Mario and his band of wacky pals are back in time for the holidays and they’re ready to race.

Nintendo recently released the latest incarnation of their wildly popular and successful Mario Kart series for the Nintendo DS. This installment of series brings to the table more kart-racing goodness than you can shake a banana peel at, a flawless set of multiplayer options and, for the first time ever, online play.

That’s right Rainbow Road fans, now you can take Mario, Yoshi, Peach and Bowser online via the DS’s wi-fi capabilities and race anyone in the country, or even the world. Thanks to an integrated wireless internet adaptor, its now easy as pie to get online and “get your kart on” anywhere a wireless network exists. Nintendo even set up a deal with McDonald’s to support their system, so if you don’t have a network in your home, you can take your skills to the local burger joint and get going.

Of course, Mario Kart DS offers a plethora of single-player options as well. Players can choose from Grand Prix – where you can unlock a host of secret characters, karts and more tracks – or the famous Battle modes and Time Trials. New to the list is a long series of Challenge missions, which test the player’s skills with specific goals like racing through 10 sequential gates in 30 seconds.

The meat and potatoes of the game exists within the multiplayer option, however. In addition to the internet play, Mario Kart supports up to eight players in person, and all of them can play off of just one copy of the game. Getting together a ton of friends in the back room of your local gaming store for an hour of Kart has never been easier, or more fun.

The DS already had a strong library of games for players to choose from. Mario Kart DS easily surpasses every other title on the system, however, and is easily the “killer app” on the system. If you don’t already own a DS, run out now and pick up a system and this game. Or I’ll nail you with a red shell and powerslide past you for first place.

Caption: For a limited time, Nintendo is offering Mario Kart and a special red DS in a bundle for $149.99, while the system itself normally costs $129.99.