LAST week I worked out that it has been 15 years since I played the original Super Mario Kart game on the SNES. Mario Kart Wii (£39.99, ****) might be full of colourful characters and wacky tracks, but look deeper into its core and you'll realise that there is much more to it than that.
The karts and the brand new bikes come in many different sizes and performance levels – you can choose a small, nimble, but slower vehicle or go for a faster kart which is heavier and more tricky to control. Both karts and bikes handle differently: t
he karts can drive easily around corners and also achieve a mini corner turbo to minimise speed loss; the bikes can't do that but to make up for it can do a nice big wheelie on the straight, giving them extra speed.
Another new addition to the series is the ability to drive up special ramps at the sides of certain tracks. If you do this correctly your character and vehicle will flip around and upon landing get a boost of speed. Not only that but you'll also be looking out for any other ramps you can spot in the game which can also be used as take-offs for performing tricks. These not only look spectacular but also happen to give you a speed boost when you hit the ground – never before have Mario Kart tracks felt so three dimensional.
The courses (or tracks) in Mario Kart Wii are quite varied but generally fall into three categories. Easy tracks are of the simple circular variety and it's usually hard to run into too much trouble. The medium tracks feature more obstacles and it's also usually possible to fall off into the underground abyss. You'll soon know the hard courses when you see them – lots of obstacles, and tracks that move underneath you as you drive over them, have violent volcanic eruptions, mind-boggling twists and loads of other stuff designed to halt your progress. Negotiating the hard tracks without any errors shows a mark of true karting genius. Retro fans will be pleased to hear that 16 of the 32 tracks included are pretty faithfully remakes of classic tracks from previous Mario Kart games; they're not quite as horrifically dangerous as the new Wii ones but still plenty of fun.
You've probably heard that Mario Kart Wii comes with a free, weird-looking wheel accessory. The Wii Wheel itself is really well designed and even though is a cheap plastic shell it really doesn't feel like it. It feels rather sturdy and is a good weight; this official Wii Wheel is definitely superior to other wheel accessories you may see on the market. Racing with the Wii Wheel is also pretty good. I don't use it every time, I prefer using the Wii Remote and Nunchuck combo but that is more down to comfort (holding the wheel in the air can make your arms ache after a while) rather than the Wheel not being as good to race with.
The best thing of all about this game is the new online mode allowing up to 12 players to race and battle online. There is room for you and a guest to head onto the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection and race in a never-ending series of grand prix or Battles stages. With online downloadable ghost races and even monthly speciality-themed competitions run by Nintendo, you can be sure that this game disc will last many months inside your Wii. The Mario Kart Wii online experience has been totally lag free so far and I've only been disconnected twice in all the frantic racing hours I've played.
For all you offline racers, don't worry – you can still race four multiplayer action on your Wii as you would expect from Mario Kart. The graphics, while not comparable to the next gen offerings, are smooth, colourful, well animated and still damn nice to look at. Mario Kart wouldn't be as fun racing around the gritty streets of GTA's Liberty City and vice versa. You wouldn't want to be seen carjacking and womanising in Mario's colourful landscapes, your street cred would just plummet.
The full article contains 705 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
