Until last night I was going to presumably be starting this review with some normal Mario Kart intro, with some rambling about the series’ past and the like. However, having spent possibly too long with Mario Kart Wii last night racing against people from all across Europe, the only way I can properly kick things off is by saying AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Ahem. Now, let me qualify that ARGH! with a few words.

It’s fair to assume that plenty of you (well, us) were pretty excited about Mario Kart Wii, and given the rate it was flying off the shelves on Friday seemed that plenty of us happy folks were prepared to spend our weekends zooming around in our little karts firing red shells with gusto and power-sliding our way through each and every turn. The fact it is packaged with a slightly embarrassing plastic steering wheel didn’t really matter; this was a Wii title developed for the masses.

As a single player experience, the Wii version of the series doesn’t necessarily break as much ground as you perhaps will have expected. Despite having motion controls, stunts and bikes, the overall feeling you get from spending a great deal of time with the solo side of the game is one of familiarity; there’re a selection of eight cups which themselves each have four circuits to battle through in the standard Grand Prix mode, Time Trial and Battle modes and the usual local multiplayer options for up to four players.

Once on circuit, things still remain fairly familiar. Each track is littered with power-ups, most of which are unchanged from the DS version but this time including a bullet Bill that’ll give players lagging behind a portion of super-fast auto pilot and a Lakitu cloud that infects one person’s kart and forces them to try to pass it on by bumping into someone else before it shrinks them. The circuits themselves are a mixed bunch, with some classic circuit type affairs mixed with the slightly odd (Moo Moo Meadows, which is basically the N64’s Moo Moo Farm but extended) and the utterly bizarre (Coconut Mall, which is a bonkers trip through a shopping centre). There’re also a number of classic circuits from throughout the series’ history included, so any of you missing those BLOODY PENGUINS on Sherbet Island will be pleased to see their inclusion.

There are, of course, a few little tweaks and touches that have been thrown in this time round in order to make things feel slightly fresher. The most obvious of these is the control system, with you being given aforementioned plastic wheel to click your Wii-mote into and wave around like a bit of a tool. Despite that it actually works pretty well and the steering is nice and precise, although having to press the 2 button to accelerate gave me enough cramp to force me back into using the Wii-mote and Nunchuck as my mode of choice. For those of you not looking forward to waving your Wii-mote around, good news comes with the news that you can also use the Classic controller or a GameCube controller if you prefer to, although it should be noted that doing so will stop you taking advantage of the stunts.

The inclusion of the bikes is another new angle for the series, and they have their own unique handling qualities that make them really rather different to handle than their four-wheeled brothers. Instead of having the ability to drift through turns to get boost, the bikes allow you to pop a wheelie for a short time by flicking your controller skyward, giving you a bit of extra speed in a straight line. They also handle rather differently too and corner on a sixpence, which initially sees all sorts of embarrassing mid-corner incidents. After a bit of practice I personally found them to be every bit as potent as the karts, though, so they actually do offer a decent bit of variety.

It’s not as if you get much choice in using them, either. The game’s initial structure is for the 50cc championship to be kart-only, whilst the 100cc version only allows you to use the bikes. Initially this seems to be rather unfair and gives you the impression that the game is simply shoe-horning you into getting used to the different vehicles whether you want to or not, and to be honest that’s exactly what it’s doing. On a personal level I actually managed to really enjoy the bikes as much as the karts, but for those who get their digs sliding luridly from corner to corner, the 100cc campaign may seem a little less fun than it could have been. Thankfully the 150cc category allows you to pick bikes or karts, and once you work through one of the previous two they do open up an option for you to use both in them as well so it’s not all lost.

The racing itself this time is certainly more hectic, with 12 racers on circuit at once. The new circuits – of which, as mentioned earlier, there are 16, with a further 16 classic circuits added - have all been designed to cater for such tomfoolery, each seeming more expansive and more power-up and jump packed than ever before. Chances are that even the most skilled players will find themselves having to perform the odd ‘burn from the stern’ now and again having been involved in some kind of red shell/blue shell/lightning bolt shenanigans, something which no doubt will fill some of you with a slightly sinking feeling.

I’ve never particularly subscribed to the same line of thought, mind you. Whilst it’s undoubtedly frustrating at times to lose a well earned lead through no fault of your own, if you wanted a serious racing title then you probably shouldn’t have gone for Mario Kart in the first place. The game sets out its stall early on with the amount of opportunities it presents players to level what could otherwise have been a very one-sided race, and in any case you tend to find that the skilful players just happen to be the ones crossing the line first, lucky or not. The racing and the weaponry have always gone hand-in-hand when it comes to Mario Kart and the Wii version is probably the most extreme case of this so far, although the much-hated rubber band AI seems to have either been loosened or lost altogether, allowing you to actually build up a decent cushion should you be required to need it.

