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"The Jet Gamer" Game Review: Mario Kart Wii
10 years ago
I'm moving through these rather quickly. Not too bad I would say.
Mario Kart Wii
Another entry for the well known Mario Kart series, but this time it is on the Nintendo Wii. Mario Kart has been well known since the Super Nintendo days, and even today it is still going strong as one of Nintendo's stronger series that they release. Yet, today we are going to look at the installment of Mario Kart that was released on the regular Wii. How well does it play, and does it still offer the same fun that the other games I've played in this series offer? Let us find out shall we?
Gameplay
As you would expect, Mario Kart Wii actually does play like the other incarnations of Mario Kart, so there is no disappointment in the gameplay department. There are several modes of play for example. There is first the main grand prix mode where you race in cup races of our tracks each cup to see who ends up with the most points by the end of the race. Unlike some of the older games though, instead of just eight racers at a time, there are now twelve racers on the track at a time. This means there are more players to race against, and also more variations on points that can be attained for different finishing positions. There are also eight different cups you can run through, through four different CC classes, one of which has to be unlocked after clearing all eight cups on the other CC classes. Good luck trying to clear them all, as the AI isn't just going to roll over and let you win. There is time trial mode where you can race ghosts made by the developers and ones made by yourself if you race on a track after one time. There is the vs. mode where you can do things like race on the tracks in teams, aka you have to work together with other players or other AI to place in high positions to out score the other team. An interesting twist, because this time is more about you and others placing high, not just you winning the race to win. Then there is the classic battle mode with the balloons, but there are other modes of course here. An example though being with the balloons being that you are in teams here and your team is trying to clear the highest number of balloons off of the other time before they do it by the time time is up. You don't just end when you lose all balloons either, so you can be as careful or as reckless as you want and can keep playing. On top of all this are the multiplayer modes of course where you can play split screen with all your friends in the house and the online modes, which I'm not sure if they are still active or not at this point, but I doubt it. You will have lots of fun racing around the tracks at these high speeds, and it does bring out the feeling it should as you are competing with the other racers. Really, the only downsides I see really is the difficulty sometimes, which can occasionally really screw the player over if hit just right. You can end up placing really badly at the end of a race by getting hit three or more times in a row without any reaction time, and AI really does seem to occasionally get really lucky on the item draws they get for each other. Some of this is just based on the difficulty being upped though, so it isn't fully all the games fault and is just how it goes sometimes in Mario Kart. Also, while the rubber band effect does seem to mostly be gone, which is the game slowing down and speeding up as you do good and bad, and also racers being clued to their positions to where they just follow along in a line without really racing each other, there is still some small traces of it. I noticed that now racers do actually race each other to where people that did good on one race might do horrible on the next, which is a good feature to have in a racer where they race each other. But at the same time, I do still notice a lot of the time, after the first race, that people who placed well at one point, do tend to place higher more often than others, which is still some small traces of the rubber band effect. It can occasionally mean you have to place very high in all races or people can easily beat you out of a first place victory. That's really my only real complaint about the placing and gameplay though, as most of the difficulty of the game I mentioned is just part of how Mario Kart works, as there is still a bit of luck involved with the skill you need to get through this game and see everything it has to offer.
Story
This is another game that has no story to go along with it, so this spot gets a pass.
Graphics
This game looks great if I am honest with myself. The tracks are not only complex and not just simple circles, but the developers took the time to make the backgrounds and the sides of the tracks look very believable. It really does look like these tracks are in the middle of their set environments. Be it you are on a normal race track and you see all the advertisements that you typically see on the edge of tracks along with mii's watching the characters race, or you are in bowser's castle racing around in it to where you see fire and other normal bowser like tings flying all over the place or being used as hazards on the track. Even in the tracks that were taken from the older games, as the second half of tracks are all from older Mario Kart games, they have all been redesigned for the newer graphics so that they look good on the Wii, even the ones that come from the original SNES version of Mario cart. They still have that cartoony feel that fits with the Mario universe, or older generation days, but they don't show their age at all. I never saw any glitches to my awareness, and if there are some, they are ones that are likely to never come up in casual gameplay, which is what matters most. I would say they did a pretty good job here. Don't expect to see glitches or slowdown here at all, and just enjoy the look of this game as you race around these tracks.
Sound
The music in this game is great. They have made all new music for all the new tracks that seem to fit rather well with each track and keeps the tracks entertaining to listen to as you are driving around the tracks. If this game was just car sounds and other sound effects, it wouldn't really have the same feel as it does now with great music to listen to as you are racing around them. The game even uses all the old music from the other games in the reused tracks, so you get to enjoy them all over again, such as the music from the Mario Speedways in the SNES games or from Peach Beach in the GC game. However, there is one flaw when it comes to the sound and that is there is no sound options in the game. At certain times, the music can very easily be drowned out by the sound effects, such as the item wheel, all the car driving, and the attacks from everyone on the track. Many times I would want to be listening to the music as I was racing, but could almost not even hear it if there was any activity going on in the game or outside of it in your real life. There is no option to turn down the sound effects and to turn up the music as you have in some games. This was really saddening as I would have liked to have been able to turn the music up a bit more on this game, since it is actually quite enjoyable.
