Mario Kart Wii

The Mario Kart franchise is something that i have a lot of experience in, and i am sure many other Gamers have. It symbolizes for a lot of us, a part of our childhood, sitting in front of are television screens with are brother, sister, friends or what have you, and playing what seemed like a goldmine at the time, Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo. Maybe if your a little younger your more familiar with the Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart: Double Dash! games, but either way, we all felt the same sense of awe, fighting are close friends for the place at the top of the list, and whether you were Mario, Luigi or heck, even Donkey Kong, it didn't matter, it was what we felt at the time, pure unadulterated fun.

So this is why Mario Kart is such a big deal to people, and why when a new Mario Kart game is released, people rush to go experience the same feeling as they did when they were younger. Mario Kart Wii has probably picked up the most momentum of all the Mario Karts, one because of the Wii's supernatural popularity with the Casual Gamers, and the Hardcore Gamers alike, and two because of the add-on being released for free alongside Mario Kart Wii, the Wii Wheel. The curiosity before this was released about the Wii Wheel was phenomenal, was it going to work? was it going to be as fun? who knew. Well, now we know...

But before we get started, lets delve into the information about Mario Kart Wii before we examine the good, the bad and the mixed. Mario Kart Wii was first shown at E3 of 2007, and eventually released April 10th in Japan, April 11th in Europe, April 24th in Australia and April 27th in North America. Now this may not seem like a big deal to you North Americans, and probably seems like an annoyance too, but in Europe we don't get games very quickly Ive got to tell you, Super Smash Bros was released in March of 2008 for all of North America...we got it in July...yes, July, i kid you not. So getting Mario Kart Wii early was a pretty special thing to Europe, including my country, England. I got it the second day it came out i was that excited, including getting two Wii Wheel's.

Mario Kart Wii shows off the successful formula that the more recent Mario Kart games had shown off before it, it still holds the sense of speed that Mario Kart 64 and Double Dash show, and the intensity, but in a different light, mostly because of the slight alterations to Weaponry. Why the previous Mario Karts had a fairly even share of weapons, this Mario Kart varies from time to time, sometimes you wont get hit for a long period of time, but then will get slaughtered by 10 Red Shells in half a minute, i kid you not, this happened to me (keeping in mind that this is obviously on later difficulties other than easy). The amount of racers on the track cries for re-consideration also, why we used to have eight people on the tracks at one time, we now have twelve...a hefty load, and the action increases, but aggravation levels also increase, with shells hitting you every ten seconds, and thunder going off and all sorts.

But this is definitely not to say that the whole of Mario Kart Wii is a complete dud...in fact, Mario Kart Wii is probably one of the funnest Mario Karts released so far. The Wii Wheel works perfectly, something that i personally thought they couldn't perfect on the first try in the franchise, but they did it, and why the Wii Wheel works perfectly, so does ever other control scheme in the game! so there you go, three golden control options to choose from, and the Audio for the whole game is bouncy and fun, much like the rest of the Mario Kart series, Nintendo have really been on a roll with the soundtracks on there games recently with games such as Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and this is definitely no exception. Another plus is the mode of playing, what i mean is Single Player, MultiPlayer and ofcourse Online Play.

Single Player (excluding 150cc where the game goes off the rails slightly) is a great experience in Mario Kart Wii while it lasts, ofcourse you can extend it by trying to get more stars on each of the Cups, but this definitely is not the most convenient choice. MultiPlayer is ofcourse what Mario Kart as a franchise was centered around, and still is as it seems. Ive had some great times on this game with pals, just casual games of Mario Kart Wii and it always seems to pack a punch, one complaint would be the split screen, but if you really did have an extreme problem with that, Online Play is available too anyway. And why your playing all these modes, you'll notice that some of the tracks your playing on are going to be original, innovative and just flat out fun, others...well, we will get to that later.

Some points where the game looses itself are as follows: Why the Wii Wheel is a great piece of equipment, and is sure to let you and your friends have a blast at parties, is strictly for ameatures and newcomers, why do i say this? because the Ameatures will have a great blast playing Mario Kart Wii on 50cc or with friends with the Wii Wheel, and newcomers and youngsters to the Mario Kart franchise are probably going to want to use the Wii Wheel anyway, and thats my take on it. The loyal followers of the Mario Kart franchise are more than likely going to want to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuck combination, or the Gamecube Controller, because unfortunately for me, and you guys, using the Wii Wheel is probably going to put you at risk of losing ALOT more.

Why some of the tracks on this are no doubtedly Amusing, Colorful Innovative and interesting, some are just unoriginal and tedious to play. Some times you'll just look at one of the tracks your playing and think "Hey...wait a minute, isnt that game in another one?" and yes i am fully aware that half of the tracks are retro tracks, im talking about the originals for this game. A little complaint about the game is that why the Graphics are cheerful and colorful even for a Nintendo game, the graphics seem like they have just been given an extra shine from the Gamecube game Double Dash and thats it, like they didnt even try, and for one of Nintendo's biggest franchises at that. And perhaps my last complaint of the review is the difficulty in the 150cc levels, its ridiculous at points, and this is definitely where the game becomes unbalanced to say the least, you go from 50cc, to 100cc, and then...my oh my, what do we have here...Its like they were just screwing around with the fans at times to see if they could get through it, never mind trying to get better star ranks! well, thats the summary of the good and the bad of the newest Mario Kart game, Mario Kart Wii.

The Mario Kart franchise has had an easy ride. The first game on the Super Nintendo was critically acclaimed, Mario Kart 64 was a success, as well as Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart DS, with Mario Kart DS being crowned the king of the franchise in terms of Gameplay. Mario Kart Wii stays true to the games before it, but thats kind of a problem, the originality is starting to wear thin, and just adding more characters and weapons isnt working, the next Mario Kart needs to shake it up, or fall into line as the first boring Mario Kart Video Game.