Well its another month and Another Good wii game comes out. As a big fan of Mario Kart for the SNES, I’ve not really played any mario Karts till i purchased the Wii, I had downloaded Mario Kart 64 for the wii and my reception to that was pretty blah..
Usually when it comes down to games I have an interest in , I tend to stay away from prerelease reviews and anything to do with the guts of the games. I have 2 reasons for doing that, I’d Rather figure out things for myself and I want an unbiased opinion of the game in my mind. Anyways…
on to the Wii version..
Mario Kart wii is a little bit different in terms of the Kart games because you have quite a few ways to control, but with the game is included the Wii Wheel , at first i thought it would be a bit awkward but after trying it out , its likely the most fun of the controls.
As for the game play it self, i rather immediately thought back to the days of fun i had with the first version of Mario Kart for the SNES, playing through the 50cc class was a breeze, getting to the 100cc class on the other hand seems to be a fun balance of challenge and aggravation, the type of aggravation where you do not go “FUCK THIS GAME” and put it down. more like I can beat this.
As far as how “big” the game is there is a fairly decent amount of tracks but in the same sentence the game feels short. if they added some sort of track editor the game would have more play time for long term play. trying out the different modes the best i liked so far is the 1 player racing since getting people together with friend codes is an pain in the ass.
the Grand Prix is pretty much straight forward with get as many points as you can to win first place, the only thing i find that bugs me is when you have first place you become target of everything, you get cheap shotted by the AI always picking up the blue shell which hits the first place guy, you have it happen multiple times. from playing through, It seems like they have added Item balancing to keep the game moving, while good in one respect its completely annoying in another. In first place you will pick up noting but bananas and green shells, in last place you will pick up more items to boost your place, but it works two ways, the AI just constantly nukes you till you get annoyed, or you have the AI fly by you on the last few seconds of the race (at higher difficulty).
Time Trials is You race a race and compare it to either regional, friends or World wide How you have done, I can see this mode being more fun if you have many friends who also have the game.
The game over all is excellent but it has some pretty major faults that if you ignore them wouldn’t bother you much.
Trying to pass any team or battle match is pretty much stupid, there are few reasons of why this is, The AI typically that is on your “side” is typically extremely poor, so you try to spend the match trying to fix all the screw ups the AI makes. After 5 days of ownership i’ve yet to find a surefire way to win any “Team” or “battle” match because the AI typically is dumb as a stone while the opposing AI is about the equivalent of Einstein. Typically the Team games I’d likely say would be likely more fun with real players, in the sense that you could yell at them for sucking compared to braindead AI.
but.. as much as i complain about the team/Battle games. Over all the game is excellent, It really brings back the fun that Mario Kart for the SNES had. its One of the few racing games that doesn’t push the Looks cool vs racing games. Need for speed has gone horribly into the “fast and the furious” looks where they push car looks over game play. Nintendo has pulled the reverse, making Racing for the sake of racing and Not having your car look like it was hit with a four year old armed with a sticker book and magic markers. generally this is what cars look like in Need for speed.
Mario Kart make Racing fun rather than hours of pointlessly painting your car to look like a mythbusters explosion experiment.
My Recommendation is this game defiantly worth the buy if you want a racing game for the Wii.