Mario Kart Wii
 

Picked this up yesterday and it is just as much fun as I remember it. It was great on N64 and so far it is just as good. It's got all the old tracks plus some great new ones. But by far the best new feature is.......the steering wheel you put the wii-mote into!
It can occasionally take a while to get a race going online, but once more people start playing I'm sure that will change. If you loved any of the other Mario Karts, this is essential.

I'll be picking this up when I get back from vacation!

I assume you're in Europe then, 'cause ths side of the pond, it comes out 'till the 27th.

I'm counting down the days until it is released in the States. I love that they have both lots of new tracks and lots of retro tracks, much like in Mario Kart DS. Should be a good time for sure... although a part of me wishes I had a 360 or PS3 instead of a Wii so I could play GTA IV, which is released on the same day.

So for those of you that have MK Wii how does it compare to the MK DS version?

I really loved everything about the DS version, does it build on this, or is it totally revamped for the new system?

It's in my Gamefly queue. If getting it is anything like getting Super Smash Bros. Brawl was, it should be here a couple days after the release. That should give us plenty of time to finish up Lego Star Wars.

I'm really looking forward to it--Mario Kart has always been one of my favorite video games, and the N64 version was an oft-played game amongst my college friends.

I've never played it on DS so I couldn't say how it compares.
You now have a choice of cars and even bikes, and there is more emphasis on drifting. You can choose manual or automatic before a race (it's not for gears as I first thought!), with manual get boosts for getting it just right, which is a great feeling!

For those of you who have this picked it up, how's the battle mode? I've heard that they've taken out the 4-player free for all (At least in local matches). Is this horrible rumor true?:sad:

Well, I picked MKW on Sunday morning when it came out.... and honestly I'm pretty disappointed. There are some great tracks, as well as some real snoozers. The characters certainly leave something to be desired... I loved the character-specific power-ups in Mario Kart: Double Dash, but here there is little strategy involved in choosing a pilot aside from "small", "medium" or "large". I find myself choosing Koopa Troopa most often because I find his in-game comments the least annoying.

The menus look terribly basic and unappealing. You can't do a 2-player Grand Prix anymore. But the biggest gripe I have with the game has to do with the AI. It seems rather than having the characters spread out as the race progresses, they bunch closer and closer together. I can't even count how many times I've gone from 1st or 2nd to 10th or 11th on the final turn... usually caused by a blue shell, followed by 2-3 characters running me over which delays me from moving even longer. The events seem less like races and more like wild, item-crazed circuses... which means that choosing good lines and keeping up your speed doesn't have much reward when there are so many random items being thrown around at once.

Overall, I'd say Nintendo spent too much of their time integrating online play and not enough time with the basics that make the Mario Kart series great.

The new EGM came out yesterday for subscribers. Their Kart review was very similar to yours. B-, C, C-. One of the reviewers mentioned skill or knowledge of racing having nothing to do with the game while shooting items at each other and superkill items are the entire game (which is the exact thing I hated about previous Mario Karts).

It's alright, I bought it mostly for the online play.

BTW: 4339-2894-3888

I just traded galaxy and star wars legos for it. Definitely worth it in my book. I had already beat the other 2 games and they had no multiplayer/replayability.

I'm going to get it, but not until after finals or I won't graduate.

It's a lot more challenging, and instead of every other MK game where you could get way the hell ahead, AI players will gang up on you and keep you from getting way out in front, and you need a balance of driving skill (not snaking) and skilled use of items to win. You have to stay on your toes and not let your guard down or else you'll lose.

I like it, but MK64 will always be the pinnacle of the series.
In the C&C series, Red Alert 1 was disappointing and Tiberian Sun was what Red Alert should have been. Double Dash is Red Alert and MK Wii is Tiberian Sun.

Over all the game is a blast but I have a couple of gripes. Some of the unlocks are annoying to unlock. Getting star ratings on every grand prix for every class is annoying and unlocking all the expert ghosts is very annoying. You can't unlock during multiplayer games which means the only option is to do some busy work to unlock all of the characters and vehicles.

I just got it today, and overall I love it. It appears to have fewer tracks than the DS version, but I haven't counted them yet. As MSD said, it seems like the AI no longer lets you get more than 1/4-1/2 of a lap ahead before dropping the hammer on you.

In all it seems to be well balanced, I'll see how it fares in a multi-player environment at my move-out party this week. Drunken MK for everyone :)

Oh, my friend code is 3308-5453-0269

My niece and nephew got it yesterday for Christmas. It is.....aggravating. They got a wheel (not sure if it comes with it or not) which is a ripoff and the controls were for lack of a better term, inverted. "Turn" the wheel clockwise and I went left, etc. They seemed to have fun crashing into walls and each other but I got bored with it tootsweet.

You had it upside-down if you went left while turning right. I prefer the control pad though.

Jesus Christ, I feel like an idiotic asshole. Thanks for the help.