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4 Responses to “Readers’ Review: Mario Kart”

1. cowasan Says:
   May 11, 2008 at 11:42 pm

   Since i bought Mario Kart, SSBB has been collecting dust. Not to say that SSBB is a bad game, but i’m more into racing game. It’s just pure fun.

   If you have played Mario Kart before, you will noe the same old “unlock-able char and karts” + “new tracks + retro tracks”. But there are still new features to look forward to. More noticeable are the inclusion of wii wheel, as well as the bikes.

   There are 4 controllers to play the game, Wii wheel + wii-mote snap in, Classic controller, Wii-mote + nunchunk and GC controller.

   Wii Wheel allows you to steer, but doesn’t feel as good as driving a car. 1st timer may tend to over or under steer. It does take some time to get used to it. You may play with wii-mote alone w/o the wheel. I prefer the wii-mote + nunchunk combo, feel more comfortable.

   Gone are snaking. New are auto and manual drifting. Now you can also do stunts when jumping off ramps, and gain a short boost of speed a upon landing. But doing stunt doesnt alway mean you gain speed, as stunt takes more air time. So players need to judge when they should or dun.

   Other than the old item, there also new ones as well. Huge mushroom from New Super Mario Bros, Pow Block and Lighting Cloud.

   Bikes open a new way to “drive”, wheelie to gain speed, manual drifting is also a bit diff compare to the karts. Some bike are smaller, allowing you to squeeze through small gaps.

   New tracks are quite well designed with multi routes, but the some of the retro track dun really work well with stunts. You may find yrself steering out of the tracks or off the cliff.

   Mario kart now comes with online function. You can play with online up to 12 frens, one wii support up to 2 players. Installation of mario kart channel open more online feature, compare you time trial timing with your frens or ppl of your region, online tournament, and able to send ghost challenge to frens. If your fren’s wii is registered in yr console, you can also send a request to him to join you in mario kart. The online feature is a huge upgrade compare to SSBB.

   Graphics are colourful, and 3D nicely modeled. Music and sound are nicely done too, e.g. you are close to a fire touch, you will hear the burning sound.

   Overall it is fun game for both fun hardcore and causal players. The wii wheel comes as part of the package, and its pricing is about the same as other wii games, it is definitely value for money.

   Gameplay: 9.5
   Fun-level: 9.5
   Graphics: 8.0
   Music: 8.0
   Replayability: 9.0
   Online quality: 8.0
   Overall score: 9.0

2. qwertyman Says:
   May 12, 2008 at 10:28 pm

   Having picked this game up from clouette 3 days back, the game was never ejected from my wii. I have to say that Mario Kart Wii retains the same simple fun of its’ predecessors.

   You start out by selecting a save file, in the guise of a driving license which will then track your progress throughout the game. The usual 50cc, 100cc and 150cc still exists but only this time the 50cc is restricted to karts, 100cc to bikes and 150cc to both. Apart from the additions of bikes, Mario Kart Wii offers a total of four different control schemes - the Wii Wheel (Which is fun but imprecise), the Wiimote and Nunchuck (Very balanced), the classic controller or the gamecube controller.

   Other additions would be the implementation of the trick system which allows you to perform off ramp tricks which results in a speed boost upon landing. And the 32 tracks offered comes with a decent amount of ramps and even half pipes for you to make use of this new feature. Power sliding still remains but have taken on a whole new mechanic. Now the mini boost activates based on the time spent on the drift instead of previous stick waggling that allows players to snake.

   Graphics are nothing to be amazed about but the music and sound are like what they have always been in previous Mario Karts.

   Now for the bad. In Mario Kart Wii, a few new items are introduced - POW (Which temporary stuns your enemies and make them drop their items), Megamushroom (Making you super big and flattening any enemies in your path) and the Thundercloud (which will shrink you unless you pass it to someone else). My complain isn’t these items but the ‘randomness’ of getting this items. It seems in Mario Kart Wii, powerful items like POW, red/blue shells and lightning bolt are being offered like free gifts to those lagging behind. Often you will be hit by several of these in a row.

   All in all, Mario Kart Wii has remain generally the same. Apart from the few hiccups that sometimes frustrates. The new additions (Items, stunt system drift and controls), new tracks and a working and awesome online gameplay (SSBB should be ashamed) proves that Mario Kart can be still be simple and yet providing alot of fun.

   Gameplay: 9.0
   Fun-Level: 9.0
   Graphics: 7.5
   Music: 8.5
   Replayability: 9.0
   Online Quality: 9.0
   Overall Score: 9.0

3. clouette Says:
   May 13, 2008 at 2:44 pm

   I love the Mario Kart series since the first time I played in Arcade. Yes, I didn’t own a SNES, N64, GBA, GC & DS. After buying a Wii, I realised how much Nintendo fun I had missed. In Dec 07, I bought double dash to pull thru the 4 months period before MK:Wii is launched, finally..

