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  • Writer's pictureApolo

Game Review: Mario Kart Wii

Platform: Wii Published: Nintendo Developed: Nintendo Genre: Racing

SCORE: 9.0

Developed and published by Nintendo, Mario Kart Wii is yet another sequel to the kart series. Mario Kart is a racing game between Mario characters that range from the well known, such as Mario, Yoshi, Bowser, to some of the more obscure ones such as Waluigi and Daisy. As mentioned before. Mario Kart is a racing game that features wacky items from the Mario Universe to use against your opponents such as red shells that act like homing missiles, the mushroom that gives the player a speed boost, etc. This game comes with sixteen all new tracks and rehashes sixteen tracks from previous games. 

Unlike its predecessor, Mario Kart Double Dash, this Mario Kart does not emphasize co-op play in fact it doesn’t have one. Instead the new feature to the game is the ability to choose what vehicle to use for the races and the ability to use a bike instead of a kart. Another new feature to this game is the ability to steer you vehicle with the Wii’s remote as a steering wheel. However this is not the only way to play, the player also has the option to use either the Classic Controller or the Gamecube controller.

There are three main modes to Mario Kart Wii, the Grand Prix, which allows you to collect trophies, the Versus mode, which allows the player to play with some buddies either split screen or online, and Battle mode, which consists of hitting you opponents with items.

The Grand Prix and Versus modes, as usual, are split into 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and Mirror Mode. Each of the ccs refer to the game’s speed and difficulty from easiest and slowest to harder and faster with the exception of Mirror Mode which is the same as 150cc but with all courses mirrored from left to right.

One of the game’s most notable has always been the items and while they are fun to use, the items in this game seem to be way too out of balance and it makes it feel like t the better the player is, the more they get punished. The reason for this is that if a player is all the way in the rear of the pack, then they get all of the powerful items, while if the player is all the way in the front, they get all of the weaker items.

The tracks themselves are fun and innovative that keeps the player coming back for more. This game contains a total of thirty two tracks which provide the player with a wide range of tracks to choose from and with Mirror Mode, these tracks basically double.

I did not get a chance to play the game online or the battle mode so I cannot comment on how they work.

The main problem with this game is the items. While I understand why they would want to help out the player who is all the way in back, it seems really unfair for a player who is racing virtually flawlessly and then loses because of some cheap item used by the player all the way in the back. I think there are two easy solutions to this problem, one give the player the ability to play without the use of items, to be able to see one’s true skills in the game. The other is to both have fewer items on the track and give the player in the back a favoritism with the good items but not so overwhelming that it becomes obvious.

This game is clearly meant to be for either new comers who want to pick up the game and play or for veterans who now the game well. For those people who have played a Mario Kart game and did not like it should look elsewhere since the game’s core mechanics are left virtually intact. Mario Kart Wii is a fun game to play but with little innovation on the gameplay, it makes one wonder if this is all they've got.

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