Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart Wii logo
Studio	Nintendo EAD
Publisher	Nintendo
composer	Asuka Ohta , Ryō Nagamatsu
Erstveröffent- lichung	April 10, 2008 April 11, 2008 April 24, 2008 April 27, 2008 April 30, 2009
platform	Nintendo Wii
genre	Racing game
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer , online (officially only until May 20, 2014)
control	Wii Classic Controller , Wii Remote Control with Nunchuk Nintendo GameCube Controller , Wii Wheel,
Age rating	USK PEGI

Youngsters play Mario Kart Wii with WiiWheel controllers at the Montpellier trade fair in Game 2010

Mario Kart Wii is a racing game from the Mario Kart series for the Nintendo Wii . It was developed by Nintendo EAD and published in Germany on April 11, 2008. Nintendo made use of almost all of the new console's options in terms of online capability, controls and the channel system.

Game modes

Single player

In single player mode, the user plays against up to eleven computer-controlled opponents. He has the choice between

• Grand Prix: Here the player can compete in four different classes (50 cm³, 100 cm³, 150 cm³ and mirror) one of the 8 cups (mushroom, flower, star, special, tank, banana, leaf, lightning) with four courses each drive eleven computer-controlled opponents. At the end of the cups, depending on the points achieved, he receives a trophy (bronze, silver, gold) and, in addition, a rank as an assessment of his own ability.
• Time trial: Here the player drives a distance alone and without powerups. Equipped with only three mushrooms, the best time is to be on one of the 32 courses. If you undercut the Nintendo ghost times by several seconds, expert ghosts are unlocked.
• Versus race: a race exactly like in Grand Prix mode. However, any number of freely selectable routes are driven here and the points are added. The race can either take place everyone against everyone or as a team race in which six drivers form a red team and six drivers form a blue team.
• Two games can be played in competition mode:
  • Coin hunter: There are coins distributed along the route that must be collected. The team with the most coins at the end of the game wins. Items can be used to steal coins from opponents, and new coins appear over time.
  • Ballooning: Each player has three balloons and must use items to try to make his opponent's balloons burst. This also happens when a player falls into an abyss. After a player has lost all balloons, he gets a point deduction and receives three new balloons. Unlike Mario Kart DS, you cannot inflate balloons during the game. In the end, the team that has destroyed the most balloons of the opponent wins.

There are a total of ten arenas where the fights take place. Five of them are new to Mario Kart Wii, five are so-called retro arenas, so they come from older games.

Multiplayer

For two, three or four players on the same console, Mario Kart Wii offers the opportunity to compete against each other either in the Versus race or in a competitive discipline.

Nintendo WFC

In the online mode of Mario Kart for Wii , you could play online alone or with a second player. The second player, if he participated, was registered as a guest. Races or competitions could also be played online, with the player's performance being measured using a point system. A number from 0 to 9999 points indicated the skill of the player and you started with 5000 points at the beginning. The user received points for wins or good places and lost points for bad places, both varying depending on the rank (or the number of points) of the opponent. Most of the time, players were divided into groups based on their points. If a player had completed more than 50% of all races with the Wii Wheel and contested 100 Grand Prix races, the Wii Wheel turned gold in online mode. In addition, players who had at least one star or higher in each individual Grand Prix from 50 cm³ to Spiegel in offline mode were marked with a star. The same was true for two or three stars in all Grand Prix races and in every displacement class. Different Mario Kart owners could register each other as friends using a friend code. If friends were online, you could play online with friends. As an alternative to playing with friends, there was the possibility of looking for opponents continentally or worldwide and playing with them.

Since May 20, 2014 it is officially no longer possible to use the online modes. However, fans have created their own WFC server that can be used via homebrew . This means that Mario Kart Wii and more than 200 other Wii and DS games can still be played online.

Mario Kart Channel

The Mario Kart Channel can be integrated directly into the main menu of the Wii and enables access to Mario Kart friends, ghost data, rankings and competitions without inserting the game CD. However, on May 20, 2014, Nintendo stopped the channel.

control

WiiWheel controller

Mario Kart Wii can be controlled in four different ways.

1. Together with the game, the buyer receives a plastic cover for the Wii remote control, the Wii wheel. This is similar to a steering wheel by turning the controller, which is then placed in the Wii wheel. The remote control can be used without the Wii Wheel. A Wii wheel can also be purchased individually.
2. With a connected Nunchuk (included with a Wii console; can also be purchased separately), the player can also control the kart.
3. It is also classic with a connected Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro (black), which is otherwise used for Virtual Console games and is available separately.
4. In addition, Nintendo GameCube controllers can also be used, which are also available separately and are normally only required when playing Nintendo GameCube games.

driver

A total of 26 drivers are available. These are divided into three weight classes: light, medium and heavy. Depending on the weight class, there are other vehicles or motorcycles for the different drivers in a class. The weight class also affects acceleration, handling and maximum speed. Some drivers are not available from the start, but have to be activated. In Mario Kart Wii you can also take part in the races with your own Mii in two different outfits.

vehicles

The total of 36 different vehicles are divided into karts and, for the first time, also into bikes. For each type of vehicle there is a subdivision into Mini, Medi and Maxi, depending on the weight class of the selected driver. At the beginning of the game, only karts are available for the 50 cm³ cup and only bikes for the 100 cm³ cup.

Powerups (items)

There are so-called ? Blocks on all tracks in Mario Kart Wii . If a driver drives through a? -Block, it will be destroyed and you will receive an item . This can improve your own situation in the race, for example by using the item to slow down other players. The further forward the player is, the lower the chance of particularly helpful powerups. For example, a player in 1st place receives fewer helpful items than a player who is currently in 8th place. If a player is threatened by an item, he is made aware of this acoustically and on the monitor.

stretch

There are a total of 32 race tracks in Mario Kart Wii. As is typical for many series parts in the series, there are 16 newly developed tracks and 16 tracks from previous parts of the Mario Kart series, which have been graphically revised. All 32 routes are divided into 8 cups that have to be mastered in single player mode. As in previous games in the series, the first, second and third placed will receive a gold, silver or bronze cup. Each cup can be driven in four modes: 50 cm³, 100 cm³, 150 cm³ or in mirror mode. For each of these difficulty levels, the best trophy is saved and additional characters or vehicles can be unlocked for trophies earned accordingly.

Rank system

In addition to the trophies, Mario Kart for Wii has a new ranking system in which the player is assigned a certain level of skill. Possible classifications are (in ascending order): E, D, C, B and A as well as the ranks 1 star, 2 stars and 3 stars. If a player receives a certain star rank in all cups, this is shown to the other players in online mode. The rank is calculated based on the victory points received (0-60) and based on the time traveled per course. Nintendo does not publicly state the minimum times for a 2- or 3-star rank in the game, so they can only be found out by trial and error.

Web links

• Official website
• Mario Kart Wii at MobyGames (English)
• Unlockables in the Wii Club
• Mario Kart Wii in MarioWiki

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official site. Retrieved December 23, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Nintendo: Termination of the Wi-Fi Connection (WFC) on May 20, 2014 , accessed on May 21, 2014.
3. ↑ Wiimmfi , a custom server for Mario Kart Wii and other Wii and NDS games.