Review: Nintendo Takes The Checkered Flag With Mario Kart Wii! (Page 3 of 6)
The Giant Mushroom can give you a size and speed advantage over your foes. Here, Luigi seems to be sizing up his brother for a smush job.
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Of course, this brings me to my number one complaint about Mario Kart Wii: The game goes out of its way to reward racers who fall behind. Say you're in last place and you run over an item boxchances are you'll get some uber-powerup that'll help rocket you back into contention. That's great if you absolutely suck but what happens if you're good enough to jump out into the lead? You'll be assaulted by all manner of shells, bombs and lightning strikes. The worst part is that the game will arm you with lame powerups like banana peels if you're in first, so it's hard to defend yourself.
This leads to a lot of frustration and I lost a lot of races simply because my opponents got lucky with some power-up. The penalty for getting hit is also way too harsh: get struck by a shell or run into an obstacle and you'll come to a dead stop for a few seconds, which proves especially deadly in the later races. Falling off the race course is even worseit takes forever to get reset and you'll spend the rest of the race trying to catch up. Fall off the track multiple times and you might as well quit and start again.
Presentation wise, the game also fails to dazzle with graphics and audio that get the job done but won't blow you away. Also, when you go split-screen for multiplayer, things start to get pixelated and fuzzy, which is sort of disappointing.
One More Time
Get used to this sight if you're good enough to get the lead. You'll become everyone else's whipping boy as long as you're in first.
And yet, even with these faults, Mario Kart Wii is without a doubt awesome. I always judge a game's worth on whether or not I find myself going back to it time and time again and I definitely found Mario Kart Wii to be addictive, even with its minor frustrations. All the unlockables definitely help toogetting a new vehicle or a new character is a great reward for the work you put in.
Mario Kart Wii also has a huge ace up its sleeve: online multiplayer: I didn't get to test it out because no one else has the game as I write this, but unless it's completely broken, I can't see how it won't be a great addition to the series, the complexity and fickleness of Nintendo's online service notwithstanding. The Mario Kart Wii channel is also a cool little widget that sits in the Wii Menu and lets you access online stats without needing to boot up the game. I hope to see more games take advantage of this cool feature.
Nintendo Power
There's no denying it: Mario Kart Wii is just the latest example which proves that, when it comes to designing an amazing Wii game, Nintendo has the secret formula down pat. It's a fantastic title that's fun, accessible and should prove to be a big hit with casual Wii gamers and hardcore racers alike. Whether you play solo, with friends or with strangers online, Mario Kart Wii is a great title that all Wii owners have to check out.
The tracks are a nice mix of the old and the new and each is designed with drifting in mind, so practice getting those gold sparks!
Each racer has access to a variety of vehicles, each with their own strengths and weakness. Make sure you plan carefully before you take vehicle out onto the raceway.
The Mario Kart Channel is a handy dandy widget that lets you check online stats without having to boot up the game. We hope more games take advantage of this feature soon!
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