Mario Kart Wii details

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 December, 2007

From Nintendo Power.

US magazine Nintendo Power has revealed new details about the upcoming Mario Kart game for Nintendo Wii, most notably that it will feature 16 new tracks and as-yet undisclosed new weapons.

Mario Kart Wii - announced at E3 this year - sees the famed racing series make the transition to Wii, gaining a motion-sensor steering system based on holding the Wiimote with its buttons facing upward, a bit like Excite Truck, motorbikes and online racing.

As previously revealed, online games will support up to 12 players. Nintendo Power's preview adds that they will be able to pound one another with traditional power-ups like Koopa shells and lightning bolts, and fire themselves ahead with mushrooms.

It also states that the stunts possible (e.g. a motorbike wheelie) will have some sort of practical pay-off, although there's no further detail, and that the 16 new courses will be joined by some spiced-up old ones.

Other gameplay details were scant, and there wasn't any word on the steering wheel attachment due to be bundled with the game when it launches next year.

Even so, there isn't all that long to go, with Nintendo recently suggesting that Europe can expect to swing its arms at it as early as Q2 2008.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • aidey6 #1 4 years ago

    Looking forward to this after the brilliance of SMG !!!

  • Wayne #2 4 years ago

    I can't wait to play online against people that disconnect when they're not winning. Online with Nintendo FTW!

  • stampax #3 4 years ago

    What does FTW mean?

    Wayne - thankgod the same thing doesnt happen on xbox live or ps3 - that would really suck!

  • Wayne #4 4 years ago

    It happened to me constantly on Mario Kart DS and Mario Soccer Wii. I'm talking 4 out of every 5 games that I was winning resulted in my opponent disconnecting. I've yet to see it happen on Xbox Live.

  • Killerbee #5 4 years ago

    Very much looking forward to this.

    I'm not sure that "16 new tracks" and "as yet undisclosed new weapons" really count as "details" though - pretty much every new Mario Kart game ever has offered that...

    I'll be interested to see how the motorbikes shape up - presumably the speed will be improved versus making them more crash-prone...?

    I hope the steering wheel isn't too much of an abomination either... given that Mario Kart has always been about multi-player, it seems a bit of a odd move to bundle just the one peripheral with the game, so I presume you can still use the basic Wii mote, right?

  • Zomoniac #6 4 years ago

    So if it's played holding the remote on its side then that means getting accelerate, brake, powerslide and fire onto two buttons. It's going to be a thrust-remote-forward-to-fire jobby. Whilst steering. Hmmm...

  • monkie_king #7 4 years ago

    I can't help thinking that Mario Kart is a franchise that has run its course (approximately 2 generations ago, at that). Still good if you haven't played the earlier ones, I guess.

    Zomoniac: shoot weapon forward/back with D-Pad up/down, more likely. They'll put the jump/powerslide on a motion, though.
    Edited by 1 at 17/12/07 @ 11:17

  • RedPanda #8 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #9 4 years ago

    What does FTW mean?

    Fuck the Wombles.

    It can be used in both senses, but judging by the poster's state of excitement, I believe he wants to make sweet, tender love to the furry little wimbledon common tidiers.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #10 4 years ago

    I hope the steering wheel isn't too much of an abomination either... given that Mario Kart has always been about multi-player, it seems a bit of a odd move to bundle just the one peripheral with the game, so I presume you can still use the basic Wii mote, right?

    It's just a shell for the Wiimote, not an entirely new device. So I guess it should be no problem to use the Wiimote without it as well.

  • Zomoniac #11 4 years ago

    @ monkie_king: I forgot about the d-pad. I guess that's an extra four buttons in a sense. If using the remote as a steering wheel then there should be no other gesture controls. Please.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #12 4 years ago

    Hopefully this'll be a combination of Excite Truck and Mario Kart DS. In which case it'll be one of the greatest games ever!

  • stampax #13 4 years ago

    @Wayne - odd, and maybe bad luck - as i've rarely ever had people quit on me. This is probably because im rubbish at most games though, so there is no reasonw why they would want to quit!!!!!!!

  • chicknstu #14 4 years ago

    Lets just hope it doesn't have gimmicky broken tilt controls for steering! Oh... wait... it's a Wii game....

  • HiddenAway #15 4 years ago

    FTW can mean:

    For the win

    or (as I did initially):

    F***s the world

  • Canyarion #16 4 years ago

    Nothing new except for the 16 new courses. Boring.

