Ladies and gentlemen. Start your engines!
...
I know, it's cliche, and since the run up to Mario Kart Wii, it's all we've heard, but that's for one good reason. One of the best Wii games you could ever own has come (or is coming) to all game stores near you.
That's right, Mario Kart Wii has done it again and Nintendo has released yet another installment in the Kart series that has blown us all away. Nintendo do not fail with the fast pace action, item madness and I'm sure somewhere deep down some skill is involved.
Like all other Mario Kart games, there is no storyline to this game. So once again, you choose your favourite character, biggest, bestest, fastest most weirdest looking kart, your favourite track with all those S-bends, and your off.
Gameplay:
This time round, thanks to the Wii's revolutionary technology, you can now play Mario Kart Wii with style. Plug your Wiimote into your Wii Wheel and feel as if you're in one of those Kart's yourself. The Wii Wheel brings a new way to play the game and really puts you in the mood for racing, as well as keeping controls such as using items and drifting simple. With a bit of practice, you'll be using the Wheel within no time.
But if you prefer to go old school, then not much has changed from the rest of the Mario Kart games, as MKW brings back the old retro style game pads. In MKW, you can choose to use the Classic Controller or your old Gamecube controllers, which still work pretty much the same way as Double Dash, with a few minor changes that take seconds to get used to.
The newest, most exciting update is that Kart's aren't the only option anymore. Now you can ride on your very own Bike! Bikes handle a lot better round corners, and off road is alot better, but in sacrifice they loose some speed. When using a bike, you can perform a wheelie, which gives you a speed boost for a few seconds which can be handy to use. But while performing a wheelie, you have very limited steering power, and if you get bumped into, you will stop in you tracks. You must think about when to use wheelies very carefully.
The modes are still the same as always, giving you an option of 50CC, 100CC and 150CC modes for different levels of difficulty, with a secret mode to unlock, as well as Time Trials and Battle mode to take advantage off.
MKW also brings along 24 characters, some old, some new and some down right crazy. With a bigger selection of characters, you can now really personalise your driving style and technique as each different character has their own individual stats. Also, with added addition of 12 players in one race, half the characters can be used at once!
New twists and turns as this game takes you to 16 new locations, as well as 16 tracks that you will recognise from previous games, going right back to the SNES. Each track has an individual style, and even the old tracks keep their retro feel when racing round them.
Nintendo have also had their creative hats on, bringing you 3 new items that will change the race entirely. I will not divulge what they are here, but make sure you keep an eye out for them, and abuse them to the fullest to come out on top.
In Mario Kart Wii, the driving style has been slightly changed as well. The drifting has been changed so that a boost is determined on how long you hold the drift for, instead of frantically tapping the left and right buttons, like Double Dash and MKDS had you do. This is for 2 reasons. Firstly, this completely eliminates the 'snaking' concept, as its impossible to hold a drift down a straight without going in the complete wrong direction. Also, just picture someone trying to do the snaking technique on a Wii Wheel. It made me laugh.
You can now select whether you want to drive manually, or automatically. With Manual Mode, you must perform drifts yourself around the corners, but in return, you get a boost for the length of the drift. In automatic mode, the computer will start drifting for you, but because of that, you will not get a boost bonus.
As well as the new drifting, MKWii also has stunts. These are tricks you pull off in mid air, so that when you land you get a mini boost. This is done by flicking the Wii Mote, or simply pressing one of the directional buttons on the D-Pad of a controller the second you lift up off the ramp you are driving off of.
This game is also the first to feature the 'License'. This is where you can view your win and loss count, what cups you have received in the offline 'CC' races, and a number of other useful and interesting data for your personal Mii.
Unfortunately, with all games there is a downside. Mario Kart Wii brings in a less known term among drivers called Item Owning. This is because Mario Kart Wii is unfortunately prone to getting hit easily and then watching your driver casually pick his nose instead of recovering, as you loose first position to everyone and their dog. This get's incredibly frustrating, especially online, after having racked up a high amount of points, to then loose them again to the spanish nerd who sent a blue shell flying at you at the last possible minute.
As usual, MKWii presents a multiplayer mode where you and up to 3 friends can race or duke it out in battle mode. Of course, online is where the longetivity is at, but this will also provide a lot of fun with friends in the immediate area.
Graphics:
The graphics in this game are something the Wii hasn't seen as of now. Lush backgrounds, fantastic Kart designs and Character designs make this game even more of a gem.
The graphics aren't jaw-dropping, but they are certainly not classed as 'bad' or 'poor'. Tracks such as the new 'Rainbow Road' and Bowser's castle will leave you wanting more of the style Nintendo have released with this game.
Even down to the menu interface and the cornered edges of the selection boxes, this game is top class material for the Wii. The first time a Wii game gets a score about '8/10' for graphics.
Sound:
Of course, each track has it's own theme tune, and the old school retro tracks bring back up to date versions of their old music too. Some you'll find completely new, and some you'll already be humming along too 5 seconds into the race. Rarely you'll find yourself getting annoyed by the track tunes.
