As one of Nintendo’s key franchise titles, Mario Kart has found its way into the hands of millions of players around the world over a fifteen year span and seven previous console, handheld, and arcade incarnations. With the release of Mario Kart Wii Nintendo looks to provide the biggest and best plumber filled kart racing experience yet. While the core racing mechanic hasn’t changed much from past titles, the game does feature new tracks, new characters, online play, and the ability to literally take control of the wheel using the included Wii Wheel adapter.
If you have played any of the previous Mario Kart titles you should instantly feel right at home jumping into MK: Wii. If for some reason you were raised in a cave and aren’t familiar with Mario and his kart racing pals the basic goal of the game is to beat all the other competitors on the track to the finish line. Even with such a simple goal, achieving victory can be tricky due to the often maze-like quality of the tracks and the multitude of defensive/offensive pickups which can be used to boost you or impede your opponents. Sometimes the AI can feel a bit cheap and the weapons can seem overwhelming especially when you are running that perfect race only to get zapped and passed up right before the finish line but that’s what Mario Kart racing has always been about, part skill and part luck.
MK: Wii boasts an impressive thirty-two themed race tracks, sixteen of which are brand spanking new and the other sixteen are retro remakes. You have your choice of twenty-four characters in three different weight classes. Only half of these characters and tracks are available right from the start, the rest must be unlocked by winning races. Each character has a wide variety of vehicles to choose from all of which feature diverse performance stats. This time around it’s not all about the karts as you also have the option to mount up on motorbikes. Each track is overflowing with obstacles, ramps, and speed boosters which mix things up for each vehicle type.
MK: Wii’s four modes of play consist of Grand Prix, Time Trial, VS, and Battle. Grand Prix allows you to choose difficulty class, character, kart/bike, draft options, and then which cup you’d like to compete in. There are eight cups total and each cup contains four unique tracks. Each race puts you against eleven CPU opponents for a total of three laps. After each race you are scored based on your finishing position and at the end of four tracks a final winner based on those points is crowned.
Time trial allows you to race solo or with one of your best time ghosts to try and perfect your performance on any track. The VS mode allows you to set up custom races either against CPU opponents or other local players via split screen. Battle mode like VS mode can be played either against CPU opponents or local players but instead of a normal race your goal is to either collect coins for points or knock out each other’s life balloons in ten different battle arenas.
Arguably the finest addition to MK: Wii is the ability to compete against up to eleven others from around the world via the Nintendo WFC. As long as your Wii has access to the internet it only takes a few seconds to jump into an online lobby and get your race on. You can also bring in a second local player to compete online, again via split screen. Prior to each match each competitor has the option of selecting a track to race. The track is then randomly selected from all the player’s picks. Races are fast and furious with little to no noticeable lag, however on rare occasions you may find yourself unexpectedly disconnected.
It’s easy to throw yourself into a match with strangers but getting together with an online friend takes a little more work. Each profile license has a unique code generated. These codes need to be traded with your friends and then plugged into the game. When your friends are online you can then create a custom game lobby and launch races from there. This method works in theory but the lack of any voice chat ability and limited friend list options might make you wish Nintendo supported a more community focused interface such as Xbox Live. This is really more of a limitation of the Wii console than of the actual game.
