Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart marks the age-old tradition of an outing on each of the company's major console releases since its outing on the SNES in 1992. We've seen the Mushroom Kingdom folk evolve from ickle sprites to sharing a kart with a fellow racer and even made appearances in the world of portables, but the formula still remains the same: Hop on your vehicle, rev your engine and make a mad dash for the finish line taking out fellow racers using an array of wacky items along the way.

And that's about it. In the Wii edition the core mechanic still remains the same, with a few changes and replacements in place to spice things up, and tone things down. Unlike the more recent outings, gone is the need to waggle your stick from left to right to gain a speed boost, but instead you hold down the slide trigger and after a short time sparks fly out and off you go. It's odd at first, but does seem to prevent over-use and snaking antics. For even more speed-up comes a risky stunt system. It's been done in countless extreme sports, but would it work in Mario Kart? What we've got is a series of small jumps and curved walls where if timed right with a press of the d-pad (GameCube controller) or flick of the wrist (Wii-Remote and wheel), sends your racer into a quick spin or flip with a cheesy pose for a small boost once back on land. Much like the revamped sliding, performing these stunts takes a little while to get used to, even disrupting the natural flow of the race, however eventually become second nature.

One of the bigger additions is the use of bikes. Bikes, in a karting game? We first got a taster of Mario folk on bikes in Mario Party 8. One of the extra games saw the entire cast donning ickle mopeds, and my did it crash 'n' burn. Fortunately the two wheelers don't slide too far from the track and seem to fit comfortably in a world dominated entirely by four wheeled beasts. They come with the advantage of being able to sneak past a majority of traps and have some tight drifting, but do lack an additional second boost when taking corners. To get around this, players can perform a small wheelie on straight sections for a short jolt of speed.

 

Taking forward multiple karts with balanced stats from the DS version we've got a fair few to choose form, distributed by weight. For example, a kart or bike designed for Bowser in mind is also available for fellow heavyweight, Donkey Kong. Each have its drawbacks and advantages in weight, and feel balanced. No vehicle seems truly better than another, but some do feel better for certain courses and situations than others. The characters and models themselves are nicely rendered - nothing astonishing, but with some clean, robust texture work and good use of vivid lighting to give some fleshness to the cartoony folk. The line-up is perhaps the most balanced in a Mario Kart game yet, with plenty to choose from. There are a few disappointing forgotten faces, but overall a healthy balance between the light-weight and the nearing-obese gives plenty to choose from. Even Miis can be selected, allowing for some amusing you'd-never-ever-see-in-Mario-Kart characters to make an appearance. Fancy racing as a penis-head, well, you can!

Aside from bikes, the gimmick this time round is the Wii Wheel. Making its retail debut with Mario Kart, the wheel is exactly what you'd expect: a small circular piece of white plastic with a slot for your Wii remote. Surprisingly though, it's well made with firm handles, durable plastic and, despite being not clamped onto anything weighted, does work. Using it does come naturally, offering an accessible alternative for those not used to analogue sticks and controllers. The GameCube controller has been the main mode of choice for many, second to the Wii-remote and nunchuck option. Those wanting a wireless means can choose to use the Classic controller as an alternative

 

For the lone wolf in you, the single player mode offers a fair few options, but perhaps could have been taken further. To unlock a whole host of goodies and make good practice on the track, there are a series of eight different cups each broken into the standard four courses. At the end points are tallied, awards dished out, along with a grade on how well you've performed. The idea couldn't be simpler

 

Turning on the 'net and heading out into the wide world of racing brings a surprising wealth of options compared to Nintendo's past online Wii titles. The limited connectivity of Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Strikers has been improved on with a dedicated friends service where you can view what your friends are up to, and even join the next round of their games. Visual and sound indicators also give a neat warning that there are available rooms to join. Unfortunately the addition of friend options and basic chat comes with a slight drawback: the ability to only have 30 names registered at one time, which for the Internet can be filled very, very quickly. That said, online play is impressive