Control
This is the one area that some people are going to have a real issue with this game. There is one big reason for that and it is the motion controls with this game if you try and use the wiimote or the wiiwheel that you can buy for the system. I used this for one cup set of races and my goodness did I do terrible. I was sliding all around the track and trying to drift was just insane using the motion controls. Maybe I'm just not good at playing the game like this, but for me, this was not a fun experience when it came to try and control these high speed carts with such a finicky system. However, what saves the game in this category and makes the game much more enjoyable to be played is the fact that more than one controller is available for this game. You can use the Wiimotes yes, but you can also use the classic controller, or you can use what I used and use the Gamecube controller. This makes the game much easier to control in my opinion and made drifting and controlling the character so much easier. Yes, I often just used one character through most of the game, but I found them much easier to handle with the Gamecube controller. I had no problem at all in this game once I did this. So, a heads up for anyone getting this game, either use your own Gamecube controller or invest in a classic controller. It is worth it in my opinion.
Replay Value
A Mario Kart game is of course almost infinitely replayable. There are many different tracks you can race on, there are many different modes, many characters to unlock, and many ways to play with your friends. Heck, I didn't even unlock everything as there was just so much to unlock in this game. However, there is a reason for this. Some of the characters are unlocked in ways that really make you work for them. The same goes with racing on the other tracks and such. To beat all these races, and unlock everything, you either have to become quite the expert at this game, or you have to just race thousands of times to unlock everything. While that is good for those that have the time to do that, for others, they might get bored of this and put the game away for awhile. I can see people wanting to come back to this game to keep playing it though as each time you race it is different. You aren't going to have the same experience each and every time you race. Good luck unlocking everything though, as this game really wants you to earn it and to keep replaying it over and over again. Just be prepared for a long long time to complete it all.
Overall, I would say this Mario Kart on the Wii is another good addition to the Mario Kart series. While there are a few things that could have been fixed in the sound and control department, I would say overall that you are going to have another good experience of racing with these Mario characters. If you enjoyed any of the other games in this series, this is another one you should pick up. Also, I would recommend it to racing fans, but if you are looking for something realistic then stay away from this game, otherwise, at least give it a try I would say.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Mario Kart Wii an eight point five out of ten.
Gameplay: 9
Story: N.A.
Graphics: 10
Sound: 8
Control:7
Replay Value: 9
Overall: 8.5
Mario Kart Wii
Another entry for the well known Mario Kart series, but this time it is on the Nintendo Wii. Mario Kart has been well known since the Super Nintendo days, and even today it is still going strong as one of Nintendo's stronger series that they release. Yet, today we are going to look at the installment of Mario Kart that was released on the regular Wii. How well does it play, and does it still offer the same fun that the other games I've played in this series offer? Let us find out shall we?
Gameplay
As you would expect, Mario Kart Wii actually does play like the other incarnations of Mario Kart, so there is no disappointment in the gameplay department. There are several modes of play for example. There is first the main grand prix mode where you race in cup races of our tracks each cup to see who ends up with the most points by the end of the race. Unlike some of the older games though, instead of just eight racers at a time, there are now twelve racers on the track at a time. This means there are more players to race against, and also more variations on points that can be attained for different finishing positions. There are also eight different cups you can run through, through four different CC classes, one of which has to be unlocked after clearing all eight cups on the other CC classes. Good luck trying to clear them all, as the AI isn't just going to roll over and let you win. There is time trial mode where you can race ghosts made by the developers and ones made by yourself if you race on a track after one time. There is the vs. mode where you can do things like race on the tracks in teams, aka you have to work together with other players or other AI to place in high positions to out score the other team. An interesting twist, because this time is more about you and others placing high, not just you winning the race to win. Then there is the classic battle mode with the balloons, but there are other modes of course here. An example though being with the balloons being that you are in teams here and your team is trying to clear the highest number of balloons off of the other time before they do it by the time time is up. You don't just end when you lose all balloons either, so you can be as careful or as reckless as you want and can keep playing. On top of all this are the multiplayer modes of course where you can play split screen with all your friends in the house and the online modes, which I'm not sure if they are still active or not at this point, but I doubt it. You will have lots of fun racing around the tracks at these high speeds, and it does bring out the feeling it should as you are competing with the other racers. Really, the only downsides I see really is the difficulty sometimes, which can occasionally really screw the player over if hit just right. You can end up placing really badly at the end of a race by getting hit three or more times in a row without any reaction time, and AI really does seem to occasionally get really lucky on the item draws they get for each other. Some of this is just based on the difficulty being upped though, so it isn't fully all the games fault and is just how it goes sometimes in Mario Kart. Also, while the rubber band effect does seem to mostly be gone, which is the game slowing down and speeding up as you do good and bad, and also racers being clued to their positions to where they just follow along in a line without really racing each other, there is still some small traces of it. I noticed that now racers do actually race each other to where people that did good on one race might do horrible on the next, which is a good feature to have in a racer where they race each other. But at the same time, I do still notice a lot of the time, after the first race, that people who placed well at one point, do tend to place higher more often than others, which is still some small traces of the rubber band effect. It can occasionally mean you have to place very high in all races or people can easily beat you out of a first place victory. That's really my only real complaint about the placing and gameplay though, as most of the difficulty of the game I mentioned is just part of how Mario Kart works, as there is still a bit of luck involved with the skill you need to get through this game and see everything it has to offer.
