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Mario Kart Wii was terrible

C

clav

Member
I'm playing some rounds of Mario Kart Wii online before the May 20 network shutdown, and I realize why I didn't pick up Mario Kart 7 (and ultimately not buy a 3DS).

This game is just one giant clusterfuck. For the entire match, you just hope you get the best items and not get roflstomped by bulletbills, stars, lighting, and blue shells.

Sloppy handling. Jumping was useless in adjusting sharp corners and turns.

Ugh. Now I wonder if I should even buy a Wii-U for Mario Kart 8 upon realizing this. Why can't Nintendo just introduce a classic form to make it all about racing and not just items?

Maybe I've aged poorly as I remember I used to have a lot more fun with this game years ago.
 
I agree that the 12 player races were way too chaotic with the items - and the CPU balance was wack on the higher CCs. But I still enjoyed my time with it, as I did every other MK. Still an undeniable downgrade from DS though.

The Wii Wheel is an exceptional handling tool, though. To date, my preferred driving mode for MK.
 
I tried online for a little while and didn't like it. Local gameplay was fun. My brother and I sometimes play team races against each other. Was jumping supposed to be used for sharp turns in MK:Wii? They have karts and bikes that are pretty much made for it now when you drift.

I've also found that doing all the time trials on their first setting really makes things better. As for the items, yeah, I wasn't crazy about only getting fake item boxes to "defend" myself and being pummeled by everything else.

I don't think I would say its terrible...but then again I don't play it online either so I can still find it pretty fun. I don't like that when doing a cup. Its pretty much you against one or two people. The computer obviously picks who it wants to do well against you. It feels a little too predictable in that sense.
 
I skipped that game completely as I never got a Wii. Still think N64 was the best.

Mario Kart 7 was good too, but it didn't amaze me or anything.

Let's see how 8 turns out.
 
Bikes break the game in more ways than unbalanced items. And I never thought this was a bad mario kart, It just had some bad ideas. But the stages were good enough to make it worthwhile.
 
MK Wii gets too much flak for shit that's in other Mario Kart games too. It's always hilarious to see people crap on it because of the items, then go on to say how much they love MK7 despite MK7 having the spammiest items in the entire series.
 
I disagree, it's my favorite mario kart.

That said, according to impressions they seemed to have fixed all the bad crap in MK Wii in Mario Kart 8.
 
So my thoughts on the OP:

1. It was okay, not really amazing or anything, but it wasn't what I would call terrible. Opinions vary, of course.
2. You didn't buy a 3DS because of Mario Kart 7?

Addendum: I get what you mean in the OP about not buying it, though.
 
I disagree. It is the Mario Kart I played the most (close to MK Double Dash) and I think it's well balanced... most of the time because yeah, sometimes it gets too chaotic with items hitting you one over another to finish with a damn blue shell and end up on 12th place but most of the time it was damn fun. Most of those problems with items and dinamycs are fixed on MK8 so don't get fooled by the fact that MK8 is gonna have the exact same problems MKWii have.
 
claviertekky said:
Ugh. Now I wonder if I should even buy a Wii-U for Mario Kart 8 upon realizing this. Why can't Nintendo just introduce a classic form to make it all about racing and not just items?

Maybe I've aged poorly as I remember I used to have a lot more fun with this game years ago.
Click to expand...

Okay, until ~4 months ago I had the same opinion, but I then played 7 and I would definitely say it is one of the best Mario Karts. Mario Kart Wii is definitely a piece of junk, but they definitely fixed the problems with the next installment. That being said, I think it's a bit preemptive to judge Mario Kart 8 as a whole either positively or negatively.
 
It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't great.

But try 7, seriously. It's brilliant. With Mario Kart every second game is mediocre.

Super MK -> Awesome
MK 64 -> Fun at the time, but actually terrible
MK Super Circuit -> Awesome
Double Dash -> Garbage
MK DS -> Awesome
MK Wii -> Mediocre
MK7 -> Awesome
MK8 ???

Hoping MK8 breaks the cycle. Will be shocked if it doesn't.
 
claviertekky said:
I just like the 2D Mario Karts a lot (i.e. Super Mario Kart SNES + Mario Kart Super Circuit GBA).
Click to expand...
Never played those, so I can't say if they're better than MKWii or not, but Wii did have some problems.

I remember breaking my copy in frustration while trying to get three stars in the Mirror Cups. The rubber band AI was a thing of nightmares.

It was definitely my least favroite of them all, but I still wouldn't say that it was terrible. Sonic All Stars Racing was terrible to me though.
 
  • Bikes were incredibly lopsided
  • Item balance was at its worst (the lightning cloud item punishes you for playing the game)
  • Characters influenced stats, so there was little incentive to pick anyone but the best racers at higher levels
  • Level design was generally poor

MKWii is just the worst modern Mario Kart game. It's just bad on all fronts. It's really, really bad.
 
KHlover said:
I likes it with friends *shrug*
Click to expand...

Same. Was the only Mario Kart I got the chance to play with others during college. Lots of fun. I don't really care for the intricacies of the racing mechanics or being a consistent winner to let items bother me though.
 
BinaryPork2737 said:
So my thoughts on the OP:

1. It was okay, not really amazing or anything, but it wasn't what I would call terrible. Opinions vary, of course.
2. You didn't buy a 3DS because of Mario Kart 7?
Click to expand...

