Mario Kart Wii

THE GOOD:
- Characters
- Tracks
- Karts and Bikes
- Stunts
- Online Play
- Music

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...

Mario Kart Wii

Opening Thoughts

This game is magnificent. Really is probably the best game I've played on the Wii. It features intuitive controls, great gameplay, two good ways to get your competitive gaming in, all in one, family friendly game. It features all of the characters we loved from the Mario series, like Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Peach, Bowser, you get the picture. But it also has a decent amount of spinoff characters, like Funky Kong, the Baby characters. It also even features the little villains that usually aren't portrayed majorly in games, such as Dry Bones and Koopa Troopa. The Mario Kart Channel is awesome, seeing time trials and tournaments really help this game be, in my opinion, the best WiFi Wii game to date. But the main reason the game gets that title from me, is the actual racing online aspect of it. 12 players all over the world with no lag is simply amazing, since Nintendo can't handle a regional...

THE GOOD:

Mario Kart Wii was by far one of the best games that I have ever played. The graphics of this game were HD amazing; the colors were great, the background had great detail and I felt like I was there.

The control handling was specifically designed to fit all. Whether I played using the Wii remote or the steering Wii wheel, I was filled with excitement and thrilled to have played it.

The new karts and bikes and Mii options was a great addition because I never got bored; every time I played the same character it was not the same. In addition to the the vehicles the amount of tracks that are available and the way are made is outstanding, because each one was created with such a great amount of detail and was based on the main themes for certain characters of the game. I never felt like I was going in a boring circle that would end the joy. Not only did the tracks look good, I performed amazing stunts with the characters I...

THE GOOD:
- 24 characters to race as; the huge selection is awesome to see; tons of returning characters and tons of new characters that finally made it into MK; finally there is a good selection of characters in certain classes (8 in lightweight, 8 in middleweight, and 8 in heavyweight)
- 32 maps to race on; there are 16 new tracks and 16 tracks from past games; new maps add so much innovation to the series, using the Wii wheel and new gameplay aspects (such as jumps and tricks) to boost the games fun; old maps have many ‘Wii’ improvements
- Tons of karts to use
- Amazing graphics, probably the best of the series
- More fun than ever before
- You can race using karts, cars, bikes, scooters, motorcycles, and so much more
- Great amount of unlockables: characters, vehicles, etc.
- Free Wii Wheel! Adds a great new aspect to the racing series
- Awesome multiplayer game; play against CPU players or friends
- Go online...

THE GOOD:
-24 Characters (excluding your own MII)
-16 Brand new courses, and 16 old ones
-Stunts
-Big variety of Bikes and Karts
-Wi-Fi
-Plenty of Replay-Value
-12 Players
-Wii Wheel
-Music

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...

If the miracle of science one day makes time travel possible, the first thing scientists should do is find out the exact amount of times people have sworn throughout history and then calculate what percentage of these obscenities were aimed at Mario Kart. I'd honestly be surprised by anything less than 50%, because for every stubbed toe or finger-jammed-in-door experience, there are at least ten Blue Shells hurtling ominously towards whatever players had the balls to try and come first. Such is the nature of Mario Kart, a series that promotes itself as family friendly but is really just a home wrecker in disguise.

For those of you as new to gaming as the Playstation 3 is to being a worthwhile purchase, then let me give you a quick run down of what Mario Kart is all about:

It's Mario, in a kart. Moving on.

This series has been so successful because it is the epitome of the "pick-up and play" mentality. Doing marginally well requires little...

THE GOOD:
Controls are easy to get used to, especially with the Wii Remote. The Wii Remote adds more fun to the game, as you control the steering by tilting the remote. The advanced stats make it so there is a kart/bike/character combination that perfectly suits anyone's driving style. Each character adds a little to 2 stats. Funky Kong is used to set many World Records in Time Trails, along with Daisy and Toadette, because of their character stat boost.

Online play gives you something to do after beating the game and getting stars in the Grand Prix can challenge even some of the best players. Getting a Star in every race on every CC will give you a star ranking online. When playing online on Worldwide or Regoinal, the Wii matches you up with people with around the same amount of Versus/Battle Points as you.

Also in Mario Kart Wii is the Mario Kart Channel. While on this Wii Channel you can race in tournaments, compare your Time Trails scores with...

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...

THE GOOD:
Mario Kart Wii, although I only played for about half an hour, amazed me. The graphics were very well thought out, and was a very good game. The sound effects were something I enjoyed, and it had all the classic bonuses, but revamped with new ones. The steering wheel was very good for controls, and actually gave me a real racing feel. It made me feel like I was actually in control, and didn't just have to press Up and Down with the A button to accelerate. I liked how the spread the buttons out, but I did have some problems...

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 GOOD:
- Online is one of the best on a Nintendo system to date.
- The voice overs are pretty well done
- Most of the courses are fun to play on
- Controls are great once you get used to them (depending on what you are using)

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...