Mario Kart Wii Comments by Oli Welsh

Having played a good few hours since last post Im actually really enjoying it I have to say. I prefer the pad to the wheel. The new tracks are fun and theres more to the power slide than I originally felt. I have to say though the older tracks are still the best as far proper racing goes it seems that from 64 onwards they have got wider and wider and busier with , although fun, obstacles rather than finely tuned racing lines. Still, I think this is a Mariokart for this era and really like it. Its a shame we couldnt have all the SNES tracks as unlockable ala GBA Super Circuit but hey theres no point moaning as they aint there so thats that. Im not keen on the bikes though but online a lot of people seem to be using them that Ive played so must be ok for some. Shame online has no voice chat and the friend code malarkey is a little painful having been an XBL user since day one on the old XBox. But hey its 12 player online MK - I for one could have only dreamt of that back in 92. No doubt therell be moaning about it all for ages though. Oh well.

My girlfriend picked this up yesterday and said it is great so I am gonna enjoy some online wii racing action later. Yay!! :)

Edit - played it, great fun! Wii owners HAVE to get this :)

hmmm, 6/10 in games tm this month as well. got to say, having played a bit this morning, agree with a lot of the negative points... later courses have just got too much shit on the course to avoid, and too many powerups so you're always being hammered from all sides by other people. and cos there's 12 in each race, more people using those powerups on you all the time. becomes more about constantly avoiding things rather than actually racing. they seem to have lost some of the purity that made the older ones (and the fantastic DS version) so great...

still great fun tho!

@bitesize

You've summed it up rather nicely, there. I completely agree with this.

Macmurphy, Edge magazine gave Double Dash 5/10, so the fact that this scored 6/10 there isn't really that bad since I quite enjoyed Double Dash. Anyway, I find it hard to trust Edge, their scores are all over the place. (Final Fantasy X 6/10, Dark Chronicles 6/10, Metroid Prime Corruption 7/10 etc).

I played this on Friday night with my mate after a night at the pub.

After I lost 1st place 4 times in a row just before I was about to cross the finish line to fucking blue shells, I turned it off and gave it to my mate.

Piece of shit.

LOL

Poor loser, eh? Methinks you've somewhat missed the point, and your friend is a lucky happy gamer :D

This game is sooo good it should be illegal, all the people that gave up cos they got hit by a shell on the line..... what do you expect? this is mariokart, I too was fekked off with it until i gave it a second chance, now i can't put it down

Well I never liked racing games anyway. Cars that don't steer when you use the stick aren't realistic.

It's a good game, leave it at that.

It's a great game. My first impressions are very positive, great in single player, great online. I'm even enjoying controlling it with the wheel. 9/10 so far.

Basically mario kart is a fun, well made game. However there are three main problems with it. The lack of free for all battle mode, its anarchic backstabbing mayhem is the essence of batle mode. Another issues is the fact that there are 50% tracks from other systems. I have played mario kart b4 and didn't want to play the same tracks again. The third issues is that online multiplayer does allow more than one race in series, leaving a kind of temporary feel to it. Three major flaws and a lack of major innovation =7 or 8/10.

Camilitus I think you are looking TOO hard for something bad to say about it.
If they were 100% new tracks, you would probably hate the fact that you couldn't play the older tracks.

Not too much was made of the online element in this review, but I think it's THE game to really bring it to the masses (and I don't mean LIVE masses, I mean casual gamers everywhere). It's incredibly simple to set-up, and once you are going you can just compete in race after race with no lag or waiting periods between races. I got into a race at 8pm last night and was still going at 11pm.

A couple of the women at work have 9/10 year old kids and they can safely and easily play this online no differently to playing an offline game. Superb.

One question though, what does the gold steering wheel signify?

