Nintendo has announced the first worldwide tournament for Mario Kart Wii. The tournament begins today on the Mario Circuit, where players will compete for the fastest time.
Looks like Nintendo is trying to hype up Mario Kart by sponsoring some tournaments via the Mario Kart Channel. Interesting that the tournaments will have specific rules like having to use certain controls schemes...
Core Gaming recently launched Wii Fit in South Africa. With the launch tucked securely under their belts, EL33TONLINE managed to catch up with The Nintendo Team who gave them the scoop on some dates to diarise.
Fun fact: I'm a total Mario Kart fanboy. For the record: Double Dash is my favourite (I know, I know). So I'm used to watching the Mario Kart series take small, baby-steps forward with each new version. In this case, I was expecting just that. Small steps forward. Mario Kart Wii, however, feels more like a step forward, a shuffle to the side then, after a brief pause, a tentative step back.
In today's show they discuss:
This will certainly go down as one of the most highly anticipated release week's for 2008! Highlights include Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360) and Mario Kart Wii.
Next Weeks Big Releases Dominate!
WhatIfGaming writes: "Nintendo is celebrating the highly anticipated release of Mario Kart® Wii and the companion Wii Wheel accessory with a fun-packed launch party at the Nintendo World store in Rockefeller Plaza..."
On Thursday, April 24th, unsuspecting New Yorkers will be in for a shock as they call for a cab... and wind up with a plumber?
While those of you in Europe and Japan are enjoying Mario Kart, the rest of us are trying to wait as patiently as we can, not knowing what to expect. Sure, we've seen and heard many racing-related things when it comes to Nintendo's upcoming title, but there's been one aspect of the game that hasn't been talked about much -- Battle Mode.
A guide on what steps to take to unlock each of the 14 secret characters in Mario Kart Wii. For example on how to unlock the Miis:
Consumers might be seeing price cuts for Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 in the coming months, claimed analyst Jesse Divnich of research firm EEDAR in a report sent to Gamasutra following today's NPD sales figures for March.
Kotaku writes:This isn't confirmed, and we're going to have to wait until Media Create releases the "official" numbers, but apparently Mario Kart Wii moved 300,000 copies on launch day. To put things in perspective, Mario Kart DS did 160,000 at launch, while Mario Kart Double Dash did 180,000 on its first day.
Nintendo overtakes Sony's 'Gran Turismo 5: Prologue' at the top of the All Formats Chart as 'Mario Kart Wii' records the 8th biggest launch week ever in the UK. 'Mario Kart Wii' is far and away the biggest launch of any Nintendo published title. It's also bigger than the launch weeks of all 5 other Mario Wii games combined (Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Strikers, Mario Party 8 and Super Paper Mario). Mario has performed heroically on Nintendo's next-gen format with Wii games featuring Mario accounting for 21.2% of all Wii units since the launch of the console in December 2006.
Nintendo has told Eurogamer that it has had no reports of problems with Mario Kart Wii discs.
The exact same issue that happened to Japanese gamers that bought Brawl is now happening with Mario Kart Wii. Some people that purchased the game are complaining that their Wii cannot read the disc, and the game is freezing/crashing. Nintendo has once again stated that the problem is due to Mario Kart Wii being a double-layer disc. Nintendo will clean your Wii for you, which should do away with the problem.
Mario Kart Wii was released just a few days ago, yet people managed to use cheating exploits to gain the upper hand in the Wi-Fi community; more specifically, the Time Trials mode. People have been earning ridiculous times that clearly cannot be achieved by racing normally. Nintendo seems to be on the case, however. Reports have began to drop in that Nintendo has rectified the issue. It's great to see the big N taking expeditious action, but at the same time, it's a shame people are trying to ruin the online experience.
Kotaku writes: "There's word that cheaters (you bastards!) are apparently moving in full force on Mario Kart Wii. Either that, or there's a bug. The Time Trials mode is getting hit hardest with all sorts of impossible times appearing. According to Mercurys Phoenix at the Official Nintendo Magazine forums writes:
VGChartz via ameblo is reporting that the first day sales in Japan on April 10th were as follows: