by Alan Noah
May 15th, 2008 -
(Disclaimer before I begin: After reading this article, I feel that I should fully disclose just how far I've gone in this game: I have golds in all the 50 and 100cc races and some in 150, I have played mutiplayer races and battles at home, and raced against strangers and friends online.)
Mario Kart has a proud tradition in video game history. Even before the Wii made it trendy to bring in casual gamers, people who didn’t love video games were still drawn in by the fun mechanics and simple graphics of the Mario Kart games. Now more than ever, the Big N is catering to that demographic, but with this title, the company also set out to keep the fanboys happy as well. So how did they do?
Overall, they did quite well. The inclusion of the Wii Wheel seems custom tailored to newbies, but some video game buffs enjoy it as well. But if that’s not your speed, you can use a classic controller, a Gamecube controller, a Wiimote sans wheel (recommended by no one), and my personal favorite, the Wiimote/Nunchuck combination. Allowing for a wide range of choices is a great move by Nintendo, and despite their pushing of the Wheel, it’s nice that you aren’t forced to use it.
However you race, the game’s controls are tight, and relatively easy to get the hang of. Doing tricks, drifting, and power sliding can all be mastered in a few races. The roster of items is impressive, and the new items added, such as the mega mushroom and the POW blocks, are a lot of fun, though the lightening item that you have to pass off can be pretty annoying at times. The character-specific items of Mario Kart: Double Dash were a nice touch, but you don’t really miss them too much in this iteration.
You can’t talk about Mario Kart without talking about the online component. Nintendo is a relative latecomer to the online scene, but they have done a good job with it since joining the party. The exchanging of friend codes is mildly annoying and somewhat counter-intuitive, but once you’ve added your friends, it’s pretty smooth sailing. Though the fact that you have to “close” the room in order to start your friend races is a poor wording choice, and voice chat would be a nice extra feature, it is still a lot of fun to race friends all over the country and the world from the comfort of your own couch. And if you don’t have (or like your) friends, you can also race strangers. The system of pairing you up with people at about your level of experience makes for more close races, though I have still been blown away by someone who had a way higher experience number than me. But even placing second or third in such a race will still increase your total, which seems fair.
This game took a cue from its DS predecessor and includes a whole slate of new tracks as well as four cups filled with classic tracks from Kart games past. The large selection is a nice touch, but the inclusion of vintage tracks helps highlight the unoriginality of some of the new tracks in this game. For example, the Mario Circuit in the Flower Cup bears a more than passing resemblance to the Leaf Cup’s GCN Mario Circuit. Neither of which is drastically different from the N64 Mario Raceway. There are old and new desert courses, ice world courses, and Bowser courses. While I don’t have a problem with there being new twists on old themes, I personally feel that the Wii courses could have stood to be infused with more creativity. Which isn’t to say that they are all retreads – Maple Treeway and Koopa Cape are obvious standouts in terms of course design, I only wish there were more fun and new courses along those lines. And where is the Super Mario Galaxy course? We get to race around Delfino Square, but I want to race around the Observatory, too!
While I’m griping, the mutiplayer could have been vastly improved by including a 2,3, or 4 player Grand Prix mode, where you race each course in a specific cup for a trophy. Leaving that mode out prevents you from unlocking content throughout the game with more than one player, which seems in start contrast to Nintendo’s “games that are fun for the whole family” mantra. While you can certainly get a lot of mileage out of this game with friends and family (especially with the nifty modifiable “Rules”), you are also forced to play solo if you want to unlock various courses and characters, and this is a pretty substantial oversight. There are a lot of characters, carts, and bikes to unlock, and it’s unfortunate that bringing all these things to the light of day has to be done alone.
The other biggest problem with the game is the rather harsh nature of the items that can send you from first to last place in the blink of an eye, especially in the 150cc. It can make your life easier to hang back and hope for a last minute amazing item that will send you hurtling towards the finish line, but the amount of luck involved can make for some major frustrations. This is not a new to addition to the franchise, but it can definitely make you (temporarily) hate a game you’d otherwise love.
A very strong component of the Mario Kart Wii experience is the separate Mario Kart Channel that you can install on your console. Being able to check if your friends are online without popping in the game disc might not sound like the world’s mot innovative feature, but it comes in handy when you’re just curious to see which of your buddies are online. The ghost races and ongoing tournaments are fun ways to keep people coming back for more after they’ve unlocked all there is to in the single player game.
So, to sum up:
Pros: The multiple control schemes, the number of courses included, the amount of unlockable content, the online play, and the Mario Kart Channel.
Cons: The lack of a Multiplayer GP mode, a death of truly innovative courses, and an AI system that can make you want to throw your Wiimote across the room.
Final Verdict: The pros outweigh the cons, and despite my complaints, I find myself pretty hopelessly addicted to this game. There is room for improvement, however, and it would be a real treat if Nintendo would release more that one installment of this franchise on the Wii.
Alan’s Score: 7.7 out of 10
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