We’re finally going to get another Mario Kart, and this time it’s for the Wii.

Right now it’s being called Mario Kart Wii, with most of the same setup. You and your Nintendo friend race on elaborate courses, throwing stray turtle shells competing for the prize of top Mario Kart champion. You’d think that after revamping this series so many times would get stale after a while…it hasn’t. They changed it up again, and these features are speek-tak-yoo-lar.

Here’s what different now:

• 32 courses, 16 of them being brand-new.
• Three classes: light, medium, and heavy. Baby versions flood the light category — Bowser and Wario belong in the heavy category.
• Here’s a strange feature — you use karts in the 50cc races, but for races faster than that, you have to use a bike.
• Online capability (big plus there).
• Something called the Mario Kart Channel. It’s basically a place to share your racing information and test your current skills. You can also see how you rack up against friends and strangers, if you feel like it.
• New pickup items, such as a giant mushroom and a pow block.
• You can do wheelies.

As for the graphics, they’re absolutely stellar. The race tracks are immersing, each character is fully detailed (although we could’ve gone without that with Wario), and the effects are pretty snappy. The graphics were great in Double Dash too, but it looks like Mario Kart Wii beat that too.

As for the controls, it’s still a bit of a learning curve. Driving with a Wii remote is a pain. You can get an actual wheel, but it’s pretty expensive. You should be used to that leaning curve if you’re a fan of Mario Kart, though.

Mario Kart Wii is slated for release in 2008, but we don’t know when. Just don’t expect it before Summer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 3:32 am and is filed under Game Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.