I picked up Mario Kart this weekend after I finished all my life related business, as I was sure it would suck up my free time, along with City of Heroes.  It turns out I am the chosen one, as my ability to predict the future is uncanny and much sought after.  The multiplayer component has, of course, taken precedence over the attractive offerings of the single player, and there are a few observations on the quality of this aspect.

I had feared that the microphone would be used to communicate with your adversaries in game, much to the chagrin of everybody playing xbox live, however Nintendo decided against communication of any kind over wireless.  In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of perfection for multiplayer.  Many people may disagree, but after the nth time of being called various vulgarities, I decided to hang up Halo 2 multiplayer forever.  In fact, many games for me have become repulsive simply because the number of people taking the game way to seriously has exponentially increased over my career of online gaming. 

The lack of communication hampers any attempt to acquire a friend code from people you enjoyed racing against, but is that really a problem?  These are people you've never met, and there are hundreds more like them.  The code is really for people who know each other or are connected vicariously in some way through some venue they both frequent.  Personally I agree with the policy that Nintendo seems to be setting down, it adds to the enjoyment I have anyhow.

I'm absolutely positive that, if pressed, Nintendo has the capability to enable online chat in some incarnation, but for the time being I'm blessed with the very enjoyable, very versatile, and very quiet Mario Kart racing game.  Of course should you feel so inclined to seek me out for an easy win, my friend code is 098843 958680.