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The best game I've played in years and years

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I can't say it better than several of the other reviewers; so I won't even try. As my title states this is the most fun I've had with a computer/console game in years. Grab a 30 pack of beer and a friend and you're set to go! My only complaint is that it is so white-knuckle and so exciting that I tend to lean forward toward the TV and as a result my lower back hurts like heck from leaning forward all day =P

A Fantastic Ride For The Wii...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Dating back to the SNES days, Mario Kart is one of Nintendo's longest running franchises, and every new generation of Nintendo's consoles brings with it a new Mario Kart. Coming after the absolute masterpiece that was Mario Kart Double Dash for the Gamecube and a solid portable showing for the Nintendo DS, the Wii incarnation of Mario Kart has some pretty big shoes to fill. In most ways, it fills them very well.

Mario Kart Wii is built around the use of the Wii Wheel, which is a small plastic shell that fits around the Wii Remote and acts as a steering wheel, allowing the player to control the action by tilting the controller back and forth, much like in the earlier Wii racing title Excite Truck. I have to admit that I was skeptical about the wheel at first - it just seemed very gimmicky. Much to my surprise, however, it offers such a tight control scheme that I've yet to put much time into any of the other control options that the game offers. (If you don't want to use the wheel you have numerous other configurations to choose from, including the classic Gamecube controller.) The sensitivity on the wheel is extremely high, however, with a 15 degree twist of the wheel being all it takes to turn your kart as far as it can turn without going into a slide. At first it's VERY easy to over-steer, but after a few races it becomes second nature. Far from being the gimmicky nightmare I'd feared, the wheel actually adds to the game experience and makes it all the more fun.

There are several new additions to the game, such as drafting (following closely behind another player to get a speed boost due to decreased wind resistance), pulling aerial tricks during jumps to net speed boosts, and, most obviously, the addition of motorcycles. The motorcycles integrate nicely into the game, and their superior maneuvering, acceleration, and the ability to get a brief speed boost at will by popping a wheelie are balanced well by reducing their ability to make use of "mini-turbo" boosts from drifting around turns and the ease with which they are physically muscled around by the actual karts. None of the new additions are earth-shattering in their scope, but all of the add just a little bit to the game without changing any of the essentials. In short, they're just enough to keep things fresh without making a marked departure from the previous installments. Also, in an attempt to make the game more accessible, drifting around corners is now accomplished with less effort than before - by merely holding down the B button and turning rather than holding the button and repeatedly jerking the nose of your kart into and out of your turn like in previous incarnations. If even that is too much effort, you can also set the game to simply put your kart into a drift automatically every time you make a sharp turn, but by doing so you lose the brief turbo boost you're otherwise afforded by navigating a drift manually.

Notably missing from the game, however, is the Double Dash gimmick of having another character riding shotgun with the driver to throw items. The cooperative 2-player options that this configuration offered will be missed by some players, myself included, but it's certainly not a deal-breaker. Also absent are the individual super-items from Double Dash, but this seems to be "balanced out" by the addition of a few powerful new items such as the Super Mushroom (which turns you into a giant and allows you to roll over other karts, squashing them flat), and the Bullet Bill (which changes your kart into a bullet and cause you to surge ahead past the other racers). The individualized karts are gone from the last game as well, though there's no paucity of vehicles to choose from. You begin the game with 3 karts and 3 bikes in each of the three weight classes and will unlock others as you progress. The character you choose will also modify the abilities of the vehicle they're driving, so it isn't as if everyone on the road is a carbon copy.

While Double Dash supported 8 vehicles per race, Mario Kart Wii ups the number to an impressive 12. This means, among other things, that there are more items flying around than before and that the "pack" is much tighter throughout the race. This can create a few frustrating moments when the player is bombarded with several items in a row and quickly loses position in the race, but it's honestly not as distracting as some reviewers have complained. One thing of note is that the character models seem somewhat smaller than before relative to their surroundings, so sometimes it feels as if you're a minuscule character driving through an enormous world.

Graphically the character models are only marginally better than they were in the Gamecube incarnation, but the actual tracks (There are 32 in all, 16 new and 16 returning from previous games.) have superior lighting and shading effects and the graphics have a pleasing, cartoony look to them. The game doesn't look as gorgeous as, say, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, but it certainly doesn't look bad either. The game zips along with no apparent slowdown and looks quite nice even on a large TV.

Much has been made about the WiFi connectivity of Mario Kart Wii, and I have to say that it surpasses expectations. You don't spend much time waiting around in lobbies looking for players, and the game itself has very little (if any) lag while playing online. A lot of folks are complaining that there's no voice chat, but this is (in part) a kid's game - 9 year-olds across the country don't need to hear me cussing like a sailor whenever I fall off the track. You can play with random people from around the world (A spinning globe shows you where each of your opponents is from before your first race together) or with your buddies by way of swapping "friend codes". I don't normally care much about playing games online, but Mario Kart Wii makes the experience very accessible and fun.

