Mario Kart Wii

THE BAD:
- Graphics could be much better
- People may see the AI as cheap
- Wii Wheel could be hard to get used to for some people.

SUMMARY:
Mario Kart Wii is the latest installment to the Mario Kart series and the first installment on the Wii. The game comes with the new Wii Wheel, which is to give a more realistic steering experience. If you prefer not to use that, you may still use the Classic or GameCube controller to play.

Mario Kart Wii lets you have up to twelve players race to the finish in a multi-lap race around a given course. Like previous Mario Karts, players may use items and take shortcuts in order to earn first place. A new feature in the game would be the “Stunts” feature. When you perform a stunt, you get a momentary boost of speed which allows your character to do a few different things, such as grabbing item boxes in midair.

The character roster features some surprising characters that you can unlock, which I will not give out here so I do not spoil any one, and as well as classic characters to the series such as Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Bowser, Yoshi, Peach, etc. The characters are no longer characterized by weight (Light, Middle, Heavy), but by size now (Small, Medium, and Large). An example of this would be Waluigi, who was always a middle weight before, but is now considered a Large character because of his height.

As with other installments, the game features 16 Brand New courses, and 16 Retro courses from past Mario Kart games (Excluding only the arcade installments). There will be some courses you love, and as well as “those” courses which you will not be able to stand playing a race on.

The music is the game, like the other installments, is pretty good. The game has its memorable tracks, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best soundtrack in the world. But the game does a great job when it comes to the voices of the characters. The voices make the character in this game. The taunts and voice of the character truly do fit them very well this time around.

The AI may seem all fair at the beginning, but once you get to the later cups (150cc and Mirror) you will be greeted to torture. It seems as though no matter what you do, the AI is right behind you and they always seem to hit you with an item at the best of times (Such as getting hit with a Blue Shell right before the finish line at the final lap or getting struck by lighting while going over a large gap). While this may seem like something that would just happen a few times, it feels as though it happens 50% of the time while racing and really unbalances the game.

My biggest gripe with the game though comes with the graphics. What happened here? The Wii is supposed to be one of the Next-Generation consoles, but the graphics in this game looks as though this game is a GameCube game. In this age of gaming, there is no excuse for some characters to still seem like they have blocky hands. Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy were released before this game, and they have superior graphics when comparing the two.

One of the best parts of this game is playing online using the Nintendo Wi-Fi service. The game features the best online service on the Wii title since its launch. You can get into a quick match easily or if your friends are playing online you can join them in whatever they are doing without a problem. You barely deal with any lag issues while playing. There could be a few gripes here and there depending on connections, but the overall experience is ultra smooth. The only thing I could say is missing are online leader boards and voice chat, but that’s probably it. This is the way Nintendo should of always had the Wi-Fi service.

I would definitely recommend this game to any Wii owner out there, especially if they have access to the Nintendo Wi-Fi service. Whether you are a parent looking to get this for a child, or someone looking for another game to add to there collection, Mario Kart Wii is a game that is truly made for anyone to pick up and play.

Here is the rundown:

Graphics: 7
Sound: 8
Presentation: 9
Gameplay: 8.5
Lasting Appeal: 9.5

Overall: 8.5/10

THE BAD:
The only major problem I encountered was which buttons were used. The 2 button for accelerating caught me off guard, and I almost lost because of it. I needed to pause, and I didn't think that it would be where it was. I also had trouble getting the bonuses to be used, which to me a while.
Some parts of the game were easy, and I'll talk about that later.

