Full Review for Mario Kart Wii by DeadWing

Introduction

Yet another edition to the Mario Kart series. This is a sequel to the previous games, but unlike other sequels, this game is built from scratch. There are new items, characters, karts, and maps.

Not only are there karts, but there are also motorcycles. And, unlike other games in the series, you can perform tricks in the air after you jump off of a ramp. If you complete the tricks, you will gain a small turbo. A bonus you get if you use a motorcycle is that you can do a wheelie. It may not sound that amazing, but when you do a wheelie, you get a slight speed bonus, which can be helpful if you are neck and neck with another character trying to get first place.

There is also WIFI. Unlike a lot of other games with WIFI, there is virtually no lag. WIFI is really fun with this game because you get to test your skills with friends around the world.

Graphics

Overall, every aspect of the game has great graphics. As with all games, there are a few minor glitches in the graphics, but nothing to lower the score.

The effect graphics are awesome. Getting hit by a shell makes your kart/cycle spin around in circles. There aren't skips or anything while you spin around. The banana peels actually look like banana peels and not yellow squares in the middle of the road.

The characters and their rides have great graphics. There are a few minor glitches in the graphics here, but not big noticeable ones.

The landscape has great graphics. Nothing wrong here. Sunsets look like sunsets, leaves look like leaves, etc.

The text is by far the best compared to other Mario Kart games. It is nearly crystal clear, and you can read it from across the room....depending on how big your room is.

Sound

The sound is just amazing. It matched the gameplay perfectly.

When someone throws an item at you, say....a shell, a siren goes off, and as the item gets closer to you, the siren gets louder and faster. A really good alarm for you to try and defend yourself.

Each character and each kart/cycle has a different sound theme. Unlike older versions. Really awesome that the sound is mixed up a bit.

When you do a trick, the sound effect is awesome. And when you hit an obstacle, the sound matches with whatever obstacle you hit.

The sound changes depending on which type of terrain you are driving on. If you are driving in the desert, it sounds like sand. If you are driving in a town, it sounds like cement. It all goes together perfectly.

The background music was great. They mixed it all up and it changed for each track you are on.

One downside of the sound is when you are shrunk. You get shrunk by lightning, but when you do, the background sound is just horrible. It is sped up and in a higher pitch, which really just kills the sound.

Gameplay

The game play is really great, but it gets old as you go. It's the same thing as the previous games.

There are four game modes, eight cups, and each cup has four tracks. Each track is three laps. As you progress through the game, you earn new things, like new characters and karts. There is a versus mode and a battle mode. The battle mode has two options. One is a balloon battle and the other is a coin battle.

There are now 12 players in each race instead of eight. This boosts the excitement and the challenge. There is also the WIFI section. You can play with up to 11 other players and race with them.

There aren't ANY options, which really lowers the score. Pretty much every game I've ever played have had some type of options to customize. You're just stuck with the game defaults.

While racing, you hardly get any freedom. The 12 racers causes this. Items are constantly being thrown at you, nearly every second. The item boxes are too close together, hence the constantly thrown items. The items are also unbalanced. You hardly get things that help you, but the enemies tend to get the best items all the time. You get bananas, they get blue shells. Blues shells=the most common pickup for the enemies.

The other options (vs mode, battle mode, etc.) aren't as fun as older versions. You constantly find yourself navigating through menus just to replay something, and you're constantly timed.

To beat the game, you need to do more then 30 races. Each track is repeated four times, and you grow tired of replaying the tracks over and over. The tracks are a lot harder, which makes it harder to beat. People who have played previous versions of Mario Kart might not have much difficulty, but newbies will have a lot of enraging trouble.

Lastability

You can play this game for months, but you probably won't. The tracks get boring after awhile, no options spoils the customizable fun. The main thing that you'll find yourself constantly playing is the WIFI. You get a new challenge nearly every time. The battles, grand prix, etc. Get tiring after awhile.

Overall

No options, no good battle modes or versus modes.
Nice WIFI option. Nice characters, karts, and motorcycles.
The tracks are nice, but difficult.
Graphics and sound are great. Lastability could be better.

If you enjoy mario kart games, you'll most likely find this one fun.
New tracks, great sound scheme, great graphics, new characters and items make this game enjoyable, but of course the downsides are mentioned above.

Hopefully this review is helpful for you, have fun (or not) playing this game.
~DeadWing

Final Score: 88%