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[Lobster]

Yes I did a search..2 times actually! All including "Nintendo Power Mario Kart"

Anyway, from Nintendo Power here is a hands on preview of the game. Not many details are revealed but at least it is something.

Main points from the article:
- Controls very smoothly
- Graphics are much more detailed than previous iterations with great water and explosion effects.
- Sound is brilliant
- 16 brand new courses along with many previous ones.
- Exciting new items
- Performing stunts will earn you a sweet reward (doesn't clarify what it is)
- Match-making process is much better with shortened times to get into a match.

Here is the full article anyway, its pretty short:
Some days just rock, like the day you get your driver's liscene or the day you win the lottery. For me, getting to test-drive Mario Kart for Wii was like combining both those events. Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, spilled a few beans in an early-October presentation. He excited Mario Kart fans by confirming that the game will include Nintendo Wi-fi connections for as many as 12 players , shortened times for matching up players online , intuitive steering-wheel control that will make it easier for novices to compete with veteran Karters, and the debut of motorcycles in the Mario Kart seris. The video clips that Nintendo showcased online also hinted at the ability to perform cool stunts, such as pulling a wheelie with a motorcycle or spinning your kart 360 in the air. I'm here to tell you that it's not just smoke and mirrors. Not only does executing a successful stunt look cool- you'll get a sweet reward when you do it (Sorry I can't be more specific-the version I played is still quite early, and lots may change between now and spring 2008.

As for the return of Kart must-haves, expect 16 brand-new courses and lots of familiar locations based on tracks from throughout the series, enhanced with new features, of course, and boasting much greater visual detail than in any previous Kart title . You'll sample this eye candy in the character animations and track elements such as rushing water or exploding fireballs. As for items expect some big newbies along with the tried-and-true Koopa shells, bananas, lightning bolts, and varieties of mushrooms. It's too early to comment on all the game modes, but in addition to Grand Prix circuits, a variety of engine classes, and the online multiplayer races, there are sure to be several more challenges . You can also expect a colorful variety of kart styles, as seen in our screenshots.

Maybe the biggest question I had before playing the game was how the motion-based control would handle sharp cornor and twisting course. I can sum up the answer with a single word-smoothly. As Mr. Iwata stated, driving a kart will feel perfectly natural to anyone who has ever used a steering wheel. You hold the Wii-mote in both hands with the buttons facing you (and that's how it'll fit into the steering-wheel accessory). Then you turn the wheel left or right. If you tilt it steeply, you'll make a sharp turn. A gentle dip will ease you to one side. Buttons control acceleration, braking, and item use . I was blown away by the game's elegance (even the sound was great), and there are several months of development yet to go. We'll reveal much more leading up to launch.

source

If this isn't old..I can post a summary of NP aswell..

Other Nintendo Power info:

Nintendo Power’s 20th anniversary

Pulse section

- Note that voices (except for Link) would be a good addition to the Zelda series

Previews:

- ASH, Bomberman Land, Bubble Bobble: Double Shot, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed, Endless Ocean, Harvest Moon DS Cute, Mario & Sonic at the Olynpic Games (DS), Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, N+, Nanostray 2, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, SSBB, Zoo Tycoon 2

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword article (cover story)
- 6 months after Ninja Gaiden for XBox
- First chapter is essentially a tutorial, but helps ease player into the game
- Controls initially feel strange, but later you adapt to them
- Enemies leave orbs after they die - red, blue, gold (ki, health, gold)
- Many waves of opponents
- Huge amount of detail - much praise for the graphics
- Coming out in early 2008 - online leaderboards, extra polish


Short interview with Tomonobu Itagaki
- NP: “Any chance we’ll see Ryu in Super Smash Bros. Brawl?”
- TI: “[Laughs] That sounds like it would be really fun. I wonder, is Mr. Sakurai also familiar with ninjas?”

Ninja Reflex
- Six ninja challenges
- Katana, Shuriken, Nunchaku, Hashi, Koi, Hotaru
- 3 difficulty levels for each
- Best with 3 friends
- Single-player mode - various challenges, belt-ranking
- DS and Wii versions: March

Dragon Quest: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
- First-person perspective
- Swing Wiimote like a sword
- Monsters have specific patterns for you to defeat
- Magic in the game
- Hub city - buy items, equipment, mini-games, chat with residents, take on quests

Apollo Justice: Ace attorney
- First game in the series made only for the DS
- Much of the gameplay from the other games return
- Phoenix Wright appears in the game, has somewhat of a big role
- Takes place seven years after Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations
- Ema Skye back as a detective
- Winston Payne, Judge also return
- Perceive System allows you to zoom in on witness, examine their actions - Then yell “Gotcha” into the DS mic, helps you win the case
- Psyche-Locks, presenting profiles as evidence are gone
- Comes out in February

Mega Man 20/20 article
- 20 reasons why NP loves Mega Man
- 20 questions with Takeshi Horinouchi

Nintendo Power Awards
- Go to www.npawards.wordpress.com to vote

Next Issue
- Sonic RPG for the DS
- Okami
- Alone in the Dark hands on

source

Reviews!

