Of mind, heart, and Tron

Ars posted a great review of Mario Kart Wii today.

Whatever faults I manage to dig out and nitpick about are simply forgotten once a good race is underway. Fun is first and foremost for Mario Kart, and that’s what will keep players—hardcore and casual alike—coming back for more as they have for so many years now.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/mario-kart-wii-review.ars/3

First Impressions of MK Wii

Well after a 10 hour launch day experience with Mario Kart Wii I can say there is a lot I’m impressed with, and a lot I’m (bitterly) disappointed with.

What about the Wheel?

I think this is the most important question and most intriguing about Mario Kart Wii. How does it work with the Wii Wheel? The answer: inconclusive. Let me preface this by saying that I LIKE the wheel. When you pop the Wiimote in it feels like the right weight and it fits well in your hand. Aesthetically it’s very pleasing and it feels natural. But how does it control?

Well I think the biggest complaint I have with the wheel is that it provides a relatively serviceable and respectable control over your kart, but doesn’t provide the BEST control available. So far I’ve only worked with the classic controller and can say that it is leaps and bounds better than the wheel. So case closed right? Well, not exactly. The wheel still makes a compelling case when you factor in tricks and wheelies (while using a bike). When using the classic controller you need to take your thumb off the control stick and move it to the D-Pad in order to pop a wheelie or get a speed boost off a jump (both are incredibly important while using a bike, which for me is the preferred vehicle choice) . This can cause a lot of problems, especially when a turn might be on a banking section of a course as you no longer can control the tilt of your bike and still perform a trick off a jump. These problems are solved with the wheel as they require a well timed shake of the wheel (which admittedly is a lot of fun). But the wheel can also be incredibly frustrating as well. It’s hard to compensate for errors with the wheel, and it seems like I need to turn it at outrageous angles sometimes in order to stay on a track. I often also end up having maddening stretches where I’ll try to powerslide with the wheel, only to find my bike drifting the opposite way of a turn (a problem I almost never have with the classic controller.)

I have yet to try the nunchuck and wiimote approach, which I think might solve my problems with the classic controller. I’ll post my impressions when I get a chance.

Tricks, Bikes? Is this still Mario KART?

I must say that I was incredibly skeptical at the addition of in flight tricks and a new vehicle class of bikes, but after playing all day I can say that the additions are welcomed. The in flight tricks off jumps add an extra element of skill to the game, and can sometimes make the difference in a tight race. The bikes… well it is Mario KART, and I still don’t know how I feel about the fact that I actually PREFER the bike. I like the fact that choosing a vehicle now adds extra strategy to the game, but I still sometimes feel dirty racing a bike in Mario Kart. But it gets results, so I think bikes are here to stay.

New Items:

I can say that I wholeheartedly like all of the new items. Items like the POW block and the underwater Mario squid steal a page out of the Smash Bros bag of tricks by adding some retro love to the mix. The lightning cloud is probably the most intriguing. It adds speed to your cart, but not for long if you don’t pass it off to another racer as whomever it ends up over will be shrunk down to miniature size. There were some incredibly tense moments in final laps when receiving the lightning cloud.

New Tracks

I’d like to say more about them, but for now I can say they’re all great. Every single one of them are deep, immersive, and really fun to play. There are no “so-so” tracks out of the new 16.

Local vs. multiplayer

There’s a lot to be said about this. Overall I think the local vs. multiplayer is average. Overall I really wish they would’ve looked at what SSBB did when it comes to customizing options for multiplayer games. There was a lot that could be done, but sadly isn’t. Also, the lack of a 2P Grand Prix is really disappointing, but I could understand it’s omission.

Battle Mode….

Battle mode makes me cry. If Double Dash killed battle mode, then MK Wii gouges the eyes out of its dead, rotting carcass and pisses in its skull. I can go on and on why this is the case, but as long as anyone reading this knows that Battle Mode is TEAM only and has a mandatory playing field of 12 players, well you can figure out why this is perhaps the most disappointing thing Nintendo has ever done, ever. It’s awful and isn’t even playable. I look forward to when Nintendo looks over it’s WFC stats and see that there were only 7 online battle mode matches played. This single fact brings MK Wii down a good letter and a half grade. And this leads to the next point…

MK Wii, a bit of an identity crisis..

The last 16 years of Mario Kart have been filled with some of the most frenetic and classic local multiplayer action ever seen on home consoles. Some of my most memorable experiences playing video games have involved Mario Kart. Crazy photo finishes, ridiculously fun battles in battle mode (with the occasional bomb).

And that’s the problem I have with MK Wii. The battle mode is atrocious, and literally cuts out half the fun of local multiplayer. The vs. mode is decent, but pales in comparison to SSBB. It’s apparent that a lot of time and resources when into the development of the online component. Sure, 12 players is awesome, and there are some neat features added into the online experience (the globe player screen, the MK Wii Channel, etc) But without any voice chat Nintendo has taken away all the fun that has been Mario Kart for so many years. Online gaming should allow you to recreate the local experience but be able to bridge the gap of temporal distance and other factors. But how can you do that if boisterous and raucous laughter, “oohs” “ahhs” and other exclamations are not present? It’s ridiculous that most users have to revert to XBL, Skype, or some other method to chat in real time while playing any Nintendo online game.

So it looks like Mario Kart Wii has a bit of an identity crisis. It’s trying to do too many things at the same time, and ends up doing a mediocre job at all of them. It’s a solid effort, but overall it feels like some of the magic is gone. It’s disappointing too, because the actual enhancements to the game are great, the new tracks are incredibly fun, and the new items and tricks are great. But overall this game won’t have the same lasting appeal as MK 64, and it’s a real shame too. It’s a game that perfectly demonstrates the online growing pains that Nintendo is going through right now, and sadly they used one of their most beloved franchises in which to experiment…