# Mario Kart Wii **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 12, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974 "2008-04-12T00:36:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/41 "2008-04-18T21:58:19Z")
Ok, well, some good and some bad news… The bad news is, I hit a wall; an invisible wall. AN INVISIBLE WALL, IN NINTENDO GAME. Worlds coming to an end, man. I was following what I believed to be a promising short-cut, when BAM. Can go no further. No physical barrier, just CANNOT-DRIVE-PAST-HERE. I was disgusted. the good news, however, is one of the unlockable characters; Rosalind, from SMGalaxy. She’s as sexy as hell, especially in her bike riding leathers; she looks like Marianne Faithfull. And when she overtakes somebody, she gives a breathless, damn-near pornographic “yyyessssss”, something that should encourage good driving, believe me. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/42 "2008-04-18T23:14:42Z")
[QUOTE=Ice Cream Man] Maybe your friend was mistaken and was playing the gamecube version or the N64 version (which is available on virtual console). [/QUOTE] I asked her that today, and she said that they put a disk in the Wii and put the wiimote in the steering wheel, so it was apparently the Wii version. I think my friend would have noticed if it were in Japanese. She said she would ask where they got it so I could get one! ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/43 "2008-04-19T19:31:06Z")
[QUOTE=Tamex] I asked her that today, and she said that they put a disk in the Wii and put the wiimote in the steering wheel, so it was apparently the Wii version. I think my friend would have noticed if it were in Japanese. She said she would ask where they got it so I could get one! [/QUOTE] The tension, it kills! You are currently my sole reason for holding out on pre-ordering through Amazon. Don’t leave us hanging! ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/44 "2008-04-19T21:43:40Z")
I won’t see her until Monday. ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/45 "2008-04-19T23:27:12Z")
Finally moved up to 150cc… holy shit. It’s all a blur of speed and white knuckle finishes. You need this game in your life. I don’t have the ability to take it online, but I can only imagine what awaits those that do. ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/46 "2008-04-22T22:49:02Z")
Another touch of Nintendo brilliance… Your Mii caracters populate the game throughout; on posters, billboards, driving cars in highway sections… It’s genuinely funny to crash into a car driven by one of your mates Mii’s, and curse them to the high heavens… ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/47 "2008-04-27T18:54:56Z")
Got it midnight last night. It’s not bad at all. It’s a bunch of fun. Lots of stuff to unlock. I prefer the nunchuk to the wheel, although the wheel would be more fun if all parties involved are using the wheel. Nintendo got smart for this game and kept the best parts of the previous Mario Kart games. After I get a little more used to it, let’s see if the online experience is better than the sack of shit they’ve given to us so far. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/48 "2008-04-27T19:15:13Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] Nintendo got smart for this game and kept the best parts of the previous Mario Kart games. After I get a little more used to it, let’s see if the online experience is better than the sack of shit they’ve given to us so far. [/QUOTE] All of the reviews say this is miles ahead of anything Nintendo has ever done with online gaming. My copy arrives Wednesday. Amazon doesn’t ship on Sundays apparently. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/49 "2008-04-27T19:18:37Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] All of the reviews say this is miles ahead of anything Nintendo has ever done with online gaming. My copy arrives Wednesday. Amazon doesn’t ship on Sundays apparently. :mad: [/QUOTE] There is a Mario Kart Wii channel inside the game, one for challenges and one for tournaments, so it looks like Nintendo is starting to get smart about it. I’d like to see them revamp the entire shitty friend code into something..you know…useful. Even the Mii Parade is moderately crappy. ---
**Author:** ![Pollux\_Oil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/858c86/32.png) [@Pollux\_Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pollux_Oil)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/50 "2008-04-27T20:49:25Z")
I just don’t understand the point of having the normal Wii friend code when I have to enter an entire new bloody code for every new bloody game I want to bloody play bloody online. :mad: I’ve played it for a little while both offline and online. I have to say I enjoy the Excite Truck style handling and I’ve only had a few problems where I tried to enter a drift one way and ended up doing a 90-degree turn the other way. As for online, it’s loads _loads_ better than the spectacularly-bad Brawl online set-up. The competition, on the other hand… :o ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/51 "2008-04-27T21:02:05Z")
[QUOTE=bubastis] Another touch of Nintendo brilliance… Your Mii caracters populate the game throughout; on posters, billboards, driving cars in highway sections… It’s genuinely funny to crash into a car driven by one of your mates Mii’s, and curse them to the high heavens… [/QUOTE] My husband crashed into a car several times that was driven by his mother’s Mii (she has had a fair few accidents in real life too). ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/52 "2008-04-28T00:54:09Z")
I’ve had a few times turning where I drift, but I drift in the wrong direction. I’m sure I’m hitting it in the right direction, but obviously I’m not. I also play a shitton better in full screen than I do in a half screen. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/53 "2008-04-28T03:52:11Z")
