Mario Kart Wii - Official Topic

I can see your points and agree with your general view. They have put quite a bit of effort in though, correct me if I'm wrong but, there's twice as many tracks in as other mario karts, 16 of which are from past games which is a bit of fan service as new players won't know them. All the online options sound good, racing against top ghosts, or ghosts just above yourself.

They were testing this in January with 2000 online connections a week, so they've obviously been putting quite a bit of effort in for that part (brawl was ~500 if I remember correctly).

Why?, because this is what Nintendo have started to do, they only push in the directions where they see profit now and good reason. As far as Nintendo were concerned they did enough with this title as you see it. That is troubling, when I see this game I cannot see the evidence of them striving to create a special game in the same way you can see it in Brawl and Galaxy.

Is there not a little bit of irony in this comment, given that Brawl isn't even out globally yet, and Mario Galaxy is less than 6 months old? Even games like WiiFit which a lot of people would consider as 'cheap cash ins' take a lot of effort and development, which you realise when you read the Iwata asks articles about it. I don't think Nintendo will be kicking out iterative annual updates like EA anytime soon.

Hopefully when the game comes out and people have got to grips with the options and tracks online there will be a pretty good setup to enable the best player to win consistently without it being a lottery. Hopefully it's not too slow either once you get good on it, it doesn't look it in the few videos I've seen, but I suppose they're only short clips.

Anyone here got Team Fortress 2 on PC?

Get the Mario Kart map, make a server and lets pelt some shells into each other. Sadly not bright green turtle ones but still.

The Mario Kart stage in TF2 is meme heaven. I don't get it. It rules though.

Also, yeah I'm into the save the planet stuff a bit, but there's a point behind it, I mean seriously, what is the point of making a completely empty shell of plastic and mass producing it like that? It's utterly pointless! >.<

Nice to see that the US won't be getting Mario Kart too much later than Europe, but I have to say the more I hear about the game the more I am less excited..

The lack of speed is disappointing..I thought Mario Kart DS had good speed, but anything less is hugely disappointing. I'm glad to hear snaking is being done away with though.

Seems the biggest hope for the game is the good looking 12-player online. Nintendo's dropped the ball again on the communication front, but it should really be something special regardless.

If it is slower than the DS game like IGN say it is worrying, it may have much to do with keeping everything ticking properly online. At least it's faster than DD Nintendo's are having major problems with their online right now, I understand they have had to set up a Smash site specifically for people with problems. It would be nice just for once to be able to buy a Wii online game and have no hassle.

Squeek, I did not suggest it was a lottery, nor did I suggest it would be dependant on luck, I am talking about AI leveling the playing field too much. Yes MK has always had that but from what I have read and heard it has never been so strong.

Here is some nice art work that went to waste in the final game-

http://uk.media.wii.ign.com/media/949/949580/imgs_1.html

A possible alternative to those that are used to traditional gaming wheels;

Link

Here is some nice art work that went to waste in the final game

I agree. I think the cover art would have been much better with the image below. It\'s similar to the Double Dash cover and has a lot more going on.

( Edited 14.03.2008 11:09 by Marzy )

I don't like that Nintendo are constantly evening what could otherwise be considered more competetive games. Even Brawl has (somehow) been evened out to allow worse players to do better, though it's not as unbalanced as getting a Blue Shell 3 times in a row if you're in last place.

Marzy said:

Here is some nice art work that went to waste in the final game

I agree. I think the cover art would have been much better with the image below. It's similar to the Double Dash cover and has a lot more going on.

I have always said I like the minimal look of the Wii game, however, given the choice of this and the one we have I would easily have chosen this one. It's very colourful and attractive and just plain cute, which always works for Nintendo.

Mario Galaxy's cover is amazing. I think we were all expecting this:

or this:

Which were both quite dull and generic, however we ended up with something much better (IMO). With Mario Kart... they chose the worst possible cover. Prolly to appeal to *that* audience.

though it\'s not as unbalanced as getting a Blue Shell 3 times in a row if you\'re in last place.

You can turn off individual items in this version though, so that kind of rectifies that problem.

Edit: actually you can\'t theres three modes for items
Agressive, balanced and off so I dunno blue shell may still forced upon us

( Edited 17.03.2008 18:44 by Blade2t3 )

Yep, that was definitely good news Should make competetive matches a lot easier to do. I guess everyone will be happy this way.

