A Hoffy Review:
Mario Kart Wii
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: USA: April 27, 2008, AUST: April 24, 2008
Genre: Racing/Action
Rating: E (ESRB), G (OFLC)
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Players: 4 (Local), 12 (Online)You gotta expect big things when the new Mario Kart is released, and given that, Mario Kart Wii is in a bit of a tight spot. So, queue history lesson. Super Mario Kart started it all on the SNES with the 2-player races and battle, with bananas and mushrooms and a feather that made you jump for some reason. It was impressive to say the least. Mario Kart 64 was popular for it's 3D graphics and 4-player fun, and well, not much else. Mario Kart Super Circuit brought things back to 2D on the Gameboy Advance, with four players and single-cart play an available option. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! placed a friend in the backseat for double the fun, and was a hit or miss depending on your social life. And finally, Mario Kart DS brought the mascot racing series to life on a handheld, by including online play, a tonne of unlockables and tasks, as well as a huge 32 courses. Now, Mario Kart Wii is storming our homes again, with engines aplenty and silly slot machine noises and a whole lot of hectic old-school fun, and whatnot. But is the Wii installment actually any good? Only one way to find out. Get your mushrooms ready, and start your engines...
"Mario Kart Wii finally pulled a Diddy Kong Racing."Gameplay: 8.5Mario Kart Wii's selling point, quite obvious from the box, is the Wii Wheel peripheral included with the game. Rest assured that the wheel is nothing but a plastic shell for your remotes, and the real brains of the operation occurs in the Wii remote itself, wouldn't you believe. The idea is that you mount the remote into the Wii Wheel, and you turn the wheel during gameplay to turn your vehicle, like you would a steering wheel. The 2 button acts as your accelerator, and the D-pad fires items forwards or backwards, depending on which direction you push. You can also hit the B button at the back to drift around corners, and the 1 button controls breaking operations. To put it bluntly, the whole idea of the Wii Wheel is that it is a gimmick to simply bring some extra fun to your Mario Kart experience. With that said however, the Wii Wheel controls extraordinarily well. It does take a little bit of practice at first, but eventually you'll competently take the corners and it actually is a whole lot of fun... with friends around. On your own the Wii Wheel can seem like "just another way to play Mario Kart", but if you're playing with friends and you have everyone throwing their arms around to take sharp corners, it can become quite entertaining. In saying that, the wheel is not as accurate as a joystick and you'd want to at least try the Classic Controller or the GameCube controller and see the difference for yourself. The Wii Wheel is great with friends, and if you'd like to take it all the way through Mario Kart Wii, it is indeed possible, but as soon as you hit 150cc in the singleplayer Grand Prix, you're not going to want the occasional stuff-up from not taking a corner properly, or not satisfactorily performing a trick.
Who needs GTA IV? Honestly!Mario Kart Wii finally pulled a
Diddy Kong Racing - that's right, Nintendo included an extra vehicle: motorcycles. In my opinion, bikes are pretty cool and I actually prefer them over karts. The idea is that bikes will give you some sharper turns in exchange for a bit of speed. But that's not the only difference. You can even lift up the Wii Wheel (or push the D-pad on the controllers) to execute a wheelie, which will increase your speed on straights somewhat, while temporarily removing sharp turning abilities until you cancel the wheelie. Though, given this ability, karts will gain more speed from boosts while drifting. It all balances out perfectly fine, it's just bikes are designed for certain courses, the same way karts are... and it's up to you as a racing legend to determine which vehicle works with which course. Either way, you'll be forced to play with bikes, because in the singleplayer Grand Prix mode, 100cc is all bikes - no karts. Other gameplay features Nintendo have included in this 'Kart include the ability to perform tricks when you get some air, by moving the Wii Wheel in some direction or pushing a direction on the D-pad (for controllers). The tricks aren't completely useless - they'll give you a boost of speed when you hit the ground, and eventually they'll turn out to be as essential as drifting boosts. You'll want to get every turbo on every jump and on every corner if you want to get that first place position.
