Have you ever driven a winged vehicle at  90 miles per hour while bouncing from one giant mushroom to another, gasping happily? Have you ever grown 10 sizes bigger in an instant while glowing a variety of colors and playing cheerful music? Maybe you haven’t, but 36.38 million players of “Mario Kart Wii” have. Grip the steering wheel tightly, and begin racing through the exciting world of “Mario Kart Wii.”

The breathtaking racing game does not have any storyline. The simple objective is to win the race. This means that you must survive multiple obstacles and make it to the finish line before anyone else does. There are many gameplay modes in “Mario Kart Wii.” Whether you want to play alone or with your friends and family, the game offers all different kinds of tense competition. The Grand Prix is a game mode where you race 11 other players to the finish line. Time Trials are races against “ghosts” to see if you can beat the fastest time, and makes the player determined to beat the latest record. Versus mode is when you play with your team against opponents to race to the finish line. Finally, Battle is in team mode. There are two types of battles: Coin Runner – a race to see which side collects more coins in a limited amount of time – and Balloon Battle, where teams attack each other with nonviolent items such as mushrooms and turtle shells and try to pop all of the other team’s balloons. Each game mode has its own racing tracks, which  include fantastical features such as cannons that propel you to another island, an underwater tube that you can drive in, and balls made of lava that act as obstacles. It’s fun to discover all the unique tracks as well as the fantasies depicted in the races.

The game is played on the Wii console, using either the Wii Wheel, Wii Remote and Nunchuk, Classic Controller, or the Nintendo GameCube Controller. All of these controllers excluding the Wii Wheel are purchased separately.

Some of the game’s music is new and some music is carried over from previous games. The official soundtrack contains very jubilant but still suspenseful music, which adds to the excitement of the race. The graphics are cartoon-like, and as mentioned before, fantasy-like. The colors are typically bright and cheerful, though some tracks are purposely darker to add variety.

Due to simple objectives, competitive game modes, and exciting music and graphics, “Mario Kart Wii” won the IGN Wii Award for Best Racing and Driving Game in 2008; the IGN Wii Award for Best Online Multiplayer Game  in 2008; the Family/Children’s Game of the Year in 2008; and the Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Video Game in 2010. “Mario Kart Wii” will get your heart racing!