Mario Kart Wii

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Template:Infobox Mario Kart Wii is the latest installment of the Mario Kart series. Designed from the ground up for the Wii, a Wii Wheel is included in the package for a more realistic steering experience.

Gameplay

File:MKWiiScreenshot.jpg
Mario, Waluigi, and others race through likely Toad Town in Mario Circuit.

In Mario Kart Wii, up to twelve players race to the finish in a multi-lap race around a given circuit. Along the way, players may employ items, horseplay, and take shortcuts to earn first place.

Also, a new feature called "Stunts" is now a large part of gameplay. When player performs a stunt, the player is able to gain a momentary boost of speed, which allows characters to do a few different things, such as grabbing an Item Box out of midair. One example of stunt is pulling off acrobatics in air, which can be performed by shaking the Wii Wheel upward.

Controlling

File:Screenshot 183885.jpg
Drifting keeps the speed, and also allows to perform a momentary boost of speed.

The main feature is the use of the motion sensing of the Wii Remote. By tilting the remote, players can steer their karts. Nintendo hopes to address some of the issues game critics faced with the first racing game Nintendo published for the Wii, Excitetruck, by making Mario Kart Wii compatible with the Wii Wheel. Since the Wii Remote is designed to be inserted into the Wii Wheel (as it is not an independent controller) players can also play without the Wheel. So far, Mario Kart Wii showed the compability of playing using the Wii Remote with the Nunchuck attached, the Wii Classic Controller or the GameCube controller along with the Wii Wheel.

  • Accelerate: Holding the button used for, the kart will go forwards. Accelerating time depends on the type of the karts: Lightweight karts show a high acceleration, but low speed. Heavyweight karts tend to have a low acceleration, but a quite high speed. Middleweight karts show an average top speed and acceleration
  • Steer: Steering the kart, letting drivers take corners.
  • Brake: Braking slows the kart to a stop abruptly.
  • Reverse: The character's kart will go backwards, if the user is still holding the brake button.
  • Look Behind: Players can look behind their kart. In this way, players can be alert from characters incoming to steal the player's place from the rear. This feature once appeared in Super Mario Kart.
  • Drift: Drivers drift to keep the kart's speed, and take corners much better, plus get mini-turbos. The feature can be set to happen automatically, or when a button is held.
  • Mini-turbo: After drifting for a reasonable amount of time, verying on the vehicle used, blue sparks will erupt from the player's rear tyres. Releasing the drift button gives them a short burst of speed. In a kart, players can keep drifting for longer to get orange sparks and a much longer boost.
  • Tricks: Players can pull off a stunt when they jump in order to gain a momentarily mini-turbo. Players can perform one by going through a ramp or hill in the air, by flicking the Wii Remote (or the Wii Wheel), or pressing the D-pad (on the GCN or Classic Controllers)in any direction. They do a stunt, cheer, and obtain a speed boost when landing.
  • Wheelie: Wheelies can be performed only when riding Bikes; drivers can increase the speed when they lift up the front of the bike. While the driver holds the front of the bike, he/she can hardly turn until the driver has finished the wheelie, by pressing the brake button.

Modes of Play

  • Grand Prix (1 player) Get points by winning races. After 4 races the players points will be counted. The player must have the most points to win the Grand Prix. The player can unlock many things in this mode.
  • Time Trial (1 player) A solo mach for the fastest time.
  • Versus (1 to 4 players, up to 12 online) Same as Grand Prix, but with custom settings.
  • Battle (1 to 4 players, up to 12 online) Play in a team and defeat the other.
  • Ghost Race (Mario Kart Channel, 1 player) Race against Ghosts of other players who are of approximately the same level as the player.
  • Tournament / Competition (Mario Kart Channel, 1 player) Compete in limited time competitions. This mode is a replacement of Mission Mode.

Note: Grand Prix mode for 50cc using Karts, 100cc using for bikes only, 150cc using for Bikes and Karts and Mirror (Unlockable) for Bikes and Karts. By winning all the tracks in 50cc or 100cc, it's possible to play with both bikes and karts.

The mission mode appearing in Mario Kart Wii
Baby Mario collecting coins in Competition Mode.

There is a Battle Mode in this game. Additionally, both normal races and battles are playable online through the use of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC). This is the second game in the series to utilize the WFC and the first to allow for online battles. Battles will now cater up to 12 players via Wi-Fi connection [1].

File:MKWiimirrorMC1.png
Luigi in a mirrored Mario Circuit 3

Just like Mario Kart DS, it is not possible to play Grand Prix with multiple players. Players can now only win trophies playing alone. It is possible to make Grand Prix within VS. mode, however, VS. mode won't work for unlocking new features.

It is an option to play in teams in VS. mode. Battle mode is split in two options.

  • Balloon Battle: Get points by hitting opponents. If the player looses 3 ballons, 1 point will be discounted from the player's team.
  • Coin Runners: Get more coins than the other team.

Major Changes

File:PeachBike.jpg
Peach using a motorbike in Coconut's Mall.

While every previous Mario Kart game allowed for a maximum of eight racers on each course, up to twelve are on course at one time in Mario Kart Wii.

File:Yosherskart.PNG
Yoshi racing in Toad Factory.

In Mario Kart Wii, players can select twelve types of vehicles, six karts and six bikes for each of the three classes. Vehicles vary, depending on the character's weight type, and color schemes of every kart will also vary regarding to every character who is shown.

A notorious change of the game, is the removal of Snaking, which players tend to gain several consecutive mini-turbos after performing a powersliding. Performing a mini-turbo depends on how long a player can hold the button for drifting. However, there is a strategy to use drifting, something that has always kept on each Mario Kart game. This strategy involves managing the drifts to avoid losing speed.[1].

Another new way to gain speed is performing Tricks. This new feature allows to the players to make acrobatics in air in order to get a short speed burst once landed into the ground.

Motorbikes are vehicles in the game. Peach, Daisy and Rosalina are in an alternate outfit while riding the motorbike, as opposed to their traditional outfit while riding there karts. Motorbikes are better at tricks than karts.

Special Items, introduced in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, were taken out for being too unbalanced. Overall, Mario Kart Wii is based heavily on Mario Kart DS, and not on Double Dash!!.

Mario Kart Wii features a text chat in Online Multiplayer Mode. Users can send G-rated pre-written phrases to other users before the series of races starts. There is no facility for a user to type his or her own message [2].

Point Spread Comparisons
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th
SMK + MK64 + MKSC GP 9 6 3 1 0 0 0 0 – – – –
MKDD + MKDS GP 10 8 6 4 3 2 1 0 – – – –
MKWii GP 15 12 10 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Grove-green bg signifies victory results (great clapping, character(s) cheering), best after-race music
Yellow-limegreen bg signifies moderate results (mild clapping, moderate character reaction), same music in Wi-Fi as winner (different in MKDS GP)
Normal bg signifies losing results, losing music
In Super Mario Kart to Mario Kart Super Circuit, 5th or worse forces the player to retry the race. If the racer fares this badly three times, the Grand Prix must be started over. In Double Dash to Wii, the GP normally goes forth.

Playable Characters

A total of twelve Mario characters are available from the start, while twelve more can be unlocked for a total of twenty-four playable characters. [2]

There are three types of Characters.

  • Small: These characters ride in Small karts. They have mostly a good acceration and off-road ratio, but low top speed. By their weight, these characters can be knocked apart if they try to bump onto other kart of superior weight.
  • Medium: They ride in Middle weight karts. Most of these characters show an average acceleration, weight and off-road.
  • Large: These characters are defined by their strength, capable of banging apart other karts with low weight. They ride on Large vehicles, featuring high top speed and weight, but showing low acceleration, moverbility, and off-road.