Overall, Mario Kart Wii is an extremely fun racing game for the Wii that makes excellent and intuitive use of the Wii's motion sensing capabilities and provides the absolute best online gameplay yet on the console. The game is all-age appropriate, even when playing online and is accessible enough that it can be played competently after just a few races. This is easily the Wii's best racing game thus far and is surely destined to become one of the console's must-own titles.

One Step Forward. Two Steps Back.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 18
Date: April 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

For lack of a longer review,it seems that in Nintendo's sudden decision to try and advance in online-play, they left the offline-players behind. In are a slew of online options, and out are two player Grand Prix and free-for-all Battle Mode. Racing is still fun, but the AI in Grand Prix cheats by rubberbanding and pretty much ruins the enjoyment of strategic gameplay, replacing it with random luck. Much of this fizzles away when your not playing Grand Prix mode, but with that being the meat and potatoes of the entire game, it is understandable why this game has received such mixed reviews.

Pros:
*Large choice of online options
*Great level designs
*Decent graphics

Cons:
*No 2-player Grand Prix
*No free-for-all Battle Mode
*Rubberbanding AI

Fantastic Game, Well Worth It!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing it since midnight on Sunday and it's an awesome title. It feels more like the traditional Mario Kart than the newer games, it's really a blast to play.

The graphics are pretty standard Wii material, the sound is good.

The best parts:

- Online play, it's fantastic and free! You can do both grand prix and battle online, it's like a whole new game besides playing the computer.

- The Wii wheel makes it fun as well, I haven't tried it using the nunchuck or classic because I haven't seen a need to, the wheel provides accurate control once you get used to it.

- The tracks are a mixture of new and old, taken from SNES, N64, DS and GameCube versions of Mario Kart. They make it even better to get a blast from the past. The same goes for the battle mode, new maps and maps from the older versions.

For me, it's worth for the money, I'd highly recommend it to any family or Mario Kart fan.

Typical Mario Kart fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: April 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game doesnt steer too far from previous titles. The new levels are a blast, (I especially like the one with the mushrooms that make you bounce)and the option to race in a car or bike makes for an interesting race. Plus, you have the option to race in some of the tracks from the older MK games. The graphics are no better than double dash, which is ok by me. The one thing I do not like is the new "steering wheel controller". I guess maybe it will take a while to get used to, but thankfully you can play with any contoller compatible with the Wii. Overall if you have played any Mario Kart before, you know what to expect. Definitely a fun new game for the Wii.

You have got to be kidding!!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 20
Date: May 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mariokart Wii is nothing more than an enfeebled version of Super Smash Bros Brawl on a race track and it suffers accordingly. Super Smash Bros Brawl was outstanding, funny, enjoyable, and easy to pick up even if you were new to the series. I loved and continue to love playing Brawl, but now we come to Mariokart Wii and its numerous shortcomings ...

Characters : Pointless
All the usual faces are present from Mario on down to a Koopa Troopa - but so what?! Not one of them has any noticeable, distinguishable, or useful traits, skills, abilities etc. It doesn't matter who you pick to play as. Since everyone is same - why should I care to perform some outrageous/impossible feat to unlock another nobody to throw into the pool of drivers? They are just eye candy for the players' individual tastes. This brings up another issue ... since all the characters have the depth and substance of a shadow why not have more of them to pick from at the start? In truth there are only three characters ... Small, Medium and Large. This determines what they are able to drive.

Vehicles : Almost Pointless
The biggest feature of the Wii version is the introduction of motorcycles, which the Nintendo designers gave a big advantage - the wheelie speed boost. The vehicles are rated by seven attributes ...
Top Speed ... don't worry about this. You will almost never reach it in a real race as the computer drivers will constantly hammer you (and only you) with a variety of items that will bring you to a dead stop.
Acceleration ... this is the most important category. As I said you will be starting from a dead stop numerous (perhaps countless) times.
Handling ... this is the only other important category. This is all about cornering on those hairpin turns that constitute a race track. It also affects your ability to hold on to curved, wet, and icy surfaces.
Drift ... is only useful on a few courses. The speed boost you get coming out of the drift is not that great when you consider that a better cornering vehicle can run the same course in the same time.
Weight ... this is joke. I have played the `big guys' in the `heavy' karts and been knocked off the track by the baby strollers (with no items in play). The bigger (as determined by the size of the driver and not its weight) vehicles have an advantage in frontal ramming but nothing in sideswipes or from being rear-ended.
Off-Road ... this is a bigger joke. None of the vehicles do well off road, not even the one called the `Off-Roader.' If one wheel goes off-road, count on a huge reduction of speed regardless of any momentum that you `should have had'. Here again the cycles shine as they can cut corners much closer to the track edges before they go `off-road'.
Mini-Boost ... `MINI' being the key word. Don't even consider this pathetic push forward as part of your `racing strategy'.

