Mario kart racing taken to the next level – online races, new control schemes and plenty of cups and challenges.

Introduction

New insane Grand Prix tournaments are arranged and it’s once again time to prove your worth as a kart racer in the jolly Mushroom Kingdom!

Mario Kart Wii is the eighth game in the long running Mario Kart series and it introduces the unique Wii Wheel controls along with online races for up to twelve players. It is also the first Mario Kart game to feature race bikes.
In its core this is a racing game just like the previous Mario Kart games. The goal of the game is simply to place first in each of the races, and there are multiple Grand Prix tournaments to partake in, as well as online championships and official Nintendo tournament events. Since the game takes place in the world of Mario, the theme of the game is very cartoonish, cheery and has a sense of humor to it.

Content

When you first start the game you will be required to create your personal license, which basically just means that you register your Mii avatar to the game. The license then works as your game save slot and thus holds your records, achievements and trophies. The game supports four such licenses to be saved onto one Wii machine.

Mario Kart Wii has the following game modes; Grand Prix, Time Trials, Vs Mode, Battle Mode and the grand Nintendo WFC.

The Grand Prix is where you play all the single-player cups on either karts or bikes. There are 32 cups across three different vehicle classes; 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. In essence these work as three different difficulty settings. Each cup consists of four races, and winning a cup will typically unlock new vehicles, characters or other secrets. In order to beat the game you must win all the cups, which is a very lengthy ordeal.

The Time Trial mode lets you practice a course and save your top five records on each map. Your best record will also be saved as ghost data, meaning that you can challenge the record by racing against your own ghost.

Your top records and ghost data can also be uploaded to the online ranking boards where you can compare your records against other players world-wide, regionally or against friends.

Online ranking boards is an awesome feature, but sadly there are exploits in the game that people use to achieve impossible time records on certain courses, which of course spoils much of the fun. You can download these ghost data and see how they have cheated the game, if you’re into that sort of thing.

VS Mode is a standard friendly race either against AI controlled opponents or with up to four players playing on a split screen set up. You can also set up teams and play co-operatively, which is nice for beginners to the game.

The Battle Mode offers two odd mini-game type battles where you either race on an arena and try to pop your opponents balloons, or try to collect as many coins as possible. There are ten arenas to battle it out on, and you can play in teams and split-screen modes with four players, too. This game mode typically is a party-game experience, so playing it alone isn’t very rewarding. All the different arenas does provide lots to discover though.

Nintendo WFC mode allows you to play online against random people, either on a regional or a world-wide basis. As for online races your license starts with 5000 race points. Placing high in a race will increase your points, and placing low will decrease it. The game will automatically match you up with other players with equal race points.

One of the more interesting features of the Nintendo WFC mode is the fact that you can play it on a split screen set up with two players – yes, two players can compete online on the same machine at the same time. However, the second player won’t be able to use his license, and thus won’t be able to earn any race points.

All in all, there are 34 playable characters (including the unlockable ones), and they’re divided into three classes; Light, Medium and Heavy. This in turn decides what type of vehicles that character can use. Light class vehicles are slower overall, but have better acceleration. Heavy class vehicles are faster and can push other drivers by ramming into them.

The game has 36 different vehicles with varying stats, such as acceleration, top speed, handling and off-road capabilities. With that said, it should also be noted that half of these vehicles are identical in stats and only have different looks.

When selecting a vehicle you’re also prompted to select whether you want “Automatic” or “Manual” drift. This option lets you choose if you want drifting to happen automatically or if you want to be able to have control over it. Drifting is a key part of the game, and is very easy to get into. As such the automatic option is really only for beginners, and not a viable option once you understand drifting and the benefits of it.

The main difference between bikes and karts is how they drift – when you drift in Mario Kart, you can reach a state in the drift where your vehicle starts sprouting blue flames (aka Blue Drift). Karts can take this further and reach a Red Drift. Exiting a drift will give you a significant speed boost, and the Red Drift gives you a bigger speed boost. So, while bikes tend to be faster than karts overall, they can not do the Red Drift. Bikes can, however do a wheelie which gives a small speed boost and is very easy to perform. With that said, bikes and karts are kind of well-balanced, but I personally tend to prefer the bikes as they’re somewhat easier to manage – especially once you’ve mastered the basic drifting techniques.