I only hope the snaking is recified too etc.

Power sliding in this sounds kind of similer to the Super circuit power sliding, at least thats how I read it anyway. Although this has a manual and automatic powersliding options,
automatic being easier but limited and manual giving you more freedom to continue sliding but increasing your chances of spinning out or somthing.
Then I suppse theres all those trick based boosts which will be interesting to see how they work.
About the speed issue..everytime a mario kart comes out I always hear the complaint "it needs to be faster" but I don't think I have ever really noticed a particularly slow mario kart before infact going from DS to double dash I felt Double dash was far too speedy.

This game is going to be awesome online

Blade2t3 said:
About the speed issue..everytime a mario kart comes out I always hear the complaint "it needs to be faster" but I don't think I have ever really noticed a particularly slow mario kart before infact going from DS to double dash I felt Double dash was far too speedy.

Mario Kart 64 and Super Circuit just seemed much faster.

Linkyshinks said:
This game is going to be awesome online

I sure as hell bet it lags way more than that though.

Also, are there going to be more characters? OH GOD. WHERE'S DAISY.

If Waluigi takes priority over Daisy, then Nintendo have gone crazy.

"Hi I'm Daisy!"

:O the classic Super mario Kart battle arena! Me and my cousin used to play that level so much years ago it's always been my favorite arena, basically shoot as many green shells as possibe down a narrow corrisor and all hell breaks loose!

The sand one lookes mental aswell.

I love everything about this game. This franchise will go a very long way in the future.

Blade2t3 said:
:O the classic Super mario Kart battle arena! Me and my cousin used to play that level so much years ago it's always been my favorite arena, basically shoot as many green shells as possibe down a narrow corrisor and all hell breaks loose!

The sand one lookes mental aswell.

A classic tactic if ever there was one, and yes that sand stage does look mental!.

I know I have been criticising this game a little, but I don't think unfairly. Mario Kart is all about playability and if it fulfils there I will have no complaints, if it refines the MK experience on DS then I will have not much to complain about.

On a connected note IGN's editors have been critical about some of Matt Casamacina's views on MK Wii in the latest podcast.

Well, personally what can be bad about the game? Nice visuals, item switch, more "fair" corner boosting.

The only downsides I can think of are the stupid wheel (not the game's fault) the bikes (which might not be that bad) and the trick (which could turn out alright too).

Yeah. The steering wheel may be troublesome without a base. It has probably been the only one I've seen without one.

About the bikes, PGR4 had that has one of their new add-ons to the franchise. It failed, horribly imo. But then again, Mario Kart and PGR are two different racing franchises. Hopefully they will balance out the bikes.

Linkyshinks said:

Blade2t3 said:
:O the classic Super mario Kart battle arena! Me and my cousin used to play that level so much years ago it's always been my favorite arena, basically shoot as many green shells as possibe down a narrow corrisor and all hell breaks loose!

The sand one lookes mental aswell.

A classic tactic if ever there was one, and yes that sand stage does look mental!.

I know I have been criticising this game a little, but I don't think unfairly. Mario Kart is all about playability and if it fulfils there I will have no complaints, if it refines the MK experience on DS then I will have not much to complain about.

On a connected note IGN's editors have been critical about some of Matt Casamacina's views on MK Wii in the latest podcast.

I can see were you coming from most of your points and it is a shame Mario Kart is no longer the big big multi player Nintendo franchise it once was.

Can't wait for this! Managed to get it when Amazon screwed up with preorders and listed it for

Well hopefully the sutralian release isn\'t delayed cause this game is looking awesome, i hope sega gets off their butts and start develpoment of an online fzero game

( Edited 18.03.2008 01:53 by mage_mccloud )

I think that this will be a good game in the series but the only thing that puts a downer on it for me is the fact that it has bikes. The whole point of Mario kart is to have cars and nothing else. But enough about the bad points, I wish that they have some more characters in this one than in the other games in the series. The main reason that i am going to get this game is because of the Wi-Fi connection with 11 players. The graphics look so coll and the levels look stunning as well. I think that this will be a good multi player racer on the Wii.

Back at e3 Nintendo boasted that the game would have plenty characters...unfortunatly it seems this is only mii support they were talking about

However, i suppose racing with a Link and Ness Mii won't be so bad