FullHealth - Review :: Its-a Wii! Mario Kart Wii Review + a big announcement!

Review :: Its-a Wii! Mario Kart Wii Review + a big announcement!

Written by Carnage

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Well well well, it seems that FullHealth is returning into full flow, and baby, this time we’re Back in Black! (Sorry, had to use that reference.) Anyway, I’m just here for a quick lowdown on the latest Nintendo game, Mario Kart Wii. This is my review, but please bear in mind I haven’t unlocked all the characters/karts (c’mon, be honest, does it really matter?) Click inside for my impressions plus a sweet new announcement!

Mario Kart Wii does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s Mario Kart, on your Wii. That’s it really. The core gameplay hasn’t changed much, and nor should it. I hate it when people claim a sequel isn’t original enough. Of course it bloomin’ isn’t! The whole point of a sequel is to build on previous entries, and that’s exactly what this game does. Sure there are some new features and additions, but when push comes to shove you are playing Mario Kart. It’s just that this is a really good Mario Kart.

I have played every entry in the series of MK games (if you expect me to type out Mario Kart every time I refer to the series you’ve got another thing coming) and each of them was great. From the timeless SNES title, to the disappointing Cube one, to the frankly bizarre GBA one (seriously, singing to not spin out, what the hell?) but at the end of it, the DS one is triumphant. Yes you could argue for hours about how the SNES has some better features, but the DS one is a) portable and b) a hell of a lot prettier. The only thing that has ever stood over these games with a dark, brooding cloud of “Don’t you dare fire that” is the *ugh* blue shell. I’ve never understood why the hell they put this in; I mean if you’re in 8th, do you honestly care if 1st gets his ass handed to him in an explosion of sheer injustice? I reckon 2nd and 3rd place do, but they can’t get it. It’s always been a nag of many people since MK64, and Nintendo seem to put these complaints next to the letters about how Wind Waker’s sailing sucked and not to put it in Phantom Hourglass (arguably the worst Zelda ever... but that’s for another time). As you can probably tell from my angry ramblings, it’s back in place and is still a horrible item.

But back to the actual game; the game could control almost exactly like Mario Kart DS. Or it could control absolutely nothing like it. It all depends on whether or not the plastic wheel in the box grabbed your attention or whether you completely ignored the giant white steering wheel, which you have to take out of the box to get at the disc, and then replace like it was never there and wonder why the box was so big. The odds you did notice it, though, are abnormally high and curiosity usually prevails in situations like these. The wheel is... fine. The sturdy design and great enlargement of the B button is very nice to hold and easy to use. It’s certainly not the best control option, but it is still pretty fun. My only complaint really is the awkward item placing in ‘manual’ mode where you have to hit the d-pad to use them. In ‘automatic’ (I suppose I should explain, basically manual lets you pull off slide boosts by smacking the now enlarged B button around corners, like in the good old days, where as automatic does the sliding sans boosts for you, great for newcomers) they assign it to the B button and its fine there. But in manual, despite there already being a slide button assigned to 1, the B button too becomes slide and it leads to a bit of a muddle up at first. You get over it, but it’s a horrible experience to try and adapt to. Every other control scheme is fine, in most cases better (though some bizarre ideas on the GC pad have been applied almost to spite it) but my hands down favourite is Wii Remote + Nunchuck. Everything is well placed and even fun to use, thanks to two new core additions.

MKWii has added 4 new gameplay mechanics. The first is the all new addition of bikes. However, they don’t really make too much of a difference. They do have the second new feature, a wheelie that makes you a little faster and incapable of turning, but overall it’s just new look karts. Oh, and the option to ride Wario’s bike, which is fast becoming a Wario staple (See, I warned you all in my Wario World review, we’ll never see Wario Land 5!). The third addition (and my favourite) is the trick system. Don’t get excited, there are only four tricks and certainly no point scheme; it’s just an alternative boost method (one that kinda reminds me of Crash Team Racing’s idea of getting loads of air to get a boost) and it’s great to use, especially with a bit of motion sensing to add to the experience. The last is the painful addition of build up slide boosting. You see, since MK64 (again, not typing out the entire title) you had to waggle your analogue stick or d-pad to build up your slide boost. In MK64 and Double Dash this was a skill vital to victory and quite hard to use. However, come the advent of MKDS it became a little sour. The term ‘snaking’ is common amongst anyone who has ever tried to play MKDS online and it’s a horrible, dirty tactic. People boost entire courses doing these little slides and it’s annoying to try and combat, because doing it physically hurts. MKWii removes the ability to snake, but it takes the skill in slide boosting with it. Now you just keep sliding and it builds up over time. It’s not only boring; it makes previous shortcuts impossible on certain tracks; a sad addition, but not game killing.

My final complaint is that of the completely ruined, scarred, tortured and *shudder* friendly battle mode. That’s right, a friendly battle mode! Where you cannot die! What the hell!? The traditional ‘last man standing’ proceedings of previous entries have been destroyed in favour of this... this... travesty. It’s now all in teams and, as fore mentioned, you cannot die. If you lose all your balloons you just respawn, thus destroying the tension and nervous laughter that made this mode a treasured friend of many. Apart from that, everything else is fine and still a bit fun, I suppose. It’s just a case of knowing it could be so much better that hurts the most.

Now to a sentence I thought would never be written about a Wii game: The Online Is AMAZING! It’s rare for me to use caps lock on one word, so treasure the moment dear reader, treasure it. MKWii has made the online on the Wii so much fun and so easy to use; I’m tempted to say the Wii is now a serious online competitor. It just... works. You find matches in seconds, they’re completely lag free and before each match you find out who you are racing and where they are in the world, adding a sense of competitive community to a completely communication-less feature. It’s a real testament to Nintendo’s new attitude to online and it can only get better from here. The downloadable ghost data (not just friends either, you can download people at a slightly better time than you to help improve your time or get the best time and go for it) makes the otherwise redundant time trials suddenly hyper competitive, and half of these features can be done from the MKWii channel without even loading the disc. There is a competition mode too, but it remains elusive as nothing has been revealed about it (though a rumour is brewing about the return of Missions, something I sincerely hope). But as mentioned, everything we do know is great, and the fact everything you can play in GP mode can be played online (every track, every character, every kart) only sweetens this delicious deal.

Overall, MKWii is a great continuation of a great series. It isn’t particularly ground breaking, but neither is it just an expansion. It is a great, enjoyable game that wants to be played (and played online) and nothing is stopping it. It’s friendly, frantic and most importantly, fun! It’s games like these that remind us that Nintendo do love us, but they want more friends too (providing they have a 12 digit number registered to both consoles). If this is a ‘casual’ game, bring on the casual revolution!

Score: 9

It’s Mario Kart with perfect online. Got a problem with that?

ANNOUNCEMENT! Full Health is proud to announce that its 1st video review is on it's way! Although not available yet, it's in the works and should be up in a week or so. What game is it? Let's just say it has almost as many control options as MK:Wii, and it's certainly a special game for an Englishman to own! Stay tuned!
[I can't wait! - ND]