License??
I have to earn my license?! Are you kidding me? This is not Gran Turismo here. Why am I not privileged enough to race on their special tracks/battle grounds? It is not as if this is about skill or experience. You don't ever upgrade your vehicles nor earn money for bragging rights. This whole license record comes off as pretentious and should have been replaced a light and ENJOYABLE story mode like SSB Brawl did to find the extra characters and such.

Racing?!
As I said in the beginning this is an inferior version of SSB Brawl. Items/weapons are everywhere (except when you are in the lead) use them quickly because very soon (within seconds) they will be used on you and you will lose your items when hit (get used to that). It is not the `road-rage' that bothers me (I grew up on Road-Rash and similar titles). It is the planned distribution of items. In short, you will get speed boosts if you are losing and will get banana peels if you are winning. This is NOT random by any stretch of anyone's imagination. The distribution of items is designed to keep you out of the top four positions. Think I am imagining this? Challenge anyone to post on YouTube a clip of them in first place in a Grand Prix picking up mushrooms, golden mushrooms, bullet bill, lightning, star, mega mushroom, or the pow block. That is 7 out of 15 items you WILL NOT get while in the lead. Aside from the barrage of attacks that WILL strike you (you can NOT dodge/avoid the vast majority of them), you WIIL be starting from a dead stop or trying to recover control almost continuously. That makes this much more of a survival match determined by luck than an actual race determined by skill. As others have written here in the reviews you wind up feeling lucky that you won (those times that you do win) instead of any satisfaction that would come from your gaming skills as player. In a word - Frustrating.

Cheating
Everyone knows that video games cheat. They bend the rules. Some to add challenge, others to compensate for poor computer AI. This is a given in video gaming and always has been. The only question is where do you draw your own personal line of `that is too much'? Unfortunately Mariokart Wii crossed way over that line for me. I have been chased by a cpu kart that has threw six (yes SIX) green shells at me while I took the only item pick ups available on a straight away. Where did the extra three come from? How did he `reload'? Is my kart really a lightning rod with an engine? Why am I getting two blue shells on me at the same? Will the first one miss? Just how many speed boosts do the other guys have and why can't I find/get them? Yes it is that bad. My friends compared it to playing Counter Strike on an open server where all the other players are using hacks, but not you. Sure, you COULD still win. Yes, it is a DIFICULT challenge to overcome. But is it satisfying? Should you have to go through that just to unlock some character or vehicle that STILL WILL NOT even the odds let alone put them in your favor? In Grand Prix mode (4 races for a cup) the cpu will let you do better in the first two races, disappoint you in the third and utterly burn you in the last. It sort of builds your hopes up than dashes them suddenly at the finale. You better come to this game in the frame of mind that says I want some MINDLESS fun (like in SSB Brawl) and NOT I plan on winning this race.

Options
There are very few choices in the games set up. So I hope that you like it THEIR way. You can not race the Grand Prix with friends (you stand the trial alone). You can only turn the items/weapons off in one mode and actually race but this unlocks nothing - ever. Overall this game is designed for the internet and not so much for multiplayer at home - too bad.

Graphics/Sound
Both are very good but it still has some of that SSB Brawl fuzziness in the heat of battle. The characters could have used more work on their in game shouts and taunts. It gets repetitive quickly. For the sound I can't really say that I have heard the music for long over the sounds of my kart exploding, crashing, burning and falling.

Ultimately this game is AVERAGE.
It is not good - there are few options, vehicles are not customizable, characters are irrelevant, there is no story. It is NOT a race where skill and knowledge of the track means anything.
It is not bad - it is funny/ridiculous, graphics and sound are good, the controls are adequate and smooth, it is fun to play but actually more fun to play with others.
Mariokart Wii leaves you thinking that this could have been a great game with one or two changes depending on your personal tastes, but somehow wound up meeting no ones taste enough to become great.

Best Wii game so far!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mario Kart Wii is a great sequel to the series. Everything about this game is a great step for the Mario Kart franchise.

The characters are about the same as the other games with the addition of Baby Mario and Baby Peach as well as Waluigi.

The tracks are great. They take old tracks from the previous games and revamp them as well as add some new tracks.

The graphics in this game are some of the best on the Wii. The Wii is not known for graphics but this game looks stunning, although i would recommend the component cables to get the best look out of this game.

