Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii
File:MKWiiBoxart.jpg North American box art
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto (general producer) Hideki Konno (producer) Satoru Iwata (executive producer)
Series	Mario Kart
Platform(s)	Wii
Genre(s)	Kart racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer, online multiplayer

Template:Nihongo title is a kart racing video game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Wii console. It is the sixth installment in the Mario Kart series excluding the two arcade games and the second Mario Kart to use Nintendo's free online service. The game was released worldwide throughout April 2008.lol! Changes from the predecessor include motorbikes and support for up to twelve racers. Like other games in the Mario Kart series, it involves various characters from various Mario games racing each other on tracks themed from locations in the Mario series. Support for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection allows racing against other players from around the world, and online competitions and results are available by installing the Mario Kart Channel to the Wii Menu.

Mario Kart Wii was first shown at E3 2007. It has been received positively by both critics and fans. While not revolutionary, the online capability and the large number of tracks, characters and karts has been praised. It has had a very successful launch in every region, and sold over a million copies in both Japan and North America in less than a month.

Gameplay

Mario Kart Wii is a kart racing video game. The player(s) chooses a character from a roster consisting of up to 24 characters, separated into three different weight classes. A character's weight decides the available types of karts and/or motorbikes, as well as their performance on the tracks. Each vehicle has seven different parameters which decides its characteristics: speed, weight, acceleration, handling, drift, off-road and mini-turbo. While motorbikes can perform wheelies for a speed boost, they have a limited turning ability for the duration of a wheelie. Karts cannot do wheelies, but can get better boosts on drifting, giving both karts and motorbikes their own advantages and disadvantages. The 50cc mode features karts, the 100cc mode features motorbikes, and the 150cc mode has a mix of both. However, all modes can eventually be made available by completing certain elements of the game, and be used with both karts and motorbikes.

The players then race across various tracks. Each track has a unique shape, as well as different obstacles and hazards to avoid. The game includes 32 different tracks (16 new and 16 remakes of tracks from previous Mario Kart games), and up to 12 characters can participate in a race. There are also ten battle courses, five new and five remakes of battle courses from previous games. The tracks are generally wider in Mario Kart Wii than other games in the series, as they are designed to have twelve racers on them instead of eight. Players can obtain items by driving through item boxes, which can be used for either defense, offense or for powering up the engine. While most items have appeared in previous iterations, new ones have been introduced, such as the Mega Mushroom, which allows the character to grow to an enormous size and flatten opposing characters. Also featured is the ability to slipstream.

The primary control scheme is the Wii Wheel. In addition to the Wii Wheel, four other control schemes are present: the Wii Remote alone (tilted on its side), the Remote with the Nunchuk attachment, the Nintendo GameCube controller, or the Wii Classic Controller. The ability to "snake" in previous Mario Kart games, which creates speed boosts by repeatedly drifting, has been greatly reduced in favor of a new speed boost system based on how long the player actually drifts and the angle at which they drift.

Game modes

File:Mariokartwii sslg3.jpg

Mario driving a kart in one of the first pictures released of the game.

In Grand Prix mode, which unlike previous iterations of Mario Kart is available only in single player, the player races in a series of Grand Prix Cups against computer-controlled competitors. Each Cup consists of four three-lap races. Each Cup may be raced at 50cc, 100cc, or 150cc, which determines the speed of the race. At the end of the cup, the player is awarded a trophy based on their finishing position (Bronze, Silver, or Gold) and a rating based upon how well they raced (E, D, C, B, A, one star, two stars, three stars, in ascending order). Mirror Mode, which is all eight cups in a mirrored manner at 150cc, can be made available by completing certain elements of the game. In Time Trial, players try to finish a course in as short a time as possible. Like in previous games, the fastest time will be saved as a ghost, a copy of the player's performance which can be raced against. "Expert staff ghosts" can be downloaded via Nintendo Wi-Fi, and racing them may be required to make certain items or characters available. Versus mode entails one to four local players racing head-to-head in a single race on any course either with or without AI players.

The game also features Battle mode, consisting of Balloon Battle and Coin Runner. The players are split into two teams randomly, and start on one of the ten battle courses. In Balloon Battle, each player has three balloons attached to their kart. Every time a player is hit by an opposing player, a balloon is lost, and the score for each team is altered accordingly. If a player loses all three balloons, they are given three new balloons and are restarted on the course. When the time limit is reached, the team that popped the most balloons wins. In Coin Runner, coins are scattered over the battle course. If a player drives over a coin he or she will pick it up, but being hit by an opposing player will cause him or her to lose coins. The winning team is the team that is holding the most coins when the time limit is reached. Both of these modes support one to twelve players; any slots unfilled by players may be filled by AI players, however this option can be disabled. Both battle modes are automatically set to three minutes and the time cannot be changed.

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

[[Image:Wiiwheel.png|thumb|right|Lol wheel that costs 50p!Mario Kart Wii allows players to race against each other through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. This features online racing and battle modes, supporting up to twelve simultaneous competitors. There are three options: worldwide, regional and friends. The first two options match the player against those of a similar rank, either from around the world or their surrounding geographical region, and the third option lets the player race against listed friends. The maps are decided by a voting system where the map is randomly selected from the maps voted for by the players, where each vote increases the probability of the map being chosen. When playing online for the first time players are given a skill rating of '5000' and based on wins and losses, this increases or decreases to rank the player's skill level. The game features online text chat between players where users are able to select from a set of predetermined phrases when playing with friends.

