The Official Mario Kart Wii thread

[Darth Marsden]

*b* - From Wikipedia:

The primary control scheme is the Wii Wheel, which houses the Wii Remote. In addition to the Wii Wheel, four other controller schemes are present (as in Super Smash Bros. Brawl): the Wii Remote alone (tilted on its side), the Remote with the Nunchuk attachment, the Nintendo GameCube controller, or the Wii Classic Controller. However, by using the GameCube controller, some techniques will not be able to be accomplished. The ability to "snake" in previous Mario Kart games, which creates speed boosts by repeatedly drifting, has been abandoned in favor of a new speed boost system based on how long the player actually drifts.

Breaker: A quote for you too, from the same source:

A common criticism is the fact that Battle mode can now only be played in teams; no free-for-all option is offered. This removes the 'last man standing' element of previous Mario Kart Battle modes. The mode is also now score-based and played against the clock, resulting in only a small penalty from losing all three balloons.

Like I say though, it's still fun.

EDIT: I've just found out you can mix and match controllers, meaning I and my sister have just played a game together (I only have the one Wii remote). She enjoyed it, so it definitely owns. Get it.

[Warlock]

Someone posted this in the comments to IGN UK's review. Is this true?:

Review: "Rather than shrinking courses down to better suit two to four players offline, Nintendo has seen fit to fill out the ranks with AI players so offline matches appear more populated."

Umm, guess someone didn't bother to press the Rules button or read the manual. CPU: Easy, Normal, Hard or OFF.

Still teambased and the larger arenas but CPU bots are optional.

P.S. - I still can't believe how that reviewer rated the MKs:

Okay, so we're all on the same page, let's get this out of the way: Mario Kart SNES > Mario Kart DS > Mario Kart GBA > Mario Kart Double Dash > Mario Kart 64. Although we might be inclined to swap the first two around depending on our current whims.

No way in hell. This is the order:

Mario Kart DS > Mario Kart 64 > Super Mario Kart > Mario Kart Double Dash > Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA).

You can debate that if you want, but there is no way anyone can deny that Super Circuit was not THE WORST Mario Kart. And to call MK64 the worst is just awful, particularly when I think it had the best battle mode of any of them (Double Dash had the worst battle mode - honestly I think that puts it lower on the list for me than the two-person thing.. at least it had some decent tracks).

Also, I think people tend to look at Super Mario Kart through rose-colored glasses. At the time, yes, it was awesome. But it doesn't hold up well at all.

[vegeta1215]

Super Circuit was pretty bad. I went back to play it after I got Mario Kart DS, and it's so damn hard to control. I actually remember playing it with only Mario back when I first got it cause everyone else was so touchy.

Mario Kart DS is fantastic, and the original will always be up there (it's battle mode is still unmatched, as the IGN UK reviewer agrees), but as for 64 vs Double Dash...I don't know. It's been really hard to go back and play 64 after playing Double Dash :-\

[Cloral]

I've never understood all the hate that Double Dash!! seems to receive. I found it to be very enjoyable, and would probably rate it higher than 64 (blasphemy, I know) because of the addition of the new powerups and the 2-rider mechanic.

[MottZilla]

Also, I think people tend to look at Super Mario Kart through rose-colored glasses. At the time, yes, it was awesome. But it doesn't hold up well at all.

Say what? How doesn't Super Mario Kart hold up? It's superb. True you only have 2 players, but you can't fault it for that since it wasn't possible at the time. But at the core there is nothing wrong with the game other than it's an older game. As far as rating the games I don't see the point since most people will only play the latest installment anyway. That makes their opinion null and void. I've played all the Super Mario Kart games save for the Wii and none have been bad games but they all have their issues.

[Warlock]

Say what? How doesn't Super Mario Kart hold up? It's superb. True you only have 2 players, but you can't fault it for that since it wasn't possible at the time. But at the core there is nothing wrong with the game other than it's an older game. As far as rating the games I don't see the point since most people will only play the latest installment anyway. That makes their opinion null and void. I've played all the Super Mario Kart games save for the Wii and none have been bad games but they all have their issues.

It's not terrible, but it controls a bit ackward and most of the tracks are fairly identical (there is something like 6 different tilesets, plus rainbow road). It's not a bad game per-say, I just don't think it holds up to any of the 3d Karts.

Anyways, I don't dislike Double Dash, but I do think it was one of the weaker Mario Karts. The main problem I have with it is that the Battle Mode courses were all extremely terrible. The two-person Kart thing I didn't mind so much, but I think I prefer single-person karts. A lot of the courses were pretty decent though.

[Darth Marsden]

Review: "Rather than shrinking courses down to better suit two to four players offline, Nintendo has seen fit to fill out the ranks with AI players so offline matches appear more populated."

Umm, guess someone didn't bother to press the Rules button or read the manual. CPU: Easy, Normal, Hard or OFF.

Still teambased and the larger arenas but CPU bots are optional.

'tis true! When you have two or more players, you can indeed set the bots to Off! And you can't blame me for not knowing that, 'cause I normally play in single-player mode with racing games.

For me, the Mario Kart games are:
Mario Kart Wii > Mario Kart: Double Dash!! > Mario Kart 64 > Mario Kart: Super Circuit > Super Mario Kart

That's based on how much fun they are to play right now, which I think is how they should be judged, rather then how great they were when they first came out. I haven't included Mario Kart DS as I haven't played it, but if you really want it to be in there, I'd guess it would be before Super Circuit.

[Warlock]

'tis true! When you have two or more players, you can indeed set the bots to Off! And you can't blame me for not knowing that, 'cause I normally play in single-player mode with racing games.

For me, the Mario Kart games are:
Mario Kart Wii > Mario Kart: Double Dash!! > Mario Kart 64 > Mario Kart: Super Circuit > Super Mario Kart

That's based on how much fun they are to play right now, which I think is how they should be judged, rather then how great they were when they first came out. I haven't included Mario Kart DS as I haven't played it, but if you really want it to be in there, I'd guess it would be before Super Circuit.Made the

Well that's fantastic. Honestly, the fact that the courses are large doesn't bother me. If anything, I think Double Dash's courses were WAY too small (i.e. most of them you could see every single kart no matter where you were on the course). The thing I liked about the N64 courses was that they were large, and thus there were places to hide, ambush, etc. Block Fortress was the perfect ambush course

So, does it force you into 2 teams, or can you do say, 4 teams if you have 4 people?

[Darth Marsden]

I wouldn't know (not enough controllers), but I'd guess it'd force you into two teams. Let me try it with three controllers and get back to you...

EDIT: I was right, two teams. Sorry.

[Cloral]

Well that's fantastic. Honestly, the fact that the courses are large doesn't bother me. If anything, I think Double Dash's courses were WAY too small (i.e. most of them you could see every single kart no matter where you were on the course). The thing I liked about the N64 courses was that they were large, and thus there were places to hide, ambush, etc. Block Fortress was the perfect ambush course

I always liked block fortress, as I would stay on the top level and block all the ramps to the top with bananas and fake item boxes. Then I'd take green shells and just shoot them at random into the lower level. Then whenever I'd get a red shell I'd figure out where the other guy was and get to the level above him and shoot the red shell over the edge.