Mario Kart Wii Preview

Mario Kart Wii Preview

By Matt Kelly

Mario Kart Wii has already shipped in a few places around the world and we've been keeping ourselves busy with our import copy. So we thought we'd give you a little peak before the game ships in Australia on the 24th.

The core of Mario Kart is still well and truely in tact, racing around fantasy race tracks and picking up various power ups to lay waste the cute Nintendo fellows around you. The track design has got a bit more complex in terms of interactivity since its last outing on the DS and you'll find a lot more things that move, fly around, crush you or fire you into the sky. One of the tracks for example is themed around a shopping mall, featuring 2 way escalators. If you head up the wrong side you'll be slowed to a crawl, on the other hand if you'll gain a lot of speed going up the escalator moving in the same direction as you. These kind of themed track designs apply through everything we've seen in Mario Kart Wii, and really adds to the quick decision making you're going to have to make. It's no longer a matter of just taking out your fellow racers, as there's a lot more out there that will either cause you grief or give you the winning edge. You'll of course also find a campaign of classic tracks that'll take you through every release of the game to date.

They're are a few additional power ups brought to the table as well though the vast majority are carried over from the previous games. Bikes are also a mildly controversial addition to game, with a lot more agile steering than the karts. They'll be taking centre stage in the 100CC race mode and also be usable in the 150CC. Bikes have a few tricks up their sleeves, and while they don't seem to add a whole lot aside from the spice of variety, they don't take anything away either.

Of course there's the matter of snaking, the Wii Wheel, and the fear that Mario Kart has been dumbed down for it's Wii outting. Snaking has been pulled back to sliding, but if anything it's aided in the online aspect of the game. Good sliding still allows you to lead your opponents by a fair distance, but from what we've seen so far its allowed the playing field to be a lot more level without detracting from the skill required to win. We also had a bit of a play with the Wii Wheel, and while we're not ready to pass a final judgement on it, we do have a bit of feed back. If anything it seems the Wii Wheel is in place to help new comers grasp the controls if they're not Wii savey already. In terms of impact on the game, it's one of those things that is gonna vary from player to player. The motion steering controls of Mario Kart Wii are a tad on the undersensitive side compared to previous Wii racing games, so it's going be more about how you handle the controls that is going to decide whether the wheel is useful or not. On a positive note, it's a lot less of a pain to set up than the Wii Zapper!

The game starts shipping next week in Australia and is sure to bring out a lot of talk from both pros and newbies alike. While we are saying 'buy buy buy', if you're not 100% sure we will have a full review of the game for your perusing next week!

Tags: Kart Mario preview Wii

MrWii 17/04/2008

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