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii) - 9.0
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (DS) - 8.0
Samurai Warriors: Katana (Wii) - 7.5
Draglade (DS) - 7.5
Boogie (DS) - 7.0
Super Swing Golf Season 2 (Wii) - 6.5
Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law (Wii) - 6.5
Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash (DS) - 3.0
MTV vs. ATV Untamed (DS) - 6.0
MTV vs. ATV Untamed (Wii) - 6.0
The Golden Compass (Wii) - 4.0

No Godzilla Unleashed Wii score??

GUYS! NIGHTS SUMMARY!

From an email he sent me.

- Game captures the sensation of flight just like the first game
- Takes a bit of getting used to for newcomers especially
- Has great music and sound - impressive environments, much color to the graphics
- No more frame rate problems that were mentioned in some previews
- Soundtrack is really good - orchestrated
- Flight still on rails
- More and more rewarding as you continue to play - addictive
- Don't enjoy some of the voice acting
- On-foot levels are pretty boring
- Motion controls of the controllers don't seem to work too well - better with the analog stick
- "Whole is somehow greater than the sum of its parts"

Enjoy!

Website of all this awesomeness!

 

[DefectiveReject]

Nice!

 

[Proven]

Question 1: Is this a hop or hopless Mario Kart?

Question 2: How do you pull off a powerslide and powerslide boost?

Question 3: The last two Mario Karts had snaking. Anything to change that pattern?

 

[Lobster]

Anyone want this to be the NP thread or something? I can post a lot of stuff..unless that stuff is old.

 

[Aeris130]

shortened times for matching up players online

Yes. Thank you Nintendo.

Here's hoping we'll get some levels that remotely resembles actual gokart tracks as well, instead of the regular offroad 15-karts-fit-side-to-side-in-some-areas crud. Snes was the only version that did this right, but I suspect that was because of system limitations.

 

[NTom64]

Question 1: Is this a hop or hopless Mario Kart?

Question 2: How do you pull off a powerslide and powerslide boost?

Question 3: The last two Mario Karts had snaking. Anything to change that pattern?

There was hopping in the first trailer, I think - when Toad hopped from one mushroom platform to another.

 

[trinest]

Friend Codes included.

 

[Mdk7]

That sounds really cool... i'm not really still convinced by the wheel, can't wait to try it!
Thanks Lobster!

 

[MutFox]

Hopefully there's some anti-cheat built in.

 

[420addict]

No Godzilla Unleashed Wii score??

it was reviewed last issue. it received a 5.5

 

[Dupy]

They've confirmed online Battle Mode, right?

 

[Mithos Yggdrasill]

Nice news overall.

 

[Lobster]

it was reviewed last issue. it received a 5.5

oh...

 

[mrklaw]

please have normal steering with nunchuck

 

[Lobster]

please have normal steering with nunchuck

Since the motion is for new people that are entering the series, I think that they may go Smash Bros. way and have other control types.

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

Reviews!

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii) - 9.0

Interesting. Very interesting.

My greatest hope for Mario Kart is that they'll finally have the sense to let you toggle items on and off in multiplayer ala Smash Bros.. If I can't turn off that fucking spiked shell again I'm going to flip.

 

[Varjet]

My greatest hope for Mario Kart is that they'll finally have the sense to let you toggle items on and off in multiplayer ala Smash Bros.. If I can't turn off that fucking spiked shell again I'm going to flip.

You could already do that in DD.

 

[acidviper]

so mario kart has a kudoso system?

 

[Lobster]

Interesting. Very interesting.

Probably a game where people have different opinions.

 

[RagnarokX]

Question 1: Is this a hop or hopless Mario Kart?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ThIBLy1tYg

Look at 00:49+

 

[Son of Godzilla]

That Bioware Sonic RPG is a DS game??

 

[temjin]

can we get the review for NiGHTS?

 

[Lobster]

can we get the review for NiGHTS?

Sadly the guy who summarised this had only that info.

 

[Kevtones]

Mario Kart




9/10 despite being NP, is rather substantial. It has to be pretty damn good.


Nights looks like a buy. And for the record, thank god.