  • strange_powers #17 4 years ago

    The controls on Excitetruck worked phenomenally well - I never had one single problem with the tilt steering and I played through the whole game.

    I reckon: 2 = accelerate, 1= weapon, d-pad= powerslide and A for brake (who ever brakes on Mario Kart?) will work fine. It may be that the steering wheel will allow shoulder-pad ish activations of B. Or even C and Z if it plugs in like the nunchuck.

  • huxathon #18 4 years ago

    jst traded excite truck in for Galaxy and kinda regret it now. That game was great.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #19 4 years ago

    Nothing new except for the 16 new courses.

    And motorbikes, stunts, online and motion control.

    Lets just hope it doesn't have gimmicky broken tilt controls for steering! Oh... wait... it's a Wii game....

    You've obviously never played Excite Truck.
    Edited by 1 at 17/12/07 @ 13:17

  • Sid-Nice #20 4 years ago

    FTW: Faster Than Wario.

  • monkie_king #21 4 years ago

    nicka: yeah, but if you're 1/2 a lap down and going to lose anyway, that's not really a penalty is it? they need to count quits and have it affect grid placement or something.

    my mystical predictions on the control setup:

    Steering - tilt
    Brake/Accel - 1/2
    Jump/powerslide - upward jerk
    D-pad - weapons

    Stunts will be on motions too.

  • stampax #22 4 years ago

    How can anyone have any doubts about this game after the genius of SMG? I trust nintendo to get this right 100%!

  • Wobbler #23 4 years ago

    I agree with monkie_king's control setup. Makes the most sense to me.

  • Tiny_Tim #24 4 years ago

    Jump/powerslide - upward jerk

    I hope to god your wrong about that

  • FenderMaster #25 4 years ago

    not really looking forward to this... motion controls just lack the subtlety needed for some genres

  • Skywise #26 4 years ago

    What exactly is news here? I thought all this was known already?

  • J.C #27 4 years ago

    Lets hope its better than the geriatric slow paced Double dash! worst mario kart game ever imo.

  • Tim #28 4 years ago

    "who ever brakes on Mario Kart?"

    The people who know that if you hit a banana, then if you brake immediately, you avoid spinning out.

    Pah. Kids today, eh?

  • Wayne #29 4 years ago

    "Didn't Mario Kart DS have some kind of penalty system for people who disconnected? Am I remembering it wrong? It was something along the lines of if you disconnect in the middle of a race it's recorded as a loss.. "

    No, that was the problem. If you were losing you could just disconnect. No penalty. The last time I tried playing I was up against a guy with over 300 wins and zero loses. I thought he'd own me, but i was winning and I was getting really excited that I was gonna beat this seemingly undefeated player, and then he disconnects.

    Don't get me wrong, I'll get Mario Kart Wii. I've been a fan since the snes version. Just don't expect me to get excited over Nintendo's online features because I'm pretty certain they will be a shambles.

  • strange_powers #30 4 years ago

    me: "who ever brakes on Mario Kart?"

    Tim: The people who know that if you hit a banana, then if you brake immediately, you avoid spinning out.

    Pah. Kids today, eh?

    I'm 32. And I drive around bananas.

  • Lemming81 #31 4 years ago

    @groovemeister: "Remote aiming with weapons would have been ingenious, but yet again there is MORE FUCKING STUPID remote novelty bollocks, which on Zelda TP forced me to get the GC version (as great as emote aiming was). Please, please Nintendo - make it optional. Give us analogue stick control too. "


    You're an idiot. Steering for a driving game is the most natural thing in the world. Stop trolling on wii game threads, yet again.

  • pyrat6 #32 4 years ago

    Fair enough if you couldn't get on with the steering controls in Excite Truck. (and god knows the wii controls appear to be subjective)

    But if you haven't played excite truck - and you're still slagging this (unreleased) game for it's control method you're just demonstrating your own ignorance.

    Persnally -almost the first thought I had when playing ET was ' I hope they can do mario Kart like this". That's no guarantee they will get it right though.

    (Personlly - I would pay proper money for a port of the snes version with online play)

  • Mayhem64 #33 4 years ago

    I've played Excite Truck, I liked it a lot. I'd still prefer stick control for Mario Kart though ;)

  • Aria #34 4 years ago

    Then give me a reason why there should be a Mario Kart Wii?