Mario Kart Wii

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Mario Kart Wii
multiplayer

Mario Kart Wii

Wii Wheel accessory to augment this feature and mimic a steering wheel
.

The game received positive reviews upon release, with praise for the online mode, coupled with its characters, innovative gameplay, tracks, and karts, but received criticism for its item balancing and

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and one of the best-selling video games of all time
.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay in the Mario Kart series
Yoshi drifting during a race on Mario Circuit

Mario Kart Wii is a

Mario franchise characters and participate in races or battles using go-karts or bikes on courses thematically based on locations from the Mario franchise. During gameplay, the player views the action from a third-person perspective that tracks the player from behind their kart.[2] Mario Kart Wii supports four different control schemes. The primary control scheme is the Wii Remote, optionally used in conjunction with the plastic Wii Wheel accessory, which uses the controller's motion-controls to simulate operating a steering wheel. The other supported control schemes are the Wii Remote with the Nunchuk attachment; the Classic Controller; and the GameCube controller.[3] While driving, the player collects power-ups from item boxes placed in various points on the track. These power-ups allow the player to attack opponents, causing them to slow down or spin out of control; defend against such attacks; or gain boosts in speed. These include the series staple items, such as the Mushroom, Koopa Shell projectiles, the Super Star, banana peels and lightning bolts, as well as new items such as the Mega Mushroom and POW Block.

Mario Kart Wii is bundled with the Wii Wheel
accessory.

Mario Kart Wii features 24

unlock
each one. For example, the Jetsetter (also known as the Aero Glider in PAL regions) must be unlocked by earning a one-star rank or higher on all 150cc Retro Cups in Grand Prix mode.

The game features eight cups—sets of four different tracks—for a total of 32 unique tracks. Sixteen of the courses are new, while the other 16 are from prior Mario Kart games.[6][7]

Mario Kart Wii features multiple game modes:

ghost character, which mimics a player's movements from an earlier race. Ghost data can be saved
in the Wii console memory.

Battle mode is similar to that seen in previous installments in which players drive around an enclosed arena and attack each other using items. The players are divided into two teams, red and blue, and teammates cannot harm each other with their items. There are two variants of Battle mode available: Balloon Battle and Coin Runners. In Balloon Battle, each player's kart has three attached balloons. A player gains a point each time they pop or steal a balloon belonging to an opposing team player but loses a point each time they lose all balloons. In Coin Runners, the players collect coins scattered throughout the arena and attack opposing team members to make them drop coins. The team that has accumulated the most points or coins total when the three-minute time limit expires wins.[8] There are ten arena courses available for Battle mode, which include five original courses and five retro courses.[8]

Online play via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection was available until its discontinuation on May 20, 2014.[9][10] Versus and Battle modes were available and supported up to 12 participants, and up to two players could connect and play from the same Wii console. Players could compete against random players from within the same region or from any continent, or could compete only against players registered as friends. At the end of each race or match, each player's VR (versus rating) or BR (battle rating) would change based on their final ranking. The Mario Kart Channel also offered additional online information, including regional or worldwide rankings for Time Trials, and monthly Nintendo-sponsored tournaments with special objectives.[11][12]

Development

Mario Kart Wii is the sixth game in the Mario Kart series, following Mario Kart DS.[13] Hideki Konno, who worked with the Software Development Department of Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) division and had previously worked on the first two Mario Kart games as well as Mario Kart DS, served as the game's producer. Shigeru Miyamoto acted as "General Producer" and gave miscellaneous advice on various aspects of the game.[13]

Features cut from

extreme sports but was rejected due to the seemingly bizarre image of Mario riding a bike.[15] The game was briefly known internally under the name "Mario Kart X" before its final name was decided upon, referring to the "X" in the word "extreme".[16]

Mario Kart Wii was officially announced at

E3 2007; the online features and the first footage of the game were shown at the Expo.[17] During Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé's presentation, he unveiled the game via a trailer that showed some of the new characters and tracks. The trailer also displayed that the game would include up to 12 simultaneous racers. Additional details of the game were later released in conjunction with the Nintendo Fall 2007 Conference held in October 2007, where it was revealed that it would include bikes and the Wii Wheel. New gameplay footage from the game was also shown, and the release date was revealed to be set for spring 2008.[18]

To complement Mario Kart Wii's unique motion controls, a plastic, wheel-shaped casing for the Wii Remote was included with some versions of the game. The designers tested roughly 30 different prototypes of the wheel with different shapes, colors, and weights based on real-life go-karts. The final design for the wheel was made to be as lightweight as possible for it to suit long-term periods of gameplay, and it was made entirely white despite experimentation with two-colored designs for it to fit with the color scheme of previous peripherals such as the Wii Zapper and the Wii Balance Board. A blue ring with the Wii logo inside of it was also placed on the backside of the wheel to give spectating players something interesting to look at; as a result, this blue ring ended up being featured in the game's logo.[19]

