Mario Kart Wii with Wii Wheel
Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at
10:56 pm
Drivers, start your engines!Nintendo is bringing Mario and his friends with their finely tuned racing machines back and this time to the Nintendo Wii. With 3 different control styles and a Wii Wheel included in the box, Mario Kart Wii is bound to be the best in the series. The worldwide race is on with a whole new set of tricks, tracks, and ways to play! Place first in Grand Prix circuits or clear skill-based missions. Mario Kart Wii draws on courses and battle arenas from every game …
I have never owned a Mario Kart before so can’t compare to the other versions but this one for the Wii is a fun game. I was worried before I bought that the Wii wheel would not work very well. I was way wrong, I think it works very well.
The tracks and game play are a lot of fun for someone of any age. The game is easy to learn for beginners and is fun for the more experienced gammer. The game reminds me of something you would play at an arcade with all kinds of things going on as you drive through the course. Playing against friends is a lot of fun a well.
I tried out the on line play and it was a blast. I just had fun compared to some of the xbox/ps3 on line racing games where it can be stressful trying to compete and listening to angry 13 year olds.
If you are looking for a game that is fun for the family, especailly the kids, I would pick this one up. Its easy to learn and a lot of fun to play.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mario Kart
Old game with a new twist and it is pure fun for the entire family
and all of your friends.
The game arrived (with the driver’s wheel) much sooner than I…
I feel really torn about this review, because there are elements of this game that are really, really fun and elements that are the bland, boring results of some horrifically awful game design decisions.
Let’s start with PROS:
The maps are well-thought and nicely implemented, and there’s a reasonable amount of variety, especially when Mirror Mode becomes available.
Controls aren’t terrible, even though the wheel can be a bit annoying at times, and the vehicles are all pretty nicely balanced. I can see the merits of using any one of them, really.
It’s pretty addicting. My fiancé and I play this all the time, and haven’t really gotten tired of it yet. Though the Battle modes aren’t the same as in earlier games, they’re still quite a lot of fun.
In fact, multiplayer in general in this game is a lot of fun (though more than two players requires a TV of at LEAST 50 inches, and sometimes the network can be a little spotty if you’re playing online, especially when playing with someone on the other side of the continent). It’s a great game to play with other people.
Which leads me to the CONS:
As with the offerings of most developers these days, the game is designed such that over half the playable content is locked, and you have to spend hours or days of your time unlocking it all to actually be able to play it. The concept in itself isn’t really that terrible, and if implemented intelligently can add hours or days of fun and enjoyable gameplay. Unlike with, say, Super Smash Bros Brawl, however, Nintendo seemed to be in a frantic gallop to implement unlockables in Kart in the most annoying fashion imaginable.
See, in Brawl, there are multiple options for unlocking characters and content. That is, you don’t have to sit there grinding for hours and hours by yourself — you can play with one or more friends and all have a good time with the game while incidentally unlocking various things in the process. Not so with Mario Kart Wii: Unlockables are an exclusively single-player experience. Of course, since Kart seems to have always been oriented toward multiplayer — and the Wii seems no different in this respect — it just gets boring and annoying and frustrating to have to SIT THERE FOR HOURS BY YOURSELF UNLOCKING THINGS.
And this is my biggest gripe with the game. I adore playing it with other people, and like I said, it’s a great multiplayer game. But whenever I sit down for a lengthy grind session to unlock the last few bikes and karts and characters, I can feel my interest in the game drain away and my frustration and rage explode like some kind of nuclear doomsday device.
It’s not that I suck at video games, but the random chance that makes multiplayer races fun (like getting hit with FIVE BLUE SHELLS IN A SINGLE RACE) can result in your having to play the same sets of courses ten times apiece to unlock some bike. And when you’re playing on your own, the whole “SKILL DOESN’T MATTER – RANDOM LUCK WILL EVEN THE SCORE” element of the game just becomes infuriating. It’s fun when your friend does it, but when some computer does it, all they’re doing is forcing you to ceaselessly replay the same courses by screwing you up and keeping you from placing first or whatever else it is you need to do to unlock whatever random object.
It quickly stops being fun when it’s just AIs being jerks and needlessly robbing you of your time — time that could otherwise be spent playing with a friend instead of marrying yourself to unlocking over half the game’s content and in the process becoming so skilled a player that your friends don’t even want to really play with you anymore because you always win.
In summary, good game, but really, really a step in the wrong direction with the unlockables. Next time, Nintendo should really consider throwing in some multiplayer alternatives.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get your motor runnin’… Head out on the highway….
A clever game, Mario Kart incorporates the familiar characters from the Nintendo Games for an exciting racing experience.