Its interesting peoples difference in opinions - I think one of the things with Mariokart is that the players that have loved it from the beginning (me being one) would request as many of the old tracks as poss. Yet it seems some people arent happy with that idea. I like the new tracks but I have to say that if thats all that was there I would be a little disappointed. I think the game's really great as I have already said but I think its a shame that there seems to be a little of the refinement of earlier titles taken out. Its a shame theres no DLC for the Wii like we get on XBLIVE as then we could be getting new content packs and oldskool classic packs every couple of months or so. That way people who dont seem happy with the oldskool MK wouldnt have to bother if they didnt want. Well Im off to enjoy what IS included and bugger thinking about what wasnt. Its refreshing to just have sheer unadulterated fun as opposed to the hardcore weaponfest of Halo and COD that Ive been involved with of late. Thankyou Nintendo.

Yeah I was wondering the same abt the Gold Steering wheel - is it perhaps people that have gold on all cups across the board? I still dont have gold on some of the 100CC yet though I guess I can go back and mop up with Karts now?

I assume the gold wheel is something to do with using the wheel online, maybe number of races won with the wheel? I always have a white wheel next to my name online as I always use the wheel, I've won races with it and it's still white, so it certainly doesn't change after a couple of wins.

On that note, I'm strangely compelled to keep up my 100% wheel use stat, it's just so much fun (but admittedly not the most refined way of racing)

more shovelware for the wii, then!

/useless troll leaves the internet.

I suspect that you're confusing a Mario Kart game with an actual driving game, frod. The series (and genre) has always contained random elements to ensure that the most skilled driver does not always win. The most skilled player, on the other hand, might stand a chance. As long as this game allows some way of dodging blue shells, that is.
If you can get some friends together, try out a cup comprising of the Mario tracks (particularly SNES Mario Circuit 3) with all the items off/low. Clearly, it's still no Gran Turismo, or even Colin McRae, but that was never the point.
Obviously, I would have preferred a review that gave a better idea of how multiplayer has been handled and the balance of weapons, mind, 'correction' notwithstanding.

Incidentally I'm really warming to this game. Some of the new tracks do feel a bit poor, but I feel the same with every new MK; I learned to love the contours of Peach Beach, so I'll give them a proper go.

Having spent a bit more time on this I do feel they've got the balance with the bikes pretty wrong. Bikes hold all the online records and comfortably win many of the online races.

With the records it would be good if you could compare like for like (Karts or Bikes) and it would be good online if you could choose if you just want to race bikes, karts or a mix.

Oh man I loved Mario Kart on the N64, and so I got this game hoping it'd be brilliant, and man. Please, do not buy this game. At all costs*, don't buy it.

First evening, three of us spent about 5 hours laughing and shouting at the television. Second evening, same. Third evening I had to go out, and instead of properly enjoying myself I wanted to go home and play Mario Kart. Seriously, the incredible fun is not worth your life.

* £0.00

While this game is good, there's several critical flaws which stop it from being great. Amazing how they can just leave out so many features.

- No co-op grand prix. (main reason I play MK is to play through and complete the game with a friend)
- No free-for-all in battle mode.
- Where's the display of race times? (Oh don't worry, race times aren't that important in a racing game...?)

I've also found the AI on the hardest setting to be quite easy, despite their tactics. I think they've probably toned down the difficulty to appeal to the 'casual gamer'.

It's amazing how Nintendo create the Wii Wheel, and because they realise it's poor and difficult to use - they reward people for putting up with it (on the online systems)

I thought Nintendo were saying that they weren't going to isolate the core gamer, but that's the path they're heading down. This game is just more proof of that. It's disappointing.

Edge's review of 6/10 is about right, IMO.

Been playing this a lot. Great addictive gameplay and progression structure. Great online play. But one thing has really been bugging me. Why doesn't it run at 60FPS? The graphics are good, but I wouldn't have thought they would push the Wii. I believe all other Mario Kart games ran at 60FPS (bar possibly the N64 version) so why doesn't this version? Its just really bugged me since I first started playing this game.