Review of Mario Kart Wii


Scale 1-10: I think Mario Kart Wii is about a 9.2


I think that Mario Kart Wii is an awesome game that all Wii owners should have. Anyone with a heart has to love Mario and his crew, they’re all classic! The game comes with a wide assortment of characters to choose from and even more to unlock. This way, players can easily choose from one of their Mario favorites and drag them into a wild, heart-pounding, action-packed, shell-throwing kart race with their family, friends, or simply the game.

Storyline:

The game really has no story to follow. There’s no deep plot like slaying a dragon and retrieving a magical potion from the Castle of Doom. The main idea is for players to race, single player, in the Grand Prix and conquer eight wild cups with four different difficulties. But this all can be done at free will, no one’s going to stop you from going into multiplayer mode and kicking your friends’ butts to the next millennium of Mario Karting!

See:

While high quality graphics are not the Nintendo Wii’s “forte”, it did exceptionally well with the appearances of the many courses there are to drive on. There are 17 new courses (including battle stages) that are unique to Mario Kart Wii, and 17 courses (also including battle stages) that were copied from previous installments of the Mario Kart series. The tracks (especially the new ones) were wonderfully designed and well created graphically. There are many elements, hazards, and shortcuts inserted to keep players on their toes while maneuvering through these crazy routes. Unfortunately, the graphics for the characters were highly unexceptional. The sprites were obviously taken from the previous Mario Kart game, “Mario Kart: Double Dash!!” What’s even worse is that the individuals’ hands never open up! Throughout the entire game, no matter what, their hands are shown as little balls or just balled up. I found that to be very disheartening knowing how well the character designs in Mario games usually are.

Hear:

One of my favorite elements of Mario Kart Wii is the music, sound effects, and all the other things you’ll hear throughout the game. The characters have a larger assortment of little phrases that they say throughout the game. Moreover, the music in the game is excellent! While players are navigating the wheel of their characters, they’ll be bouncing up and down to the beat of the background music. Your ears will most definitely be pleased.

Control:

Being able to easily maintain what your character is doing is probably one of the most important concepts for a video game. Apparently, Nintendo realized this and made sure that Mario Kart Wii had precise compatibility with the controllers. It is very rare for a player to lose control of their character due to poor game controls. You can attack, swerve, drift, and brake on a dime!

What’s New:

Aside from the new stages mentioned earlier, there are many other new elements that were added to Mario Kart. Firstly, and most obviously, the player can choose not only from karts to drive in, but bikes/motorcycles as well!

Next, there are new characters added to the roster. Such as, the beautiful and graceful Princess Rosalina from “Super Mario Galaxy”, the all new, energetic and fun Baby Daisy, and many others. There is also a much bigger difference between the vehicles and the characters as compared to the previous Mario Kart titles. As introduced in “Mario Kart: Double Dash!!” characters can be classified as light, medium, or heavy. The choice of the character affects the speed, weight, handling, acceleration, and many other components of the vehicle. This makes players want to use more of strategy when choosing their character and automobile.

In addition, there are many wild and damaging items included in the Mario Kart series to mess your competitors up massively. But now, there’s even more! You can use the all new, Bullet Bill to rocket your way from 12th place to third in a matter of seconds! Or even, the squishy Blooper to squirt ink on your rivals to obstruct their view of the road and drive them right off the track. And of course all the old favorites come back like the slippery Banana Peel, the Red and Green Shells, the speed boosting Mushroom, and the all-mighty Power Star.

What is more is that players can execute mid-air tricks when going off ramps or half-pipes. Doing so gives them a large boost of speed to charge ahead of other racers. Now, you can have just a little more fun when driving!

Finally, there is online playability via Wifi connection where players can kick the butts of players all across the world. That just gives you a huge feeling of triumph.

In Summation:

All in all, Mario Kart Wii is a game you’ll want to play even when you’re old and gray. While I didn’t like that Nintendo dropped the tag-team racing from “Mario Kart: Double Dash!!” and, of course, the poor character design, there’s practically nothing else wrong with this game. There are a variety of modes to play, characters, karts, and bikes to unlock, and butts to kick. Mario Kart Wii is an absolutely amazing piece of art!