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Mario Kart Wii review
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Ok, this is my first attempt at a review so polite constructive criticism will be welcomed.CHARACTERS I'll talk first about the characters (please note, there may be spoilers but most of the characters are so rubbish I don't think it matters). None of the characters have an item which is exclusive to them which is.... well, disappointing is an understatement. As for the choice of characters, it's full of pathetic clones; it has to be said that Nintendo is hopeless at thinking up of original characters. Here's some of the light-weight characters: Baby Luigi, Baby Mario, Baby Daisy, Baby Peach. I am sick of the freaking babies. Nintendo also seems to lack an understanding of weight, as Rosalina (from Mario Galaxy [yes, they put her in as well]) is classed as a heavy weight character. Luckily, Oh, and yet another excuse-for-a-character is Skeletal Bowser. I did however like the addition of Funky Kong; who, despite looking like a gangster is rather amusing. VEHICLES Now let's move onto the vehicles. I'd say that there is a good, varied choice of karts and bikes to drive. Speaking of which, the addition of bikes to Mario Kart.....I like it. Bikes are good for straight courses because of their ability to go up on one wheel to increase their speed (which can't be done round corners), while karts are better for courses with lots of bends because they get better boosts when drifting. A new feature to the Mario Kart series is the ability to perform tricks while going up a ramp. This does sound pointless but when you land you'll get a boost. COURSES As most (if not all) Mario Kart games, Mario Kart Wii features the painfully difficult Rainbow Road; with even more annoyingly placed boost panels which blast you off the "road". Mario Kart Wii not only features new tracks, but also includes old courses from previous games; such as Waluigi Stadium (Double Dash) and DK's Jungle Parkway (64). Most of the tracks were ported perfectly onto the Wii with better graphics yet retaining their retro feel (despite adding ramps everywhere to fit in with the new trick-performing feature). One new course in particular got me annoyed: Coconut Mall. Almost every time I have an online match there are about three people voting for Coconut freaking Mall (more about online matches later). It is one of the most annoying tracks I've been on; near the end of a lap the will be "Mii"s driving backwards and forwards in cars, so 50% of the time they are blocking a boost panel. As well as this there are two sets of escalators which randomly alternate directions (e.g. one lap it could be moving towards you, the next it could be moving towards where you are supposed to be going), it's hard to tell which way they are going from a distance, so as soon as you see the correct escalator to go up you've got to turn that second. GAMEPLAY Grand Prix mode on Mario Kart Wii is insane. This is not an exaggeration: I went from first to twelfth in a matter of 5 seconds. People get items constantly so if your ahead you'll be constantly bombarded with countless Red Shells, Blue Shells, Green Shells, Bullet Bills, Giant-Mushroomed-racers, Bloopers will squirt ink on the screen, you'll get hit by a POW box..... I could spend a little bit more time listing all the things that attack you but I don't want this to be the body of the article. You will fluctuate so much from 1st to 12th that it isn't about who's the better racer, it's about who is lucky enough to be ahead (thanks to a fudge-load of powerful items) at the time of crossing the finish line. I've become so frustrated over Mario Kart Wii that I've actually wanted to chuck my controller across the room. VS Vs mode is good, you can switch CPUs on or off, you can switch items from basic, normal or frantic, you can change the stage selection from random, ordered or P1. As far a customizable options, it's ok. ONLINE Mario Kart Wii takes a very safe and wimpy approach to online matches, but despite this it's enjoyable. You first get a choice of racing with your friends, anyone in the continent or anyone worldwide. Next you do the normal stuff; picking character, car, etc. (at this point the game chooses your opponents if you selected worldwide or continental) All players have a choice of voting for a track or voting "random". Unfortunately, you can't customize the CC, the item settings, or anything else. Chickens..... Oh, but you can win extra karts and bikes from racing online, wow. (insert sarcastic tone here) SUM-UP Mario Kart Wii represents most modern Super Mario games: luck-based, unoriginal and frustrating. I was expecting something big like Super Smash Bros Brawl. Hal Laboratory spent so much effort cramming in the best quality stuff into Brawl, they even made a stage builder. And what do we get from Mario Kart Wii? Clone-full cast and luck-based matches. At best, Mario Kart Wii is a bad remake of Mario Kart 64 and not worth buying. |
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Also i thought online mode was awesome, i've never played games online before so it made me excited i knew i was better than someone else :D (i am the infamous shit gamer that still loves games heaps no matter what, lol)
Sooo some points you got, others i disagree with.
good review... what do you make of the different steering methods?
I think the GameCube controller and the Wii-mote + Nunchuck are the best controls. The Wii-wheel controls are well-made and it's fun to use as long as your good at it (which I'm not :{ ). I have the Classic Controller but haven't used it yet for Mario Kart Wii, I'll add my opinions on it when I next use it (which will be quite a while, since my dad always uses the Classic Controller)
I've now tried the Classic Controller and I think that it's great, probably better than the GameCube controls <waits for GC fans to start throwing bottles at him>. But my favourite controls have to be the Wii-mote+Nunchuck. It's just so much easier to perform tricks by shaking the Wii-mote than to press a button on the other controllers (which means taking you hand of one of the other buttons).
And Snerkie, I found that even when I went online I was getting fed WHOOP-ASS! Despite much practicing.
(That's two high fives for one article!)
and knifewrench...i got no idea how you could still lose :P shouldn't be last place though...right??
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