Once again i find myself wanting to award a 10, but simply can't.
Mario Kart has never been better!
With 32 courses (16 new, 16 from old MK's) and a wide range of characters from classic Mario (Well, it is his game) to the wild and weird like Funky Kong and Dry Bwser, to choose from, Mario Kart really has something for everyone.
As if that wasn't enough, there are now 12 people per race! (or battle) In addition to 3 new powerful items: the Thundercloud, POW Block and Mega Mushroom.
Cars available to use are not character specific but rather weight specific (Light, medium or heavy characters) allowing you to ultimately choose your favourite character rather than the one that fits your style of play.
The Wii wheel is an innovative new way to play, granted it may just be the Wiimote held sideways, but it is still great fun and easy to get the hang of. Anyone can pick up the wheel and start playing or even winning. If you'd rather play with the Wiimote, or Wiimote and nunchuck or even the Gamecube or Classic Controllers, you can. There's no messing around in the settings either, just start up the game and it will automatically recognise what you're using.
Grand Prix, Time Trials, VS mode and Battle mode all make a welcome return. Battle mode however has been slightly tweaked. Due to the 12 people participating, teams are compulsory. You would think with 12 people battles would be hectic, instead, because the stages are so big, it can be hard to even find someone never mind that person being on the opposing team.
In Balloon Battle, you are no longer eliminated when you lose your 3 balloons, instead you lose a point and are revived with your 3 balloons. Unfortunately, there is no way to have a classic battle with elimination when you lose your 3 balloons - it comes to personal preference if you prefer this method or not.
A second battle mode has been introduced, similar to Shine Runners from previous MK's, Coin Battle. Here you collect coins to add to your teams total and lose around half your coins when hit by an item. The lost coins scatter around you allowing for anyone to pick them up including yourself.
VS mode has a team option if you desire it but you can go solo too. While in Battle Mode or Team VS Mode, your allies' items have a forcefeild around them that stops you, or any other ally, being hit by that item. This does also include the effects of track wide weapons such as the infamous Lightning.
You also recieve the Mario Kart Channel. Here you can view the wordwide, continental or friends times on all the courses in Time Trials. You can download the champion's, a friend's, or a rival's (someone who is slightly faster than you) ghost and try to beat them. Reaching the top 10 can be very difficult and often needs absolutely perfect laps. In addtion, sometimes the champion will have an impossible time. This is because they are exploiting a glitch that allows the clock to reset and thus give them a time of, for example, just the first lap. Nintendo are manually deleting these Ghost datas but currently, there is no other solution. Naturally, Nintendo won't forever be manually deleting them as times move on and different games receive their attention.
This game will keep you occopied for ages in single player and multiplayer. Whether it be unlocking and beating Expert Staff Ghosts, generally improving your Time Trial Times and maybe even reaching the top 10 scores, battling it out with AI or trying to acheive those infamous 3 star ratings for all the cups - you will be playing this for a long time to come.
So why can't i give it a 10? Online. If your not going online with this game, take my score as a 10, if you are...
To reduce lag, Mario Kart Wii uses a Desynchronisation feature. The game works by sending "packets" of information to the other racers/battlers Wii's. Naturally, some packets are lost. This means on your screen you could fire a red shell at an opponent that suddenly dissappears. In actual fact, they blocked the shell with a banana. In rarer cases, you may see the shell hit them and tumble on your screen, but they don't even receive the packet with the red shell in it. When their packet of "i have lost no speed, i am turning this corner" is sent back to you, you will see them suddenly jump to wherever they are. What a waste of a red shell.
Also, your game "guesses" what is going to happen next. If it guesses wrong, you can also experience some sudden jumps of other racers. Apparantly, the game only receives every 3 frames and fills in the blanks with what it thinks is going to happen. Though 2 frames is so short you will very rarely notice it.
I'm not really the techno kind of guy, so that could be slightly inaccurate on how it actually works. The fact remains however, that sometimes what happens on one person's screen, does not happen on another's.
Granted, online has very little, mostly none what soever, lag. However, a perfect 10 can only go to a perfect game. A perfect game is exactly that: perfect - nothing at all to give a negative comment to. Mario Kart Wii is a fantastic multiplayer and single player alike. Anyone can play. Anyone can win. Anyone can lose. There is nothing more fun than the most unskilled player beating the "eliteist" at Mario Kart Wii! This game is a must for anyone who has played a previous MK, because this one is by far the best!