Mario Kart Wii

Review from Cav - Saturday, 24 May 2008 @ 9:39pm

This year, for Nintendo, the release of Mario Kart Wii has to be on par with GTA IV for Rockstar. Okay, the advertising may not have been so intense, the build up may have not been the centre of the gaming culture’s attention, but I would say that Nintendo achieved exactly what they aimed for. Now let me be honest with you: I have probably played Mario Kart 246,873 more times, across it’s various formats, than I have played any of the GTA series in it’s incarnations. This is why I have paid a little more attention to Mario Kart Wii. Don’t get me wrong, I wanna play GTA IV, it looks great, but I’ve been a long time Nintendo fan, so this was one I had to pick up on release day….. and I was the one who brought the N64 and Mario Kart to EGE in Melbourne last year and it was the shiznit at the Australian Gamer booth. Hell, the AG booth was the best thing at eGames!

Mario Kart Wii has innovation, nostalgia and a freebie all rolled into one. The inclusion of tracks from former editions of Kart not only let designers and developers off the creativity hook a little, but gives back to those faithful to the brand. Seeing tracks from the DS brought to life on the big screen is a bonus, but the real plus, for me anyway, was to see Mario Circuit 3 from the Super Nintendo version. The combination of the classic retina burning colours and a spiced up soundtrack pay an awesome homage. It’s not just that one, but each track from the game’s predecessors has been given a bit of a touch up and looks great. In total there are eight ‘Cups’ containing four tracks each, once again with the 50, 100 & 150cc classes and unlockable Mirror Stage. That makes for a cartload of racing …. and no, I will not asked to be excused for the pathetic pun.

Interestingly, Nintendo have decided to introduce motorbikes to the game. Don’t wanna ride bikes? Well stiff cheddar to you! It’s bikes only in the 100cc class. Personally I don’t feel it has made a hell of a difference to the game, but they do look good and who doesn’t like poppin’ a mono? (Damn I feel the need to watch BMX Bandits for some reason….) There are a myriad of other vehicles, both carts and bike, to unlock during then course of the game, as well as other characters to drive with. But nothing could be better than using your own Mii to tear up the track, although the voice for it sounds like it’s constipated. The new rating system for Cups is a bonus too, going from E to A then on to one, two and three stars. A perfectionists dream.



Unlike previous games, the racing is ruthless. Yeah you’d get hit by the occasional red or blue shell in Mario Kart 64, but you can get absolutely hammered in MKW. There seems to be no gaps between hits. A blue shell will be followed by a red shell and then you could be inked by a new Bloopa pick up, which covers your screen in black ink, then hit by the new POW pickup, which spins you out and then top it off with Lightning to shrink you. It’s not uncommon to go from 1st to last in the space of 10 seconds. On the other hand the introduction of the Bullet Bill pick up, which transforms you into a bullet and rockets you through the pack can have you up with the race leaders in just as much time.



So there’s new and old tracks, new and old characters, new and old pick ups, but that’s not what you all want to hear about, is it? It the almighty Wii Wheel that you are begging me to tell you about. Well let’s start with my personal opinion - it’s just not for me. I find it difficult to use. If I want to use a wheel for Mario Kart, I suppose I’ll just have to purchase myself one of these machines but I’m shagged if I know where I am going to put it. Yeah it’s usable for the 50cc class , but outside of that I can’t handle it. I guess I’m just too old school and love the comfort and familiarity of the Gamecube Wavebird Wireless Controller. You can use the WiiMote horizontally without the Wheel cover, but why the hell would you? Through a corse of surveys I have conducted not only here at AG but on other fronts, it is apparent that the combination of WiiMote and Nunchuk is the most popular control type for MKW, beating out the other options of the Classic controller, Wii Wheel, and Gamecube controller. So, have Nintendo done the right thing by giving us so many control options? If anything it has added an extra challenge, where you can be awarded a Golden Wheel for competing in and winning races while using the controller. Insert amazed crowd sound “ooooooohhhhhh aaaaaaaaahhhh’. So if you wanna 'race to complete’ and 'not race to compete’, then go right ahead.



Jumping in on what seems to be the bandwagon of the now, online play for MKW has to be the biggest selling point for the game. But sad to say they have made it really difficult as the ‘Friend Code’ rears it’s ugly head once again, just as it did with Mario Strikers Charged, which was my debut review here at Australian Gamer. Once you share your code, load up a mate’s code, wait to weeks for him or her to accept the code, only then will you be able to play against friends. Groan.

PLEASE NINTENDO! HEAR MY PLEA! I ALREADY HAVE A WII CONSOLE NUMBER TO REMEMBER, A BANKCARD PIN NUMBER TO REMEMBER, A PASSWORD FOR MY WORK PC TO REMEMBER, MY WIFE’S BIRTHDAY TO REMEMBER, LET ALONE MY BLOODY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! JESUS CHRIST, I CAN BARELY REMEMBER TO BRING MILK HOME WHEN I’M ASKED! SO WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO HAVE YET ANOTHER FREAKING NUMBER TO STORE IN MY ALREADY OVERCROWDED NOGGIN JUST SO I CAN PLAY MARIO KART WII WITH MY FRIENDS? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY WII CONSOLE NUMBER???

Once you get past all that, you can race against people on a private level, setting up a room and inviting friends. This is good, but the time spent between races could have been shortened, with track selection taking a majority of the ‘off the track’ time. You can also choose to with those within ‘your continent’ or across the globe. One downer I did find was characters would appear and disappear randomly. Here I was thinking I had earned third place only to find I was fourth. Personally I didn’t seem to find much lag competing on an intercontinental playing field, other than what I have described while playing against other Aussies. Other than that little hiccup, I can’t seem to fault the online play other than being able to work out how to just compete a full Grand Prix online. Oh yeah. That would be cool. I have come across what appears to be a monthly competition which could really up the online numbers for Nintendo, but from what I could tell the major prize was not much more than bragging rights. There are also ghosts that you can play against from people all oer the globe. I go kinda pissed off when my net connection went down during one of these races and it marked it as a loss for me, even though I was schooling the ghost.

Pros

Heaps of racing. Ratings system adds plenty of replay value. Heaps of characters and Karts … if you unlock them, but there is enough to go multiplayer straight off the bat.. Online play … what the world has been waiting for. Various control methods.

Cons

The Wii Wheel, not what it’s cracked up to be. Friend Codes, yeah, real ‘friendly’. Small glitches in online multiplayer

Summary

For those either long time MK (no, not Mortal Kombat, idiot!) players or those who didn;t know what Nintendo was before the Wii, the game itself is a must have and so is a WaveBird controller. Brave the Wii Wheel if you dare. Master it and go out int the world of online play and becme a Mario Kart Wii Champion!