Story
This is another game that has no story to go along with it, so this spot gets a pass.
Graphics
This game looks great if I am honest with myself. The tracks are not only complex and not just simple circles, but the developers took the time to make the backgrounds and the sides of the tracks look very believable. It really does look like these tracks are in the middle of their set environments. Be it you are on a normal race track and you see all the advertisements that you typically see on the edge of tracks along with mii's watching the characters race, or you are in bowser's castle racing around in it to where you see fire and other normal bowser like tings flying all over the place or being used as hazards on the track. Even in the tracks that were taken from the older games, as the second half of tracks are all from older Mario Kart games, they have all been redesigned for the newer graphics so that they look good on the Wii, even the ones that come from the original SNES version of Mario cart. They still have that cartoony feel that fits with the Mario universe, or older generation days, but they don't show their age at all. I never saw any glitches to my awareness, and if there are some, they are ones that are likely to never come up in casual gameplay, which is what matters most. I would say they did a pretty good job here. Don't expect to see glitches or slowdown here at all, and just enjoy the look of this game as you race around these tracks.
Sound
The music in this game is great. They have made all new music for all the new tracks that seem to fit rather well with each track and keeps the tracks entertaining to listen to as you are driving around the tracks. If this game was just car sounds and other sound effects, it wouldn't really have the same feel as it does now with great music to listen to as you are racing around them. The game even uses all the old music from the other games in the reused tracks, so you get to enjoy them all over again, such as the music from the Mario Speedways in the SNES games or from Peach Beach in the GC game. However, there is one flaw when it comes to the sound and that is there is no sound options in the game. At certain times, the music can very easily be drowned out by the sound effects, such as the item wheel, all the car driving, and the attacks from everyone on the track. Many times I would want to be listening to the music as I was racing, but could almost not even hear it if there was any activity going on in the game or outside of it in your real life. There is no option to turn down the sound effects and to turn up the music as you have in some games. This was really saddening as I would have liked to have been able to turn the music up a bit more on this game, since it is actually quite enjoyable.
Control
This is the one area that some people are going to have a real issue with this game. There is one big reason for that and it is the motion controls with this game if you try and use the wiimote or the wiiwheel that you can buy for the system. I used this for one cup set of races and my goodness did I do terrible. I was sliding all around the track and trying to drift was just insane using the motion controls. Maybe I'm just not good at playing the game like this, but for me, this was not a fun experience when it came to try and control these high speed carts with such a finicky system. However, what saves the game in this category and makes the game much more enjoyable to be played is the fact that more than one controller is available for this game. You can use the Wiimotes yes, but you can also use the classic controller, or you can use what I used and use the Gamecube controller. This makes the game much easier to control in my opinion and made drifting and controlling the character so much easier. Yes, I often just used one character through most of the game, but I found them much easier to handle with the Gamecube controller. I had no problem at all in this game once I did this. So, a heads up for anyone getting this game, either use your own Gamecube controller or invest in a classic controller. It is worth it in my opinion.
Replay Value
A Mario Kart game is of course almost infinitely replayable. There are many different tracks you can race on, there are many different modes, many characters to unlock, and many ways to play with your friends. Heck, I didn't even unlock everything as there was just so much to unlock in this game. However, there is a reason for this. Some of the characters are unlocked in ways that really make you work for them. The same goes with racing on the other tracks and such. To beat all these races, and unlock everything, you either have to become quite the expert at this game, or you have to just race thousands of times to unlock everything. While that is good for those that have the time to do that, for others, they might get bored of this and put the game away for awhile. I can see people wanting to come back to this game to keep playing it though as each time you race it is different. You aren't going to have the same experience each and every time you race. Good luck unlocking everything though, as this game really wants you to earn it and to keep replaying it over and over again. Just be prepared for a long long time to complete it all.
Overall, I would say this Mario Kart on the Wii is another good addition to the Mario Kart series. While there are a few things that could have been fixed in the sound and control department, I would say overall that you are going to have another good experience of racing with these Mario characters. If you enjoyed any of the other games in this series, this is another one you should pick up. Also, I would recommend it to racing fans, but if you are looking for something realistic then stay away from this game, otherwise, at least give it a try I would say.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Mario Kart Wii an eight point five out of ten.
Gameplay: 9
Story: N.A.
Graphics: 10
Sound: 8
Control:7
Replay Value: 9
Overall: 8.5
ArtieCanvas
!artiecanvas
Yeah, the motion controls take some getting use to (unless if you use different controllers). Plus, the rubber band effect with the the AI can by relentless at times. Those factors aside, the game is pretty fun to play. Also, unlike Mario Kart 8, the battle mode sticks with fun battle stages and classic battle gameplay as opposed to just replaying race tracks as "battle mode."