The game's music was composed by Asuka Hayazaki and Ryō Nagamatsu [ja], who both used new interpretations of the familiar melodies from earlier games alongside original material. A 43-track official soundtrack was released in December 2011 as a Club Nintendo reward in Japan.[20] The speaker on the Wii Remote is frequently used during gameplay, with sound effects being emitted from it. During the extensive testing of the different Wii Wheel prototypes, the developers decided to have the voice actors play the game during recording sessions.[15]

Reception

Mario Kart Wii received "generally favorable" reviews according to Metacritic.[21] Reviewers deemed the gameplay to be familiar and more safe and predictable than that of Mario Kart: Double Dash.[23][29][30] Tae K. Kim of GamePro admired the variety of the character roster,[26] though Bryn Williams of GameSpy felt that some of the unlockable characters were bland.[29] Although Shane Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly and Ryan Davis of Giant Bomb acknowledged that some of the new tracks were inventive, they and Williams determined the track roster to be weaker and less creative than in previous entries.[23][29][31] Official Nintendo Magazine commented that the Wii Wheel worked very effectively and loved the different multiplayer modes.[37] Lark Anderson of GameSpot praised the game for being easy to jump into for players of any skill level and stated that motorcycles provide a great alternative to go-karts.[28] The additions of motorcycles and an online multiplayer mode were welcomed.[23][26][29][30] The unbalanced items and rubber band AI, which were said to result in chance-influenced gameplay, were a common point of criticism,[26][27][29][31][30][32] as was the truncation of the battle mode from previous titles.[30]

Kim was unimpressed by the graphics, and observed that their quality lowered in the split-screen multiplayer mode.[26] Williams described the game as a "480p widescreen treat, delivering crisp, colorful graphics".[29] Greg Nicksarlian of GameZone complimented the visuals as sharp and vibrant, but acknowledged their simplicity.[30] Bozon of IGN summarized the visuals as basic but charming and polished.[32] The music was generally considered to be unremarkable, and the voice acting was derided as repetitive and annoying.[23][26][30][32]

In 2010, Mario Kart Wii was included in the book

Rainbow Road, Wario's Gold Mine, and Moonview Highway as the first, eighth and ninth most difficult tracks in the series.[46]

While official online play support ended in 2014, unofficial

video game mods created by fans have re-established online play, added additional courses and new features, such as 24-player races.[47][48]

Sales

Mario Kart Wii had a successful launch and sold 300,000 copies on the launch day in Japan alone, compared to Mario Kart DS which sold 160,000 copies on its first day and Mario Kart: Double Dash which sold 180,000 on its first day.

NPD Group; putting it behind the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV and ahead of the PlayStation 3 version, both released in the same week.[53] It ranked the fourth-best-selling game of December 2008 in the United States, selling more than 979,000 copies.[54] According to the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track, and Enterbrain, the game has sold 2.409 million copies in the United States, 687,000 in the United Kingdom, and 1.601 million in Japan, respectively, for a total of 4.697 million copies sold by August 1, 2008.[55] As of March 2009, Nintendo has sold 15.4 million copies of Mario Kart Wii worldwide.[56] As of January 4, 2009, it has sold 2,133,000 copies in Japan.[57] It is also the fourth-best-selling game of Japan in 2008.[58] According to the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track, and Enterbrain, the game has sold 856,000 copies in the United States, 394,000 in the United Kingdom, and 218,000 in Japan, respectively, for a total of 1.468 million copies sold in the third quarter of 2008 (July–September).[59] It was the second-best-selling game of 2008 in the United States, selling more than 5 million copies.[54] In France, it sold 4.8 million units, which is more than it sold in Japan (3.7 million).[60]

With 37.38 million copies sold worldwide as of March 31, 2021, the game is the best-selling Mario game for the Wii, the second-best-selling racing game, and the second-best-selling game for the Wii behind Wii Sports.[61]

Awards

The game won multiple Wii-specific awards from IGN in its 2008 video game awards, including Best Racing Game[62] and Best Online Multiplayer Game.[63] IGN also nominated it for Best Family Game for the Wii.[64] During the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Mario Kart Wii for "Racing Game of the Year".[65] The game was ranked ninth in Nintendo Power's "Best of the Decade."[66] It also won the award for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2010 Kids' Choice Awards.[67] Guinness World Records has awarded Mario Kart Wii with a record for being the best-selling racing video game of all time.[68] In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine placed the game fourth in a list of the greatest Nintendo games of all time.[69]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: マリオカートWii, Hepburn: Mario Kāto Wī

References

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External links

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