E307: Mario Kart Wii spins its wheels through our hearts
by Alisha Karabinus 
{ Jul 12th 2007 at 11:30AM }
Nintendo didn't give us much on Mario Kart Wii, but it's enough. A smattering of sweet screenshots, a peripheral we're uncertain about, and news of online multiplayer is enough to get any good Nintendo fan's heart racing. As for the upcoming wheel ... Mario and Luigi manage to make it look like a blast! But racing is old hat for them -- they've been doing it for years. We can only guess they needed something new to mix things up a little.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lee @ Jul 12th 2007 12:26PM
This announcement was probably the most expected & yet the highlight of the Nintendo conference. A hint of large player numbers was enough to get us all specualting!
"More players = more fun!"....hmmm, 12 online maybe?
Can't wait to get some more info on this game, sure the graphics look unchanged from MarioKart DD but if it has some great new courses and some well thought out & exciting online play then I'm in! I just pray Nintendo will alow us to talk to each other(which I doubt), personally I found playing friends online with MarioKart DS a bit of an empty experience.
TVGenius @ Jul 12th 2007 12:32PM
I wouldn't say they're unchanged from DD. There's definitely a lot more detail in the buildings and such. It may not be Burnout in HD but it's still a big step. Wonder how much playability will suffer in 4-player mode, in terms of both frame rate and how small a window you're in with that rich of an environment...
Dan @ Jul 12th 2007 1:12PM
I honestly don't think they know how many players it will allow at this point. They're probably experiencing some interface and speed issues. Maybe even OOS issues. But you definitely know they're going to try to get that number up to at least 8.
Hame @ Jul 12th 2007 1:14PM
I know it's supposedly "not about graphics". But I can't see any visual improvement whatsoever over Double Dash here. Disappointing. Again...
I hate being such a grump, but is any good news going to come from E3? Or has it purely been about more unwanted gimmicky games and gimmicky peripherals for the casuals? Nintendo, what is going on?!
Jumbo @ Jul 12th 2007 1:53PM
Word on the street is that the number of racers online "increasing" is because you can race using your Mii. The online mode will feature 8 racers per race, but an "unlimited" number of racers because of all the Mii's racing.
kingalekz @ Jul 12th 2007 3:07PM
That wheel looks so small and I've got so big hands. Hope I can us the wiimote alone, too.
Aaron @ Jul 12th 2007 4:07PM
Don't get me wrong, this game is a definite for my expanding Wii library. But I do miss the days back when a new console meant a completely new graphics engine, perhaps even a modified racing perspective or some other advancements. This looks like a fleshed-out console version of Mario Kart DS (although I doubt it will include the Mission Mode that game sported).
Think how much difference existed between Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, and Mario Kart Double Dash. I'm sure it will be a blast to play, but there's no reason they couldn't overhaul the game's "look" yet again.
Ben @ Jul 12th 2007 5:11PM
There is at least 9 players, the one photo of wario at fourth place has five karts behind him.
Louis @ Jul 12th 2007 5:19PM
The graphics look nicely improved if you ask me. Just did a side by side comparison with shots found on gamespot. The Wii is sharper overall with vastly better backgrounds and more detailed karts and figures. DO an actual side by side before you go off what you remember.
fatcatfan @ Jul 15th 2007 10:35PM
I'm concerned about Reggie's choice of words to describe the online capacity - he says "online multiplayer *battle mode*". Does that mean no online races, only battle modes? (baloons, bombs, keep-the-shine)
Chris P @ Aug 10th 2007 11:26AM
Like I have said on other forums across the internet. I'm gonna say that the graphics in these videos and screen shots aren't probably as good as the finished product will be considering that these photos are from July '07 and the game probably won't be coming out until March '08 , maybe February at the earliest. There is a lot more time to polish the game. I'm sure that this was something the team working on the game just dished out to show at E3.