So yesterday I went out to my local Best Buy and picked up a copy of Mario Kart Wii for my Nintendo Wii.  Like all Nintendo consoles, it seems my game library is dominated primarily by Nintendo developed titles (Zelda, Mario, Smash Brothers).  So it just sort of makes sense that I'd go out and get the latest Mario Kart game.

Now, I have a confession to make.  In all of the previous Nintendo consoles I've owned (NES, N64, GC, GBA, DS) I've never owned a Kart game (was there even one for the NES?).  Sure I've played them from time to time at parties or at a friend's house, but I've never had enough time to really become proficient at the series.

This also means I don't come to the game with a favorite in the series to compare it to, and can't look at the game and say "Well, the driving physics aren't quite as good as they were on the N64 version, and the item management really needs to go back to the way it was in the DS title..."  So I'm basically as end-user as it gets when it comes to Mario Kart Wii.  So with that in mind, here are my thoughts after a few hours with the game yesterday...

The Wii Wheel

The biggest selling point of the Wii is its implementation of motion-based controls.  While many call it a gimmick, and dismiss it as being a fad, there's little question in my mind that when it's implemented well in a game, it transforms the experience.  Of course, many Wii games so far haven't figured out how to do the controls yet and suffer horribly for it.  Naturally Nintendo developed titles don't have this problem and act as a great example of the new control scheme.

So Mario Kart comes with this plastic wheel thingie that you fit your wiimote into.  You steer your kart as you'd steer your car.  Turn the wheel right, you go right.  Turn it left and you go left.  I know it sounds silly and obvious, but considering the fact that every console racing game to date pretty much relies on you steering your car with a thumb stick, it's worth noting.  After my initial inclination to over-steer wildly, I settled into a much more fluid steering where I turned the wheel only a little bit in either direction.  Once you get used to it, you'll wonder why other games still bother with thumb-stick steering.

I know a lot of people discard the wheel as another gimmick, and you can play the game with a classic GameCube controller if you're more of a die-hard, but I have to say that using the wheel made the game a lot more natural feeling, and fun.  I was steering my car, it's a very visceral connection and improved the game for me.

The Singleplayer

Even though I've played only a few rounds of Mario Kart in my life, I found little that was surprising about the actual gameplay mechanics of the game.  It's arcady, it's cute and silly.  It's fun getting a red shell and smacking the guy ahead of you.  It's fun being Mario, becoming GIANT MARIO and running over Bowser, reducing him to a pancake on the track.

There isn't much radically new here, but that's not a bad thing.  It's a fun game you can pick up, run a few races and put down.  On higher difficulties, the AI does get ridiculously cheap.  Getting hit by 4 blue shells in a row when I have nearly a full lap lead and then finishing 12th is aggravating to say the least.  But that's kind of how the game is designed, to make every race a race anyone could win at any moment.

But really, playing singleplayer is just there to unlock tracks and prepare yourself for the real meat of a kart game... multiplayer!

The Multiplayer

There are two ways to play Mario Kart Wii with your buddies.  Either on a single TV splitscreen, or online via Nintendo WFC.  I played both briefly.  Local multiplayer splitscreen mode lets you play the regular compliment of tracks and game modes with people sitting in the same room.  This is a riot as any local multiplayer game can get down-right silly as you yell and flail at your friends with cries of "Cheap shot!"  "OWNED!" etc.

I played a little bit of the local multiplayer and it was fun.  I can't wait for the next gamer party where we break out Mario Kart.

Now, the new bit here is the online multiplayer component.  Play with people all over the globe and try and earn your place amongst the best in the world.  You can also play with friends in smaller matches.  So it breaks down into really two distinct multiplayer forms;  Random Matchmaker & Play with Friends.

I'll start off the multiplayer gameplay bit talking about actually playing online.  It's great.  Smooth framerates, no lag, and being able to play with friends and folks from all over the world is great.  So when you can't get a local game going, you're never stuck just playing against the AI.  I played an hour or two of multiplayer with some Stardock folks last night and it was a blast.  I also ran a few random-match races and had a great time playing against drivers that knew how to react to what was happening in the game, and not be either handicapped or cheesed by the computer.

For as much fun as the actual gameplay is though, the multiplayer system itself is a nightmare.

Playing With Friends - How The System SUCKS

1. I hate the Wii friend system. 
   It's shit.  That's all there is to it.  In order to play with a friend you have to both exchange 12 digit Wii Codes. 
   
2. When you add someone to your console friends list so you can swap notes etc, it does not auto-add them to games supporting multiplayer. 
   You have to enter their code in AGAIN, and they have to do the same to confirm the match.
   
3. When in a "room" with friends to organize a game, there is no chat of any kind. 
   You have a dozen or so pre-defined messages you can select.  There is no option that I found to turn on any sort of free-chat.  This makes organizing a multiplayer game very difficult.  We had to resort to IRC to figure things out.
   
4. To "Start" a race from a room, you have to click the "Close" button. 
   WTF?  How does that make any sense?
   
5. When in a race with friends, you can not quit. 
   Lets say you're in a race with some friends, and the host picks the wrong race type by accident.  You can't simply back out of the race to the menu and try again.  You can't even quit to the Wii Menu and restart the game.  Until that race set finishes you can not leave the game via any means other than POWERING DOWN THE CONSOLE.  Possibly the single dumbest multiplayer design decision I've ever experienced.

Despite the frustrations in the multiplayer management design, once you're in a race, it's back to pure fun.

Funny enough, the automatic matchmaking system is smooth and painless.  You can quit out between individual races etc.  No muss, no fuss.  Select if you want to play a regional (continent) or world-wide game and the system finds opponents for you and you're off.

Bikes vs Karts

Bikes are new to Mario Kart Wii.  They're a little zippier, take sharper turns and can do wheelie boosts down straightaways.  They're a fun new dynamic to the game, but on the whole they're a pretty pointless addition.  Also, the seem to take considerably less of a beating.  Maybe a truly skilled racer will be able to do wonders with a bike, but for what I've seen, they're a kind of meh addition to the game.

In Conclusion...

Despite severe faults in the multiplayer system, the first day with Mario Kart Wii was a lot of fun.  I get the feeling this will be one of the go-to games when folks are bored and want something quick and easy to play.

And of course there's the Stardock Grand Prix to practice for