SUMMARY:

THE BAD:
- Crappy opening movie/cutscene
- A storyline might have been nice to see this time around, to help give some context behind why all of these racers are racing each other
- Since there are so many racers in every race, the game can be very cheap at times (so much more so than in other games); you are almost hit by an item every 5 seconds it seems; it has become quite a curse to be in 1st place because everyone is literally after you, and you can easily go from being in 1st place the entire race to suddenly being in 12th.
- Battle mode is also very cheap at times due to the huge amount of characters; you can go from having 30 coins in Coin Runners to having 5 in a matter of twenty seconds because so many people hit you with items, which makes all your hard work and skill useless; as in racing modes, it is almost a curse to be the best
- I would have loved to have seen more shortcuts on certain maps
- Not a lot of great returning maps, which also happened in MK DS; a lot of maps that I never liked returned, and so many great ones were left out
- On the mini-map of where characters are in a race, your own characters head is way too big. It really blocks your sight of character right ahead or close behind you
- No speedometer or alternate racer placement chart within races
- No mission mode. This would have been a cool thing to have added, especially since it was in MK DS. I really miss boss battles and the cool little challenges in this mode
- Just as in MK DS, going off-road is so much of a punishment
- Some characters in the game are so random, and there could have been many better choices than certain characters
- Though we got tons of tracks, I would have liked to see even more tracks/cups to race in. I loved most of the new tracks, and more awesome tracks would be so cool. Future downloadable tracks would be so amazing
- Double racers (like in Double Dash) might have been nice to see as a separate racing mode

SUMMARY:
Another game that I had been waiting for since I first got my Wii. As soon as it came out, it easily vaulted its way to becoming one of the best games for the system and one of the best (if not THE best) Mario Kart game. There was so much great innovation added to this game and to the series. I am still trying to decide whether I like this game or Double Dash the best, but both are amazing for sure.

The main format for the game is the same as always, except for how you are back to one racer per kart. Grab a racer, grab a kart, and get racing against CPU or human players. Race on every map and collect each cup, while you unlock every character and kart to add variety to the game. If you get bored of straight racing, you can perfect your racing skills in Time Trials, or even fight it out in the crazy ‘battle royal’ that is Battle Mode (which was really overhauled for this game).

The tracks are the first great thing to point out about this game. There are 32 tracks in total – 16 new tracks and 16 old tracks (retro as they are called). The old tracks were “Wii’d” nicely for this game: slight additions were made to some, while others got new ramps and Wii jumps. The new tracks are the great aspect that needs to be discussed. They are all a lot of fun, and each adds a great deal of innovation to the Mario Kart series and its racetracks in general. Bounce on mushrooms, race through water, shoot over jumps and trick jumps, keep watch for tracks that move or crumble around you, and so much more. The new tracks are so cool and wacky at the same time. Race through a mall, a castle, in outer space over the Earth, through a shopping mall, through a forest and snowy mountain range, on a farm, and so much more. There is a great deal of diversity when it comes to the new tracks. One of my favorite new aspects of the tracks is the trick jumps. They really add an entirely new feeling to the game.

The characters and karts of the game are awesome. This time, we were given a huge selection of racers to choose from – 24 in all. There are eight racers in each racing class (lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight), which Nintendo finally added. Very great to see the variety, and now they just need to do this in Mario sports games (such as Tennis). I love that we were given such a huge roster because players now have a great variety and can really play around with player/kart combinations, and really have favorites. As done in Mario Kart DS, character and kart selection in this game is essential. Karts all have their own special stats that will be useful on certain tracks. Based on who you choose and what vehicle you are using, your racing experiences will be very different. This aspect forces players to really be smart about their racing and choose a proper strategy based on the maps and other racers. Also as in MK DS, going off-road really slows you down, so you might want to choose a kart that is has off-road stats if you are on a map that you will tend to go off-road on, so you are not slowed down too much. Something new to the series is how you can choose from a variety of different types of vehicles. In this game you can race using: a kart, car, motorcycle, bike, scooter, and much more. Great addition of variety to the game.

One important thing to point out is that in every race or battle mode, there are now 12 racers. Things get very hectic and crazy pretty fast because of this and it often becomes a punishment to be in 1st place because every racer on the map/track is then going to come after you and take you down. Though its fun and challenging, it gets quite annoying very fast. It sucks that being awesome is a curse at times.

The graphics in general are not much better than Double Dash, but they seem much more polished and great at various times. My favorite part of the graphics is the backgrounds of tracks. I am not sure why, but they seem very hi-def to me (very realistic). They are very bright and colorful, and seem to be alive. They fit so nicely with the game and all of the race tracks. Lighting and shadows were very well done in this game as well.

I was very pleased to get a free Wii Wheel with the game. It adds such a different feel to the game and series, and is so much fun. I would not be able to use it at all times though because I am quite fond of using the GC controller. I am much more comfortable with it, and feel that I can get much better turns/handling with it. That is something good to point out - you can use various controllers to play the game, such as: the Wheel, Wii remotes/nunchuck, classic controller, and GC controller. As they did in Smash Bros. Brawl, the variety of controllers that gamers can use is awesome. Though the wheel is so much fun to use, I would not enjoy being forced to only use it.

Battle Mode is by far my favorite part of the game. There are two different modes to play in: Balloon Battle and Coin Runners (both are team battles, where the best team wins). Balloon Battle is in every MK game, but it is by far the best in this game. Fight on any of 10 different maps (5 new and 5 old), kicking the crap out of everyone on the opposing team with items in this wacky and seriously fun battle royal mode. The best part of this specific mode is that you can finally play against CPU players! You can also play against human players, but it is much more fun and challenging to fight the CPU’s. This aspect was in MK DS, but it was very flawed and basic. Coin Runners is also very fun, but slightly flawed due to the massive amount of opponents. Race around maps and collect as many coins as you can. Getting hit by items causes you to lose most of your coins, which is the flaw of this mode. The coins scatter around you, so you can pretty much drive slow and collect them all again. This mode would be much more fun if you weren’t getting hit by items all the time due to all the players. I can often collect 20-30 coins, which is awesome compared to anyone else on the map, but within seconds you can get hit by a bunch of items and lose all your coins. Huge waste of time being so good at the mode in most cases. This is also a huge flaw in the Grand Prix races (the large amount of players).

The last awesome thing to quickly point out is that this game is much more challenging than the rest of the series. You are really forced to become smart, great racers to win a race or battle. You need to drift as much as possible, stay on the track at all times, hit every speed boost, and so much more. Thanks to there being more players on a track/map at once, which is both a great thing and a curse at times, you are really forced to be your best, make the right choices and be very strategic. This is a great step for the series, which they first dabbled in in MK DS.

This game is surprisingly near perfect, which is awesome to see in a Mario Kart game. Most of the issues that I have highlighted are very minor, and most likely go unnoticed by most players. The only real issue is the fact that having 12 players battling it out at once, in a race or in battle mode, is such a curse at times. You are physically punished for being great at this game at times, which is so frustrating. I hope that most people do not let this aspect get to them, because as much as a pain in the butt it is at times, having 12 players going at once is very exciting and fun. Everything suddenly becomes a huge battle royal and you have to fight for survival, which is pretty cool.

If you have a Wii and like racing games, this one is definitely for you. Even if you just want the free wheel, make sure to buy this game. It is one of the best games for the Wii and a great step forward in the Mario Kart series.

THE BAD:
-Red Shells are impossible to avoid
-Computer seems to biased at times
-Uses pre-made messages to contact friends

SUMMARY:
Mario Kart Wii is the 4th console game, or the 8th Mario game in general. With this new addition to the collection Nintendo seemed to break the traditional Kart boundaries slightly; some good, some not so good, but all fit well into the series.

-------Control Schemes-------
-Wii Wheel-
As Nintendo promoted, this control scheme is actually a pick up and play control scheme. It's simple, unique and most of all, it works. With simple controls as 2 to accelerate, 1/B to break, A to look back, flick the Wii Wheel up down left or right to perform stunts and the directional pad for launching your favorite weapons. Turning is just as simple as rotating the Wii Wheel left or right and the wiimote fits snug in it with an extension on the B button to make it easier to press. Main problem is you must take your wiimote out of its jacket to use it

-Wiimote-
The Wiimote is very similar to the Wii Wheel, where all controls are identical except for turning you must tilt it left and right. This is also a fun way to play the game, but not as near as intriguing as the Wii Wheel. Main problem with this is the B button is hard to reach; you might want to use 1 to drift with this scheme

-Wiimote + Nunchuck-
The Wiimote + Nunchuck attachment feels retro but adds a slight new spice to the series. In this scheme on the wiimote the A button accelerates, B button breaks/drifts, while on the Nunchuck the analogue stick moves your kart, the Z button uses a weapon and the C button looks behind, while to stunt you must flick your Wiimote. This is simple but still a nice alternative to that bland old control pad scheme. The problem with this is that holding A will seem to get irritated over time and when shooting a weapon you might accidentally veer off.

