Mario Kart Wii

What is it?

The eighth game in the series that very probably invented a racing sub-genre. Mario Kart has appeared on the Super NES, N64, GBA, Gamecube, DS, in the arcade, and now debuts on the Wii with motion-controlled steering. And bikes.

Is it better than the last one?

No. It beats Mario Kart: Double Dash, the last home console version, but the accolade of 'best Mario Kart EVAR' still belongs to the more tightly refined karting purity of Mario Kart DS. That said, Mario Kart Wii is certainly one of the better iterations of the series, bringing the raucus but instinctive motion sensing steering we enjoyed in Excite Truck to the massively competitive arena of MK. And it’s a hoot.

Of course, your driving skill can still be vetoed by shell-spamming AI from time to time, and some of the new tracks aren’t as inspiring as they could be, but Mario Kart Wii makes up for that in other areas. And by ‘other areas’ we of course mean online play.

It probably shouldn’t be as big a deal as it is, given how online play is a standard feature of the modern age of gaming, but this is the Wii we’re talking about, so an online component as good as MKW’s is a major selling point. Twelve-player races, private friend rooms, quick friend finding and easy and reliable connectivity. Apart from the lack of voice chat it’s everything Nintendo should have been doing online from the start, and it makes the new Mario Kart a more appealing overall package than ever. The big N finally seems to have got the idea that its communal gaming philosophy can really benefit from being taken out of the living room and onto the internet, and with Mario Kart Wii it’s created a party game with real substance.

Did the Wii really help?

Yes it did. We hate to admit it but Mario Kart has been done to death now, and with half of the tracks in the last two games being recycled from old ones it’s beginning to feel like a series of yearly updates rather than true sequels. The franchise badly needed a stout kick up the arse, and motion control has delivered that kick.

It feels unwieldy at first, but with a little practice the Wii control combines all the subtlety of an analogue stick with the immediacy of a d-pad. It’s the best of both worlds and a hell of a lot of fun to use. Naturally, some traditionalists still swear by the Gamecube pad or the analogue control of the Nunchuk, so for them Mario Kart Wii isn’t a major upgrade apart from in terms of online play (which admittedly could have been done on the Gamecube if Nintendo had wanted to). But if you embrace the whole of what the game has to offer – or bizarrely haven’t played Mario Kart before – then the Wii version is definitely a significant upgrade.

Final thoughts

So, to conclude? Yes, the Wii certainly is certainly capable of providing unique and thoroughly worthwhile experiences. While the quality of Nintendo's games most definitely hasn't always been as a result of of the little magic wand, when implimented well the remote has been able to add a lot to games we've played variations of a whole bunch of times before. In the case of Mario Kart, it even managed to freshen up a series that had become dangerously close to out-staying its welcome.

But it's just as important to note how certain Wii games have turned out a lot better by not focusing on motion control. Brawl and Galaxy would both have been very different experiences if the 'mote had taken centre stage, and not necessarily successful ones at that. And that still seems to be the most important factor in Wii development. The controls need to be designed around the game, not the other way around. Motion control can be a great enhancement, but that's exactly what it should be. An enhancement. We can gain a lot from it, but when it becomes the only reason for a title existing, we stand to lose a lot as well.