DP Challenge Part 3/100 - Mario Kart Wii

Game: Mario Kart Wii


Ranking: 44/100


Average Score: 82.02%


Not for me to judge a game that flagrantly ignores the rules of SPAG on title alone, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s Mario. He’s in a Kart. Is it fun?

Poor Mario doesn't look very happy here... maybe he got a puncture?

Introduction


The manual is nicely laid out - plenty of white space, diagrams and screengrabs which make it easy to read. The intro music is chirpy and upbeat, plus there's a little animation of Mario flirting with Princess Peach and beating up his little brother Luigi; which kind of illustrates the draw of the game - the chance to play against your mates and cruelly thrash them. The options are straightforward and self-explanatory - you choose race type, character, vehicle, and you're pretty much racing straightaway.

The manual doesn't give you much of a feel for the game - there is very little story background or character information. As you switch the game on, you realise why - there is no story or background. you're Mario and his pals, and your racing around brightly coloured tracks. That's it.

It might be nice - but not essential - to have more in-depth character pages in the manual. One could argue it's Mario and we should all know by now, but when the manual has a little character bio for four of your playable characters but ignores the other eight, it's a bit weird. Also, it would be nice if there was a semblance of backstory - a little animation about everyone getting together for a Grand Prix, maybe? This game doesn’t care why you're there - you're racing and you'll like it; you don't need to know why.              

Getting Going

The gameplay is very easy to get use to; the Grand Prix cups appear to be nicely gradated in skill, so the first couple of tracks are very easy, then get progressively harder as crazier obstacles and tracks are thrown in. There is no tutorial, and for good reason - you don't need one.

However, it felt a little too easy to start off with, even for beginner courses - if I'm winning every race, it's too easy. However, there's always the option of the harder race courses.

The game could stand to push you a little more in the initial stages - I can see more seasoned game players getting bored and switching instantly to multi-player mode. Making the tracks a little harder would keep people playing the single-player levels more.

I think we might have some health and safety issues with this track...

Fun

The game is great fun - it's a racing game on the race track equivalent of a crazy golf course, with the option of attacking your opponents to gain victory. The tracks contain lots of jumps and obstacles that can crush you, chomp at you and generally slow you down. Whether you're winning or losing, victory is no guarantee as someone can trip you up with a turtle shell, or shrink you down, or blow you up; and opponents can do the same to you. This evens out the skill level a little - if you suck at racing games but can collect enough power up boxes, you can potentially win by bludgeoning your opponents into submission. Of course, when you're nearing the finish line and there's a bomb hurtling towards you, it hurts. The best part of Mario Kart is the multi-player mode, however - just being able to race your mates and throw things at them; here is where the skill levelling comes into play, it means anyone can have a go and it doesn't matter too much if someone's never played before, they'll still have a fighting chance.

The very things that make the game fun can also be incredibly annoying - when you get zapped, blown up, hit with turtle shells and knocked under a crushing block in the space of ten seconds, it can be a bit wearying. Plus, there seems to be no way of avoiding some attacks from CCP characters. Oh, and Bullet Bill in multi player mode? He can jump off a cliff and die - if someone gets him twice, they've won; end of story.

It would be nice if there was an obvious way - even if it was very difficult - of shaking off some of the attacks; it seems almost inevitable for half of them that they will get you. While we're at it, let us turn off Bullet Bill for the multi player stages! It's a great option if you have a large disparity of skill in your groups, but for a group of players even remotely evenly matched, it's infuriating.

No, really - I think the FIA might phone again if we lose another racer in that crevasse...

Visuals

It's brightly coloured, cutesy and jolly; when your tracks have names like Moo Moo Meadows, it's to be expected. You can be attacked by a squid that secretes ink over your screen which impairs your vision. There are nice little touches like cows that wander over the race track, or Goombas that get in your way. There's lots to look at that someone watching you play can be entertained - especially little moments where the characters throw tantrums when they've been hit by an obstacle or weapon. The look of the tracks and characters fit the game very well. The multi-player mode divides the screen up effectively - having seen racing games where they separate the screen four ways horizontally to accommodate four players, this pleases me.

There was a faintly terrifying moment during gameplay where the Miis on your system drive cars and block your route along the track - as the only other permanent Miis I have are those of my parents, I began to wonder if I was going to need therapy later in life as they mercilessly held me back and stopped me from achieving victory. As well handled as the multi-player screen modes are, they're still a little too small to adequately see everything that's going on (unless you have a TV the size of your living room wall).

If I could tell the game one thing, it would probably be, “Don't pick up my Miis and use them against me willy-nilly, game!” I also have a pipe dream of being able to play multi-player games on multiple TVs or monitors - it would be great if an option existed to hook your console into up to four TVs and have each one display a different player's screen.

