Mario Kart Wii Review

As promised, here it is ladies and gentlemen: your exclusive look at the Japanese release of Mario Kart Wii.

Today I was awoken from my drunken, dreamless sleep by the sound of rain falling outside. After I arouse from my stupor and slowly remembered what day it was (I at first thought it was May) I gathered my umbrella and backpack and set out. It was already past 2 o'clock, and Yamada Denki had already been open for four hours, so I was a little worried that they'd be out of stock. But fear not, the moment I walked into the video game nook I was greeted by those goofy Italians, Mario and Luigi.



Because I have an American Wii, I first had to buy a Japanese console. When I asked the cashier if they had anymore in stock, she told me they did (this isn't the US). In fact, the only thing they seemed to be sold out of was the special Mario Kart wheel controller casing. One is packed with each game, but if you really want, you can buy extras. Anyway, you can play the game with just the Wii controller itself, the Virtual Console classic controller, or a GameCube controller, so it doesn't really matter.

As soon as I got back home, I set up the new Japanese Wii and popped in the disc. Of course, the selling point of this game is the online, and -- at least for now -- it delivers. I immediately jumped into games with 11 other players and absolutely no lag, as you can see in the video below:



People are throwing all sorts of shit around. It's crazy! And it's really fun. But with the European launch set for tomorrow, and the Australian and American launches on April 24 and 27th, respectively, it's anybody's guess as to whether or not Nintendo has dedicated enough bandwidth to keep things running smoothly.

So in summary, here is what I think of Mario Kart Wii at the moment.

+ Online races are working flawlessly.
+ Two players can play online from the same console.
+ One character per kart, like it should be.
+ Lots of unlockables, which I haven't even touched upon yet.
+ The motorcycles and stunts add some depth to the play, and I think most people will be happy with the additions.

- Battle Mode is, for whatever reason, divided into teams. No free for all.
- There is sometimes a bit of loading time before getting into the online matches, but nothing serious.
- The drifting system has changed. Players no longer have to swing the stick back and forth, they're simply rewarded by how long they hold a turn. I'm having trouble adjusting to the switch and I still find myself pushing the D-Pad back and forth sometimes. It seems like it's been dumbed down a little, most likely for the coveted "casual gamer" market.

That's all for now. And if you're wondering, Dirt already bought my American Wii, for a real steal! Now it's back to drinking cheap liquor and racing. Wa Hah!