10 Second Sniplet: Are you a Mario fan? Of course you are! If you aren’t do you really call yourself a gamer? Mario Kart Wii is exactly the slice of racing action every Nintendo and Mario fan needs! Essential Buy without a doubt!
Someone fetch me a plumber!
If Nintendo were to make some sort of storyline to go with Mario Kart it would ruin EVERYTHING! Lets go save Princess Peach by racing to Bowser’s castle and beating him in a boss-race, NO lets not. Mario Kart is what it has always been, a game with no story that focuses on one important thing, having as much fun as possible.
Gentlemen, start your mushrooms.
If you are unfamiliar with Mario Kart first off, shame on you! Mario Kart is the ultimate Nintendo racing experience featuring all of your favourite Mario world characters from the days of old to the bran-spanking new. Don’t be fooled by this kid-like exterior this game can pull its own when it comes to being a serious racer, especially in a heated race online with your friend Jim-bob on the other side of the planet.
Mario Kart is full of new courses, racers and loads of new karts for you to sink your hungry little Nintendo teeth into, a whole host of characters including a bunch of super-secret characters you can unlock by winning the cup trophies. Or even spending an additional 35 pound to get one of the characters! (Not going spoil it).
The game has 12 initial starting characters for you to choose from with a further 6 to be unlocked, eventually if you are good enough you can also unlock the option to play as your Mii character and for the hardcore Mario Kart fans out there a second costume for your alter ego Nintendo midget. Mario Kart sports a whopping 32 different tracks for you to chose from with 8 cups and 4 races per cup. Adding to the fact the game is split into 3 different race tiers (50cc, 100cc and 150cc) you will have to race around the colourful world of Mario Kart Wii 96 different times to fully complete it! If my math is correct. A small hand-full of these courses you might recognize mainly because they have been remade from every other Mario Kart game including the legendary SNES, GBA and DS beautifully redone for Nintendo’s latest outing.
Although the name “Mario Kart” might make you think this is just your normal everyday Mario Kart adventure you would be wrong! Nintendo are spoiling us this year by introducing BIKES! Yes that’s right there are now 12 different bikes to use in the game along beside the 4-wheeled mechanical wonders we are so very used to. Speaking of the amount of bikes now would be a good time to inform you that the game characters are split into 3 different weight classes (go on guess what they are?) That’s right! Light, Medium and Heavy and each class has an assortment of different Karts and Bikes. As previously mentioned the total tally of bikes comes to 12 which also happens to be the same number of Karts in the game bringing the totally tally of vehicles to 24. Oh Nintendo you do treat us well.
Not to break tradition the game also has a multiplayer mode featuring all aspects of single-player, with the added bonus of battle games. These are split into balloon fight (attack each other until a player loses all balloons) and coin racing where players race around arenas fighting for the most amount of coins. Which is surprisingly a lot more fun than it sounds. Battle games are different this time around, this time its not your old free-for all 4 player stuff but rather massive 6 vs 6 team based dog-fights featuring 5 new arenas and 5 retro from previous Mario Kart games.
Oh Princess Peach, what lovely…wheels you have?
This game feels GREAT! Especially when used with the wheel. You may be thinking "Oh its just a piece of plastic what can it really do?" Trust me when I promise you that the game feels (and controls) a lot better when used. Although slightly comical looking at first the wheel is small but fits comfortably in hand and provides a great new feature to the Mario Kart franchise.
Adding to the list of super-cool additions comes the ability to perform stunts! Yes that’s right with just a simple flick of your Wii wheel/remote, after lunching from a height you too can be the proud owner of a nice little speed boost after landing a super cool mid-air stunt! Always be on the look out for chances to use this new ability it might just help you win the race. (The half-pipes sections of the tracks are great)
Mario Kart as always is a brightly coloured amazingly stunning game, don’t believe me? Look at the screenshots, characters are highly detailed as are the Karts and Bikes. You can almost taste the burning rubber against the tarmac it feels so real! The music in the game is absolutely top-notch its hard to find better melodies and music than that those of the Mario origins, spectacular remixed versions of older Mario games infused with sexy-Wiiness to sing you over the finish line. The fat plumber has indeed sung!
World Wide Wii?
Mario Kart Wii provides a whole host of options including single-player and up to 4 split screen multiplayer. If that isn’t enough to tickle your fancy why not take your ambition online and compete with the other players around the world in any race or battle stage you want? You have the options of playing with players local to your area of just going for the full online world wide Mario kart racing experience many Mario fans have been dreaming over. You can even play split-screen with a friend and take out the nasty competition with a friends help. One word of warning the online world of Mario Kart Wii is not for the faint hearted, this is the domain of the most hardcore Mario Kart players in the world do you have what it takes to step in and stick a banana in someone’s exhaust?
As the plumber, the princess and the dinosaur race off into the sunset..
Mario Kart Wii is without a doubt an essential purchase for any Wii owner, its not just an unmissable racing experience, its an unmissable Mario experience you’re Wii game collection will always be incomplete without this great title on your shelf. Ladies and gentleman put on your lucky red hat and your fake moustache and get ready to take on the world because Mario Kart Wii is here to take you along for the ride!
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