A Title That, While it Has Its Flaws, Still Stands High
User Rating: 9 | Mario Kart Wii WII
Mario Kart Wii is one of the many games I played as I was growing up. It is just as immensely fun as the others in the franchise. It has great graphics, colorful sequences, arguably the series' best and most diverse character roster (if you ignore the dreadful Baby characters), and it introduced outstanding tracks for the series with amazing music scores. That doesn't mean that this great game doesn't have its flaws. My biggest issue with this game is that it is extremely unbalanced, more unbalanced than any other game in the franchise. I'm not even talking about the characters because they're actually well balanced and designed. It's the items and the fairness of the races that is the sinking factor of this game. Let me give you an example: You're playing as Toad, a lightweight character. You have reached the final lap with your 1st place lead. Right as you're reaching the finish line, however, lightning strikes you and shrinks you. Then, a blue shell comes out of nowhere and blasts you, a red shell comes from the player who is closely following you, a green shell bounces off a nearby wall and somehow hits you, then, to top it all off, Bowser drives along and rams right into you and you fly off the track into the abyss below. You are now in last place and have lost the race. Need I explain? Apart from that, there really aren't any notable issues with this game except for the Balloon Battles, which starting in this game and continuing through 7 and 8 have become very bland with the point-based rule set instead of the last-man-standing scenario, which I loved in Mario Kart DS. Mario Kart Wii is a very awesome game with a jazzy and exciting soundtrack, a terrific character roster, and a great array of racetracks, classic and new. The game suffers from unfair item balancing and a lackluster battlemode (specifically Balloon Battle), but it makes up for these slip ups with its great gameplay and phenomenal multiplayer.
