I blame Matt. If he hadn’t taken his Nintendo Wii to Stinson Beach last year I might never have known the delight of waving a remote control at random angles through the air. I jest of course. The Wii has had so much press that even I couldn’t not have become aware of it. Add to that my brother and sister bought machines for their homes and it was only a matter of time before I bought one.
I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. Well, there is one thing. If it was somehow able to freeze time, or add an extra 4 hours on to a day then I’d be over the moon, but let’s not quibble with fantasies of free time. I bought Super Mario Galaxy with the machine and I’ve been bowled over. Graphics, gameplay, sound are amazing. I love how Mario zooms from one moon or planet to another. So far it’s been fairly easy but then I’ve only had an hour or two of play at it and it’s early days yet.
Today, with much excitement on Twitter and elsewhere, Mario Kart Wii was released in Europe. I bought my copy after the Cork OpenCoffee (must post pics!) this morning and managed a quick play of it. I see from the Wikipedia page on the game that it will be released later this month in Australia and North America. When it does, run to the shop and buy it.
The Wii remote fits into the plastic wheel that comes with the game and works pretty well. It’s not required though as you can just as easily hold the Wii remote without the wheel. Extra steering wheels are reasonably priced at around €10, even if it probably cost Nintendo a fraction of that to make ’em…
I’m still getting the hang of it though and did atrociously badly at the 100cc races. Please note: if you try playing the game without glancing at the instructions and turning the wheel makes your character go the opposite way, you’re holding the wheel back to front. Not that that happened to me, no, I’m just saying, like. My brother Donal and his fiancee are calling over tomorrow with their Wii remotes so we’ll have some fun in the afternoon!
Now, where did I leave the free time. I just can’t find it anywhere.
PS. Here’s a Mario Kart Wii review video, haven’t watched it all yet but it’ll give you a feel for the game:
One thing that really bugs me about this game is the power ups. I’ve been in first or second place and then something hits me and BOOM! I’m back in 12th. WTF! Anyway, I went searching and found this page which lists all the power ups and tips for defending. Must try them!
Yep, it absolutely rocks! Have you tried playing it online yet?
You’re right that the powerups can be really frustrating, but at the same time it’s handy to even out the field a bit. Keeping a banana or shell handy is useful if there’s an incoming red shell behind you – dangle the banana/shell behind (hold L or R on the D-pad) and it’ll defend you. You’ll still get caught out if the shell is coming from the side though 🙁
Also, make sure to pull tricks on each jump to get the free boost – quickly jerk the steering wheel upwards just as you take off.
BTW, when I tried to post the previous comment, I got an error 403 a few times – finally realised that it was because I wasn’t accepting cookies from your site. Would be a lot friendlier if the rejection message could at least explain that the comment was rejected because there was no cookie, and to retry it with cookies turned on!
Sorry David, that’s my anti-spam measures. I block in the .htaccess as it stops 99% of the spam comments this site receives. My Akismet queue is reduced to about 8 spams overnight instead of the usual hundreds.
Oh, Geometry Wars Galaxies arrived this morning from play.com. Looking forward to playing it tonight!
Is mario kart wii on sale in Ireland yet????????Please tell me because i really want it.
Sean – yes it is! I bought it in Game on Patrick’s Street, Cork on Friday morning when it came out!
thanks Donncha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (edited for sanity – D.)
@Sean:
Sir, I’m from the punctuation police, and I need you to hold still.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to confiscate your exclamation mark key… please slowly put your hands on your head and step away from the keyboard…
Thank you sir. I do hope your passwords don’t have the number 1 in them.
Mario Kart Wii is one of the greatest games to come out on Wii console. IMHO.
My wife loves the game too. So win win I say.
I am getting mario kart wii on sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
can you play a race thats not a grand prix against computers???
go poo if you are in Europe because america should get it before scince all you guys do is talk funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello,
I love mariocart wii but I HATE the wheel. Is there anyway I can change the options to just use the normal 4 point game control, without all the twisting and turning???
Someone help me please!
My lover Bruce and I just love this game. After a few hours, my hand is sore from all the action. I keep a bottle of Crisco oil next to the bed just in case. I cant stand the Wii Fit. It doesn’t fit up there very well no matter how much Crisco I use. The gerbil was hard enough getting out. That will be the last time I invite Andrew Stoekle over to my house.
I love using the wheel on Mario Kart! I can’t see the point of getting a Nintendo Wii if you’re just going to use the normal controllers :/
Man, I did have that issue with the wheel. For a while I was trying to play with the inverse steering before my friend nicely wacked me on the head and called me an idiot.
I have to agree, I simply love the little silly Mario Kart Game. I bought it for my 2 boys, and I can’t wait for them to go to sleep each night to play it on the wii.
This is the most frustrating thing ever. I can’t even find not one copy of the game. And the ones that we do find are over 60 bucks! DX omg this is bs.