Unlockable Characters

Template:Spoiler

  • Miis are also featured as secret characters with two different costumes to unlock - a racing suit and an outfit that varies depending on the gender.

How To Unlock

How to Unlock the Characters
Daisy Win 150cc Special Cup or play 2,850 races
Birdo Play Time Trials on 16 different courses, get 250 wins online, or play 1,350 races
Diddy Kong Win 50cc Lighting Cup or play 450 races
Bowser Jr. Obtain at least 1 Star Rank for all 100cc Retro Grand Prix Cups or play 3,450 races
Baby Luigi Unlock 8 Expert Staff Ghost Data in Time Trials, win 100 WFC Ghost Races, or play 3,150 races
Baby Daisy Obtain at least 1 Star Rank for all 50cc Wii Grand Prix Cups or play 1,950 races
Toadette Play Time Trials on all 32 different courses, win 1,000 WFC races, or play 3,150 races
Dry Bones Win 100cc Leaf Cup or play 1,050 races
King Boo Win 50cc Star Cup or play 750 races
Rosalina Have a Super Mario Galaxy save file and play 50 races, attain at least 1 Star Rank for all 150cc Mirror Grand Prix cups, or play 4,950 races
Funky Kong Unlock 4 Expert Staff Ghost Datas in Time Trials, win 25 WFC Ghost Races, or play 2,250 races
Dry Bowser Obtain at least 1 Star Rank for all 150cc Wii Grand Prix Cups or play 4,350 races

Unlocking Outfits for Miis

How to Unlock Mii
Mii outfit A (Racing suit, blue Mii logo) Win all 100cc Cups or play 1,650 races
Mii outfit B (Mario Overalls/Princess Peach Outfit, red Mii logo) Unlock Expert Staff Ghosts on all 32 courses in Time Trial mode, win 5,000 WFC Ghost Races, or play 5,100 races

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Tracks

File:Mariokartwii sslg2.jpg
Wario and Peach race towards a steep downhill portion of Wario's Gold Mines. Note: Beta Image.

Both new tracks and famous retro tracks from all four previous games are playable.

Race courses are divided into various Cups again: Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup and Special Cup for new courses and Shell Cup, Banana Cup, Leaf Cup and Lightning Cup for old courses. Notably, these are the same as Mario Kart DS.

New Courses

There are sixteen new courses in Mario Kart Wii.

Mushroom Cup

Flower Cup

Star Cup

Special Cup

Retro Courses

These courses appeared in previous Mario Kart installements, much like in Mario Kart DS. This includes 2 courses from the SNES installement, 4 from the N64 installement, 2 from the GBA installement, 4 from the GCN installement, and 4 from the DS installment. All of these have been graphically updated and have some new details such as extra trees and ramps, and also new features such as jumps, pipe tricks, and even added shortcuts. These retro courses appear in the Shell, Banana, Leaf or Lightning cups.

Shell Cup

Banana Cup

Leaf Cup

Lightning Cup

Battle Courses

Wii tracks

Classic tracks

Vehicles

There are 36 total vehicles in the Wii installment (Here can be seen all the karts and bikes [3]). 18 karts, 18 bikes, each divided into the 3 weight classes, making 6 and 6 available to each character, 3 and 3 to begin (thus making half of the vehicles unlockables. Each has 7 stats which are shown during character selection:

  • Speed: How high the top speed of the vehicle is. This does not affect off-road travel.
  • Acceleration: How quickly the vehicle's top speed is achieved from a non-moving position.
  • Weight: How heavy a kart is. With a higher weight, the player can knock lighter characters away by ramming them. Bikes are lighter than karts.
  • Handling: How tight the kart can normally turn. Usually opposes the drift rating.
  • Drift: How tight the kart turns while using the drifting maneuver. Usually opposes the handling rating.
  • Off-Road: How much speed the kart retains when off of the track. A low rating of this can cause a near-standstill for the vehicle.
  • Mini-Turbo: When using the manual drift option, how effective a mini-boost will be.