The Nintendo WiFi connection allows for online racing. You can race your friends, or race regionally or worldwide. The addition of online play really adds to this game. You can import your Mii and the game keeps track of your stats, which i love.

And finally the Wii wheel was a big surprise to me in the fact that it is WAY better than i imagined. The Wii wheel is very fun to use and while it takes some getting used to, it works very well. But if you don't like it you can use many other control schemes: the Wii remote by itself, the Wii remote with nunchuck, the classic controller, and the a gamecube controller so you are destined to find one you like.

All in all this game is a great addition to the Wii, and frankly it is a needed one. With all of the medicore games out there for the Wii, this one stands out above them.

How do they keep doing this?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Recently, there has been a story going around how the Wii has so many bad games for it. It was a blog that was picked up by many news sites. What it did not address is the fact that when a game is good for the Wii, it is simply amazing. Mario Galaxy and now Mario Kart fall into this category.

I have now had time to play the game for a week and am totally hooked. I have been playing Kart since it was out for the N64. This game has many, many things going for it including new courses but even better, some of the best courses from the past reappear.

The game play itself is fun. I had read some previews slighting the game because the wheel created control problems. I assumed that the problem would be that it is too sensitive causing the driving to constantly overcompensate and go off course. WRONG! I have found the wheel to have just enough `play' in it to allow for a great experience. It is also really quite fun to be sitting on the couch holding this wheel and steering. The best part is when you catch yourself leaning into turns as if it will help.

For the Wii, I would list this as a must have. One of my keys being that you can sit and play for hours or if you just need a quick fix, you can play a couple of courses in 10 minutes.

The main reason I give it 4/5 overall is the multiplayer but the issue is not one with this game but rather a Wii issue and that being the lack of a headset. I am still surprised that they provide no way to communicate with your other players. I am scheduled to play against my nephew this weekend but I have not figured out how we will chat during play to decide on courses or what have you. This seems to be a huge weakness in the online options of the Wii and unfortunately, I am reflecting it on my rating. In the future, if the headset does come out, I will try to remember to reflect that here.

If you have a Wii and want the full range of experiences the must have games now include:

* Mario Kart
* Mario Galaxy
* Link's Crossbow Training
* Wii Play

With just these 4 games plus the included Wii sports you will have many, many hours of great Wii fun.

If you have a Wii, you need this game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First things first: I'll admit this game is not perfect. However, if you have a Wii, there is absolutely no reason you should be without it.

Let's get the bad news over with first. I don't seem to be seeing this in any reviews, but the graphics seem surprisingly weak. After the polish of recent 1st party titles like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros Brawl I was not expecting such a stark down-turn in visuals. The geometry seems to be pretty low-poly (blocky), and everything in general seems to be blurry (perhaps to try and hide the blockiness). Mind you, part of this "blur" is a depth-of-field atmospheric effect, which is cool and pretty at times, but it seems to be used as a crutch to hide sub-par graphics. I'm sure these weaker graphics are a trade off, probably to allow more more features and more reliable online play, but that doesn't speak very highly of Wii's technical potential.

The other weak point is the local multiplayer. There seems to be no way to customize this. In racing mode, your only option is VS (no multiplayer Grand Prix, a personal favorite of mine), and as far as I can tell, there is no option to turn off the CPU characters. There's no way to have a simple race against a friend without having 10 other computer players tag along. Same goes for the battles, only here you have the added annoyance of being forced to play on teams. Again, there's no way to simply set up a basic, one-on-one match.

Once you get past that, it's mostly good news. The Wii-Wheel works great. It's not quite as accurate as steering with a d-pad or joystick, but it's much more fun. If you've played Mario Kart before there's really no need to go into the gameplay in detail. Grand Prix mode here is pretty much flawless, and the new "Ghost" racing feature is even somewhat enjoyable.

The biggest reason to own this game, though, is the online play. This is pretty much perfect. I thought the lack of voice-chat would be painful, but I don't really miss it. It's the little details that really shine here, like how before a match you see your opponents' Miis waving at you from a globe (this naturally shows you what part of the world they're playing from). The golden wheel icon you can earn from playing enough matches with the Wii-Wheel is a nice touch. Another great addition is the ability to locate a friend who's already playing online and join them in their next race. Just one click and you'll be racing along with them in a matter of seconds (depending on how soon they finish their current race).

All in all, it's a very fun game. It's not very pretty to look at, sadly, but it's still thoroughly enjoyable.

a person who likes racing games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I got this game for my birthday. It is fun However the wii wheel doesn't work that came with. When I played it with the wheel I couldn't turn well. I would turn the wheel and the car would not move. I play using the wii remote and nunchuck. I use the nunchuck for steering, That works well a lot better then the wheel. You can even play it with your mii character that you create with wii sports that comes with the concosle. I have not gotten that far though.

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