(I'd like to preface this post by saying that this less of a review and more of a hands on impression after playing Mario Kart Wii with a few of my friends on sunday)
Prior to the release of Mario Kart Wii, I made a post about how I probably was not going to buy it because it wouldn't bring anything new to the table for me. Boy was I wrong. In fact, it brought LESS.
Before you dismiss this as another overly negative impression of Mario Kart, please put the torches and the Miyamoto masks down and let me finish.
The problem with Mario Kart Wii is that it doesn't take the gameplay further at all. Not even a little. It's a massive back step for the series. The way that most things function in the Mario Kart universe have been dumbed down to a downright stupid degree. For example: Power sliding and boosting.
As always, power sliding is done by holding down the jump button while turning. However, this time around the boost comes automatically during the slide, instead of after having to preform the standard left right left right movement on the analog stick. Thus taking away pretty much all skill from that maneuver. Also if you aren't even skilled enough to hold down a friggen button while you turn, you can set the game to make you automatically powerslide at the expense of your boost . Thats right, you can AUTOMATICALLY POWERSLIDE in a goddamn Mario Kart game. Because apparently powersliding is such an incredibly difficult thing to master. The severe dumbing down of many of the mechanics of Mario Kart comes as an surprise to me, since Nintendo's biggest strength is usually the ability to make games that are simple enough for kiddies and new people to play, but also deep enough for the vets to the series to enjoy (Smash Brothers and past Mario Kart games for example). It is extremely evident that this iteration of Mario Kart was designed for all of the brand new Wii owners who probably haven't played anything since the NES or SNES and no one else.
I wont go into any more detail about all of the other aspects of the game that have been robbed of skill (cause someone already beat me to that), or how the motion controls aren't quite ideal (though that is a highly personal argument. I hated the motion controls most of my friends loved it. Take that as you will), so I will simply sum up this piece by saying Mario Kart Wii is totally Mario Kart. If you are a rabid fanboy, you will love it. If you just got your Wii and you want something new to play, you will love it. BUT, if you are like me, and you are completely burned out on Mario Kart games (or if you really really enjoyed Mario Kart DS) you will find this game very lacking and, quite frankly, boring.
Mario Kart Wii is not Dauragon approved, but go play it for your self and make up your own mind about it. :)
