Weapons

Mario Kart Wii is going to make use of most of the classic combat items, as well as adding a couple of cool new ones to arsenal of brightly-coloured death. The existing collection seems inspired by Double Dash and Mario Kart DS, comprising the usual array of green, red and blue shells, banana skins, lightning, stars and mushrooms, while bringing back the screen-obscuring Blooper from the handheld game and the Bob-ombs, golden mushroom, and a variation of the Bullet Bill transformation from the Gamecube title.

And the three new additions you've just skipped straight through the above paragraph to read about? Well firstly the POW block from the original Mario Bros. arcade game is making a comeback. It apparently hovers over your kart, threatening to stomp you unless you make three jumps timed to a specified rhythm, before doing just that if you don't. (A power-up that just threatened to do something would be a bit useless, would it not?) Presumably there'll be some sort of benefit if you pull it off, but at the moment it sounds like a prime "Oh God, not that one!" item.

There's also a storm cloud which gives you a speed boost for as long as you have it equipped, and which can be passed to (or more likely stolen by) any other player via a collision. The catch? Hold onto it for too long and it'll shrink your kart to post-lightning strike size. Nasty. We really like the sound of this one, and we can see some very tactical games being played using it alone.

And finally, the super 'shroom from New Super Mario Bros. is included, so expect a great deal of Giga Kart opponent-splattery going on when that one appears. A combination of the delicately tactical and the downright messy? Sounds like Mario Kart to us.