-Classic Controller-
The Classic Controller is not my personal choice. It feels bland and old. You'll feel like you're playing Double Dash but on your Wii. For this though your Left Control stick moves you, L uses an item, A is accelerate, B/R is your brake, reverse and drift, while X/Z looks behind. To trick press the directional pad.

-Gamecube Controller-
If you've played Double Dash, you'll pick this up and play with ease. Almost all controls are identical to the game; A is accelerate, B/R is brake/Drift, Z/X looks behind, L uses an item, analogue stick moves and Directional pad stunts. Use this if you want, but it may feel old for you.

-------Gameplay-------
This will seem familiar to you if you're a fan of the series, simply because it hasn't really changed. The addition of bikes and stunts adds that slight bit of change, but this will seem like all the games before hand.

-------Gameplay modes-------

-------1 Player-------
In 1 Player you have the following modes.
-Grand Prix-
A re-occurring mode in all Mario Kart games. In this you choose to race on 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and Mirror Mode, on 8 different cups consisting of 4 courses.

On 50cc you'll be having a basic race with your Kart (yes 50cc is Karts only) driving relatively slow. After about the 3rd cup you'll be wanting more due to the overall easiness of this cup and slow paced action, but hang in there. Like all difficulties, pass all 8 cups and a new player or 2 will be headed your way.

100cc is faster, not too fast though, this one is bikes only. This is difficult at times but not really that much that you will be pulling your hair out, generally you'll pass cups on the second attempt.

150cc now this is hard, with speed faster than 100cc and the ability to chose bikes or karts. Not to mention the AI at times is extremely biased; you'll be frustrated at times, but it's good that the difficulty is increased so much from bland old 50cc.

Mirror Mode, just passed 150cc and out of nowhere comes Mirror Mode (note you must unlock it), this is the same 150cc except all courses are Mirrored. Not in the way you're doing them backward but all left turns are now right, and visa versa.

-Time Trials-
Another favorite, basically you just race on one of the courses on a 3 lap race with only 3 mushrooms in a quest for the best time. But this time you will have incentive to do your best due to all your wi-fi friends, and world wide people can view your best records, also giving you bragging rights how much better you are then people, not to mention versing expert Nintendo ghosts, ghosts from other players, and you may also unlock a few things.

-Multiplayer-
You and up to 3 of your mates play in frantic games. Note the 2 modes can be played by yourself.

-------VS Race-------
In this mode you verse computers by yourself or with up to 3 mates in a race to see who's the best. Choose either solo race, where you verse computers in a set of races either random or chosen in a test to see who's better, or choose Team Race and get put in one of 2 teams with each racers place adding to the team score. Many options can be edited before the match such as Class (Speed of vehicle), CPU difficulty or turn them off all together, Vehicles (use karts, bikes, or both), Items (do you want them on? Off?), want more overpowered items (such as more frequent bullet bills, or more basic items, or turn them off and show your skill). It's all in your control this time.

-------Battle Mode-------
Get thrown in a team (you don't have a choice) and beat the living snot out of the enemy team with an array of weapons in 5 new and 5 retro battle field in either Balloon Battle or Coin Runners

-Balloon Battle-
Pretty simple, everyone has 3 balloons, pop your opponents' with weapons for points, each hit is 1 point for your team, but when you lose all 3 balloons you take about 5 seconds to respawn and your team loses one point. Team with the most points after time runs out wins; good simple fun.

-Coin Runners-
It's like Shine Runners, but not. Simply, coins are scattered over your playing field. Collect the coins and hit the other team with items to make them lose some of their collected coins. Team with the most coins at the end of a time limit wins.

Remember to adjust your settings in rules, to adjust the battle to how you like it.

