The Official Mario Kart Wii thread

[Darth Marsden]

I'm not sure when this comes out in the US, but it's out now in the UK and I've got it, so here's the appropriate thread. Let us know when you all get it (as I know you will) and what your Friend Code is so add it to the list.

On a similar note, add me to your Contacts List already!

Friend Codes:

erm2003: 0688-5692-4432
Darth Marsden: 1547-5372-9837
ctrl-alt-del: 1633-4600-3767
mattwdr: 3050-7928-9380
War Lord: 3480-2978-2036
AtmaWeapon: 3652-0929-3429
Mak-X: 4038-6387-6303
Cloral: 4468-1588-3993
Warlock: 5455-9792-4124

[MottZilla]

Use the force... er GameFaqs. http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/wii/data/942008.html

Still about 2 weeks off for North America.

[*b*]

I'm definitely picking this one up. MKDS was awesome, and Double Dash was.. Well, it was unique. This looks more like Mario Kart 64, which is easily the best of the series so far

Though, before last night, I thought it was still in the planning/development stages. I had no idea it was close to being/released

[vegeta1215]

I'll probably hold out on getting Mario Kart Wii. I'm not really that excited about it. I was psyched for SSBB, but I haven't touched it in over a week, and have been a little disappointed with it due to the lackluster fighting arenas. I feel Mario Kart Wii may be the same...still, I'm curious to hear about it. Do you plan to post any impressions Darth?

[Warlock]

Youtube videos of ghost runs on every track:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...E719D8F9559A3A

I'm actually pretty impressed, a lot of these tracks look very good - like MK DS quality good. I particularly like Moonview Highway (Toad's Turnpike on crack) and Maple Treeway (which actually reminds me a bit of some of the F-Zero X tracks like Big Blue).

Though I hear Battle Mode completely sucks. It forces 12 players on you (if you don't have 12 people - like in local play, it fills all other slots with CPU players) and it forces teams, so you can't have like, a 12 player FFA. It would be 6 vs. 6 (and I'm not sure if you can split it up more than that or not - the one video I saw only had two teams).

[Icey]

It forces 12 players on you... it fills all other slots with CPU players... and it forces teams, so you can't have like, a 12 player FFA

Yeah, for the reasons I highlighted above, that sounds really shitty. Luckily battle has never been the main draw for me - kind of a fun distraction, but nothing major.

I'm pretty sure I'll give this a rent before I choose whether or not to buy it, though. I didn't really like Double Dash much.

[Darth Marsden]

Someone wanted impressions.

Having only played the single-player side, I have to say it's great fun. There's 4 or 5 different vehicles each character can use (3 different karts, and a couple of bikes), and they're all easy to control. Yes, bikes. I'm sure you've heard that you can play using motorbikes (In fact, it's required on 100cc), but fear not! They handle just as well as the karts.

There was a mention of the levels, and of the ones I've played, they're all very well designed. You also get classic tracks from previous Mario Kart games, and though I can't speak for all of them (having not played the SNES or DS ones) they all look faithful and play pretty well.

The 12 players thing... Yeah. When you play battle (at least on your own) it assigns you to one of two teams, each with 6 players. It sounds bad, but it's actually quite fun. You can whack your team-mates - in Balloon Battle, it nicks one of their balloons - but the emphasis is on whacking the other guys. Since the levels you get are pretty big, it works out quite well, but I can see how some of you may want that one-on-one feeling.

I play using the attached wheel, which feels really weird at first! Once you get used to it (which doesn't take long at all), you'll wish you could play all driving games like this. It's how you always used to play your games, only this time tilting the remote sideways actually does make you turn. The rest of the controls are, as always, pretty simple - you only need to use three buttons. The 2 button accelerates, the 1 button hops (and lets you drift) and the D-Pad (or B) fires your weapons. That's it. Simple.

So overall, I love it. I think it's a great game and I urge you all to, at the very least, rent it.

I was going to say that I felt sorry that you have to wait another two weeks for this, but then I remembered that you guys nearly always gets things months before it comes out in Europe, and I therefore don't. Take that, corporate America!

EDIT: Thanks for adding me to your Wii Contacts list, vegeta. Now if only the other 30 people I'm waiting for would do the same...

[*b*]

Here's a question: Is there an option to use the GCN/Classic controller by any chance?

[Cloral]

Yeah, you can use the GCN controller, though there is at least one move (I suspect the aerial stunts) which you can't do with it. That should make getting 4 player matches together a lot easier.

I pre-ordered this, since I've loved every Mario Kart game to this point.

[Breaker]

If I were 10 years younger I might look into buying this. I'm still very much into video games, but Nintendo isn't doing it for me these days. I'm extremely dissapointed in the battle mode of this version of Mario Kart. I'd rather emulate the original and play it online with ZSNES.