The Official Mario Kart Wii thread

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

Still about 2 weeks off for North America.

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

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?

Youtube videos of ghost runs on every track:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=30E719D8F9559A3A

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).

Warlock wrote:
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.

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...

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

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.

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.

*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.

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.

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 :-\

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.

Warlock wrote: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.

MottZilla wrote: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.

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.

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.

Darth Marsden wrote:'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?

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.

Warlock wrote: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. 😃

Darth Marsden wrote:EDIT: I was right, two teams. Sorry.

Boooooo. I thought for a second you'd actually be able to do some classic 4 Player FFA. It's going to be so lame in multiplayer then - half of the people are going to be friendly.

Cloral wrote: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. 😃

Me too. The best part is sticking fake ? blocks strategically so that it looked like a normal one, or surrounding the normal blocks with banana peels so they couldn't get them 😊 You could also block off the two entrances (bridge + ramp) and make yourself a little fortress to rain turtle shells down from 😃

I have a question.

What's the full character roster, WITH unlockables?

Good question. I've only unlocked three characters and a couple of karts so far, but a quick Google search reveals the truth...

Bah, still no Magikoopa (or Kamek). What a shame. He got shafted from Mario Kart 64 (Mario Kart R) and I don't believe they ever gave him another shot :P

Surprised R.O.B. isn't on that list though, since he was in MK DS. Or Shy-Guy for that matter (he was the "no cartraige" wifi kart for MK DS, plus he was in the SSB Brawl Mario Kart stage 😉).

You know, I just realized something today:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Kart#Playable_characters

Sort that by Mario Kart Wii characters. Mario Kart Wii features *every* previous Mario Kart playable character except for DK Jr. (SMK), Paratroopa and Petey Piranha (Double Dash), and R.O.B. and Shy Guy (MK DS, though Shy Guy was even a special case in that game). And I am of course ignoring all the Pac-Man characters from the arcade one. That's actually pretty impressive, especially considering it added quite a few new ones.

Also of note, 1up's review:
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3167527&p=44

Yay for overly nit-picky hate reviews! He spends like 90% of the review complaining about stupid things like track visuals and character choices, and then jams all the actual "information" into one tiny paragraph at the end. He doesn't even even talk about Battle Mode, except off-hand when he is bitching about how stupid some of the BM courses are.

Warlock wrote:Also of note, 1up's review:
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3167527&p=44

Yay for overly nit-picky hate reviews! He spends like 90% of the review complaining about stupid things like track visuals and character choices, and then jams all the actual "information" into one tiny paragraph at the end. He doesn't even even talk about Battle Mode, except off-hand when he is bitching about how stupid some of the BM courses are.

Maybe I'm alone, but I like those kinds of reviews. For big name games, I've already read a lot about the games, so I don't need someone telling me something I already know. I like to hear about nuances in gameplay, surprises, annoyances, what worked and what didn't, etc. - things you don't read everywhere.

So far, Mario Kart Wii sounds like a step down from Double Dash in most respects, save for the online mode. The sheer fact that you cannot play Grand Prix in co-op to unlock things seriously pisses me off. I'm pretty good at Mario Kart, but the computer controlled players are often so brutal, that I need an extra player to help take home the gold. And from what I've heard, 150cc is even more brutal in this game than ever before. Oh yeah, and since it's Wifi enabled, I'm sure you won't be able to back up your save games either....sigh

Battle Mode was the most fun in the Super NES version, and the N64 had some great arenas, but since then there's been so many bad arenas. I liked Double Dash's Shine Sprite and Bob-omb battle modes, but Luigi's Mansion and the Pipe Dream levels were the only decent stages in that game 😞

Warlock wrote:Bah, still no Magikoopa (or Kamek). What a shame. He got shafted from Mario Kart 64 (Mario Kart R) and I don't believe they ever gave him another shot :P

Surprised R.O.B. isn't on that list though, since he was in MK DS. Or Shy-Guy for that matter (he was the "no cartraige" wifi kart for MK DS, plus he was in the SSB Brawl Mario Kart stage 😉).

Dang, I was hoping for all three of them, Kamek, R.O.B., and especially Shy Guy to be playable characters. Dry Bones was my favorite in DS though so at least that character made it in... but over Shy Guy? Come on.

vegeta1215 wrote:I'm pretty good at Mario Kart, but the computer controlled players are often so brutal

Also, the SNES and GBA courses suck. End of. There's no height to them, so they just feel empty and dull. Which is a shame, as the other courses they've included from other games are pretty good.

vegeta1215 wrote:Maybe I'm alone, but I like those kinds of reviews. For big name games, I've already read a lot about the games, so I don't need someone telling me something I already know. I like to hear about nuances in gameplay, surprises, annoyances, what worked and what didn't, etc. - things you don't read everywhere.

So far, Mario Kart Wii sounds like a step down from Double Dash in most respects, save for the online mode. The sheer fact that you cannot play Grand Prix in co-op to unlock things seriously pisses me off. I'm pretty good at Mario Kart, but the computer controlled players are often so brutal, that I need an extra player to help take home the gold. And from what I've heard, 150cc is even more brutal in this game than ever before. Oh yeah, and since it's Wifi enabled, I'm sure you won't be able to back up your save games either....sigh

Battle Mode was the most fun in the Super NES version, and the N64 had some great arenas, but since then there's been so many bad arenas. I liked Double Dash's Shine Sprite and Bob-omb battle modes, but Luigi's Mansion and the Pipe Dream levels were the only decent stages in that game 😞

Except he spends the whole review bitching about stupid things ("ZOMG WHY IS BABY DAISY IN THE GAME?!?!?"😉 rather than actually talking about how it plays. He barely discusses multiplayer at all.

Also, from what I've heard, this is the guy who bitched that Metroid Prime 3 didn't look as good as an Xbox 360 or PS3 game... yeah..

Warlock wrote:Except he spends the whole review bitching about stupid things ("ZOMG WHY IS BABY DAISY IN THE GAME?!?!?"😉 rather than actually talking about how it plays. He barely discusses multiplayer at all.

Also, from what I've heard, this is the guy who bitched that Metroid Prime 3 didn't look as good as an Xbox 360 or PS3 game... yeah..

Yeah...sometimes they are like that.

...also, I like playing as Daisy in Double Dash :shy: