Mario Kart DS, Castlevania DS: New Vids!

Two different and brand new videos of Mario Kart DS from Paris, along with a host of other footage including Castlevania DS.

Last week's European Nintendo DS event held at the Le Meridien Montiparnasse hotel in Paris was a strong showing overall from Nintendo.

As well as announcing the price and date details (see our earlier story), the company was keen to emphasise Europe's importance in the global marketplace. Not only did global president Satoru Iwata make a personal appearance (see his full speech in our video here), but Nintendo also proved that it has quality time for Europe by choosing the event to fully unveil Mario Kart DS for the first time.

Nintendo's Satoru Iwata kicked off a live 8-player race

Towards the end of Thursday's press conference, NOE's Jim Merrick welcomed back onto the stage Satoru Iwata, NOE president Satoru Shibata, NOE Marketing's Marko Hein, and Sims creator Will Wright, along with four pre-selected games journalists in attendance at the generously-budgeted event. The eight players all connected using the DS's wireless feature, and fired up an eight-player race.

Although no direct feed was available - and none is likely to surface anywhere for a few days - as usual we were prepared for the goods with some shakycam action. We couldn't be bothered lugging our usual tripod around on the Eurostar, so this isn't perfect, but according to excited forum users, it's the best you can find anywhere at the moment.

Mario Kart DS was shown properly for the first time

In addition to Mario Kart DS's multiplayer video, which lasts several minutes, we've got even more footage of the potential killer-app in an additional line-up showreel video, which shows Princess Peach enthusiastically navigating a few powerslides.

And also featured in the first of our two showreel videos is Castlevania DS - giving some insight into how the anticipated touch-screen Konami adventure will turn out. The video also features other titles including, Yoshi's Touch & Go and Nintendogs.

Castlevania DS featured in one of two new showreels

Meanwhile, a second showreel video shows some familiar titles - this time being played by a bunch of pretty teenage girls enjoying the DS at their local London bus stop.

Jim Merrick mentioned that Mario Kart DS would ship "later this year" - so we can safely assume it'll be playable at E3 in May, before a release maybe some time in Q3/4.

Enjoy these high-res videos, and look forward to the first direct feed coverage of these major titles on Kikizo in the very near future. See the links below for our other coverage from Paris.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com

SEE ALSO...

• Satoru Iwata: Download Paris Speech Video
  
• DS Euro Launch Details from Paris
  
• Nintendo DS: The Verdict, Video Coverage
  
• Girls Aloud at the DS Paris Party!