Mario Kart is probably one of the most consistently great games that Nintendo has put out since the original was released on the SNES, and I am happy to report (if you have yet to play it) that Mario Kart Wii delivers a great game once again.

I have spent the last 2 nights in a row playing Mario Kart Wii with Swank-M0-Tron and Kill-Tacular-Tron and it has brought back a lot of nostalgic memories of the previous games, and all the excitement of new features that you would expect from a new installment. From new tracks to new weapons, from new characters to new vehicles Mario Kart Wii introduces enough new content to keep it exciting, but all the while sticking with the basics that makes this series great.

One of the biggest changes is the introduction of motorcycles. When I first heard about this I was a little leary, because you know, it’s Mario Kart. But after playing the game for hours on end, I think it is a welcome addition, and while I still prefer the Kart, Kill-Tacular-Tron seems to have taken a liking to the motorcycle and there are advantages and disadvantages with both, but overall the racing field is still even when there is a Kart/Cycle mix race. The Kart still offers the same handling it always has, but boasts a better power drifting boost; while the motorcycle offers better handling, a lesser drifting boost, but a pretty handy “wheelie-boost”. The vehicle options aren’t just limited to Kart or cycle, but there are multiple variants of both, each promoting better handling, better speed, or better acceleration, even off-road performance plays a key in selecting your machine depending on which circuit you may be racing on. Over all, the vehicle variance is a welcome change.

Items and characters are essentially the same, though, there is a deeper roster, but how you select your character is still the same, you have light-weights, mid-weights, and heavy-weights, which all promote better acceleration, handling, and speed respectively. The power-ups you use to punish your opponents are mostly the same as well, with a few additions. First is the Mega Mushroom which makes you giant and ups your speed, giving you the ability to flatten any one in your path. Then you have Blooper, a squid that when deployed splashes the screens of your competitors with ink partially blocking your view (in my opinion, this isn’t that useful, more of just a minor inconvenience). You now also have Bob-Omb and Bullet Bill as well, you can leave Bob-Omb behind, or hurl him in front of you, after a set amount of time or if someone hits him he will create a massive explosion (similar to that of the blue shell); If you get a Bullet Bill, this means you suck, when deployed you will turn into a Bullet Bill on auto-pilot and fly through the course slamming anyone who is in front of you, usually this will give you a nice boost up to around 4th or so. The final two new power-ups are the POW Block, and Thunder Cloud, POW Blocks essentially just spin out everyone in front of you; the Thunder Cloud is a little bit trickier though, a cloud will hover over you zapping you with speed-boosting lightning, but you need to bump into somebody and pass him off quickly because after a set amount of time he’ll zap you too hard and shrink you! The items once again serve their purpose of evening out the field and not allowing one person to always run away with the race and makes the game enjoyable for seasoned racers and newbs alike.

As far as tracks go, well, there’s a lot of them. There is a good mix of new tracks and re-vamped classic tracks from previous Mario Kart games, way too many to discuss here, but you can check them all out here.

Unfortunately, like most games, Mario Kart is not 100% free of faults, though they are few. First, in Battle Mode, there is no “free-for-all” option, only team battles. Aside from this, the only one that kind of bothered me a lot was the fact that there is no 2-Player Grand Prix option like there has been in the past. So it is up to one person to race around and unlock everything, kind of a bummer, but certainly does not reduce the replayability or multiplayer aspects of the game tremendously.

Nintendo has delivered what I consider to be the best yet in the series and found that balance between actual racing (Mario Kart 64) and power-up usage (Mario Kart Double-Dash) to make a great game that evens the playing field without becoming too frustrating. If you haven’t picked this up yet, go find a copy, get some friends together, and start trash talking.

Side Note: Due to yet another arguement between Kill-Tacular-Tron and I that occurred last night while playing Mario Kart, there will be a new poll poster later today. Be sure to come back later today and vote on your favorite Mario Kart game of all time. I say that prior to Mario Kart Wii Mario Kart 64 was the best because it was more about the racing, but Kill-Tacular-Tron says that it was too easy for one person to run away with a race; Kill-Tacular-Tron argues that Mario Kart Double-Dash is the better game because it created a more even playing field for racers, while I say that it was fun and a good game, it was too weapon-heavy, and almost eliminated the ability to race a Kart. So, what do you all think? Which of the Mario Kart games is the best? Vote here at Big Shiny Robot later today!

-Arse-Bot out.