Developer : NintendoPublisher: Nintendo

Mario Kart is one of the essential purchases on the Wii system; yes there are some essential games on the system, despite the masses still reckoning the Wii to be for kids only.

The Nintendo fans waited with baited breath for this release. Will it be good? Or will there be another gimmick in it like the ‘two players to a kart’ silliness of Mario Kart: Double Dash on the Gamecube.

“Is that a motorbike? And is that Roselia from Super Mario Galaxy in Leathers?” was a slightly worried question from one online poster. Yes, yes it was a motorbike and indeed it was the large woman from Galaxy in leathers.

So lets take a look under the hood. What do you get in the box? Well, you get a nice plastic wheel to stick your Wiimote in, its comfortable to hold and you can still use it as a pointer or use the D-pad on the Wiimote for selections. Plus, a cut out in the back allows you access to the trigger. By and large the wheel works well but it’s nowhere near as precise as the analog nunchuk control or the classic controller. There really are a glut of control options, so pretty much play with whichever you feel comfortable. You can even break out a gamecube controller if you can find it under the dust bunnies, your parents’ Lionel Ritchie vinyl collection and the dead pigeons in the attic (Hardcore players play with the wheel by the way, no excuses!). Handling is good and won’t take anyone, even a novice, long to learn and the controls are easy really, being a 3 button game. As per usual you can powerslide and snake to power up a short speed boost to give you an advantage, but only if you’re playing in the manual setting, though. If you play with the automatic setting then the mini turbos are barred.

The single player progresses in the normal way. Choose a character in one of three weight classes: light, medium or heavy. If you pick a light guy you have a low top speed but acceleration is high, medium weight racers are your all rounders and heavy just the reverse: slow acceleration but high top speed. The usual suspects are in the character roster – Mario, Luigi, Wario, Donkey Kong – although Pirahna Pete has been binned as well as Paratroopa Koopa. Pete must be annoyed as they’ve kept his car in the game. Anyone know why a plant needs a go-kart?

The one thing that got everyone worried was the inclusion of motorbikes in this iteration. They do handle differently and take a couple of tries to get the feel of. They do work and it’s nice to have the option, pulling wheelies enables a short burst of speed on the track. If they put planes and hovercrafts in the next game I shall be worried and so would Rare’s lawyers. Although after several months of playing MK with only a Bike I now find it very hard to use the karts! The other new additions are the 3 new power-ups: the mega-mushroom which makes you massive and able to squish other players; the lightning cloud which gives a burst of speed, but if you don’t hit another racer to pass it on will eventually shrink you with a thunderbolt; and last but not least the POW block, this one knocks everyone about unless they are in the air. Yes the blue spiky shell is still in it too so don’t expect to win by massive amounts on later levels.

There are 8 cups with four tracks each on offer (Oh plus Mirror Mode *sigh* I really wish racing developers would stop it now) at three different engine levels: 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. Your aim is to win gold (d-huh). At the end of each race you get awarded points depending on where you finished from 15 points down to…er…0 I think. You get ranked on your overall performance in the cups and you want to aim for 3 gold stars, which is very hard (especially when you get blasted just before the finish line) and adds longevity.

Time trials return in the usual way, you can save your ghost and race it. However for the people without any friends (Stop looking at me…unless you’re blonde, 28, 3……….sorry) you now have the option to race against Staff Ghosts. The people who made the game actually put themselves in it. Nice! The ghosts range from ridiculously easy to harder than an admantium-encased steel rock. The only downside is the game doesn’t really tell you whether you’ve beaten the ghost or not, aside from winning there and then. Once you’ve beaten the first ghost on the track you unlock the second ghost, who is usually faster than a fat kid after an Ice Cream truck. It would be nice for an on screen icon to represent which ghost it was, the first or second, you are trying to beat.

Multiplayer is where this game is an essential purchase for anyone with a Wii. Split-screen 2 player grand prixs or four way races, plus some battle options. You may end up fighting over the wheel though. I always felt the battle options were a little tagged on with MK. Unless you’ve got a 4 way match or 16 people all looking for a battle I tend to stick to the racing.

Online: You don’t need to swap friend-codes, you can just go online and play the faceless masses. You do have an online ranking that gets added to or taken away from depending on the skill levels of the people you are playing. If you beat someone supposedly massively superior to you that gives you a lot of points and the reverse is true: get beaten by someone’s Granny and you’ll need to race a lot again to bring it back up. For those of you who have gained stars on all cups, that’s shown proudly beside your name. Quitters be warned that quitting mid-race hammers your ranking (and to use the old tongue “Just isn’t sporting”).

Swapping friend codes allows you to set a time trial then send your ghost off through the internet ether to a friend’s console for them to try and beat. There’s even dedicated leaderboards for each track (Although if you go Youtube you can see how to totally confuse the game and get to the top of a leaderboard. But you wouldn’t do that would you?). You also get monthly competitions that are downloaded through the Mario Kart Channel automatically. The online system is good and reliable so you won’t be stuck in a lobby for ages (The Conduit I’m looking at you!) waiting for a game, or get disconnected and frozen out of online play. There’s an added bonus of 2 at a time online play from each console; saves kids fighting!

Unlockables: Well there are 24 characters in all, 14 to unlock through various conditions, usually by winning a cup or beating a set number of time trial goals. Plus, after a while you’ll be able to whizz around the tracks as your own Mii avatar.

Overall: I can’t recommend this highly enough. The only downside I can think of is the annoying rubber-band AI. On the faster levels you never seem to get away from the pack but that does make for exciting races. Although it’s annoying it is genuinely the only minus point I can think of. The online community is always up for a race somewhere, plus constant downloadable content for the game (usually a monthly competition) make this one that shouldn’t gather dust. It’s a good reason to get your Wii online.

Review: Mario Kart Wii



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