However, you MIGHT find yourself getting annoyed by some of the characters voices, as the can get extremely irritable extremely fast. The lucky thing is, you don't really hear anyone but your own character talk. The most annoying thing of MKDS was to have Daisy drive past you yelling her head off.
Despite this one drawback, Nintendo definitely did a good job here.
Online:
The bit everyone has been waiting for. Mario Kart Wii allows you to battle friends, enemies, foreigners, aliens and whoever you want via the WFC.
Online, you can have up to 12 players in one race, as well as 8 players in a battle. Your name is determined by whichever Mii you use, and also your Mii picture is displayed as a sort of 'avatar' in and out of races.
The same goes for offline racing and battling, except this time, your up against the big bad world. Put your skill into full as you try to beat the worlds greatest.
Additionally, you may log onto WFC with two players, so no longer will you both have to endure racing against each other when your friends come round, you can jump online and bring them along for the ride.
When you add people to your Friend Rooster, you can then host rooms in which people can use the pre-set messages to have limited conversation, and once the rooms host has gotten enough people, you can start racing each other in a 4 track Grand Prix, or battle it out in Balloon Battle or Coin Challenge.
In online mode, you start by selecting your character, then your kart and whether you will be driving manually, or automatically. Once that has been determined, you then can vote for which track you would like to race on, or choose random. The computer then randomly selects a track from the ones people have voted, and you start your race.
When going worldwide or continental, you may enter and leave a group of racers whenever you want to, but when playing with friends, you are expected to race the entire 4 track Grand Prix.
The Mario Kart Wii online has proved itself to be almost completely lag free. Of course, while this is fine with the European and Japanese players, many will like to see what it's like once the Australians and Americans join the race later this month. Will the servers hold out and continue with Lag Free races? Only time will tell.
With the online abilities, Nintendo have released the Mario Kart Wii channel, which you can either access through the game, or install onto your Wii, so you won't even need the disk to use it.
In this channel, you can do things such as download ghost data to race against, send your Friendcode out to people on your Wii Address book, join official competitions that Nintendo hold and much more.
This is the first game that Nintendo have allowed you to add the codes of people you have never spoken to before, meaning that you can add those people who impress you and race them again.
The online is pretty much the longevity summed up.
Summary:
Buy It!
One of the best games out there. Not even just for Wii, in general, this game is most definitely worthy of praise itself, Nintendo have yet again smacked it with this game, a real gem that no one should hesitate to purchase.
...
I know, it's cliche, and since the run up to Mario Kart Wii, it's all we've heard, but that's for one good reason. One of the best Wii games you could ever own has come (or is coming) to all game stores near you.
That's right, Mario Kart Wii has done it again and Nintendo has released yet another installment in the Kart series that has blown us all away. Nintendo do not fail with the fast pace action, item madness and I'm sure somewhere deep down some skill is involved.
Like all other Mario Kart games, there is no storyline to this game. So once again, you choose your favourite character, biggest, bestest, fastest most weirdest looking kart, your favourite track with all those S-bends, and your off.
Gameplay:
This time round, thanks to the Wii's revolutionary technology, you can now play Mario Kart Wii with style. Plug your Wiimote into your Wii Wheel and feel as if you're in one of those Kart's yourself. The Wii Wheel brings a new way to play the game and really puts you in the mood for racing, as well as keeping controls such as using items and drifting simple. With a bit of practice, you'll be using the Wheel within no time.
But if you prefer to go old school, then not much has changed from the rest of the Mario Kart games, as MKW brings back the old retro style game pads. In MKW, you can choose to use the Classic Controller or your old Gamecube controllers, which still work pretty much the same way as Double Dash, with a few minor changes that take seconds to get used to.
The newest, most exciting update is that Kart's aren't the only option anymore. Now you can ride on your very own Bike! Bikes handle a lot better round corners, and off road is alot better, but in sacrifice they loose some speed. When using a bike, you can perform a wheelie, which gives you a speed boost for a few seconds which can be handy to use. But while performing a wheelie, you have very limited steering power, and if you get bumped into, you will stop in you tracks. You must think about when to use wheelies very carefully.
The modes are still the same as always, giving you an option of 50CC, 100CC and 150CC modes for different levels of difficulty, with a secret mode to unlock, as well as Time Trials and Battle mode to take advantage off.
MKW also brings along 24 characters, some old, some new and some down right crazy. With a bigger selection of characters, you can now really personalise your driving style and technique as each different character has their own individual stats. Also, with added addition of 12 players in one race, half the characters can be used at once!
New twists and turns as this game takes you to 16 new locations, as well as 16 tracks that you will recognise from previous games, going right back to the SNES. Each track has an individual style, and even the old tracks keep their retro feel when racing round them.
Nintendo have also had their creative hats on, bringing you 3 new items that will change the race entirely. I will not divulge what they are here, but make sure you keep an eye out for them, and abuse them to the fullest to come out on top.
