Man, this game sneaked up on me from nowhere. Just went into my local games shop today, and there it was. I must be out of the gaming loop more than I thought; I hadn’t seen one commercial for this, Amazon hadn’t recommended it to me… I knew a Mario Kart game was due for wii, but not so soon. An immediate purchase, no doubt. My impressions?
1; I hate the name; it’s lazy. Mario Kart Wii- It’s Mario Kart, on the Wii. Take it or leave it. Recent MK’s have had at least some tagline, like Double Dash!! or Super Circuit… not here. Mario Kart Wii, just like Mario Kart DS, which pissed me off too. Not much to bitch about, but hey.
2: I like the wheel; it’s very sturdy. I tried it with Excite Truck too, and it worked really well. I must play a few hours of Excite Truck with the wheel sometime soon. There’s a hole in the back of the wheel that bugged me for a while, until I realised what it was for; poking the wii remote out of the snug wheel housing. Overall, a nice peripheral.
3: Graphics; definatly the most realistic Magic plumber kart racing game ever. I know that you “can’t bitch about Wii graphics”, so I won’t. All I will say is this… AHEM gamecube AHEM. Still, it’s nice and colourful, as always. AS. ALWAYS. There’s the thing; no great leaps from previous games. I’m not the type to enjoy a game more because the water looks more realistic, but still… we’ve seen this before.
4: And here’s something we’ve seen before too; the tracks. Several cups are comprised of compilations of tracks from other games. This was cool in MK DS, but c’mon; I gotta race Peach Beach again? A-fucking-gain?! Graphically, it hasn’t changed a bit from the GC days. Conversly, the old SNES tracks have been given a 3D overhaul, and the look… kinda wierd.
5: It races fine, though. The drift boost is too easy, I think; previously, while drifting, you had to jerk the sterring against the turn to build up stages of boost… here, it’s simply the longer you drift, the more you boost. Not sure I like it that much. Also, the manual states that you can twist the wheel when in the air after a jump, allowing you to do tricks and stunts, the landing of which grants you a speed boost; I haven’t been able to pull any of these off yet, maybe there’s somethng I’m missing. Overall though, hey; it’s Mario Kart. The tracks don’t really lend themselves to too much exploration- usually by lap three you’ll be pretty much okay with all the turns, and drift round unscathed. Now, in 100cc, you race bikes instead of karts, which I must admit shut my mouth for a long time, as I bounced off the wall and drifted off course every time. Bikes will require new skills to be learned, and I’ll see how I get on with them. Other than the bikes, though, you’ve played this game a hundred times before. Well, five times before. Still in place, too, is that annoying rubber-band mechanism, that grants the CPU drivers a speed boost if you get too far ahead, leading to classic Mario Kart; being pipped at the post by a driver you left with his dick in the dirt half the track back. GRRR!! Online, against human opponents, this should be allieviated, leaving races a much fairer competition, not YOU vs. CHEATING BASTARDING CPU. I don’t have my Wii hooked up for online play, so someones gonna have to fill me in on how this plays.
6; Weapons- too much, I say! Far too combat heavy. I guess we better accept that MK is a Combat/racing game, rather than racing/combat. Only the original SNES game, in my opinion, was weighted more to racing than combat, with everything since being an explosion of shells and squid. Speaking of which, the squid which inks up your screen from MK DS is here, and is a truly annoying weapon to be hit with. Worse still is this; in MK DS, if you got a speed boost, the ink washed off your screen; here, it doesnt matter. You get inked, you stay inked. Also back are the GODDAMN BLUE FUCKING SHELLS. And you still have nothing to defend yourself against them. Bullshit. All you can hope to do is slow down and let second place catch up with you, so the blast hits them too. Seriously, whats the point of the blue shell? You only ever get them when you’re well back in the pack, miles from the front. What good is it to you, to take out the front guy? All you do is help the 2nd placed racer overtake the leader, you rarely benifit from it yourself. Also, it seems character-specific weaponry, a la Double Dash, is gone. Why? Who knows.
Two hours in, and I’m not disapointed with the game, I just feel I should be getting a fresher experience for my fifty bucks. The bike and stunt element might sway me, if I learn how to work them properly. Other than that, someone will have to bring me up to speed on how well the online element works. Over to you!
