Mariokart.....WHEEEE! (Mario Kart incl. Wii Wheel (Wii))

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Mario Kart incl. Wii Wheel (Wii)
Date:	01/11/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic game for the whole family.

Disadvantages: Haven't watched what i want to on the telly for 5 months now!

I thought I would give reviewing this computer game a go as it seems to be on in my house for a considerable amount of time per day, thanks to my kids.

The game I will review is - "Mariokart Wii"

As you will know the concept of this game is a driving game that incorporates a traditional style steering wheel, though you can play the game without if you prefer, hence the reason that when you buy the game it does come with one steering wheel, costing around the £30.00 mark.
Due to the fact this was brought for my kids we had to get another steering wheel so there would be no fights, this will cost around the £5.00 mark, though Poundland are doing a fab little range of "must have" items for computing, the Wii extras, skins for DS and even he Ds pen stylus's, perfect as my kids are always losing them!

As there are four of us in my house, my daring kids set us all up with a "driving licence" each, this is simply your profile and saves any previous races and cups you may have won, save you having to go through starter races again, though my sons completed his to the end, and has now started on mine!

I would like to say that previous to paying this game I sat down with the kids and read through the instructions in there entirety, but I didn't hence the reason I rarely win a race and my four year old is having to try and advance me through!

The reason we brought this originally for my kids is the fact they are obsessed with anything to do with Super Mario brothers, Sonic the hedgehog and any of the characters from that genre. That being the case they are not really that interested with which character can perform which trick and whether the character is too heavy to drift into a corner, but if you check the instruction booklet the game comes with, each character weighs differently, meaning there are some that are better at acceleration, and some at tricks etc.

There are three different race modes, time trial, which is just yourself racing around a predetermined course to try and better your lap time. Ok to do, but much more fun to race someone!

The second is battle mode, this is your character with 11 others that are in your team, racing against either a predetermined team by the computer, or if racing against another player, them and 11 others, my kids love this one as even if they don't win, there is a chance that one of their team members does!

The third is the one that gets used the most in my house, this VS, simply a race against each other or against the computer itself.

For this there are four cups to choose from, when the cups has been chosen, the race four race courses are revealed to you, of which you have to compete all four if you want to be with a chance of winning.

The courses are beautiful, colourful and there are many, many things happening at once, with each landscape being completely different.

I will not list every single race course, needless to say I have my favourites, the one in the shopping mall is fantastic, this is due to the fact you get to drive/ride up and down escalators, jump over stairs and there is even one point at the end where there are people in cars trying to stop you getting to the finishing line, the cars usually holding someone from your persona Mii list, there is much hilarity when one of the kids gives their Dad a telling off for stopping them winning!

My least favourite is the ice world, I never seem to be able to stay on the ice without running a poor penguin over, though this is my husbands best race course, coming out on top every time!

There is a good selection of characters and vehicles to choose from for each race. The characters are quite recognisable to me, though once you have put a good few hours of gameplay more characters and vehicles are un-locked, my sons favourite being "King Boo", a horrible looking little ghost with a crown and horrible little laugh, my daughters being "Rosalina", a character I hadn't encountered until playing Super Mario galaxy.

The vehicles again range from basic karts, through to real fancy machines and loads of motor bikes, again the selection increases after so many hours gameplay, each one or course has different properties so it is best if you read up which is perfect for each course.

If you win any cups, or get good times on races this will all be stored within the designated profile, but only if you go through it in the first place.

Within each race there are certain "tricks" that can be performed or given out. A lot of the tricks to hold up other players are to be had by driving through the semi-opaque spinning squares available on each race, once driven through it takes a coupe of seconds for the computer to decide which one you will get.

These range from thundercloud, which you can give to someone else in the race which when it strikes them, shrinks the opponent and disables them for a few seconds.

Then there are things that could be useful speed wise, one being the bullet, which when activated turns your car into a speeding bullet for so many seconds, meaning that the car races through the course, but you don't need to steer the car, it travels around automatically.

There are a plethora of other different ones t be had, but I shan't name them all, get the game and have fun discovering them for yourselves!

To play this game the controls are relatively simple, insert the remote handset into the wheel itself, ensuring the "B" button is on the side with the gap at the back, then away you go.
When setting up the game itself, you can still click on the appropriate buttons whilst the handset is still within the wheel, this is due to the fact that there is a small cutout to allow the sensor to register with the computer sensor.
Once the race is to begin you can hold the wheel as you would in any driving game, with most of the braking and speeding elements being achievable with the A and B buttons, though for tricks you simply need to flick the wheel itself slightly for the character of your choice to flip of there bike/out of there car and perform death defying stunts, though I am not great at this game so my characters always does this without any effort from me, in fact when it happens I am always quite surprised!

Simple to set up and even easier to use, ideal for the computer illiterate (like me!) and even better for my kids, though they do have slightly more skills with this than I can ever hope to achieve!

This game can be played via online gaming, please forgive me sounding like I have no experience in this area.....that is because I don't!

This really is a terrific game, that has kept and still keeps my kids entertained for hours, though once they are in bed and we have a drink, this becomes a real contest!

Thanks for reading x

Summary: See review.