Undoubtingly, Nintendo has really showed more muscle within their games for the Wii this past year. With games that really stretched beyond the imagination for fans like Super Mario Galaxy, which re-defined Mario alone in adventures, and the battle smashing action of Super Smash Brothers Brawl that dominated fans hearts all around the worls, Nintendo really shows what it takes to make great video games. But, that also can be said with the Mario Kart series, which finally makes it debut on the Wii. But, following the innovation that Mario Kart DS had from the Nintendo DS wasn’t so easy, largely because it was the first DS handheld title to use the Wi-Fi online gaming to an outrageous excitement for gamers all around the world. Now, it is time for the Wii to take that on and race to the checkered flag.
Mario Kart Wii for the Nintendo Wii, brings in all that fast-paced excitement racers have wanted and even more. The game adds a whole lot of new and exciting features to use. You can now race as many as 12 racers online through the online gaming, and bring the action over the top, and use that skill and excitement on over 40 different tracks: 10 battle tracks and 32 exciting race tracks that are both new and featured from the earlier Mario Kart games like D.K. Jungle Highway and Sherbet Land from Mario Kart 64. The new tracks are also exciting that will have you racing and bouncing on top of mushrooms from the all-new Mushroom Gorge, and have you crusing the shopping malls and racing down fligts of escaltors with the brand new Coconut Mall course, or racing across the tree trunks of the new Maple Leaf Highway. Every single track is great for beginners and die hard Mario Kart fans of all ages.
The gameplay also has a few new surprises, as you not just rave in karts, you also get to race on motorbikes too, bringing more action and variety to each of the players delight. There are also a few new power-ups here too including the Mega Mushroom, from the DS game New Super Mario Brothers, which makes your racer giant-sized, so you can squash your opponents on your way to the checkered flag, and the lightning cloud which shrinks you down to a tiny racer, so you squeeze underneath your opponents and take them by surprise. There also are a few new characters here to unlock in the game as well. You can choose to race with the classics like Mario, Yoshi, Bowser and Luigi, and 6 hidden characters to unlock and master like Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy, Funky Kong and Diddy Kong from Donkey Kong Barrel Blast and even Bowser Bones (the skeleton Bowser boss from New Super Mario Brothers.)
The control is also a bit new here, with the use of the Wii Wheel. The wheel is easy to setup and hooks right onto the Wii remote. You can steer your racers easily through each and every race by turning your wheel left and right, and performing nifty stunts like a wheelie or a 360 on a jump. While the control with the Wii Wheel takes a lot to get used to for veterans, there are others ways to control the game. Like Super Smash Brothers Brawl, gamers can also use the Wii & nunchuck controls, or the classic controller and even the Nintendo Gamecube controller, so veterans can feel more comfortable in anyway they want to race. The graphics here are also well-designed, by bringing new excitement in restoring the classic courses, and a lot of great surprising new features that are the delight to anyone who loves the Mario Kart games.
All in all, Mario Kart Wii is definitely one of the best games I’ve ever enjoyed for the Nintendo Wii. I absolutely loved the need for plumber speed, and it shows in each and every race. This is definitely a must buy for your Wii video game library, that is sure to be a thrilling race and not even close to wiping out anytime soon. So start your Wii-motes, because the race is not ever going to stop.
Graphics: A
Sound: A-
Control: B for the Wii Wheel; B+ for the Wii & nunchuck controllers, A for the Classic and Gamecube Controllers
Fun & Enjoyment: A- for solo gamers; A for multiplayer action
Overall: A-
5.0 out of 5 stars
My 12 year old daughter loves it
My daughter play this game for the longest time on her Wii. She got every charathers on Mario Kart Wii exsept Mii Outfit B. She finish the whole game. She plays online too.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Man, Dude, Guy, Mister, Princess, Why I Play Video Games–Wacky Fun
Super Cool Game and if you don’t agree we got problems ; – / No really the Wii Motion Plus is neccessary and you got a high flyin geneous of nintendo bottled up.
5.0 out of 5 stars
AWESOME…SO MUCH FUN!!
I love this game. It is so much fun. The first day i got this i thought maybe this wasn’t going to be that good, but that all changed in one race.
5.0 out of 5 stars
What an adventure!
Mario Kart is pure family entertainment! There are a variety of tracks and characters. Even when one beats the game, you can play with others online and the game does not get…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Even little ones can enjoy this game!
My four year old recently received this game for her birthday. She had played it at a neighbor’s house a few weeks ago and was rather happy that at long last she was able to play…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great game, but dont get to play it often
This was such a fun game to play. The Wii controls in which you use the wheel can be a little frustrating but once you get used to it, that is the only way to play.
4.0 out of 5 stars
mario kart wii quick review
pros
+good online
+comes with free wheel
+hard and easy gameplay
+lots of characters
cons
-you have to unlock miis
-wii wheel is hard…
5.0 out of 5 stars
We love this game!!!!
Bought this for my young son due to the simplicity of the game. Turns out my wife and I play it every other night after the kids go to sleep because it is so much fun!