jbee02

User Score
8.5

Presentation - 10
Gameplay - 8.5
Value - 8.0

Mario kart has always been one of the best racing games in my book. I’ve always preferred the crazy, loopy, weapon based racing of the Mario kart series, to the more realistic take on racing. Mario Kart has always been a racing game based on weapons. It has always included a wide range of different themed race courses, from wild west race courses, to tropical beaches, to ghostly settings, and to dessert courses. It has always excelled at course design, and Nintendo has a habit of creating quite few really remember-able race courses. The Mario Kart games have always had a brilliant mix of elements from both party and core genres, and Mario Kart Wii is no exception to the above.

In Mario Kart Wii you collect item boxes during races, which give you random weapons that you can use against your opponents. Items like banana peels, projectile green turtle shells, homing red turtle shells, stars that make you invincible and deadly to any one you come into contact with. This is the basis of the Mario Kart series since day one.

Some of the things that set Mario Kart Wii apart from previous iterations are the ability to race on motor cycles or karts. You can do tricks while airborne, which gives you speed boost when landing. You also have a wide range of controller option, a feature many will be thankful for. You can use a GameCube controller, the classic controller, the wiiMote and nunchuck combo, or just the wiiMote with or without the wheel add on. When you use the wiiMote alone, you hold it on its side and you turn it left or right like a steering wheel to turn. This is the easiest and most fun way to control the game, and highly recommend it. If you have played the previous Mario Kart game for the DS, you’ll find that the weapons arsenal is almost the same, with a few new weapons, and some old ones that have been slightly tweaked.

For those of you new to the series, here is a rundown on the weapons system plays out. Basically there are special boxes scattered around the race course. Drive into one and you will randomly receive a weapon to use against you competition. Weapons are varied and fairly well balanced. Many weapons can be used offensively and defensively, adding a level of strategy to the game. Though there are some almost unavoidable items, like the blue turtle shell, which will always fly straight to the first place player exploding and knocking down the first place racer and any one else who is to close to him / her. To help balance out the item system, your position in the race determines which items you’re more likely going to get. If your in last place your more likely to receive some of the more devastating item to help make a come back. In first place, you’re more likely to get the weaker and defensive based items. This helps a lot in lower difficulties, but in higher difficulty setting it can make things brutally difficult. If you end up getting nothing good and your opponents get a couple good items, you can easily go from first place to last place, and when you’re a core gamer trying to fully conquer a game it is never fun to loose because of random things completely out of your control. Skill will give you a big advantage, but luck still plays a key role in game play. Love it or hate it, luck is a defining characteristic of a party game and this game. Whether you enjoy it or not, will strongly depends on your taste for party games. What puts me off about this game is it’s a more party orientated then previous games in the series.

Despite being a party oriented game, this game has plenty for the core gamers. This game host enough unlockable content to keep the core gamer busy for quite a while. This game includes unlockable karts, unlockable motorcycles, unlockable characters, unlockable race courses, and unlockable difficulty settings. Some of the more notable unlockables include the ability to use your mii avatar as a racer character, which is a very welcomed addition, especially in online multiplayer. The game also hosts a wide selection unlockable old course from past Mario kart games. Which gives the game a great nostalgic feel for veteran player, and these courses are unlocked early on in the game. Unlocking every thing will take some serious time, skill, and patients, but that just means that this game’s single player mode has many hours of great replay value.

Online multiplayer is a section that shines exceptionally well, which is surprising considering Nintendo’s track record with online multiplayer. You have two basic modes; racing and battle mode, and both of them can be played either on 1 to 8 player online multiplayer, and 1 to 4 local multiplayer. You can also play online either by your self or with one other friend in split screen online multiplayer, another very welcomed edition.

Mario Kart Wii only has random match making, meaning no game server browser or hosting custom online games. You can choose to play against people either from your country or from around the world. Online match making is quick, with few waits. It has a very well designed interface to. While searching for player or a game to join, it shows a globe of the earth, and when other players are found their Mii avatars are shown on the globe in the general area where they are playing from. Once you join a game and all players are found, you choose your racing character, and then you vote on which race course to play on. Online runs smoothly with little to no lag.

The first multiplayer mode I will cover is battle mode. Battle mode is where you are placed in a big map with a bunch of items and other players, and your goal is to fight each other using the items, instead of racing each other. Battle mode is an area that was great in Mario Kart Double Dash, and Mario Kart 64, but not so great here. Gone are the many different variants of battle mode of Double Dash and free for all battle mode is only playable in split screen multi player. In online battle mode, you can only play a team based version of battle mode. During online battle, you are given battle rating starting out at 4000. After each round it adds or takes points depending on how well you did.

Online racing is where the real fun is at. But be fore warned, the online multi player racing isn’t meant for people who are super competitive. It is even more brutal then the single player on the harder difficulty settings. You will often find your self juggling back and forth between first and last place. Once I was about to finish first place and just before the finish line I was hit by a red turtle shell. I was passed by a couple of people and then, before I could even get moving again, I was hit by another red turtle shell. I ended up taking last place. If you can shrug off and even laugh at stuff like that, you will really enjoy this online multi-player. If not, you will often find your self screaming at your Wii.

Online players can also be unnecessarily vicious. For example, once I was in second to last place with the guy right behind me got a star. The speed boost alone would have been enough to leave me in the dust. But despite that, he waited until I was near an edge to use the star. So not only did he run into me, but he purposely knock me off the field. It’s a good thing there is no online chat in this game, because if there were, people would be cussing up a storm greater and more vulgar than any other online game in history.

But I’ll say this again, if you can just let these things go and forget about winning every race, it becomes an extremely fun online multiplayer. But you also have a versus rating system that works just like the battle rating system, and he rating system can make it difficult to forget about winning and loosing, as you will be temped to focus on increase it but will often meet with a frustrating failure.

Mario Karts online doesn’t end with multiplayer. There are also great leader boards, in which you can upload your best time trial records and see how you match up with your friends, and with players around the world. You can upload and download time trail ghost and race them. You also have tournament and events, all view able from the Mario kart channel which you can download to you Wii menu from the game disc. This allows you to keep track of your stats on the online leader boards from your Wii menu, with out putting the game disc in, which is a brilliant addition to the online experience.

Mario kart’s online is not meant to be a competitive multi player; it’s design so that everyone can enjoy their fare share of victories and lost regardless of individual skill level, which can be a refreshing vacation from the online games that are dominated by 8 year olds. A ranking system, which promote competitions, is a little out of place here, and I would have preferred if Nintendo left it out.

All in all Mario Kart Wii is a great game. It’s the same Mario kart fun that many of you know and love plus many more hours of unlockables and depth that far exceeds any thing in previous Mario Kart games. It’s online is a bench mark for Nintendo’s online, and it has an extremely well designed interface, easily makes for quickest and easiest match making and stat tracking I’ve ever experienced in online gaming. It’s the best online experience Nintendo has ever put forth, and one of the best online experiences on the Wii.

Mario Kart Wii isn’t perfect, as it does have its flaws. While on the harder difficulty settings, the game can be very brutal, due to frequent bouts of bad luck. The party orientated multiplayer might not ring well with the super competitive core gamers. The skill rating system conflicts with its party oriented game play mechanics. Battle mode isn’t as good as it was in previous installments, and its online relies on Nintendo’s craptastic friend codes system.

But these flaws are forgivable as they are heavily outweighed by the pros of the game. Between its online multi-player and single player, you will be playing this game for months to come, maybe even years. This is with out a doubt the best Mario kart game ever.