PC and Royale make up Peach's set of karts. Like the other light characters, she has a low speed with a good acceleration. However, her handling is quite bad, and her drift is top-class. She is a little difficult to control (certainly compared to, say, Yoshi or Dry Bones) but has enough handling to pull her away from collisions. Dedicated to her are Peach Circuit and Peach Gardens.

Answer: A head

Definitely my favourite character, Dry Bones has the lowest speed, the lowest weight and a bad drift. Not good? Well, Dry Bones also has the highest acceleration AND handling in the game, with the Dry Bomber being full on both, and the Standard-DB and Banisher not far off.

In fact, he is a rival to R.O.B. for the most useful character in the game. He also has the highest power-slide turbo boost in the game, with a close second from Yoshi. What's more, a low drift with a high acceleration and handling is perfect for "snaking".

This is when one can start drifting on a stretch of straight track, set off sparks, and then repeat in the other direction (left to right, right to left) while the turbo boost is still happening. It's less complicated than it sounds. Dry Bones is the perfect character for this, and if done well enough, he can complete Figure-8 Circuit on the Time Trials in around 84 seconds, 28 per lap, whereas the Staff Expert Data takes 95 seconds. Also, Banshee Boardwalk (which is dedicated to Dry Bones, by the way) can be completed in less than 2 minutes, although I've yet to manage that (I was 39 milliseconds off once). That would be 15 seconds ahead of the Staff Experts. EDIT: Woohoo! Banshee Boardwalk in 1:59:279! (Sorry for sounding like a nerd ¬¬)

Answer: 4-Wheel Cradle, Power Flower, Wildlife and Dry Bomber

Four extra karts from other characters are available after beating 100cc Nitro Grand Prix. Peach receives the 4-Wheel Cradle, an all-round but slow kart, the Power Flower, an average kart with an impossible handling, the Wildlife, a fast but small kart, and the Dry Bomber, which is completely overpowered in ability, despite being slow.

The ROB-LGS, Light Dancer, Rambi Rider and Brute are the extra karts if Bowser and the Egg1, Streamliner, Hurricane and B Dasher are given to R.O.B. (I might be wrong here; mail me if I am). No-one has the last set, especially as the Death Cheese doesn't exist.