In Mario Kart Wii, the driving style has been slightly changed as well. The drifting has been changed so that a boost is determined on how long you hold the drift for, instead of frantically tapping the left and right buttons, like Double Dash and MKDS had you do. This is for 2 reasons. Firstly, this completely eliminates the 'snaking' concept, as its impossible to hold a drift down a straight without going in the complete wrong direction. Also, just picture someone trying to do the snaking technique on a Wii Wheel. It made me laugh.
You can now select whether you want to drive manually, or automatically. With Manual Mode, you must perform drifts yourself around the corners, but in return, you get a boost for the length of the drift. In automatic mode, the computer will start drifting for you, but because of that, you will not get a boost bonus.
As well as the new drifting, MKWii also has stunts. These are tricks you pull off in mid air, so that when you land you get a mini boost. This is done by flicking the Wii Mote, or simply pressing one of the directional buttons on the D-Pad of a controller the second you lift up off the ramp you are driving off of.
This game is also the first to feature the 'License'. This is where you can view your win and loss count, what cups you have received in the offline 'CC' races, and a number of other useful and interesting data for your personal Mii.
Unfortunately, with all games there is a downside. Mario Kart Wii brings in a less known term among drivers called Item Owning. This is because Mario Kart Wii is unfortunately prone to getting hit easily and then watching your driver casually pick his nose instead of recovering, as you loose first position to everyone and their dog. This get's incredibly frustrating, especially online, after having racked up a high amount of points, to then loose them again to the spanish nerd who sent a blue shell flying at you at the last possible minute.
As usual, MKWii presents a multiplayer mode where you and up to 3 friends can race or duke it out in battle mode. Of course, online is where the longetivity is at, but this will also provide a lot of fun with friends in the immediate area.
Graphics:
The graphics in this game are something the Wii hasn't seen as of now. Lush backgrounds, fantastic Kart designs and Character designs make this game even more of a gem.
The graphics aren't jaw-dropping, but they are certainly not classed as 'bad' or 'poor'. Tracks such as the new 'Rainbow Road' and Bowser's castle will leave you wanting more of the style Nintendo have released with this game.
Even down to the menu interface and the cornered edges of the selection boxes, this game is top class material for the Wii. The first time a Wii game gets a score about '8/10' for graphics.
Sound:
Of course, each track has it's own theme tune, and the old school retro tracks bring back up to date versions of their old music too. Some you'll find completely new, and some you'll already be humming along too 5 seconds into the race. Rarely you'll find yourself getting annoyed by the track tunes.
However, you MIGHT find yourself getting annoyed by some of the characters voices, as the can get extremely irritable extremely fast. The lucky thing is, you don't really hear anyone but your own character talk. The most annoying thing of MKDS was to have Daisy drive past you yelling her head off.
Despite this one drawback, Nintendo definitely did a good job here.
Online:
The bit everyone has been waiting for. Mario Kart Wii allows you to battle friends, enemies, foreigners, aliens and whoever you want via the WFC.
Online, you can have up to 12 players in one race, as well as 8 players in a battle. Your name is determined by whichever Mii you use, and also your Mii picture is displayed as a sort of 'avatar' in and out of races.
The same goes for offline racing and battling, except this time, your up against the big bad world. Put your skill into full as you try to beat the worlds greatest.
Additionally, you may log onto WFC with two players, so no longer will you both have to endure racing against each other when your friends come round, you can jump online and bring them along for the ride.
When you add people to your Friend Rooster, you can then host rooms in which people can use the pre-set messages to have limited conversation, and once the rooms host has gotten enough people, you can start racing each other in a 4 track Grand Prix, or battle it out in Balloon Battle or Coin Challenge.
In online mode, you start by selecting your character, then your kart and whether you will be driving manually, or automatically. Once that has been determined, you then can vote for which track you would like to race on, or choose random. The computer then randomly selects a track from the ones people have voted, and you start your race.
When going worldwide or continental, you may enter and leave a group of racers whenever you want to, but when playing with friends, you are expected to race the entire 4 track Grand Prix.
The Mario Kart Wii online has proved itself to be almost completely lag free. Of course, while this is fine with the European and Japanese players, many will like to see what it's like once the Australians and Americans join the race later this month. Will the servers hold out and continue with Lag Free races? Only time will tell.
With the online abilities, Nintendo have released the Mario Kart Wii channel, which you can either access through the game, or install onto your Wii, so you won't even need the disk to use it.
In this channel, you can do things such as download ghost data to race against, send your Friendcode out to people on your Wii Address book, join official competitions that Nintendo hold and much more.
This is the first game that Nintendo have allowed you to add the codes of people you have never spoken to before, meaning that you can add those people who impress you and race them again.
The online is pretty much the longevity summed up.
Summary:
Buy It!
One of the best games out there. Not even just for Wii, in general, this game is most definitely worthy of praise itself, Nintendo have yet again smacked it with this game, a real gem that no one should hesitate to purchase.