The following table includes: vehicles in order of class primarily and karts first, bikes second (small karts, small bikes, medium karts, medium bikes, large karts, large bikes). The last half of each of these six sub-sections are unlockables; the right-hand column describes the requirement to unlock it: if it is a single cup, it must be simply won. Each individual statistic is generalized into the following:

very high, high, mid-high, medium, mid-low, low, very low

Two of the same color does not necessarily mean the stat is exactly equal. Alternate vehicle names for outside of North America are also included.

Template:Spoiler

(The Karts' alternative names are their names from the European PAL version of Mario Kart Wii)

Vehicle Stats
Vehicle Sp We Ac Ha Dr OR MT How to Unlock

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Items

Mario Kart Wii includes three new items: the Mega Mushroom, the POW Block and the Thunder Cloud. Items can be earned by driving through Item Boxes on the courses, just like in previous games. Once a player has done so, an item will be selected via the Item Roulette. In general, players tend to obtain a weak item as a banana or a green shell when they come first. However, if players are in second or a lower place, obtaining a powerful item such as a red shell or a thunderbolt is more frequent. Usually, the lower the place of the player, the rarer and more powerful the item they get.

The least likely items (Stars, Bullet Bills, and thunderbolts) are very rare in multiplayer split-screen. Bullet Bills almost never occur in two player splitscreen but stars and thunderbolts are obtainable. In four player split-screen there is a higher chance of getting the rarest items while three, two, and one player games often only offer green shells, red shells, and fake item boxes.

The player can also decide what type of items can be obtainable during a race. The options include as follows:

  • Balanced - The default option. This gives everyone items depending on what position they are in and how far behind they are. Extreme items may not be as common.
  • Aggressive - Each player gets items pertaining to what place they are in. Green Shells and single bananas are rare while extreme items become more common as the player progresses to last place.
  • Strategic - Extreme items are unavailable. Weaker items take head-forth and last place gets better but not extreme items.
  • None - No items at all.

Voice Cast

Official Artwork

Characters

Items

Promotional

  • Mario kart wii artwork.JPG
    Group
  • Beta Game Logo
    Beta Game Logo
  • Official Game Logo
    Official Game Logo

Trivia

  • Part of the Title Screen Music is a remix from Mario Kart DS.
  • Princess Peach, Princess Daisy & Princess Rosalina wear biker suits when riding on a bike. However, Wario, the only character in Mario Kart Wii who wore a biker suit in past games, does not wear one in the game.
  • On the character slection screen, if the player selects a character that was playable in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, the character does the same pose as they did in Double Dash!!
  • Since Mario Kart 64, four photos of the leading characters (or all eight in Mario Kart DS) were shown on the left side of the screen. In Mario Kart Wii, they were removed.

References

  1. ^ Matt Casamassina: Mario Kart Wii Impressions
  2. ^ http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/855/855033p1.html Text Chat on Mario Kart Wii

External Links


Template:Mario Kart Series

[Edit]
Wii games
Super Mario franchise Super Paper Mario (2007) • Mario Strikers Charged (2007) • Mario Party 8 (2007) • Super Mario Galaxy (2007) • Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (2007) • Mario Kart Wii (2008) • Mario Super Sluggers (2008) • Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (2009) • New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009) • Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010) • Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition (2010) • Mario Sports Mix (2010) • Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (2011) • Mario Party 9 (2012)
Donkey Kong franchise Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (2007) • Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010)
Wario franchise WarioWare: Smooth Moves (2006) • Wario Land: Shake It! (2008)
Other Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) • Captain Rainbow (2008) • Punch-Out!! (2009) • Rhythm Heaven Fever (2011) • Fortune Street (2011) • Skylanders: SuperChargers Racing (2015)
New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (2008) • Mario Power Tennis (2009)
Downloadable Dr. Mario Online Rx (2008) • WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase (2009) • Virtual Console games (2006–2010)
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