Casualization

I won't lie; Battle Mode comes across as a slap to the face. If you're one of the many gamers who grew up with Mario Kart 64i's four-player battles, prepare to be genuinely pissed by the new setup. Battles are 12 player and team-based, without any option of playing it the normal free-for-all way. Balloons are now largely symbolic as there's no penalty for losing them. I guess this is a way to make everyone feel included as there's no way to be kicked out but there HAS to be a smarter way of going about it. Mario Kart 64i allowed defeated players to continue to be a nuisance, turning into a bomb kart; that was a genuinely fun way to be kept in the game. Wii's battle mode however feels like a needless casualization that probably won't please any crowd.

Another casualized element is the new power-slide system. In the past you could hop into a drift and begin wiggling the control stick to gain a mini-turbo. Now, you're just required to hold the power-slide button and the turbo will build up automatically depending on how sharp your turn is. This new system lessens the effectiveness of snaking; a technique which alienated the casual crowd in prior games. With snaking a player could use the mini turbos to get through the entire course, and the attempted removal of the technique is a huge plus for players who could never pull it off. For people who saw it as the next level of skill it comes across as yet another weird way for Nintendo to gear the game towards the casual player.

You would think the new power-slide system would remove enough skill from the game, but Nintendo's casualization crusade continued to the items front. Items have always played a big part in Mario Kart games, allowing players in the rear a decent chance of catching up. This time, things are different as the most skilled player in the room has no guarantee of winning. Mario Kart Wii uses all the items from the past games, including the incredibly frustrating Blue Shell and Bullet Bill, and throws into the mix three new devastating items as well. Players no longer have to wait for a lightning bolt or a blooper to attack all other players, as the new Mega Mushroom and POW Block can significantly turn the tides of battle for everyone. The Mega Mushroom has players growing to enormous sizes and flattening the competition, while the POW Block will cause every ground-based racer to spin out of control as if hit by a shell. With twelve players in every race, things get more than a little hectic with all the items being thrown about.

Playing Online

The single-player options may be mediocre, but on the flipside, the online is the most fully featured Nintendo has ever included. While you do have to deal with the ever present friend codes, the experience is well worth the trouble. Online supports up to twelve people worldwide in races or battles and even with twelve others, it runs smoother than in local multiplayer.

The stellar performance isn't all that makes Mario Kart so special online. The Mario Kart Channel allows you to download ghosts, send invites to friends and join online tournaments all without inserting the game disc. As every gamer knows, Nintendo has made more than a few dumb decisions when it comes to online gaming. Mario Kart Wii is a huge step in the right direction for Nintendo's online service and hopefully something that will be integrated into other online Wii games.

Visually, Mario Kart Wii is no slouch and is actually one of the better looking games on Wii. At a glance it seems like your typical Mario game with garish primary colors but numerous subtle effects make it go beyond that. There's plenty of lighting tricks and the character animations are slick as ever. It runs at sixty frames per second offline or online, but when you play with three or more players locally the frame rate starts to dip into the thirties. The sound is another fairly typical affair; the bright and cheery tunes, while good, are instantly forgettable for the most part. The character voices are much improved over other Kart installments, but with so few samples they start to grate after a short while.

Good Party Game

Mario Kart has always been a great game to have around others and not much has changed here - for better or for worse. The item balance issues are more blatantly annoying than ever before and it is a bit thin on the offline options, but it's still an accessible and fun racer anyone can have a good time with. It is definitely Nintendo's finest example of online play thus far, and while the core crowd will be vexed by some of the sacrifices it is still recommended to anyone looking for a good party game.