The game features 32 different courses to race on, each with its own theme, set of features, short cuts, hazards and quirks. People who have played the previous Mario Kart games will recognize some of the courses in the game since they are revisited here, but there’s a fair share of new courses as well – in fact, the selection of race tracks in this game stands as a best-of-the-best collection of sorts featuring courses from many previous Mario Kart games.

In order to master a course fully you’d need to practice on it for days and study other people’s ghost data that you can download from the online ranking screen. If you’re into honing your racing skills and perfecting your performance, it’s safe to say that this game delivers hours of entertainment.

In Mario Kart races you can pick up items along the course. There are 15 different items, such as red shells that you can shoot other racers with, mushrooms that give you extra speed boosts and bananas that you can place on the track, making a racer spin out of control if he hits it.

It’s obvious that these items play a key role in the game to even out the odds between the racer who is first and the racer who is last; your position in the race decides what items you can get, and there are some really cheap items that, when used against you, can get you from leading a race to losing a race.

The items do really spice things up, but it can be argued that they are too powerful and has too much impact on a race. There are numerous occasions when you feel cheated and that your driving skill doesn’t matter much because of these items, especially the blue shell bomb that automatically homes in on the leading racer and blows them up. Moreover, there are normal homing shells too, and if you’re indeed leading a race you can count on being bombarded with those. If anything, this is the biggest source of frustration in the whole game.

It should also be noted that every now and then Nintendo arranges official Mario Kart Wii tournaments that you can partake in by simply logging in to the Nintendo WCF and play when the tournament is on going. You can choose to be informed about coming tournaments via the Wii messaging system. The terms of each tournament is stated before you enter, and it’s very easy to get on there and play – all you need is an Internet connection on your Wii. This is a very accessible and simple way to be part of something really big.

Controls

Mario Kart supports four different types of controllers to be used. The included Wii Wheel, a combination of the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk, the Classic Controller and the Game Cube controller. It should be noted that you can play the game with the Wii Wheel control set up even without the actual Wii Wheel, as it is only a plastic shell that looks like a wheel and holds your Wii Remote.

The Wii Wheel offers a really nice racing experience that’s easy to get into and easy to learn. There is really one problem with using the Wii Wheel though, and that’s the fact that controlling the bikes’ wheelies doesn’t seem to be working as it is intended. The game manual states that a wheelie is done by simply tilting the wheel up, and to end the wheelie you simply need to tilt the wheel back. In reality you’re mostly required to make a jerking upwards motion to get the bike to do the wheelie, and ending it is even more troublesome, and often requires to press the B button (which makes you jump) in order to cancel the wheelie. Needless to say, this isn’t really optimal and has quite a big importance later in the game where the races are more challenging.

The other control schemes does not have this problem though and works flawlessly, and thus is a matter of preference more than anything else.

Graphics

The graphics in Mario Kart Wii are very nice and adorable. It’s very bright and colorful and it has a lush cartoonish and almost dreamy look to it. More importantly the game keeps running at a high and steady frame rate, even when the screen is split in four. We didn’t notice any frame rate stuttering what so ever, making this feel like a very polished beautiful looking game.

Each course has its own setting and theme, so there’s a lot to discover and see; deserts, Bowser’s Castle, jungles, racetracks, shopping centers, mountains, rivers, forests, ice caves, industrial zones and even the trippy Rainbow Track up in space.

Music

Each course even has its own music, which adds a unique feel to every course. The songs are all very catchy and suits the theme of the game just fine. If you’ve heard the music from previous Mario games, you pretty much know what to expect.

The voice acting is very characteristic and there are many funny comments and voices, as each of the characters has its own taunts, winning quotes and whiny losing comments.

Summary

Mario Kart Wii is a very enjoyable and fun racing game. It offers enormous amounts of replay value and it stays fresh for a very long time thanks to its many game modes, local multiplayer and online support.

Certainly, there are moments in the game where even the most peaceful mind can become flamed with frustration and anger but it’s always a combination of misfortune and those cheap items. Mario Kart Wii is one of those games that anyone can enjoy, either as a casual racing game or a deeper and lengthy experience.

Developed By: Nintendo EAD
Published By: Nintendo
Version Reviewed: Wii
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-12
Released: 2008-04-11