Intelligence

Your opponents react to you and try to stop you from getting past them or ramming them; they also have little angry animations when you overtake them or hit them with one of your powerups, and happy ones when they best you. One interesting thing is that they don't just attack you, but any of the other CCPs too; so they can aid as well as hinder you, which is a nice realistic touch to the game.

However, it seems relatively easy to overtake most of the characters on the race tracks; you would expect a little more fight from them.

This goes back to the difficulty issues; it just isn't that hard to win a race. A little more of a challenge; perhaps if some of the 'baddie' characters played more dirty tricks it would up the ante.

Your three year old sister is now guaranteed to win the race.

Immersion

This game feels more like a pick-up-and-play than a truly immersive experience; time certainly flies as you play it, but when you have Grand Prix stages that are only four tracks long, as well as timed races, it's actually quite difficult to lose hours playing. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it's so easy to get into you're quite likely to pick up and play it when you have a spare fifteen minutes. There were a number of routes within the same track, so you didn't feel completely restricted and the tracks themselves were so varied that each new stage felt very different.

The fact that the cup levels are so short and you just go through different cups and skill levels makes it feel a little hollow as a gaming experience - a lot of fun to pick up and play for an hour or so, but you won't devote your life to it for a few months.

To make it more immersive, it needs to have longer tournament-style grand-prix stages, but it really doesn’t feel like that sort of a game.

Cameras

The camera is straightforward and accurate; it either follows just behind your vehicle, or by holding down a button it views behind you. There simply isn't a situation where an ill-timed camera angle generated by the games causes you any problems.

Of course, when you try and look behind you, you can no longer see where you're going. This is obviously  a bit of a pain.

A 'rear-view mirror' effect would be a nice compromise, where holding down a button display the rear view in a portion of the screen while leaving the standard view in place.

Breaking? What's that?

Controls

The Wii remote and Wii wheel controls are very simple and intuitive; I haven't played a racing game that has been easier to control. Even the Wii remote and nunchuck combination - which I thought would be awful - works well. The sheer volume of potential control options (you can use the Wii wheel and remote, or the remote and nunchuck, or a classic controller, or a Gamecube controller) means that multiplayer games are easier to coordinate without having to have several remotes - there is the option of using your spare Gamecube controllers or other methods.

The only thing that's a bit annoying is the fact you have to press one of the tiniest buttons to accelerate- which means you get thumb ache rather quickly. Plus, it's really close to the braking button, so it's easy to accidentally break when you're trying to accelerate while relieving the cramp in your thumb. Also, pressing the direction pad on the Wii remote to use an item takes a bit of getting used to.

Can you use the control button to aim items? It doesn’t appear that way, but it would be nice to have some level of control over the items beyond whether you throw them forwards or backwards.

Ideas

The number of touches, such as items you can use to power up or attack opponents, the cartoon style of attacks (when you get trampled by a giant powered-up player, you are literally flattened and drive around for a while squashed like a pancake), the different obstacles on the tracks, the fact you can unlock new tracks and characters by progressing through the different phases all build up to create a very fun game people of all ages and abilities can enjoy. You can apparently play as your Mii character if you so choose, and you can race people online but also restrict it to people you designate as 'friends' on your Wii connection. For parents worried about their children being messaged by potentially creepy strangers, this is quite a useful feature to add.

I did think the game was very lacking in customisation options, however - you can't decorate your car, you can't rename your character. It would be nice to be able to make changes like this in the game.

I kept thinking how much fun a custom track designer would be (much like 'Little Big Planet' has a level design feature); you could draw a track out, place items along it with the Wii remote and share it online.

Pimp My Ride... So long as it's one of these six options. Xzibit is crying into his steering wheel about now.

Memory

This is a very fun game which will raise a smile out of the most hardened of gamers; everyone's inner child can't help but enjoy the bright colours, silly catchphrases and cartoon style animation. The fact that the controls are easy to master really reduces the rage factor that I find accompanies some racing games, and you can throw turtle shells at your opponents when they overtake you. What's not to like? The number of unlockables available give you an incentive to keep coming back to master the game.

On the other hand, it's very shallow; there's no real sense of vested interest to keep playing or a world that sucks you in. It's cute little racing game with fun quirks, nothing more and nothing less.

Given the gameplay style doesn’t really lend itself to sweeping storylines and complicated tournaments, increasing the customisation of the vehicles and tracks would be a nice way to personalise the game, especially when playing amongst friends – which is where this game shines the most. More small, amusing cut scenes would also add to the fun element.

Overall, Mario Kart is enormous fun, and its greatest strength is in its multiplayer capabilities. It’s a game you’ll no doubt pick up and play for a short while when you’re in the mood, and you’ll almost certainly dig it out when your friends come round, but the very style that lends itself to that kind of gameplay makes it a game you’re unlikely to devote months of your life trying to find every unlockable option.