Mario Kart Wii Release Event

Where's the red shell button?

Thanks to the lovely people at Nintendo, I spent my Saturday at Mercedes World at Brooklands in Surrey, playing Mario Kart on the Wii, meeting celebrities and driving around the track in a Mercedes. I was joined by people from other media companies and a whole host of finalists for the national Mario Kart Grand Prix. After chatting to a few people I appeared to be one of the few that hadn’t already had a sneak peek of the game, so I soon sought to rectify that.

We were ushered into a room with the finalists of the competition where they were going to battle it out in front of (it has to be said) a less than interested audience. We actually gave up with the competition at the Semi-Final stage, as the announcer was starting to get on our nerves and spent most of his time getting contestants names wrong and announcing the wrong track. Watching some of the contestants go around the track was really interesting though, as all sorts of shortcuts were used and they really showed how drifting should be done. Instead we headed for the pods where Mario Kart was being played and, as all the pods were taken, we had a walk around to see what people thought of it.

He used to present Top Gear before you ask

It's the semi-finals and none of the competitors would let us have a go!

Searching for an unhappy face was like looking for a needle in a haystack. And there were no needles, although we did find a Needell. Tiff Needell in actual fact. Apparently his kids have been playing the game non-stop over the past few days (he clearly got a Wii and game sent to him then) and he’s not had much chance to get his hands dirty himself. This showed, as despite being a fantastic driver he managed a pretty dismal 10th and 8th when we watched him take Mario Kart for a spin. He was very impressed with the Mario branded Volkswagen Beetle that the winner of the Mario Kart competition won and said that it must be worth a tidy sum. We both agreed that it’s likely to be in Autotrader or on eBay next week though.

After milling about for a while we finally got our hands on the game and were thoroughly impressed with what we saw. Admittedly the first 10 minutes were spent getting used to the wheel, but after that it was actually quite easy to drive using it. It’s certainly more responsive and accurate than say Excite Truck and the button distribution has been carefully considered. Having the various choices of control system for the users to use though means that even if they can’t get on with the wheel, there’s an option there for them.

The Winged Blue Devil

We spent close to an hour on the game, sampling a nice selection of the tracks, and we can assure you that the track design is much better and requires more skill to navigate than those found in Double Dash on the Gamecube. Sure 50cc is still ridiculously easy, but it’s meant to be. 150cc is where it’s at though, and that is an absolute dream to play.

The dreaded Blue Shell (that'd be a weapon that homes in on the current leader, like Jack Thompson - Ed) is still in use, and even appears to be a sore point with some of the Nintendo PR people, who openly admitted that they didn’t like it either as it required no skill to use. But all of the other weapons are balanced and have to be used at the right times to maximise their effect. Three new items have also been added; the Mega Mushroom (makes you grow large and speed up), POW blocks (which affect every car in front of you that is currently on the ground) and the Thundercloud (which you use and then collide into somebody to transfer it on to them before the lightening strikes). The Thundercloud is a very strategic weapon that has as much chance of backfiring on you as it does potentially winning you the race.

A happy set of gamers

Mario Kart Wii is, as first impressions go, a worthy addition to most Wii owner’s collections. It’s very family friendly, can be played by anybody thanks to the multiple control options and forgiving 50cc difficulty setting, yet rewards those that want to take on the higher difficulty settings and take it online. Granted it’s not a major leap forward, but then it didn’t really need to be (exactly how far can you take a 'karting' game anyway) judging by the faces at the event. Veterans appeared to be as happy as newcomers did, and that’s the sign of a game that knows how to press the right buttons in order to transcend audiences.

Keep an eye out for our full review later in the week, when we’ve had time to really put the game through its paces and try it out online.