The game has the option of installing the Mario Kart Channel to the Wii Menu, which presents the current regional and worldwide rankings, as well as the option of sending or downloading saved time trials (ghosts) using WiiConnect24. The Kart Channel also serves up competitions from Nintendo. The channel, which can be run independently of the game, enables a user to see if any members of their Friend roster are currently online, and to participate in a race with them. When waiting for an online race to start, the player will watch the current race if there is one running. The online options of Mario Kart Wii have been ranked extremely well. According to Metacritic, there was almost no lag when playing against other racers from around the world.

Playable characters

See also: Mario Kart Playable Characters

Mario Kart Wii features 24 (25 counting the Mii, the digital avatar created by Nintendo) selectable characters, more than any of its predecessors. 12 characters are available from the beginning; the other 12 and the Mii becomes available after finishing certain elements of the game. The cast of characters includes 19 returning characters from Mario Kart and six newcomers. This installment's newcomers are Baby Peach, Funky Kong, Miis (which can also be seen as background elements such as spectators or a sphinx), Rosalina, Dry Bowser, and making her first appearance in the Mario series, Baby Daisy. There are eight characters of each weight class. The Mii's weight class depends on the Mii's height and weight, and their favorite color affects the color scheme of their clothing.

Development

At E3 2007 Media and Business Summit, Mario Kart Wii was officially announced along with its online-enabled features and the first footage of the title was shown. During Reggie Fils-Aime's presentation, he unveiled the new entry via a trailer that showed off some gameplay and some other characters. Additional details of the game were released in conjunction with the Nintendo Fall 2007 Conference held on October 2007, where it was revealed that it would include motorbikes and the Wii Wheel. New gameplay footage from the game was also shown.

Hideki Konno, producer of Mario Kart Wii, had wanted to include online features like the ranking system and sharing saved time trials (ghosts) already for the Mario Kart DS, but had not been able in order to get that game completed in time for a 2005 release. Now, for Mario Kart Wii, these features could finally be implemented. Konno had also been proposing ideas involving BMX ever since Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, but the ideas had been rejected. For Mario Kart Wii they were able to put the motorbike in, "making the world of Mario a little more for boys" as Miyamoto put it. The game was even called Mario Kart X internally for a while, before deciding on Mario Kart Wii. During the development of the Wii Wheel, the designers tested roughly 30 different prototypes with different shapes, colors and weights, before deciding on the final Wheel design. During these evaluations the developers also realised it would be good if the voice actors actually played the game during recording session, so the lines are recorded while the actors were playing the game.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	82% (57 reviews)
Metacritic	82% (67 reviews)

Review scores

Publication	Score
Edge	6 of 10
Eurogamer	8 of 10
Famitsu	37 of 40
GameSpot	8.5 of 10
GameSpy	4.5 of 5
GameTrailers	8.4 of 10
IGN	8.5 of 10
Nintendo Power	9 of 10
NGamer	88%

Mario Kart Wii has been received positively, especially praising the online capability and the large number of tracks, characters and karts. Joe Sinicki of Blast Magazine comments: "While it still does suffer from some of the problems of the older games, Mario Kart Wii takes the simple and accessible formula set by its predecessors and tweaks it enough to make it feel fresh and fun, creating one of the most entertaining and rewarding gaming experiences in quite some time." Official Nintendo Magazine UK claimed that the Wii Wheel worked very effectively and loved the different multiplayer modes. GameSpot editor Lark Anderson complimented that the game is easy to jump into for players of any skill level and that motorcycles provide a great alternative to go-karts, and IGN commented that "Nintendo has delivered one of the best console Karts in years".

NGamer, however, claimed that the tracks are too big for local multiplayer matches. Also, IGN criticized the rubber band AI in the 150cc races of the Grand Prix and NGamer UK was disappointed that Battle mode can now only be played in teams; no free-for-all option is offered which removes the 'last man standing' element of previous Mario Kart Battle modes. Reviewers such as GameTrailers and IGN also commented that it is easy to fall from first place to last by being continuously attacked by several weapons, many of which are unavoidable, leading to a certain amount of luck in racing. This makes it more accessible for beginners, but can be discouraging for skilled players. GameSpot also noted that "nostalgia doesn't save most of the classic courses from being boring".

Mario Kart Wii had a very successful launch and sold 300,000 copies on the launch day in Japan alone, compared to Mario Kart DS which sold 160,000 copies on its first day and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! which sold 180,000 on its first day. Only three days later it had sold a total of over half a million copies in Japan. In the week ending May 4, 2008, Mario Kart Wii had sold over a million copies in Japan alone, less than a month since its release in the region. In the UK, Mario Kart Wii was the best-selling video game in the week ending April 12, 2008, having "the eighth biggest opening sales week in UK software history," according to ChartTrack/ELSPA. The game dwarfed all other five Mario Wii games released up until then for the Wii combined when comparing first week sales. In North America, Mario Kart Wii sold 1.12 million copies in its first four days of release (from April 27-30), according to the NPD Group. This puts Mario Kart Wii at #2 of the best selling video games of April in North America, behind the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV and ahead of the PlayStation 3 version, both released in the same week.

External links

• Official website
• Mario Kart Wii at IMDb