"My friend and I have come to call the online battle mode as the mode for 'pwnin' nubs.'"All the usual gameplay modes are here. You'll still be able to prove your worth in the Grand Prix mode, tackling 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and then the almighty Mirror. You'll still be able to go into Time Trials to get the best possible time, save your ghost times and try to beat the times of the Nintendo executives themselves. You can still take on your friends in Versus mode, and still try to crush 'em good in Battle mode. And once again, you can race your friends or randoms online. But each of these modes aren't without their ups and downs. The Grand Prix is as great as it ever was, with four retro cups and four new cups for you to undertake. There's just one issue - the Grand Prix is not multiplayer. This is an enormous disappointment for many, and a horrendous act by Nintendo for what may as well have been "forgetting about it". You can still set up small GPs in Versus mode, but without the trophies the sense of achievement is lost and you and your buddies have nothing to strive for. This blow really shortens the amount of serious fun you can have with your mates, and my friend already made the comment that he'd rather play Double Dash because of it. On the other hand, if you're happy to go through the Grand Prix on your own, you'll find it as much fun as I did. But still, the most fun you can have with your friends locally is with the Versus mode. It's a solid experience, you can customize the rules and whatnot, the only downside is you can't turn off some items, which is a shame if you think Blue Shells downright suck ass. Battle is also very disappointing in local play. You'll find the courses are way too huge for four players to actually find each other, and you can't actually battle free-for-all, as the game automatically sets you up in teams, for some odd reason.
So good you'll !@#$% yourself.But the real fun of Mario Kart Wii lies in the online functionalities. Racing randoms and friends (via friend codes) is a given in any Nintendo Wi-Fi enabled game, but Mario Kart Wii certainly takes things a step further, even with just little additions. Besides being able to see the names, country/state and Mii of the random racers you encounter (unlike Brawl), players will also be able to take advantage of a new "Racer Ranking" feature, a score which originally sits at 5,000, but increases or decreases depending on how well you place in the online versus and battle modes. Speaking of battle, this is the first time players have been able to take the battle mode online, and there's no doubt that it's more fun than local battle. My friend and I have come to call the online battle mode as the mode for 'pwnin' nubs.' Even though, like local play, the online battle mode splits you up into teams, there's still a lot of fun to be had as everyone gets into the fray and just beats everybody down with shells, bombs and stars. If all of that isn't enough, you can even get into the Mario Kart Channel, where you're able to download the very best ghost data for any course in the game, check your time trials rankings against your continent, friends, or worldwide, and even participate in Nintendo's organised competitions. The lack of voice chat is obviously a disappointment, but at least connection time is nice and quick, and the races run as good as the local multiplayer races do. Online is sure to bring you a whole heap of mushroom-burnin' fun.
"It's obvious a lot of thought has gone into the course design."But if you are forced to play on your own, which you occasionally will be, you'll still be able to take advantage of the huge number of unlockable features Nintendo have included. Among them are 25 playable characters, including the regulars Mario, Luigi and Yoshi, but also some unexpected faces like Funky Kong, Rosalina, Dry Bowser, Baby Daisy and even your own Mii. There are also 30 vehicles in the game, and you're going to start out with less than half that number, meaning you're going to have to work pretty hard to get behind the wheel of Captain "Show Your Moves" Falcon's very own F-Zero machine, the Blue Falcon. Regarding items, all the usual weapons of choice like green and red shells, bananas and lightning bolts make their welcomed return, but new to the franchise is the POW Block for the smashing of anyone on ground, a "hot-potato" Thundercloud that increases your speed but will also strike you if you hold it for too long, and the Mega Mushroom from
New Super Mario Bros. for mega size-ups. It's obvious a lot of thought has gone into the course design, as the new tracks in Mario Kart Wii are among the greatest in the series. Twists, turns, ramps, pipes, cannons, rushing water, and mud add a lot of maniacal enjoyment to the courses, and you'll find there's never a dull moment on any of these new courses, not for a second. As for the retro courses, Nintendo have gone out of their way to redesign the best in the franchise, including DK's Jungle Parkway, Shy Guy Beach and Delfino Plaza. With a decent difficult level, addicted racers will be sure to squeeze 10 to 15 hours out of the singleplayer, and a whole lot more out of online and multiplayer.
