April 27th, 2008 I picked up my copy of Mario Kart Wii Sunday afternoon, and even though I had very high expectations for this title, I was still not disappointed. Between the new additions to the series (bikes, steering wheel, online play, bigger jumps, tricks) and the refinement of the old standbys (old courses, characters and vehicles), this version has a lot of stuff that will make old fans of the series and newcomers alike very pleased with their purchase. A lot of the classic tracks are included, from SNES all the way to the DS version of the game.
Many are left in nearly the same condition that you recall from 10 years ago, but others have received a slight facelift in their latest appearance on the Mario Kart series. The new courses are chock-full of jumps, tons of elevation changes, and a lot of great Mii integration (in one course I saw a poster with my Walter Sobcheck Mii, and that made my day). I’m sure a lot of ‘purists’ will bemoan the addition of jumps and mid-air tricks, but I think that it makes the franchise a lot more fun to play in a casual environment. My brother noted that it felt like ‘Mario Kart meets Tony Hawk’ on a few of the courses, but it’s really not that bad.
Another thing I have noticed is that the switch from 8 to 12 racers has really made the action a lot more chaotic when you’re in the middle of the pack. On one hand, if you’re in 5th or so place, it makes it really tough to break out with all of the shells and such flying. But I’ve also found that the fray makes it a lot easier to make a quick jump from 10th to 2nd place in a matter of a half lap.
If you can manage to avoid all of that action, you can make a move really fast. I found it odd that the drift settings are set to automatic by default (the computer basically handles your drift, but you get no power-up this way), but my guess is that they are just trying to cater to newer users of the series and let them ease into that part of the game. I’ll say this though — not having to press left and right while drifting to get a boost is a great change.
Makes it so much more natural. One of the biggest additions is that of the motorcycles. These suckers can FLY, but are susceptible to getting bumped out of the way by the traditional carts.
I’m still a cart fella for the main courses, but they’re tough to beat in time trials (since there are no others there to take advantage of the shaky nature of the bikes). The control in general takes a few races to get used to, but now that I’ve had a chance to play around with it some, I really do love playing with the ‘Wii Wheel’. I’d guess that control would be slightly more accurate with a GameCube or Classic controller, but the wheel just ‘feels right’. It makes the experience that much more fun, and having the jump/drift button on the back of the controller works great too. Overall, I’m quite pleased with the wheel, as I was afraid it might be a little gimmicky. But I’m pleased to say I was wrong!
The online experience is probably the best of any Wii game I’ve seen so far, but that’s not saying much. On the first run of the game, it asks you to update your Wii software, then allows you to install the Mario Kart channel if you so desire. This can always be done later from the settings menu, but it’s a nice touch to get it in there from the start.
The Mario Kart channel is nearly identical whether you launch it from within the game, or if you launch the channel from the main Wii screen (this method doesn’t require a disc unless you’re going to play an actual race). From here, you can view top 10 rankings for each track, add/view friends, race against ‘ghosts’ (recorded versions of others in the same race that you are in), and enter tournaments. I played 10 or so races online, and there was no real lag to speak of, and the competition seemed fair. I won a few races and finished dead last in a few others.
It was a lot fun, and I can’t wait to play against a few more of my friends who picked up the game today. Overall, this game is as great as I anticipated it would be. If you’re a fan of the series at all, or just enjoy a fun, casual race game that has a lot of depth to it if you give it time, you’ll be nothing short of blown away by this entry to the Mario Kart series. If you’re a Mario Kart Wii player and want to swap friend codes, here is mine: 2320 6527 8198. Technorati Tags: nintendo, reviews, video games, wii, mario kart jacklyn says: April 28th, 2008 at 6: 46 am I’m so glad you made me pick it up yesterday.
I love love love the game! I was a little worried about the Wii Wheel at first, but it blows the N64 controller out of the water. I’m still not crazy about the bikes though, it’s probably going to take me a little while to get used to them.
Daniel says: April 28th, 2008 at 7: 11 am I was actually pretty humbled yesterday afternoon when I looked at how long I had been playing already. This could be a major time suck for me over the next few months, but I can’t co