Kourses
Though the game begins with four different cups of tracks to choose from, a lot of fancy driving lies between the player and the entire selection of courses. The makers of Mario Kart Wii have put together 16 new courses, all of which have elements of originality plus the "same-old same-old." The first course of the first cup is, as expected, a basic circle/figure-eight style track with few or no surprise elements, and the last course of the final cup is, once again as expected, Rainbow Road (and it's kind of a doozy). In between are some truly memorable tracks that take the player on adventures through treetops, into pipes, and down a ski slope, as well as the somewhat forgettable daisy circuit, the typical desert stage, and the obnoxious volcano course.
Ahh, my old nemesis, we meet again. Perhaps this time I will figure out some way to get to your island to defeat you once and for all! (N64 Sherbet Land)
A not-so-new but still welcome change to the Mario Kart set up is the offering of 16 retro tracks (reconfigured to work with the current standards). While this is a nice bone thrown to the serious Kart fans, I can't help but wonder how hard it might have been for the makers to provide more. Some old ones translate really well, such as DK Mountain from the GameCube version, but this opens the door of comparison and makes it more noticeable that the graphics from the last title to this one haven't really changed.
Not SSX
A new feature is the half-pipe style jumps added here and there to new and old courses. The driver can head up the side of a wall, take a quick jump, collect an item box and/or do a trick and be catapulted back into gameplay with little lost time. Some parts of some courses require the use of these jumps for fluid driving, but other ones are completely avoidable. While this element seems new and exciting at first, I've found myself avoiding them more and more as I get used to the courses. Sometimes even a fraction of a second counts.
Lovely foliage (Maple Treeway)
As players take to the tracks, they can see some of their personalized Mii characters watching the races. In the mall course, some Miis are even in posters on the walls. Attention to detail isn't at its peak in Mario Kart Wii, though. In the mirror cup, it seems the programmers simply flipped the vertical axis, leaving writing on walls backwards and everything else noticeably reflected. It seems like a lazy move, but perhaps I long too much for the past courses that had karts driving backwards through a course that seemed more creative.
It's like DK Mountain in the Winter (DK Summit)
Players familiar with past course glitches like the wall jump in Mario Kart 64's Wario Stadium might be able to find one or two in this one as well. Some patience and item manipulation may be required, but keep your eyes open and you might be rewarded.
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Aloonatic - Saturday, August 9, 2008 - link
The problem that Nintendo have always had with Mario Kart is that they got it right first time. Like that bolognaise you make when you realise you have no bought in sauce, which ends up being the best you have ever tasted you know that it is doomed never to be repeated.On the SNES it was mostly about the racing, the control of your kart at high speeds, with the occasional item that may help you out, may not.
Now, it seems that the the racing has been completely replaced by random chance and all at a snail's pace, even in the 150cc cups.
You can be finishing 1st, 1st, 1st, then 12th???? in a cup. Why? because of constant attacks that are so unlikely and random as to be frankly mind boggling.
The blue shell, seriously, what's the point?
The wii wheel? OK, until you get an itch and then you are buggered, there's no chance of a quick scratch without you finding your self well off the track.
Such a great disappointment.
I guess if I was 12 again I might have the time an inclination to take on this game but I really can't be bothered. What's the point? Your hard work will just be undone by a series of unlikely events.
Athlex - Monday, June 2, 2008 - link
While I agree that the raincloud is a an iffy item, it's worth mentioning that while you have the raincloud, your kart accelerates faster and can drive off-road better which makes for a [slightly] easier handoff.mkfan - Monday, June 2, 2008 - link
The update to the "review" was a little weak. I get that you didn't figure out where the options were, but it's right there in the manual. Granted, the first time I opened the manual was to make sure it was in there, but the fact remains that if you're writing a review for a reputable site, you should maybe RTFM before slamming your subject for not having something that it does. Also, if you're going to do updates, it might help to mention the update somewhere near the information that's updated. Quite frankly, I expected a little more professionalism out of a review from AnandTech.MrBlastman - Monday, June 2, 2008 - link
This is very bad news for us Mario Kart purists who enjoyed the ability to hop around at our leisure.To not include this is rediculous. I don't know if I'll be buying this version after all. I thought Nintendo learned from the sorry excuse of the gamecube version and the inability to jump.