Ah yee-ah, check out my sweet wheels. Phully sick bro.Graphics: 7.0Mario Kart Wii looks average. Compared to most next-generation software, Mario Kart Wii isn't at all impressive. A lot of the character models look as if they came from the dark ages of the GameCube, or even the holy ages of the N64. To put it bluntly, Mario Kart Wii looks just like Mario Kart: Double Dash!! with two differences: bloom effects and 60 frames per second. But, even though Mario Kart Wii isn't graphically impressive in any way, it is a Wii game that is very easy on the eyes. If you're willing to accept that you may as well be playing last-generation software, Mario Kart Wii looks really nice. The presentation in the game is also quite decent, with menus appearing in a manner similar to the Wii Menu you load up when you turn on your Wii. Unfortunately, as soon as you bring in three or four players, the game will drop to 30 frames per second. But, the game runs at 60 fps online, which is indeed a plus. Veterans will also find the updated graphics for the retro courses aids in bringing back feelings of nostalgia for SNES and N64 tracks, as they are redesigned to suit the Wii's capabilities, but they don't lose the classic feeling in the process. The older courses look great on Mario Kart Wii, and I enjoy the Retro Cups immensely. On the other hand, Double Dash!! tracks haven't been redesigned at all (besides some bloom effects), and I'm not sure why the developers didn't try to have the game look as good as
Mario Galaxy. Maybe next time, huh?
"Mario Kart games try nothing more than to make as much noise as possible."Sound: 7.5Mario Kart Wii sounds like Mario Kart. And if you're any decent gamer, you know what Mario Kart sounds like. It's interesting to note that Mario Kart games try nothing more than to make as much noise as possible, and that hasn't changed in Mario Kart Wii. "Yay!" "Whee!" "Yahoo!" "Heya!" "Oh yeah!" "It'sa Mario time!" "Hii!" "Alright!" "Bwahey!" The characters in Mario Kart Wii honestly don't shut up, and if you're picking up turbo-boosts on every corner and every jump, you'll be sure to be dealing with a lot of Mushroom Kingdom cuteness. As always, some characters are worse than others, and I'm warning you here and now never to play as Donkey Kong, Baby Peach or Daisy. Just stick to Mario and Yoshi if you want to be safe from a myriad of high-pitched noisiness. Speaking of noise, there's a lot of it, with slot-machine item bars carefully making their choices, the sonar of a red shell homing in on you, engines, collisions and of course, the very pleasant background music. Your Wii Remote speaker is sure to give you a lot of feedback, as well. Once again, Mario Kart Wii sounds like Mario Kart, and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing will depend on your tolerance. Also, make sure you listen to the background music in Bowser's Castle 3 for the ultimate King Koopa awesomeness.
More like Mario Mine Cart, am I right guys? Actually, that's not a bad idea...Overall: 8.8 Wii Wheel controls nicely, control options, bikes rock hardcore, tricks, smooth and impressive online mode, downloadable ghost data, race rankings, nice course design, tonnes of vehicles, tonnes of characters, retro courses, sounds like Mario Kart. Wii Wheel sometimes inaccurate, lack of multiplayer in Grand Prix, Blue Shells suck, limited Battle options, somewhat dated graphics, sounds like Mario Kart.First of all, ignore the scores. Mario Kart Wii, despite it's many flaws, is a whole lot of fun to play, and that is the simple justification for the score of 8.8. Yes, Nintendo really screwed up with a lot of little things, but there's simply no better feeling than getting some friends around and immersing yourself in the idea of beating them, and beating them good (real men use Green Shells). Yes, Blue Shells do suck and 150cc is brutal if you don't know how to stay in second or third until the end of the race, but when you go online with friends or randoms and just try to beat someone with a golden Wii Wheel next to their name... I've said it once and I'll say it again, you're sure to have a lot of fun. Online and local multiplayer modes are excellent, and definitely make the Mario Kart Wii package worth it. Overall, Mario Kart Wii isn't the best Mario Kart out there, but it certainly does come close. So give Brawl a well-deserved rest, and get behind the Wii Wheel for the ride of your life.