Hi everybody! Do you know what today is? Anybody? It's Friday! And do you know what that means? Well do ya? Don't be shy, it means today isn't Thurday! Which conclusively proves that even a brilliant professor, even the brilliant Professor Shiny himself no less, can make a mistake. On the plus side, if today were Thursday, I'd be leaving to walk to class right now. Maybe even five minutes ago. But it's Friday! So I leave in a little less than two hours.
I honestly don't know why I felt the need to share that. I actually intended to post about a game. On Tuesday I got Mario Kart DS. I have to play in bursts when I have 10 minutes here and there, but that's what it was designed to do, it feels like. Well, it really feels more geared to 15-minute sessions, but it works. The DS is quite possibly the best game console an adult can have, especially because of its portability. I had my dad try MKDS last night, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. The online aspect could use some work though. Getting wireless set up for it is unbelievably easy, connecting to Nintendo WIFI is painless, but actually having an online match is almost an exercise in futility. The game tells me it's searching for opponents, but then it just sits there and continues to tell me. Once in a while the indicator light next to a potential opponent's box will light up...then blink a few times, then die. The game has set up a four-player match for me successfully one time, and it still didn't happen because one guy dropped out in the first race. Most of the time it's a two-player affair, and even then half the time the opponent disconnects before the race starts, or after the first of the four prescribed races. And since the game's been out for a few months, and I've had it two days, the matches are pretty unbalanced. I've successfully held three or four matches, and in each instance I've managed only to have my ass handed to me.
It's not a bad game, not by any stretch. The single-player is incredible fun, and wireless matches with people I know would probably be a blast, if any of my friends had their own DS. And with practice, and patience, I'm sure I'll get to like the online game as well. But until then it's pretty frustrating.
Also the custom emblem editor needs to let you save multiple emblems. I slapped together a three-minute low-res version of "The Scream" for mine, and I'd like to try making more, but I don't want to lose what I have if the new ones don't turn out well.