I didn't buy a 3DS due to the price. The 2DS is making me consider though as it's $99.99 this week.

I kept reading how people said 150cc is impossible to play on MK7 with computers.
Byronic Hero said:
Never played those, so I can't say if they're better than MKWii or not, but Wii did have some problems.

I remember breaking my copy in frustration while trying to get three stars in the Mirror Cups. The rubber band AI was a thing of nightmares.

It was definitely my least favroite of them all, but I still wouldn't say that it was terrible. Sonic All Stars Racing was terrible to me though.
Click to expand...
I bought the sequel (i.e. Transformed) on PC, and it's great. Definitely sets the new benchmark for arcade racers.
 
Mario Kart Wii is the worst one since 64/GBA. Totally agree, it was shit. Even Double Dash is slightly better
 
The game really depends on the controller,I started with the Wheel when it came out and it was fine for 50cc after thet I switched to the Gamecube controller and Wavebird
 
Ysiadmihi said:
MK Wii gets too much flak for shit that's in other Mario Kart games too. It's always hilarious to see people crap on it because of the items, then go on to say how much they love MK7 despite MK7 having the spammiest items in the entire series.
Click to expand...
The items in MK7 were more abusable but balanced much better so there were fewer items overall and stuff like lightning was relatively rare. There's still a ton of blue shells in MK7 but since they hit everyone they don't feel as cheap.
JayEH said:
Tell that to 36 million people.
Click to expand...
Most of those people simply bought the game to troll people online which was really the only thing it was good for.
 
The visuals were lovely. I remember mocking how low poly it looked in the screenshots, but once I actually played it I loved the bloom filled lighting and warm colors. The major problem I had with the game was the item mechanics. The single player campaign at 150cc was fucking impossible due to the constant red shells, blue shells, etc. I loved the online and local multiplayer though.


Oh, and the best thing to come out of MKW is Maple Treeway. It became my favorite level in the series. So pretty and fun.
 
Yeah I thought it was pretty bad, its probably the worst in the series.
 
I also soured on it pretty quickly. I liked 7 a lot though, and can't wait for 8.

But man, they implemented bikes really poorly and it has a huge amount of balance issues.
 
I recently started playing Mario Kart Wii, but been playing with custom stages. They're mainly retro stages people have ported. I been really enjoying the game and made me appreciate Mario Kart Wii's physics and stuff. :)
 
The thing I don't like about MKWii is that tracks are too wide. I know this to allow 12 players, but that make feel the cars slow.

I don't like the half pipe parts either. It seems those were cut in MK7 and MK8.
 
MKWii was a hell of a lot of fun, and had great online. Problem is it was broken as hell, bikes ruled the karts, and after a while everyone only ever picked Funky Kong on the bike =/
 
I wouldn't call it horrible, but it was pretty mediocre. The one truly good thing I can say about it is that they removed snaking.
 
I enjoyed it enough, and I liked the bikes. Track design seemed pretty good and balanced, nice mix of returning maps. Liked the roster too.

But it has by far the most fucked up item balancing of any in the series, squarely pegging it as the most casually accessible and poor skill pandering entry in the series. It's still fun, and skill applies, but it's littered with shitty item drops and frustration.
 
MKWii is definitely one of the weaker Mario Karts. I'd put it right above Double Dash, which is, in my opinion, the "worst" one. I put worst in quotes because it isn't actually a bad game at all, just the one of least quality. Anyway, the item balance and the fucking bikes are the worst thing about Wii. Any time I saw someone with Funky Kong or Skeleton Bowser I knew they were going to win by a mile.

I still played the hell out of the game (>100 hours at least) and was pretty good at it despite never using bikes or the Wii wheel. Had over 8000 VR score before I stopped playing, got up to 9000 at one point too.

Muzy72 said:
Mario Kart Wii was shit, but MK7 addresses and fixes every issue you brought up with Wii
Click to expand...

Except for the item spamming.
 
Mario Kart: Double Dash & Mario Kart 7 are my personal favourite installments in the series, especially with Double D's Bob-omb Blast mode.
 
Saint Gregory said:
The items in MK7 were more abusable but balanced much better so there were fewer items overall and stuff like lightning was relatively rare.
Click to expand...

It's hard to appreciate the rarity of lightning when it's dropping you into unavoidable bottomless pits thanks to the addition of gliders.

Saint Gregory said:
There's still a ton of blue shells in MK7 but since they hit everyone they don't feel as cheap.
Click to expand...

Well, they can hit everyone. It doesn't mean it always happens. More often than not it's still only punishing the player in first, and for some reason they had the genius idea of making it harder to dodge blue shells with mushrooms.
 
This is probably my favorite Mario Kart. I never play online though and don't play the Grand Prixs after like a week. It is all local multiplayer from there on out. For that I think it is great. You can tweak items/difficulty/speed if you want, but cut bikes out decide which races or how many to include in a competition. The courses I think are great and it is the only console one so far with classic tracks. So for me, who likes to play with friends at my house, this one is really ideal. The team based battle mode sucks for us though.

I'm surprised about the handling complaints. I don't have any issue there. I actually think it is one of the better ones for that. I play with a Wiimote and nunchuk usually.
 
lmr1l.png

Just had to post this here, i'm sure lots of people experienced this LOL
 
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