My wife and I had a BBQ yesterday and when everyone was finally gone - around 11pm - I said let’s go to Wal-Mart and see if they’ve put it out on the shelves yet. The clerks were game-savvy, though, and wouldn’t unleash it until midnight. So, yes, I ended up _waiting in line for a midnight release_ :o . Good thing I did, too, because they only got 12 copies and there were 8 of us there at midnight. Had I waited until this afternoon like I’d planned to, I’ve no doubt they would have been sold out. So . . . So far I like it, but I’m not in love with it yet. I think I can grow to love it but there are things I don’t quite understand yet. I don’t understand drifting at all. I don’t understand why I couldn’t jump in my first 5 or 6 races, then suddenly I could jump, but it seems pretty useless. It’s a miniscule hop compared to MK64. I don’t understand why I can’t do a wheelie on the bikes, and why I can only execute tricks about half the times I try. I can’t speak for the graphics yet because our tv is messed up. The part to fix it is on order so I won’t get the full visual experience until later this week. The music so far sounds like a weaker version of the old music, but I might get used to it. I’ve spied a lot of short cuts already, which will be a lot of fun figuring out by trial and error. I don’t like how you can’t advance the game in multiplayer mode. More later. Gonna go play now :D. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/54 "2008-04-28T06:03:28Z")
Sorry I couldn’t get back to you guys earlier, but it turns out that my coworker was playing the Gamecube Mario Kart. I guess the “special controller” she used must have been the Gamecube controller…or something. Who knows? :smack: Many, many copies left at Best Buy at 3pm when I bought it. My husband and I still had $25 gift cards from the mall that we had gotten from work for Christmas, so the game was essentially free :). We also picked up a third Wiimote and a second nunchuck so that the three people in our family could play at once! My daughter seems to prefer the Wii Wheel, but my husband and I greatly prefer Wiimote/nunchuck. (We don’t have any classic or Gamecube controllers.) I find it a little tough to see the course on the quarter-screen, even though we have a 36" tv. I think a full-screen will be much easier. Why doesn’t multiplayer unlock anything? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Cream\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ice\_Cream\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Cream_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/55 "2008-04-28T12:11:05Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] I don’t understand why I couldn’t jump in my first 5 or 6 races, then suddenly I could jump, but it seems pretty useless. It’s a miniscule hop compared to MK64. [/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure that you can’t hop if you use automatic mode. Hopping is used to drift. You hop and then hold it down and you’ll be able to drift. If you hold it long enough you’ll get blue sparks behind your kart/bike (and if you’re in a kart, they can turn into orange sparks with enough time). Letting go when you have sparks will give you a mini boost. When you play automatic mode it incorporates the drifting into your normal turns. So the result is that you can make sharper turns than you could by playing manual and not hopping but you can’t build up sparks. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/56 "2008-04-28T14:58:01Z")
They’ve hidden the shortcuts nicely this time around. It’s harder to pick up on them. I wish there were more tracks, though. I want more new and more retro tracks. It’s funny, the girlfriend and I were playing (we prefer the nunchuk over the wheel, by the way) and I was saying "oh, this is the same track as the Donkey Kong one from N64"and having complete familiarity with the track. The whel would be fun if everyone were using the wheel. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/57 "2008-04-28T18:46:29Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] I wish there were more tracks, though. I want more new and more retro tracks. [/QUOTE] Has anyone heard anything about downloadable tracks? There’s no reason they shouldn’t have them. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/58 "2008-04-28T18:56:02Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Has anyone heard anything about downloadable tracks? There’s no reason they shouldn’t have them. [/QUOTE] Nintendo’s been pretty coy about the idea of downloadable expansions to their Wii games (the developer for Brawl said his game is complete, so don’t expect any official expansions there), but you’re right, it’s not impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/59 "2008-04-28T19:03:16Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] Nintendo’s been pretty coy about the idea of downloadable expansions to their Wii games (the developer for Brawl said his game is complete, so don’t expect any official expansions there), but you’re right, it’s not impossible. [/QUOTE] The most dissapointing thing about Wii so far, for me, is that they are behind Xbox1 with regards to online experience and content. A service that came out in 2002 should not be better than Nintendo’s flagship product of 2007/2008. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Cream\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ice\_Cream\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Cream_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974/60 "2008-04-28T19:10:16Z")
Should we start a friend code post? I’ll post mine when I get home. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mario-kart-wii/444974.md?page=4)