bit-tech Shopping: Nintendo Mario Kart (Wii)

Rating: 10

Time with product: 45 Days

Strengths: Able to play friends/family over the Internet! Great fun!

Weaknesses: I should handicap players with lesser ability.

Summary: We spend several hours a week playing this game. We play our family in Washington state and on the other side of St Louis. We lose, but still have fun doing so! This is a lot of fun to play. It's great for all ages, however, don't play your grand kids...you will lose every time!

Rating: 10

Time with product: 3

Strengths: online gaming works

Weaknesses: no voice chat, no ghost item

Summary: This is a fantastic game, I wouldn't pay above retail for it (as of this writing, demand is huge vs supply), but it is a solid addition to the wii library. Online racing works beautifully without lag. And while friend codes are annoying and only having preset text messages to send make it feel quiet, it is great to race online. When playing the computer, it can seem that a race can be won or lost on a single item, but after logging online racing time, items or not, the good racers win more often than bad racers- skill is rewarded. That said, when racing online with splitscreen, I would have liked both racers to use their profiles. And when playing 2p tournament, it would have been nice to make things unlockable as in double dash. Also, there are so many great courses from the previous games, and I know everyone has their favorites, but I think there were better choices that could have been made. I have held mario 64 as my favorite racer, and like the course designs better (as well as item selection and skill vs item breakdown), but the solid online plays make mario kart wii the best in the series. Easily.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: Vehicle variety, excellent online play

Weaknesses: rubberband AI

Summary: Mario Kart Wii might be the best game in the series yet, even if only due to the fantastic online implementation. Allowing you to race friends and strangers at any time, with up to 12 people per race, fun is always at your fingertips. While some of the powerups and hazards are more annoying than necessary (blue shells in particular), making many race results dependent on luck more than skill, this even matching makes most matches intense.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 2

Strengths: Classic Mario Kart gameplay, flawless (in my experience) online play

Weaknesses: Some odd course choices for the retro courses

Summary: Another Nintendo system, another Mario Kart. The series has not drastically changed in its many iterations, but this is very much of case of "if it's not broke, don't fix it". The motion controls (even the admittedly gimmicky Wii Wheel) are very well implemented, and it is a blast to play with four people locally and see everyone quite literally lean into the turn. The new bikes are also a welcome addition, as instead of being an afterthought, there is sufficient risk/reward to choosing them that bike/kart combo races are still fun. A lot of items are still cheap (Blue Turtle Shell), and there is the unfortunate addition of a new item that when you get it, speeds you up, but if you don't bump another player in time to pass it off, zaps and shrinks you. The problem is that there are many instances where you will be in a solid first place, and get this item. There's nobody to tag to pass it off to! I also wish they would have chosen the retro courses a little more carefully (do we really want 3D incarnations of the GBA tracks?). Still, I rate this a solid second place to DS, which is in my opinion the pinnacle of the series.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 2 Months

Strengths: Fun to play with Wii Wheel. Many new characters, tracks, and now there's bikes too. Online play is great and works really well.

Weaknesses: Cannot play two players to one car like double dash (Gamecube version).

Summary: I have been excited for this game since I heard they were going to make it. My fiance and I both loved double dash. When I heard it was going to be single karts- i.e. everyone has to drive their own and there are no backseat riders like Double Dash, I was really dissapointed. I am terrible at driving in Double Dash so we beat the game with me riding back seat. - With this version, there are many new characters. We only have two unlocked. One of the characters in a character from Super Mario Galaxy that I found out we unlocked by having a savefile of the game. There are also motorbikes, which I like driving more than karts. You can choose between manual (holding the button and drifting yourself- you still get speed boosts, but this time you get the boost by holding the button and you do not have to move the gamepad back and forth) or automatic (drifts corners for you without having to hold the button, however you do not get speed boosts). You can do tricks by jerking the wii wheel up as you go off a ramp or large bump. The tricks give you a small boost of speed when you land. You still gain speed driving behind someone like the DS version as well. - Some things that have changed are being able to drag items behind your kart. You have to hold the button to drag the item. You can no longer drop it behind you and forget about it. Also when you grab three shells, you can make them spin around your kart and grab another item, but you must use the shells before you can use the other item. At least I haven't found a way around that, but it's possible I am incorrect. - As soon as we got the game (and purchased 2 additional wheels to use), the first thing we did was go online to play. The online play works amazingly well. When you connect it finds a game for you to join and you can race with up to 12 people. Depending on the time of day, there's usually at least 5 people playing and I've played a few games with 11 others and was surprised there was no lag. When you play online you get to choose your kart (or bike) and character and vote for a track (or have it pick a random track). The system then goes through the list of votes and randomly stops on one. The one downside of online play is that many people choose the same 2 or 3 tracks over and over. This is rather frustrating when you have to race on Mushroom Gorge for the 5th time. - Moving onto the regular gameplay- it looks like there is a lot of stuff to unlock. Way more than what was in double dash. The unlockables are a little more difficult to do as well. In the GameCube version, everytime you won a cup you would get a new item. This time you have to do things such as unlock staff ghosts, win Wi-Fi matches (or do something similar to make it fair to people without Wi-Fi), and win cups. There's also the battle mode like the previous Mario Kart games. - One other fun addition I feel I should mention is the Mario Kart online challenges where you are given a task to complete and then you can submit your time and see how you rank amongst other players. It seems like every week or two we get a Wii message saying there is a new one. - I really like this game, despite not being able to play backseat rider. Because of this I had to learn to drive and I find it a lot easier than Double Dash. The Wii wheel makes it feel really smooth and it's easier to steer than I expected. In fact, many times I do a lot better than my fiance- I think possibly because he's used to driving in Double Dash with the gamecube controller. I would defenetly recommend this game to anybody. Even our two-and-a-half year old has a blast trying to drive. Because of the online play, the game is still a lot of fun even after you complete the regular gameplay and beat all the cups- which I foresee taking quite some time. Tracks like Moonview Highway where there's cars everywhere, and the new Rainbow Road, will keep you on your toes.