Mario Kart Wii

Ahh, Mario Kart. Now available on the Wii. Is it any good? Well, if you liked previous versions, then you'll probably like this one too. If you didn't like them, then you probably won't. They've done the same thing as the DS version and given you 16 brand new tracks as well as ripped 16 tracks from older installments. They've also added motorbikes into the mix, which really only changes how you manage your miniturbos. And of course there are stunts, which make jumps useful rather than just amusing. Word of note though, when you get to 150cc you're not going to want to stunt off all jumps.

If you played the DS version online you probably heard a lot of complaints about many aspects of it. Only 4 players per match, horrible match making, snaking, etc. Pretty much all that's been fixed this time around. Matches are up to 12 people, they will match you with people already in races, snaking is impossible, and they don't kick you out after 4 races.

Now, the bad.

If you've played the other versions, you know that after you pass 100cc your ability to do good is less and less reliant on your raw skill, and more on luck. Literally everything is stacked against you. The computer players are more intersted in keeping you out of first rather than trying to get into first themselves. They get items faster than you. After you pass the first set of item boxes on a track you will see the computer using items while you're still waiting for the roulette to stop (not time between getting the item and using it, distance from the item box pickup). I'm pretty sure the computer gets the drafting bonus faster than you do. And finally they routinely pull off impossible green shell shots where they bank it off 17 walls from three turns back, and hit you. I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but you get the idea.

50cc is reliant on skill, and even then you don't need much. 100cc is also reliant on skill, but you need a fair bit more. 150cc and up, you need plenty of luck. Be prepared to enter a race, fly through the first two laps with only a couple bumps, and then in the last two turns of the last lap get hammered by everything in a long chain of attacks that drops you from first, to at least 6th.

Still. It's not all bad. I'm only really fuming about it because I'm trying to get a gold star for my name before seriously getting into online. At the time of this writing I've got gold stars on everything up to the final cups for 150cc Wii and Retro. I haven't even started Mirror mode yet, and that's typically harder than 150cc.