-------Nintendo WFC-------
(You need to be able to connect your Wii to the net for this)
Now we're talking, online battles and races, with almost no lag, you may notice that it may take half a second for your shell to hit the opponent, but it's barely noticeable and for 12 players at once, thats impressive. Not to mention that there's online rankings and up to 2 people can play from 1 console, verse only people who you are "friends" with (friend codes are needed), only people from your continent or people world wide. Talk about choices. If you have wi-fi at home, you'll be spending a lot of time here.

-Vs Mode-
Yes, it's just like VS mode for multiplayer or single player, but it's online, with up to 12 players, although the amount of people in a race depends on how many people in the particular game. If you're waiting to join a game you can view what is happening in the match you're trying to join. Not to forget that you have points to earn depending on your rank, you start on 5000 and will gain and lose them depending on your finishing ranks. Priceless.

-Battle Mode-
Get thrown in a team of people you don't know and battle it out in either Balloon Battle or Coin Runners, the mode your playing changes each match. Yes you can get put in handicap situations, and your points are separate from your VS mode points. Gotta love it

-------Mario Kart Wii Channel-------
(You need to be able to connect your Wii to the net for this)
Although it's called a channel it's run straight from the disk, or you can save on your Wii for about 86 blocks. This is in a way the options of Mario Kart and your source for downloadable ghosts.

-Friends-
This is where you register friend codes, find your own, or connect to a friends race if you see they have one. Not much else to do here.

-Ghost Data-
Download random ghost data for time trials and try to beat them, or download ghost data onto your console, can bring a bit of enjoyment depending on the difficulty of them.

-Rankings-
Now this is what you want, this will bring up the best times for time trials on each level, look who has the best time on a certain level, see if you can beat it, you can view all levels on this, it also shows your friends records and your own. You can also view Competition records, due to this not being up yet I presume it would be the people with the most competition wins/points.

-Competitions-
Nintendo will play out a competition which you can chose to compete in, although there is a time limit, not sure how this works due to it not being up yet, but look forward to it.

-------Characters-------
Play as 1 of 24 Nintendo character, or as a Mii direct from your Mii Plaza, and jump behind a kart. You have a great arrange of characters from your favourite heroes, villians and a few added surprises, each character is categorized into a weight class of light, medium and heavy, this narrows the choices of karts/bikes you have, and adds a bit of strategy.

-------Tracks-------
16 brand new courses, and 16 of the best courses from older games appear to make a total of 32 tracks for your racing amusement, these are bright colourful and each have a catchy tune to them, all brought up with the Wii's graphics. Not to mention theres 5 new and 5 retro battle courses

-------Karts and Bikes-------
Karts are old news, bikes are the new thing, but don't feel bad about sticking old school and using karts, because there's many to choose from. Choose from many karts or bikes each with unique stats of top speed, acceleration and more. Bikes have the ability to wheelie by performing a stunt on while driving on the ground, this gives a very slight speed increase, use it on straights only though. While to balance this the karts have superior handling.

-------Items-------
Old and new, theres many to choose from, some you're happy to have, some you don't want, some are just a pain, but that's what makes it Mario Kart. New inductees are the Thunder cloud which works like lightning on one character only, and thats you if you dont bump into an opponent and pass it on. Mega Mushroom, your giant mushroom of complete ownage from New Super Mario Bros appears and makes you massive, squish your opponents with ease. Last is the Pow Block, make sure you're not in the vicinity when someone uses this, or you're in the air when it finally launches or find yourself in a vicious spin.

-------Overall-------
This is for sure one of the best Mario Karts to date. I've yet to see anything on this game to turn you away from it. The wi-fi makes the fun endless and leaving you wanting to be the best. With 5 control schemes, 25 characters, 32 tracks and countless karts, what's not to like? The graphics are great, the music is catchy, if you have a Wii, buy this game, if you don't have a Wii, buy it for this game, it's endless fun. Definatly recommended, it would have got a perfect 5 if it wasn't for the awful chat system amongst friends.