You could jump in the original, you could jump in the N64 version. You couldn't jump in the GC version and it failed. Weather it is important to do or not, it detracts from the fun such as shell evasion etc.
I don't want to have to find a ramp to jump. I want to hop around all day like an idiot if I want to. :)
DerekWilson - Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - link
as noted by one of the other posters, you can jump.it's labeled in the article as well -- it's the drift button. drift, as with other mario kart games, is started via a jump.
also, the ability to jump is labeled in the images in the article as well ... only the author called it "hop" instead of "jump" ...
jordanclock - Monday, June 2, 2008 - link
You can jump. Just quickly raise the controller a bit. And it's probably a shoulder button for the Classic and GC controllers.And I believe you meant "whether" instead of "weather."
Scalarscience - Monday, June 2, 2008 - link
As the above poster stated, you can jump with the wheel, but I found that after the initial fun from the novelty factor of the wheel wore off, the nunchuck+wii controller was the best way to drive, at least for me. When you do that the 'Z' button replaces the 'B' button as your item usage button, the 'B' button becomes jump/slide (for the boost) and steering with the analog stick on the nunchuck is FAR easier than the wheel's method, plus doing tricks off of a ramp and pulling wheelies with the bikes is a lot more reliable when you don't have to use the motion sensing to steer.It took me a day or two of playing in first player mode to really get all of that sorted out. My wife (I really bought the game because she loves it) wanted to just go online most of the time so it took a bit longer to get the details of gameplay down than it would have if I had gamed solely on my own time. Now that I've got a mode of playing I enjoy the game is definately as fun as the n64 and SuperNES version (my 2 favorites).
The shells and being repeatedly bombarded by items definately are annoying, I agree, but the game is fun nonetheless. Since the wii downloaded an update for it immediately upon inserting the disc the first time, I do wonder if we'll be getting more updates (not to mention that it would be nice to see additional downloadable content, more tracks!)
9nails - Sunday, June 1, 2008 - link
One of the downsides to the game, at least for me, is that there isn't an option to restart the race. (Keep all current settings and just go back to the race beginning.) Sometimes we just want to start over, but have to select tracks, characters, and karts all over again.In Grand Prix mode, it becomes quite frustrating to try and unlock all the characters and karts with these power-up items mercilessly destroying you. I've been blown-up by Blue (Winged) Shells seconds before the finish line with a near perfect 4-track record too many times now. Sometimes I've been blown-up by Blue Shells, landed in my own Banana's that were flung off of me by the explosion, and then finally spun off the track - going from 1st to last (12th) in one comedic chain-of-events-attack! It takes me at least 1 full lap to get back to 1st place again. These power-up items are really annoying me! I wish there was a mode to turn them off in Grand Prix or at least a defensible action to reverse the effects of all items. I know that a well timed jump can prevent the "Pow" attack or a well placed Banana can prevent Red and Green Shells from hitting me, so some counter-attack is present. But other special attacks offer no means of prevention - which is especially true if you're not carrying an item to counter-effect the attack.
There also is some "return to track" issues if you go off course. Sometimes I'm placed WELL behind the position where I left the track. Just one bump knocking you off track can cost you 8+ positions before your back up to speed. That's devastating if you're trying to unlock all the items and this happens on the last race. Sometimes the computer returns me a few feet in front of a gap and I have little choice but it fall into the gap as I didn't have enough speed to jump over and clear the gap.
jordanclock - Monday, June 2, 2008 - link
You make a good point of just how ruthless this game can be. I'm bothered that after all these years, all Nintendo can do to make the computer "competitive" is to rubber band them to the extreme. I've been ahead by very large margins before only to have three or four computer players come shooting up at once to overtake me. It's simply ridiculous that they can't simply give the AI the ability to drive properly instead of, essentially, cheat.There is almost no margin of error in this game when competing against the AI. And then there are the very common blue shells, to which there are no defense.
Rob94hawk - Saturday, May 31, 2008 - link
My son found a way for me and him to be the same player. That's when you see a graphical glitch. For example when you select Toad and player 1 puts him on a bike and player 2 puts him in a kart toad has his head rammed into the bike. And then sometimes he will have no vehicle at all and is just there alone levitating. Funny stuff.