Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: April 27, 2008
Genre: Kart Racing
ESRB Rating: Everyone

The original Mario Kart on the SNES all but invented the mascot kart racing genre, with numerous imitators springing up in its wake, including Crash Team Racing, Chocobo Racing, Digimon Racing, and many more. Few have been able to come close to Mario Kart’s quality or success though, with each subsequent Mario Kart release reaffirming that it is still firmly on top of the kart racing heap.

Mario Kart Wii is no different. Though by no means revolutionary, it gives gamers more of what they want from the series, with more characters, more tracks and more multiplayer battle options.

Game-play consists of manoeuvring your way through a multitude of obstacles, driving over power-up boxes that give you items that can be used to help you or hinder your opponents, drifting through tight corners, and always keeping an ever watchful eye out for the scattered zip pads and stunt ramps which offer speed boosts.

Yes, stunt ramps are a new addition to the Mario Kart formula, as are motorbikes. All vehicles have multiple ratings categories, and are further broken down into classes. Characters are restricted to using the vehicles in one class, and tinkering with different character and vehicle combinations is a good deal of fun. Vehicles handle differently, and motorbikes add the option of performing speed-boosting wheelies into the mix, giving you many hard decisions on which to choose.

While the game can be a blast to play alone, multiplayer is truly where it shines. Whether duking it out in full field races with your friends, or competing in battle tournaments online, the tight controls, excellent course design, including numerous classic courses from Mario Kart’s of yore, and great balance all combine to make Mario Kart Wii a thrill to play against others.

The multiplayer aspect has been greatly expanded with a full set of online features, including leaderboards, and team battles. The classic balloon battles are back, but in a somewhat disappointing twist, they require you to be part of a randomly determined team, eliminating the great free-for-alls of battle modes past. Another mode is coin runner, which has you charging around the courses picking up coins, with the team with the most coins as time runs out being declared the victor.

Course design is without a doubt the one area that sets Mario Kart above all the others, making all game modes better as a result. The courses feature a nice ramping of difficulty as you progress through the tracks, and have the perfect blend of risk/reward elements and unique obstacles and features to make each track uniquely enjoyable. The risky shortcuts and possibility of disaster lurking around every corner means that no race is ever won until the bitter end.

The graphics are sharp and colourful, with classic tracks brought to stunning new life, and a smooth frame rate. The frame rate takes a slight hit in split screen, but remains more than solid. Music is bouncy and jazzy, but speeds up and turns sinister and eerie as the races hit the final stretch, a technique that’s been used since the first game to great effect. The sound effects and voice work are solid.

The Wii Wheel is for all intents and purposes just a glorified version of the Wii remote, but is still a blast to play around with, and feels great in your hands. It has the perfect weight and feel, and the B button on the backside of it is large and should be easily reached by gamers of any hand size.

There’s always the issue of responsiveness with the wheel or remote though, and for a game requiring such precise actions and timing, you may be better served using a traditional control pad, at least for matches or races you desperately want to win.

Mario Kart Wii continues to build upon the solid foundation of its predecessors with some new innovations and the same classic game-play. Gamers of all ages should have a blast playing this game, online or off.

News: The Wii Wheel which comes packed with every copy of Mario Kart Wii can also be configured to play with other games which utilize similar steering configuration. It’s expected that more games in the future will be designed more specifically for the Wii Wheel as well.

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You grip the controller tightly in anticipation. You let out a slow breath as the countdown from three begins. Just as two is about to become one, you rev your engine hoping to get just that much more of a jump on the competition. Then the cloud waves the flag and off you and all other eleven speedsters shoot.

You quickly shoot to the head of the pack using a combination of speed and daring maneuvers. Soon you begin to out pace the others, and there is no one else near you. You begin to relax a little, allowing the groove of each turn to seem more a part of you than a part of the track.

Then you hear it. The sound of an alarm meaning something is approaching you. You zig left, but it’s still on you. You zag right…no good you can’t shake. Then a blue turtle shell with wings hovers above you a short moment before diving on top of you sending you spinning out of control and the lead.

You yell out loud. How could it all be so cruel? But there is not time to contemplate the nature of life. You have managed to regain control of your kart.

You grimly tighten your grip on the control, press the acceleration button and launch yourself back into the heat of both the race and the battle. You will take first place, even if you have to leave a wake of banana’s and turtle shells behind you to do it.

Wait. Did I just say banana’s and turtle shells? I did, and if you are thinking I am describing the latest installment of the Mario Kart series, you are right as well. This game actually managed to catch me a bit by surprise.

I originally picked the game up because I remember being a kid when the first Mario Kart came out. I loved it, and there was nothing better than having some of my buddies come over and waste a few hours driving each other insane with the combination of racing and battle. Now that I am a father, I really thought my kids would dig it. Well I was right, however what I had not expected, was to like the game so much myself.

At first glimpse Mario Kart Wii is a pretty simple game. You select a character, pick a vehicle and off you go. The idea that it is a simple game is only reinforced as you easily win race after race. However somewhere in there, the other drivers get a little better and the tracks get a lot more difficult.

Pretty soon, where once you were winning by easy margins, you are now yelling at the television because of the latest pwnage that the other drivers have just handed you. Add to the mix being able to race three different styles of races, the 50 cc (Karts only) the 100 cc (bikes only) and 150 cc (karts and bikes) and the game has a lot of variety that keeps the game fresh.

While for the most part my experience with Mario Kart Wii was a positive one, there were several things that I found annoying. First the learning curve on the way the control works in the game is somewhat steep. Instead of using the D pad to turn the vehicle of your choice, you tilt the control from left to right.

This may seem like a simple thing to do, however it takes a minute to get the fine tuning down and while you are getting this fine tuning down, don’t be surprised if you knock over your soda, elbow your friend in the ribs or ever fall out of your chair. Yet once the control style is mastered, it’s off to a first place finish.

I did give the wheel a try and strongly recommend anyone who wants to retain their sanity stay far, far away from this little device. The concept is neat, but the follow through and the game play result is very frustrating to say the least. However, if you have a masochistic bent to your nature, then by all means use the steering wheel.

So all in all I liked the Mario Kart Wii game. It could offer a bit more, but it still manages to be a great game that is fun to play with both family and friends. On the proverbial scale of 1 to 10 I would have to rank it a pretty solid 8. Just remember, stay away from the wheel!

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