Mario Kart Wii Review - Tracks and Play
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The Mushroom Cup level comes off as dull, although this changes when playing Flower Cup as track design becomes more interesting and varied. It's not until you get to playing Star Cup that the track design really begins to shine and keep you on your toes. A real treat exists in Special Cup, where one of the most innovative and best tracks ever created resides.
The main reason that single player mode does not compare to online play in Mario Kart Wii is the AI. The races on the 50cc and 100 cc levels are adequate, but at the 150cc level, things become a bit ridiculous and overwhelming. The twelve racer format certainly makes things more difficult, along with the coincidental fact that the trailing racers always seem to receive items that magically propel them to the front of the race, while the leaders always tend to get the items that are of no significant value. Of course, this could certainly give a player hope of winning the race even while behind the pack, but most of the time it just made the game play seem cheapened and "fixed" if you will.
For those who yearn for more options that just single player mode, Mario Kart Wii is packed with tons of multi-player and battle options. There are still the usual race and battle modes locally, but this time packed with several customizable options. Users can choose to limit the amount of computer controlled racers, customize the balance of the items available during races, set up tournaments, and use Miis. There are a total of ten tracks to choose from in multi player mode, five of which are new.
Mario Kart Wii's multi player mode isn't perfect, however. The biggest omission is four-player free-for-alls, a staple of past Mario Kart games. The ability to edit what items exist on maps would have been nice to, especially when it comes to those pesky blue shells everyone seems to hate. Battles with few players also lack maps, which makes it difficult to navigate the larger tracks while playing. This could lead to some problems, so adding computer-controlled players to make a total of twelve per match is recommended to gain the added benefit of a map.
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