There are, of course, a few tricks you can use to hopefully swing the balance in your direction. Snaking is now a thing of the past and has been replaced by a rudimentary stunt system, which I for one was dreading as some kind of ultra-complicated waste of time. Thankfully all the stunts are a matter of is flicking your Wii-mote downward once you launch yourself off a jump, with the resulting trick giving you a little power boost upon landing. It’s a technique that even rookie players can get the hang of quickly, but at the same time the circuit design once again dictates that the more skilled will benefit more with some pretty dangerous drops and the like scattered around for the whole risk and reward thing. Still, the overriding thing is that you do not need to use stunts to win – they merely help.

It only really hit me when a friend popped round over the weekend that, as mentioned, Mario Kart Wii really is all about giving everyone a chance to do well. Having been playing it as much as I could up until that point, they were able to settle in and managed to beat me on more than one occasion. It was enjoyable, pick-up-and-play stuff, and although I was able to prevail more often than not by using all the stunt ramps I had located and having a bit of circuit knowledge it kept things interesting and never let me fall into a sense of security. The AI, whom will be on the grid whether you are solo or in local splitscreen (something the Wii copes with very admirably, incidentally) all put up a decent fight too, so as you can imagine there’re exasperated gasps and high-pitched victory screams aplenty as you fight your way through.

The downside of the game being so slanted toward multiplayer battling and racing is that the single player mode feels a little hollow as a result. Progressing through the races to unlock new characters and karts is fun, and chasing down staff ghosts on Time Trial is as addictive as ever. However, it’s pretty much what we’ve been fed before by Ninty so the fun is tempered slightly, and the increased amount of opportunities for players to bomb the living heck out of each other also means that there’s fair chance that the AI will be able to do it to you in single player mode too. Whilst losing on the last corner to a mate firing a red shell at you is kind of frustrating but at the same time also amusing, losing in the same manner to the AI is rather less fun.

You can’t really judge Mario Kart Wii on that, though. Reviewing it as a single player experience is like reviewing a Ferrari car on its interior; it misses pretty much the whole point of what it’s all about. This is especially the case with this edition as it gives you every opportunity possible to find a multiplayer game whether it be locally with friends or online against… well, pretty much anybody, so whilst the single player game is up there for judgement there’s a whole other skin to the onion that you’re offered on top.

In fact, it’s the online integration that really boosts Mario Kart Wii to the head of the pack. Whether it be on your own or with a friend in splitscreen, getting yourself online is a simple matter of clicking the Wi-Fi option on the main menu, selecting your character and kart of choice and which region you prefer to race against and then sitting back and waiting. Following a lovely little sequence that shows you where your online foes are playing from on a map of the world you are plopped into a lobby, given the opportunity to vote for a circuit you want to race on and then flung straight into the action.

Online larks are pretty much similar to your usual multiplayer sessions, of course, minus the fact that you’re more likely to come across some seriously decent players and you can’t swear at them if you lose. Racing with twelve others on circuit at once does seem, especially in split-screen, to make the game chug along at a slightly reduced rate and it does occasionally affect the way you’re playing, but more often than not it’s silky smooth and lag free.

Of course, much was made of the game not employing voice chat and instead giving the player a stock set of comments he could select from between races, but to be honest this actually works out for the best. Firstly, selecting a comment will have it translated into the native language of any foreign players you are with so everyone can understand, and secondly given the competitive nature of the game it prevents you from suffering from all sorts of ear grief from angry folks who you barged out the way on your path to victory. You can really understand why Nintendo went the direction they did, plus it means the shyer folks out there who usually avoid online gaming need not comment or even get involved if they simply want to race.

It isn’t quite perfect, though. Your online races against random people do contribute to a ranking score that rises or falls in accordance to the rank of the people you beat, but it would have been nice to be able to race in a championship with points on offer. To be fair, when with friends you are allowed to run a championship. Added to this, the local multiplayer allows you to break yourselves and the AI into two opposing teams for which you collect points over a number of races rather than battling it out for yourself, so this one could have been really quite handy online as well. Oh, and Battle Mode only has red vs. blue, so no epic free-for-all type shenanigans sadly.

Aside from that grumble, the game integrates itself online very nicely indeed. Should you fancy hooking up with your mates you can find them very easily and join them, whilst downloading ghosts and check leader boards (both total and friend-based) for Time Trial competition is a breeze. There’s also a Competitions button that currently does nothing but with which Nintendo will shortly be giving us all a chance to take on certain challenges against each other. Another neat touch is that the game also gives you the option of installing a Mario Kart channel on your main Wii menu, so you can quickly hook up to online games, check out scores and times and find your friends without needing to load up the game itself. It really is rather top-notch, and it completely obliterates any chance of you not being able to find someone to play against, or some challenge or time to beat.

Quite how long this’ll all last you is up to you as an individual of course, but you certainly can’t fault Mario Kart Wii for not giving you as many options as it could to keep you happy for as long as possible. The single player side of things feels a little stale (especially after you sample the multiplayer), but the fact that the game makes it so easy for you to join in the fun with anyone, anytime means it’s a superb title for any Wii owner. Vastly different it might not be, but as something that’s kept the original formula and added some much-needed and very welcome features it’s absolute tops. With that out the way, I’m heading back out on track for another go!