Gameplay

So what are the more fundamental changes to the way Mario Kart plays? Well most obviously is the motion control. Although GC controller and Nunchuk options will be available, the game can now be played by simply using the Wii remote as a steering wheel, just like in Excite Truck. If it works (and we don't see why it shouldn't), it will add a brilliant new level of immersion to Mario Kart. The combination of nippy, 'chuckable' go-kart handling and a 'real' steering wheel will make the series more viscerally involving than ever before.

The game is also going to be bundled with the Wii Wheel controller shell. As well as obviously giving you a more realistic steering wheel shape to hold, a detailed inspection of its underside reveals that it replaces the B trigger with a larger, flat button. Thank God for that, we say, as after trying to use Wiimote-only option in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, we can vouch for the fact that that button just doesn't work in anything other than a pistol-grip formation.

Power-sliding of course remains, but its mechanics have changed. The left and right tapping to build up a boost have gone, replaced with a turbo which is instead built up by the duration of your slide. It sounds very much like a hark back to the simpler way power-slides used to work on the SNES and we're eager to try it out. We don't yet know if this change is going to hamper snaking players (or "Cheap, donkey-licking, skill-less sons of syphilitic pigs", as the official term goes), but we're likely to find out soon.

The game also now incorporates both motorbikes and stunts. The bikes are at first reserved for the 100cc mode, but make a reappearance in the mixed-vehicle 150cc set-up, and are reportedly faster than the karts but have looser steering. Stunts can be performed with any vehicle by a gestural Wiimote input at the peak of a jump, and if pulled off successfully they provide a speed-boost on landing. Bikes can do wheelies on the tarmac to the same effect. We've also seen some mid-air trick moves used to corner at high speed on half-pipe sections of track.  

And finally, there is of course the online mode. Operating from a dedicated Mario Kart channel (in-game only at the moment, but who knows if it'll make its way to the Wii menu in a firmware update or two), players will be able to participate in twelve-player online matches, with two players able to join in from the same machine in split screen. We're also going to be able to view twice our own bodyweights in player stats, including wins, losses, times in first place, successful attacks, favourite tracks, and tournaments played. And we'll be able to trade ghosts of our best lap times with friends online, spectate on their races, and jump in at any time we want.

Excited yet? If your answer is not "Yes!", then you are already dead, certainly in soul if not in body.