Mario Kart DS seems to be eating up all my recent free time.  I'm trying to play through the single player, but I seem to constantly get sucked back into the online component everytime I turn my system on.  It's too easy to get a match started, and soooo difficult to stop playing especially when the matches are close and intense.  The single and multiplayer easily make this the best Mario Kart yet, which makes me curious to what the future of online handhelds has to offer.  And then there is Animal Crossing...

Assuming it was just a port of the Cube version with multiplayer, my friend and I began brainstorming what kinds of mini-games we could create to get the most out of the already addictive gameplay.  One idea was to take a section of our shared town and layout a soccer field with trees and flowers.  Create different shirt designs for home and away jerseys.  Next we contact other friends and family members to visit our town.  All that is left would be to find the single ball that seems to spawn daily somewhere on the map and the first annual Animal Crossing World Cup begins.  This of coarse is just one idea that online multiplayer in Animal Crossing can open up.

Taking the console versions of games: streamlining them, adding new features, and adding an online component is the almost unbelievable trend that seems to be happening with the Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, and possibly Metroid franchises.  It will be interesting to see what this can do to other third party franchises.  Imagine what this DS formula could do for a future Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles release.  Personally I think it could take this "8.0" franchise and make it a AAA title.