Mario Kart Wii

The Mario Kart series has been a popular game among Mario fans and Mario Kart Wii does not disappoint. With new tracks, characters, items, and features the game really is one of the best for the Nintendo Wii.

Getting Started

From the first opening of the game to when your in the middle of a race Mario Kart Wii will really shine. Nintendo did not fall short on making the game look and play its best. You will start the game by creating a license (you can make up to four) which will keep track of the cups you have beaten. While making the license you will be asked to choose a Mii for to represent the license, and not to spoil anything, but your Mii's will come into play later in the game.

The main menu of Mario Kart consists of 4 different panels; Single Player, Multiplayer, Nintendo WiFi, and the Mario Kart Channel which I will go through later in the game. The main menu really stands out from the usual boring menus you find yourself staring at during the beginning of the game. The bright, cheery music keeps you in the moment and the blue/white color scheme is really something to look at.

Single Player

Grand Prix
The Grand Prix probably stands out as one of the highlights of Mario Kart Wii. In Grand Prix you will compete against computer players in a cup, which consists of four races. In the beginning you will only be able to compete in 4 different cups. Two of the cups feature 4 brand new tracks each, while the the other 4 feature tracks from old games. These retro tracks, although old, look great on the Wii. If Nintendo can turn a basic SNES stage into something spectacular then something must have went right.

The Grand Prix also has 4 different difficulties (one must be unlocked later on in the game) and they include the 50cc, or easy, 100cc, or medium, and 150cc, or hard. If the 50cc you can only ride karts, in the 100cc only bikes, and in 150cc you can ride either.

All in all, the Grand Prix is really one of the main things you will spend time playing. Its fun and challenging and can take many hours to beat or get the top star on.

Bikes
Bikes are a brand new feature added to Mario Kart Wii. These two wheeled racers have the ability to pop-a-wheelie which will gain you extra speed, but unlike karts they do not get a second mini-turbo bonus. Overall this new feature is great because it adds a lot of variety to how you race strategically.

Character Roster
The game is set up into three different weight classes; lightweight, midweight, and heavyweight. In the start of the game you will have a total of 12 characters to choose from which will eventually more then double and reach a grand total of 26 characters. Each character adds a bonus to a certain stat, so choosing a character wisely contributes to a person strategy, adding even more variety.

Whats unique about every character, apart from the bonus stats, is that each weight class has a total of 3 karts and 3 bikes from the start, which will eventually double to 6 bikes and 6 karts per class. Not only that but every character has their own color scheme. For instance Mario and Peach might ride the same kart, but Mario's will be red Red, Black, and White while Peachs will be Pink, Yellow, and White.

Other One Player Modes
Apart from the Grand Prix, the game also has 3 other separate modes including Time Trials, VS, and Battle mode.

In Time Trails you will race against the clock and Nintnedo Staff Ghosts to beat your own records or records of other people over WiFi. In VS you will either single or team race with opponents to see who can earn the most points in 4 races. Lastly, in Battle Mode you can either play Balloon Battles, where your objective is knock of your opponents balloons with items, or Coin Runners, where your objective is to simply collect the most coins.

These games become a bit monotonous and do not have much replay value when your alone playing. They just were not meant for single player.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is an OK feature of Mario Kart Wii. You can play with up to 3 other friends and play VS Mode or Battle Mode with them. Its fun to play alongside friends, but its probably best saved to play with friends on WiFi Multiplayer.

WiFi

Obviously WiFi is one of the best new features of Mario Kart Wii. Over WiFi you can play with one friend along side you against opponents all across the world. You can play in either VS mode, where its simply a race to earn points towards your highscore, or VR. Or Battle where you play the normal Battle Modes, just against real people, for a separate highscore.

As you play your highscore will go up and you can impress your friends or intimidate your opponents with it as it shows next to your name.

The best part about Mario Kart WiFi is that you can randomize your races. The game does allow you to have a Friend Code to share with friends online or in person, but it gets tedious memorizing and writing them down.

Overall, the WiFi is great. There is hardly any lag even with the max amount of racers racing at once and the fun level just increases.

Mario Kart Channel

The Mario Kart Channel is exactly what the name implies. With the Mario Kart Channel you can put the actual channel on your Wii Menu for easier access. With this feature you can do one of many things. You can check and register friends, race against real life ghosts on tracks and try to beat their scores, see the rankings of peoples time trials records on highscore tables, and race in tournaments.

The one thing that probably stands out most is the tournaments. With tournaments you can race in specially made courses with different challenges set. After completing it your highscore will be sent to the leaderboard and you can see others highscores to know what to beat.

This new feature is quite simple, but very innovative and will give you an extra kick when trying to beat out friends highscores.

Other New Features

Wii Wheel
When purchasing the game you probably noticed that it came with a WiiWheel. By inserting the WiiMote into the WiiWheel you can race with an actual wheel. This new toy is great because it makes you really feel like your racing and gets you in the racing spirit.

Now, not many people actually use the WiiWheel competitively because the other options of control such as the normal WiiMote are simpler and easier to use, but it really isn't something you should pass up.

Visuals
The visuals of Mario Kart Wii are simply outstanding. The new stages look brilliant and have bright, colorful looks and textures that will surely impress you. The shadowing is great and the overall effect of the graphics makes the game stand out.

It is safe to say though that some of the remade stages are not as impressive. Nintendo didn't do much to improve the remade stages graphically apart from upgrading them to the "WiiLook".

Audio
You probably won't find yourself listening to the music as your in the middle of an intense race, but if you do take some time to listen in you will find the music is very well done. The choices of songs for each stage is fitting and really puts you in the mood of the stage; whether that may be dismal for Bowser's Castle or Upbeat for Mario Circuit. You will not find yourself turning down the music unless its to escape Bowser's evil laugh.

Items
No game is perfect, which is why Mario Kart Wii does have one major drawback, and that's items. The items in the game are creative and fun to use, but competitively they are a real let down. Because there are so many racers on a stage at once, they will each continuously be getting items. This wouldn't be so bad if the items weren't so broken. You might find yourself in first place 10 feet away from the finish line just to be suddenly bombarded with a blue shell, followed by a red shell, then a thunder shock, then finally passed by half the racers. Nintendo really should have put an option to turn these things off.

Conclusion
Yes, Mario Kart Wii does have a few set-backs, but the good parts of the game heavily outweigh the bad. Mario Kart Wii has one of the clearest and lag-less WiFi features and tons of unlockables. It is possible that if you do not have WiFi or people to play with that the game will not last long compared to people who do, but you might just find yourself spending plenty of hours getting 3 stars on each of the cups in each level difficulty. Overall, the game is a must buy whether you like racing games or not.