THE BAD:
-Shells seem to hit you way more often

SUMMARY:
Mario Kart WII is already the sixth installment in the very famous Mario Kart franchise. Starting from Mario Kart on the SNES, to Mario Kart Super Circuit on the GBA, to Mario Kart WII. The game is for all ages. Little children can have fun racing their family with the wheel, while some older people can compete with other players online.

Gameplay

Alright, so let's start this off by talking about the Gameplay. Of course, you can race on 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. 50cc being for starters who slowly learn to race (Karts only), 100cc for some of the better players (Bikes only) and 150cc being for the fast-paced experts (Bikes and Karts). You will need to complete these, as you can unlock certain characters doing this.

Then there are the wheelies and the stunts. You can only do wheelies with bikes. If you use the Wii-Wheel or Wii-Remote + Nunchuck, you simply flick up the Wii-Mote whenever you want, making your character do a wheelie and gaining a small boost. This can also be done by both Classic and Gamecube controllers (D-Pad).

Then, the stunts. Just before you jump off a ramp, or hill, or whatever you come across, you have to flick the Wii-Mote just like when you want to do a wheelie. You will do a stunt, and if you successfully land it, you gain a boost. Can also be done by Classic and Gamecube controllers (D-Pad).

Characters

Let's move on to the characters. You start off with 12 characters, including originals like Luigi and Bowser, and some newcomers like Koopa Troopa or Baby Peach. But of course, you can unlock characters too, all the way up to 24 characters (excluding your MII), which gives you a lot of unlocking to do.

Then, there are the bikes/karts. Each character starts with 3 karts and 3 bikes, allowing you to unlock 3 more karts and 3 more bikes for each character. Some of them for certain classes (lightweight, heavyweight etc) and some specific character bikes.

Tracks

Moving on to the tracks. There are 16 old ones (DS stages, SNES stages etc) and 16 new ones. Some of the Retro tracks consist of some fan favorites like Waluigi Stadium (GCN) and Delfino Square (DS). Also other ones like DK's Jungle Park Way (N64) and Shy Guy Beach (GBA). But now let's talk about the new tracks. The new tracks will blow you away when you first play them. The graphics, the color and even the music in them is almost perfect. It really brings Mario Kart to a whole new experience.

Items

Once again, the main thing of Mario Kart returns, the items. In order to get these items, you have to race into any item box you see. The items can be different for everyone. Someone who's 12th can use the Bullet Bill as someone who's 1st can only use Green Shells/Bananas, which makes it more fair. Of course we have all the old ones, like the Star, Triple Red Shells, Mushrooms... you name it, and it's in. But now, we got three all new ones. The so-called POW Block, the Thundercloud and the Mega Mushroom. Here's what they do: If you use the POW Block, the stage basically starts moving up and down. If you don't jump, or aren't in the air at the exact right time, you spin around and lose control. Then the Thundercloud, which causes lightning to strike and shrink you after a while unless you pass it on to someone else by bumping into them. And finally at last, my favorite out of the three, the Mega Mushroom. If you use it, you will get real big (New Super Mario Bros.) and gain speed, and you can flatten anyone you run over.

Battle Mode

Also returning, of course, is Battle Mode. This time, you have two modes. The famous Balloon Battle and Coin Runners. In Balloon Battle you have 3 Balloons on the back of your kart, and each time you get hit you lose a balloon until you have zero left, which will result in a point-loss for your team. Real fun, and causes a lot of mayhem. Then the all-new Coin Runners. You can compare it to the DS version's Shine Runners. You have to collect as many coins as you can for your team, but each time you get hit you lose half of your collected coins.

Then the Battle Mode courses. You have 5 Wii-Exclusive courses, and 5 Retro courses from the older Mario Kart games. Some of the new ones include Funky Stadium and Block Plaza, and some old returning ones like Twilight House (DS) and my personal favorite Skyscraper (N64)

Real fun to do alone, with your friends or online. Definetly worthwhile to check out.

Controls

There are 5 different control methods you can use for this game. They vary from the Wii-Mote on it's own, the Wii-Wheel, Wii-Mote + Nunchuck, Classic Controller and the Gamecube Controller.

