Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii

I have been looking for an ideal game for the whole family since I purchased my new Nintendo Wii a week ago. During a trip to Walmart, I decided to purchase Mario Kart for $49.95.

After I began playing this game for about an hour, I really felt I was driving a real car. The game package I bought came with a wheel controller that I can insert my Wii remote and drive with it. There are 12 playable characters that you able to control. When you first start the game, you get to create a license. This license holds all of your records and what achievements on the game that you have accomplished. It holds your time on laps, trophies, and what character you like to control.

You can play four modes, pending on how many players you have chosen. If you have chosen one player then you can play four modes. There is Grand Prix mode, Battle mode, VS mode, or Time trial. In Grand Prix mode, you can choose four stages, mushroom, flower, shell, or crown. Each stage has four levels. Each level has certain obstacles. This adds excitement as well as a challenging feeling between each level. For example in the level Moo Moo Gardens, there are two herds of cattle going across the racetrack. You can go in between the cows or they can hit you. You race you way to the top in the four levels and pending on your skill you are ranked in first to third place. When you earn the ranking of first place, you receive a gold trophy, and possibly unlock a new character, vehicle, or level.

In Battle mode, you choose between the red or blue team. The computer randomly picks another seven computer players on you team and eight players against you. You have a choice of balloon battle or coin battle. In balloon battle, each player has three balloons and when you lose all of your balloons, your team loses a point. When you take an opponent's balloon, you will be rewarded with a point. The team with the most points after five minutes wins. In coin battle mode, you and your teammates will battle against the other team to get the most coins. After five minutes, the one team with the most coins wins.

In versus mode, you go against other characters in a race that will reward you with first, second, or third place. You don't unlock anything special, but it is a fun practice mode to help you get familiar with controls and levels so you can shine and fly high in Grand Prix mode.

In Time Trial mode, you play against a ghost of a player that has done that level in a predetermined amount of time. When you beat the time you may unlock a character, vehicle, or level.

Multiplayer mode is the most fun. It has all the same playable modes except Grand Prix mode. The screen is divided according to how many people are playing. One of the best options is being able to use Nintendo GameCube controller in all modes. It helps if you are not coordinated with the Wii remote.

Online play is very exciting. Mario Kart online has very fun detailed game play. When you first start up it shows twelve bubbles. You are in the first one. You have a choice to play worldwide players, regional players, or friends you may have online. After you choose one of these three options, your opponents or teammates pop up in the other eleven bubbles next to you. When this happens, it shows the Miis of your opponents. It also shows where they are on the globe. After this happens, you have a choice of several levels to play. The levels are very detailed and large compared to other Nintendo Wii games. You then choose what character and vehicle you drive. If you have chosen VS mode you have a choice between three types of cars and three types of motor bikes. The differences of the cars and motor bikes is design, speed, acceleration, drift, etc. if you chose battle mode you can only choose on type of car and one type of motor bike. The players online are very diverse and are for the most part friendly.All in all this game is very fun and very family oriented. It allows for fun at parties or allows you to just have fun and play with yourself. This is one of the best Wii games out on the market and seems to be sold out everywhere you go. It is a very popular game. The best part about Mario Kart, the game even allows to play levels from other Nintendo systems from Nintendo DS to the Nintendo 64.

I rate Mario Kart a 9 out of 10 game play rating, a 7 out of10 graphics rating, and a 9.5 out of 10 game design and level design.