   Having played only the GC version, I can say Wii Mario Kart is much better. It’s faster, 16:9, has nicer tracks, more tracks, longer-lasting and simply more fun. I just hope they had ported the better classic tracks. Some of them like GC Peach Beach and N64 Sherbet Land are not as good as others. GC 8 lap Baby Circuit is one of the best classics IMO. Some of the classic tracks are of course very good, like DS Delfino Square and N64 Bowser castle.

   New track wise, most of them are beautiful. There is a good mix of circuit tracks (Luigi, Mario, Daisy), jumping tracks (Mushroom Gorge, Maple Treeway, DK summit), city tracks (Moonview), indoor tracks (Coconut), roller coaster (Wario Mine, Rainbow), desert tracks on top of the staple tracks (Bowser, Rainbow).

   At G3 launch event, I was quite delighted for the first time to be able to use the wheel to do counter steering, with disastrous results of course. The counter steering feel more realistic when using the Wheel. Driving with a analogue control in real-life is impossible, that is why the wheel makes Mario Kart more real and add dimensions to the game.

   After driving for 2 weeks, I thought I had became quite good in karts. But when I try to compare my rankings worldwide, despite being top 10%, my timing is simply no fight for bikes’ timing. Look at those ghost bikes, the wheelies are impossible to catch up with. Because of my losses to bikes, I found out that in fact, MKWii still supports a form of snaking, i.e. drifting on a straight road from side to side. It is tougher than the old snaking, but at least this may give karts a chance to catch up with bikes. In this way, this game feels a little unbalance, just like how the POW and large mushroom item is too frequently available.

   I must add the online is almost perfect when you look at Brawl. On top of the online random race, you can download ghost from the next better player, top 10 or race against staff ghosts. Both this online features are great I must say.

   Offline wise, Mario Kart is the greatest game for friends. In the versus feature, you can set 32 tracks, random selection and team play. One race like that will take you longer than a round of mahjong. At 100cc hard level, it is already impossible to beat the AI, I cannot think of the outcome in 150cc. The new team play option + random track selection is a great addition.

   Lastly, the most disappointing aspect is the battle mode. It feels broken without the bomb and steal the star battles. Furthermore, the game force you to take sides, which greatly changed the gameplay also.

   Gameplay: 9.0 (not 10.0 because of battle mode and vehicle imbalance)
   Fun-level: 10.0 (online, offline both perfect)
   Graphics: 8.0 (not as good as SMG and Brawl)
   Music: 8.0 (not as good as SMG and Brawl)
   Replayability: 10.0 (more lasting than Brawl)
   Online Quality: 9.8 (almost perfect, but I hope WFC can be even better)
   Overall Score: 9.7

4. kaxdd Says:
   May 23, 2008 at 10:05 pm

   I have been playing the DS version until now. Too bad I can’t get my DS to connect to WFC. If not, I guess I will have plenty of fun with it.

   Now that I have gotten Mario Kart Wii, it’s time I pit my skills against those worldwide. Truly, the online experience did not disappoint. It was lag-free (I’m using a 3MBPS connection from SingNet Mio Plan) and the response of the steering wheel was flawless too. My opinion before the game was that the response of the steering wheel might be a little laggy since it’s online game play. Boy, was I wrong. Steering wheel response was identical to that of normal game play, which was perfect in my own opinion. The feel of the bundled steering wheel is good. Design takes into consideration allowance for wrist strap and the Wii-mote is secured safely in the dock by small rubber pieces.

   As for the game itself, several new items were included which were absent in the DS version. I particularly like the POW block but really hated the Lightning Cloud!!! I always seemed to be zapped by the Lightning Cloud because I can’t find opponents to shake the cloud off me. Arrgghhh! The thought of it really irks me because it will usually cause my position to drop from 1st to the middle of the pack.

   As for the courses, familiar ones from DS particularly excites me. There were several really frustrating courses like Rainbow Road, Sherbert’s Land and Toad’s Factory. Nonetheless, most courses are pretty playable and fun, especially when you know of shortcuts to take. Shortcuts are really important to ensure a win during online game play. I personally prefer bikes to karts because of their mobility and ease of use. However, karts make up by having mini-turbos to boost their speed, which can be crucial to secure a win at times. All in all, the courses were well designed and nicely coloured. Even elder relatives say this game has got some “pretty colours”. Hahaha~

   I can’t ask too much of the graphics since Wii is not designed to be as powerful as PS3 or XBox 360. However, I am more than pleased with the graphics of Mario Kart Wii. Nothing much to complain about. One complaint is the music. If you’re playing a particular course repeatedly, the same music could really bore you to death. How I wish each course can have 2-3 different music pieces so that repeated plays would not be that boring. More speeches can also come from each individual character rather than the ones they have in the game. I am sure there is still space within that disc to squeeze in more music and character speeches.

   Value for money? Definitely. For S$66, you get the game and the steering wheel. I’m not sure of the price at game shops, but I am sure Gamefronts is offering us the best deal in town. Kudos to the guys at Gamefrontz! Keep up the good work!

   Gameplay: 9.5
   Fun-level: 9.5
   Graphics: 8.5
   Music: 8.0
   Replayability: 9.0
   Online quality: 10.0
   Overall score: 9.5

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