We all knew that it had to happen sooner or later, with Nintendo's Mario Kart taking pole position in Kart-Racing games for many years now it's no surprise that Sega have finally seen fit to produce their very own mascot-based racer. The big question is though - does it size up against the almighty Mario Kart or just lag behind? Well the simple answer to that is neither really one or the other - for a more detailed analysis, read on...

Starting with the character roster which at first glance is admittedly very solid indeed - including the main staple characters from the Sonic series including the blue-blur himself (an ideal all-round starter). Other starting characters include Tails who's a little more difficult to control, and more interesting choices such as Ai-Ai, Billy Hatcher and even Samba! The rest are unlockable via the 'Sega Miles' that you accumulate over the course of the game...

The character roster may not be bad but there are some truly baffling choices that seem to be there for the sake of it. Big the Cat? If this was a fishing game then maybe I'd let it slide but it isn't it's a 'racing' title which is why the addition of Big is so questionable; the same can be said for 'Zombio' apparently from House of the Dead (although I never recall seeing any named zombies in those games) and Mobo from Bonanza Bros who just seems to be there to make up the numbers.

It's not all bad though because there are some decent choices that work such as Alex Kidd who rides around on his famous scooter, BD Joe from Crazy Taxi, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue who rides around on his motorbike in similar fashion to Shadow and last but not least we have Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone who has no need for a vehicle for he is a living, breathing spaceship and one of the best racers in the game in my opinion thanks to his unique control.

Because this is the DS version there are a few technical cutbacks in order to fit everything onto the DS card, thankfully though you are spared from having to see NiGHTS relegated to being the 'flag-person' which is only in the home console versions, seriously disappointing stuff Sega... (we all know NiGHTS could have worked well and would have easily replaced Big without anyone noticing the absence of that pathetic purple cat). Limitations include a lack of downloadable content which some of the other versions have and leader-boards which didn't appear to be functioning at this time of writing.

As for the rest of the game though there are a decent amount of tracks available with themes ranging from the Sonic inspired-ones (seemingly taken from Sonic Heroes for some baffling reason), Super Monkey Ball courses including one based on the minigame Monkey Target, three stunning tracks from the criminally underrated Billy Hatcher and two trios of tracks taken from House of the Dead and Jet Set Radio. While they all look rather nice and have some excellent set-pieces such as the ones set in a casino, some of the tracks have downright dastardly designs which should have been either rethought or just redesigned completely; fortunately this is limited to a handful so it won't hamper your enjoyment too much.

Onto the weapons which like the control scheme are near-enough copied across from Mario Kart as you have boxing gloves (green shells), homing rockets (red shells), rainbow (blooper ink), there are however some interesting additions such as the remote missile which you choose where it detonates and shooting star which turns the track upside down for the player it hits. Best of all though is the All-Star power-up which affects each racer in a unique way; Sonic for instance turns into Super Sonic, Amy smashes opponents with her hammer, Ai-Ai gets in his ball and starts rolling through everyone and Billy Hatcher gets atop his famous giant egg and can roll over anyone and anything in his way.

As stated before, progressing through the game will award you with 'Sega Miles' which you accumulate allowing you to eventually upgrade your license and, more importantly, purchase new characters and tracks for use in all modes. There's even some alternate music. It's a good system which encourages you to keep on playing because even if you aren't doing so well in a race it pays to finish it because you are then at least awarded with more miles, collectable in each of the game's four modes.

You have the obligatory 'Grand Prix' where you play through six cups, each of which contains four tracks, there are three difficulties for this mode and the only difference as you advance is that the A.I. gets cheaper; 'Single Race' is for when you just want to race on one track, 'Time Trial' allows you to race on all tracks you've unlocked and even attempt to beat the staff track times if you so desire. The other mode is 'Missions' which is an excellent addition that's in similar vein to Mario Kart DS whereby you're set specific challenges ranging from the fun - collecting rings as Sonic - to the frustrating - drifting as Big the damned Cat. To it's credit though it extends the lifetime of the game by giving you a lot to do.

Multiplayer still plays quite a big part in the fun as it does for the home console versions and if you can find anyone else who owns the DS version then there is a lot of fun to be had here, if you can't though then you're somewhat limited to the single-player but thankfully there is an online mode and if you're fortunate enough to find anyone – I managed to find one person to play against – then there are a good few hours of fun to be had. It's unfortunate that not that many people seem to have invested in the DS version in comparison to the home console versions as this is where it falls down, even without being able to play it online there is still a heck of a lot to do but multiplayer does extend the life of the game so if it's that which you're after then you may be better off with the home console version.

Overall this is an excellent effort from Sega who have managed to cram almost the same amount of content from the home console counterparts onto a tiny DS card; graphically everything is impressive for the small screen and the audio is no slouch either - with some excellent versions of classic Sega tunes available for your listening pleasure. Above all it's a fun racer that gives Nintendo's flagship racer a good run for its money.