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What is intense about a Mario game? I've heard it argued that some types of entertainment are not "hardcore enough" for the ICE demographic. Well, I don't know about you guys but my interests range from grinding metal to moshing to rock climbing to surfing to PWNING at Halo 3 to...yes, cutesy Nintendo games. And I don't think I'm alone. You don't need to be a Prep to enjoy Mark Kart Wii. Whether alone or with friends this game rocks.
Honestly, I thought the Gamecube edition of Mario Kart was a letdown. Most of the race tracks were not that fun and some of the changes to the formula were unwelcome. I was never able to get into it. Still fun, yes, but I'd rather play the N64 edition. The most notable addition to this iteration of the Mario Kart franchise is the usage of the Wiimote. Turning is very responsive. I never feel like I'm losing control, although it certain is easier to use the Gamecube control. While I was instantly comfortable with using this implementation, my wife preferred to stick with the Gamecube controller. She went from being in last place all the time to sometimes winning over me. We also noticed that after several races we'd start suffering from achiness in our wrists. The next best is network play. For the most part it's great being able to play online with real people instead of being stuck playing against computer AI. The playmatching system relies on points given or lost by each race. Thus you are "usually" matched against other players with similar skill levels. And for the most part it seems to do a good job of finding a good server connection. The tracks can make or break a game. The great news is that Nintendo has revitalized the classics from the older games. On top of that every single new track is fun in its own right. This Kart game also has the largest number of tracks, with 4 tracks per 8 trophies meaning a total of 32! And this is not including the maps specific to battle mode. Now for the new game features. The drifting system has been tweaked, allowing Karts to gain up to 2 boosts during a turn. If you are a certain distance behind another racer for several seconds, you can gain a significant boost by drafting. When you go over a ramp you can also gain a boost by doing a trick, which is simply implemented by "raising" the Wiimote. Besides standard Karts there are now Bikes. The bikes can gain a boost at any time doing a wheelie...with the negative of reduced turning. Bikes can also be bounced around a lot easier. Beginners can now choose an "Automatic" mode that controls drifting around corners. While it apparently will not give boosts it does allow beginners to take sharp corners without learning how to manually drift like in the old games. The Good Some of the best of the older tracks. All of the new tracks are good. Network play. Bikes. The Bad Automatic network playmatching often matches you against distant players. A bad internet connection (high ping) can make online gameplay frustrating. The Ugly Getting PWNED by my wife! With the older games I almost always finished the race way ahead of the pack. I can't seem to pull that off very often with Mario Kart Wii. The Automatic mode lets n00bs slide around corners almost as good. Some of the new weapons can nail the person in first position over and over, quickly dragging the player down to last place. And is just me or did Nintendo nerf Toad? Overall this game deserves a 9 out of 10.
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XRYSTAL 