 

[Lobster]

Mario Kart




9/10 despite being NP, is rather substantial. It has to be pretty damn good.


Nights looks like a buy. And for the record, thank god.

Jonnyram hated NiGHTS.

 

[RagnarokX]

Mario Kart




9/10 despite being NP, is rather substantial. It has to be pretty damn good.


Nights looks like a buy. And for the record, thank god.

Isn't NP generally regarded as being fairly level-headed in their review scores?

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

You could already do that in DD.

I guess I'm behind the times. I played the game at my buddy's house a number of times and never knew that. You can actually select which ones you want on item by item?

 

[Lobster]

Isn't NP generally regarded as being fairly level-headed in their review scores?

More like tough..they haven't given many 10s out. SMG didn't get one IIRC. Only MP3 and OoT IIRC.

 

[Kevtones]

Jonnyram hated NiGHTS.

I'll play it drunk then!

Isn't NP generally regarded as being fairly level-headed in their review scores?

I'd say they're on par with most platform/company-centric outlets. They've definitely been making strides towards legitimacy, mostly by utilizing the full ten point scale consistently and rating more objectively than in the past.

 

[Varjet]

I guess I'm behind the times. I played the game at my buddy's house a number of times and never knew that. You can actually select which ones you want on item by item?

Nah, it's not that in-depth as Smash, but you can choose between four different sets of items (Recommended, Frantic, Basic and None). In Basic, there are no blue shells or most of the other powerful items for that matter.

 

[Kyoufu]

Performing stunts? what?

 

[AniHawk]

Give us the rundown on NiGHTS. I'll probably side with Jonny, but I'd like to hear how it sounds with moneyhats.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

*pray for non waggle option*

 

[Lobster]

Give us the rundown on NiGHTS. I'll probably side with Jonny, but I'd like to hear how it sounds with moneyhats.

The guy who supplied the info had no summary but wrote this..

I’m pretty surprised with NiGHTS’ score to be honest.

Ill try to get a summary from him.

 

[UpperCaseN]

please have normal steering with wavebird

fixed.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

Graphics are much more detailed than previous iterations with great water and explosion effects.

:lol

Honestly, I think Mario Kart Wii looks worse than Double Dash and worse than a lot of Nintendo's first party Gamecube games.

 

[mugwhump]

Stunts sound really neat, I hope they'll change up the gameplay in a good way (not like DD).

Psyche-Locks, presenting profiles as evidence are gone

No psyche-locks, yay! No presenting profiles, neutral!

 

[Jacobi]

I thought non-waggle controls (aka classic controls) were already confirmed????

 

[Dimmuxx]

:lol

Honestly, I think Mario Kart Wii looks worse than Double Dash and worse than a lot of Nintendo's first party Gamecube games.

The screenshots that are out are really old u know.

 

[420addict]

even the new screenshots from nintendo power look rather lackluster. it really doesn't seem like nintendo is putting that much effort into it.

 

[Lobster]

even the new screenshots from nintendo power look rather lackluster. it really doesn't seem like nintendo is putting that much effort into it.

Can you post NiGHTS review summary?

Also the MTV vs ATV summary.

Only if you want to though.

 

[420addict]

sorry, i don't have the newest issue yet. the mario kart information is from the previous issue.

 

[Lobster]

:|

 

[-MB-]

Somewhat of a dissapointment they went the wiimote/excite truck way. I sensed allot of possibilities using the nunchuk /analogue for driving and wiimote for freeaiming and shooting etc.

 

[Toy Soldier]

Solid. I'm jazzed for it.

I'm not surprised they took time to praise the smooth controls. Excite Truck, after that initial period of getting used to the car physics and the proper steering technique, was pretty darn easy to accurately play...so I expect the tilt controls will be even more intuitive and effective this time around.

 

[Jenga]

Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (DS) - 8.0

!

 

[ziran]

Thanks for the info, sounds excellent!

Really looking forward to it, one of my most anticipated games of 2008. The stunts are the only thing I'm slightly concerned about, but it's Hideki Konno and team, so I have faith, it's in the best possible hands.

 

[Fuu]

That Bioware Sonic RPG is a DS game??

Yes, it is.

 

[jj984jj]

What about the ASH preview? Did they give a date or anything?

Next Issue
- Sonic RPG for the DS

Yay! Hope it's good.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

The game sounds great. I really think the team learned a lot from the brilliant Mario Kart: DS.

As far as the controls go, both Reggie and Satoru have both hinted the game will support traditional controls (nunchuk+wiimote) for experienced players and an intuitive (wiimote steering wheel) new way to play for new gamers.