Each controller can do the same things (Stunts, Wheelies etc) so no problem there. Even though the people who use Gamecube Controllers are almost guarenteed to beat someone using the Wii-Wheel. So you will have no trouble getting used to a certain controller, since you can choose from 5 different ones.

Wi-Fi

Moving on to the last subject, and my favorite. The online Wi-Fi mode! I'm telling you, it's amazing. You can choose either Battle Mode (Coin Runners, Balloon Battle) or do simple VS races. You can do Continental or International. When you play International you can play people from the entire world (Japanese people included) and Continental, only for people living in your continent (E.G. You live in Europe, you can play with France/UK etc, not Japan).

When you've found 11 other players (In less than a minute) you will all vote for tracks, or simply pick Random. The game picks a random track, and you're off to race.

There is no lag. AT ALL. It just works perfectly smooth, and it's very addictive. Once you start it up, you will play online for hours to come.

Overall

This game is a must-have for any WII-owner, newcomers and oldies. Amazing fun whether you play it alone or play it with friends or family. You will play this game for literally months to come, as you will never get bored with this game. Great game to pass time.

THE BAD:
- Certain Controls

SUMMARY:
Mario Kart Wii, being the sixth installment in the famous Mario Kart franchise. The game, much like the others, is very fun and aimed more at the younger audience. However, with WiFi and the wheel control used in this game, it brings the whole family together to have a laugh and some fun.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is very frantic, just like the previous games. As before, there are 50cc, 100cc and 150cc differences. The speed is slow and steady on 50cc, a good time to practise the handling, whereas on 150cc it's very fast paced and it really puts your skills to the test where you race to avoid items and the tracks challenges.

Another new feature would be Stunts. You can perform stunts after driving over a boosted ramp, or practically anything with a verge, and pulling the Wiimote or wheel back to do a stunt, which effectively, gives you a boost when you land. This gives you the edge if your opponent is close behind you as you can shoot ahead if performed correctly.

The music in the game is also very happy and cheery which makes the tracks amazing to play on. With the vibrant colours around every track, comes a nice soundtrack which makes the game that bit more enjoyable.

Characters:

There are 24 characters (25 counting your Mii) which includes 19 returning characters from Mario Kart and 6 newcomers to this game. There are 3 classes of weight and it's divided evenly with 8 characters in each class of lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight.

Tracks:

There are a total of 32 tracks in Mario Kart Wii, including 16 new ones exclusively to this game and 16 returning from the past games in refreshing new graphics. The new tracks are exotic, fun and beautiful in graphics. There are new challenges to avoid when racing through lava, malls and gold mines.

Karts and Bikes:

One of the main hypes of this game is the ability to ride bikes instead of regular karts. This is a new feature and has never before been seen on another Mario Kart game, so it's a big suprise. Both Karts and bikes are commonly used around on WiFi and their stats are varied with speed, handling, acceleration etc. The handling of both veichles really depend on the stats, but in general, even to newcomers, it's a breeze and very, very fun.

Online Play:

The second Mario Kart game to use WiFi and it's far from a let down. The online play is so very fun and allows you to play anyone across the world. From my personal experience, I have received no lag from this game, none at all which is far from what I expected. With the ability to have 12 player races online, I first imagined there to be so much lag it would make the game unplayable, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I have spent most of my time playing online, as to me, it's endless fun and never loses it's replay value.

Controls:

There are actually 5 types of controller you can play this game with. Those being the Wiimote on it's own, the Wiimote + Nunchuk combo, Wiimote inside the Wheel, Classic Controller or Gamecube Controller. I have tried every way and to begin with, I wasn't going to use the wheel as I thought I'd find it difficult, but after a few races, I started getting used to it. It's really down to personal opinion. I thought the Gamecube controller would be okay, since I used it for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! but, it was very different. Another thing to take note of, is you can't perform stunts with the Gamecube controller, which is a disappointment.

Overall:

As a whole, I love this game. It's such a good follow on from the Gamecube version and I've yet to see a serious flaw with this game. It's endless fun and once you pick it up, it's very hard to put down.