Nintendo Wii - Mario Kart Review

Mario Kart Wii is a great party game and nearly a must have if you're a mario fan.  This game allows the use of 4 different controllers, and the wii wheel is included.  The wheel is an accesory for the wiimote so you can steer your kart by turning the wheel.  The controls for the wheel are surprisinugly very responsive, but it does take some getting used to.  There are 16 new tracks as well as 16 from the previous series.  Also, you can choose to use bikes or karts as well.  The differences are that bikes and do wheelies, but karts get a bigger drifting boost.  A drifiting boost is when you drift sparks will fly from your tires and when they turn blue you get a small boost, but karts can wait till they turn orange for a bigger boost.  A wheelie allows a bike to move at top speed in a straight line, but if they are hit they will lose a lot of speed.  Also, new to the series are tricks.  These can be done off ramps or bumps and you get a speed boost when you land.  Most of the items are still back like the red, green, and spike shells which knock down you opponents.  A star makes you invincible and faster.  The speed boost mushrooms are back including the golden one that gives you infinite boosts for a few seconds among many other items.  Also, the online versus mode is free and virtually lag free, but you can only take one other player online with you.  So if you hauve 12 friends you need 6 wiis to play at the same time.  Again like many other wii titles you and a friend must register codes to play each other, and there is no chat feature other than a few prewritten text bubbles.  However, since the wii is more of a family console this is seen as somewhat acceptable.  Although, it would be nice to just have added a parental block feature instead.  Overall, this still a great party game just don't take it too seriously when the other players get uber items and steal first from you at the last second.