Mario Kart Wii offers some of the best, wildest, craziest, and just plain awesomeness you'll ever see in a racing game.
So, I know, you guys are probably saying "WT#??? Mario Kart Wii gets a 10???". Well, yes, it does, and its because it insanely fun.
If you don't know how Mario Kart Wii is played, then WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??? Sorry, well, it's like this: the plumber and his crew race (duh) on go-karts on tracks and they use items to blast the $@#% out of each other. Yeah, that's it. But time for the tracks themselves. They range from relaxed (DS Yoshi Falls, for example) to absolute insanity (Rainbow Road, Grumble Volcano, and Mushroom Gorge for example). All the tracks are very well balanced, and all of them are fun (except SNES Ghost Valley and Rainbow Road, god, I hate them so much). They play great, do what they are intended to do (I'm pretty sure Rainbow Road was made to make you go Chuck Norris on your TV, though). You can also do stunts, which give you speed boosts. New to the fray are motorcycles. They can do wheelies, but if someone else bumps into you while you're doing one, well, you know. They also didn't have as large of speed boosts as the karts have, and steering isn't as tight, either, but motorcycles are perfect for tracks that are straight for long periods of time (by Mario Kart standards, anyway) since wheelies goes faster than regular driving. In short, the tracks are very fun, since they will keep you on your toes while you blast through crowds of drivers. However, there is one thing that makes me really mad, the one unforgettable blemish in the gameplay, THE #$%$@#$ BLUE SHELL!!! However, I'm not gonna let that affect the score of the game.
New to Mario Kart (not counting the DS game) is online play. It worked very well, and had no lag at all, and the loading time for a race when it actually starts is only about a second to three seconds long.
The controls worked perfectly, because the game has you choosing from 5 control schemes, and I've tested out the GCN controller, the Wii Wheel, and the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. The Wii Wheel is the best out of all of them, I don't know why everybody says it's the worst. Anyway, the Wii Wheel works perfectly, moving on.
The graphics were fantastic. But I'm not really a guy who cares about graphics, but hey, the really squeezed the most power out of the Wii they possibly could in this department.
THE VERDICT!
Pros:
Great gameplay (+4.0)
Great tracks (+4.0)
Awesome online multiplayer (+0.5)
Perfect controls (+1.0)
Great Graphics (+0.5)
Cons:
THE #$@%$#@ BLUE SHELL, SNES GHOST VALLEY, AND RAINBOW ROAD!!! (-0.0, hey, I'm not letting this game be demoted because of anger issues)
Mario Kart Wii's awesomeness cannot be described by words alone. You should buy this game now, because it rocks, and is probably the best racing game ever (and it is slightly underrated).
Final Score:
10 out of 10 (my highest recommendation)