The Nintendo Wii: Mario Kart's Newest Chapter

As soon as I was home for the weekend, and took one look at the accessories with the newest version of the Mario Kart series, I knew it was a good buy.

The reason? Steering wheels!

It's a concept that falls right in line with everything else Nintendo has done with the Wii- take something very simplistic, insert a Wii-mote, and voila! The Playstation 2 has had wheel-and-pedal sets out- I have one sitting around for the Gran Turismo series. But Nintendo doesn't need pedals- instead, you get a wheel with a place for your Wii-mote in the middle, and thus your new controller is set. (See the picture) The brake and acceleration are side-by-side (1 is stop/reverse, 2 is go), and firing weapons is within thumb's reach as well (hit an arrow). Need to slide around a corner? The B button on the back is what you'll need.

But it's not just the controller that makes the game fun; I mean, sure, having a wheel that has your acceleration, brake, drift, and turn controls all in one (without the need of a pedal) makes things great, but it's useless if the game itself is no fun, right? Well, Nintendo has that covered as well. Sporting 16 new tracks and then 16 old favorites selected from all previous games, the racer can still compete in Grand Prix mode (each a series of 4 races) on three different levels: 50, 100 an 150 cc, just as the older games. But the level of difficulty is also different: As Mario Kart Wii allows the player to race on both bikes and karts, 50 cc is for karts only, 100 cc is for bikes only, and 150 cc is a combination of both (you select which one you'll race with).

The player can also participate in Time Trials and Battles. Time Trials can be run on any track, and if chosen, a player's time can be made into a ghost for he/she to race against. Times can also be sent online, so you can see just how fast you are compared to the rest of your country/region and the world.