News: Mario Kart Wii Tidbits

Posted by Iun Hockley - Dec 18th 2007 05:08

New online information revealed.

Nintendo Power has some scant, though interesting, news on the latest instalment of the Mario Kart series. Online play will be possible for at least 12 players at a time when the title releases in the Spring of 2008.

New to the title will be the ability to pull off stunts while playing, the Wii remote is held on its side for the game in a style similar to Excite Truck. Executing these stunts will earn some kind of reward for the successful player, though as it stands, it is not clear what this will be.

Traditional power-ups will also return to the title, and you can still hit enemies with green shells and those ever-useless bananas.

Stay tuned to N-Europe for more news as and when it happens!


Source: Nintendo Power

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Solitanze Says:
December 17th, 2007 at 23:47 || Total Comments: 1813
I guess the confirmation of stunts eliminates the need of the "Feather" returning as an item...
VaatiKaiba Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 02:08 || Total Comments: 275
Does this include the Blue Shell? I hope not...

The stunts should introduce a whole new element to the Mario Kart series - and should be good, so long as they're implemented correctly...
Mayjest Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 02:41 || Total Comments: 46
Maybe pulling off a stunt gets you an item, rather than driving through an item box? I don't recall seeing any screenshots with item boxes in them.

Would probably change Mario Kart pretty significantly. It's possible though.
Drift Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 02:46 || Total Comments: 291
Damn it, you would think Nintendo at least would have figured out the stupidity of "Wii Waggle" by now. Honestly, the whole "hold the controler sideways" thing is just stupid, it's inacurate and annoying, and will only result in Mario kart for Wii, well, sucking really.

I honestly can't imagine spending as many hours playing mario kart Wii if I have to hold the damn controller in that annoying sideways position and constantly move it to right myself. There's nothing I can say to really describe my annoyance of this. If Nintendo acctually lets this go through, the fucktards over there at Nintendo who decided on this stupidity need to be fired.

At least give us the choice of using the GC pad or VC controller and let this scheme rest in hell, where it belongs!
Reynard Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 02:51 || Total Comments: 329
I've despised any and all attempted tilt racing controls, they just aren't accurate enough and bloody uncomfortable.

This game better have traditional analog control support..
Mako89 Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 03:36 || Total Comments: 448
Here we go again. Resident Evil UC got trashed on the message boards and turned out quite well. Will we ever learn? Now I'm going to call Toyota and tell them to put a analog stick in my car because it's more accurate.
Auntnadia Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 03:40 || Total Comments: 854
"Now I'm going to call Toyota and tell them to put a analog stick in my car because it's more accurate."

instead of a wiimote?
Drift Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 03:43 || Total Comments: 291
mako, this isn't analogue vs wheel, it's analogue vs wierd tilty stick that you can never align straight. Resident Evil UC was an untried concept, I for one ahd nothing agaisnt it, but people were complaining about the gameplay which they hadn't tried yet.

In this case though, we HAVE tried tilt controls, most recently in mario galaxy and the ray racing, or back in Wiiplay with the cow racing. It's just bloody awful. It worked for excite truck because that game was completely based on the motion controls, they were the main focus on the game, the game was about trying to handle the awful controls, the fact the controls DIDN'T work was part of the fast out of control feel. But for a full proper racer like mario kart? We want controls that do work, not controls that have been tried and tested to fail.

Stupid Nintendo.
Solitanze Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 03:56 || Total Comments: 1813
QUOTE: In this case though, we HAVE tried tilt controls, most recently in mario galaxy and the ray racing, or back in Wiiplay with the cow racing.

Don't forget Race in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, absolutely destroyed the appeal of this Party game, virtually unplayable...

If they have the option of both motion and analogue control, then the issue will be rectified. If its motion control with plastic wheel all the way, this could pose some problems. Turning a plastic wheel and having to let go of it with one hand to continue turning the wheel could turn out to be quite cumbersome (i.e. feels heavy and restrictive) and pose real problems in courses with tight turns, possibly ruining the appeal of the entire main game...
Solitanze Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 03:57 || Total Comments: 1813
^-- Even with powersliding...
Drift Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 04:05 || Total Comments: 291
yah power sliding is gonna suck, wow, I agree with Sol :P
Sim1987 Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 05:17 || Total Comments: 53
Mario Galaxy uses practically no tilt function at all. Ye the wave surf game was awful because of the waves not the tilting. And Mario Kart could well be refined, plus you do have the option of editing sensitivity. Just relax and wait to see what it's like. You could always buy it, try it and take it back. Is it really such a big deal?
Flameboy Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 05:40 || Total Comments: 120
It all stems from the fact that the wiimote has no natural centre point when it is in the sideways position which causes the feeling that the controls are inprecise. The only solution I can think of is incorporate some kind of spirit level into the wii wheel design so people know when the wheel/wiimote combo is in a neutral position.
Knightendo Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 05:41 || Total Comments: 25
well some of you have just shown me how unwilling you are to move on and evolve like the rest of us. you're just huffing like spoilt children, wanting to stick with cumbersome analogue controls forever. i grew up with d-pads, i evolved with analogue, and now am having a whale of a time evolving with the remote. i'm no a-star gamer by any means but once i got into the game i found excite truck's controls to be supremely accurate and hugely enjoyable... because i didn't throw my toys out of the pram like a lot of you are.

And those that get to know the motion controls for this game will simply own you all online lol! ;)
Auntnadia Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 06:49 || Total Comments: 854
"yah power sliding is gonna suck, wow, I agree with Sol :P"

power sliding sucks anyhow. anyone who's tried to play online mkds will know that unless you can powerlide a whole course, you stand no chance. completely takes the fun out of a race, aswell as crippling my hands.

personally, i know that if nintendo have decided to go for a certain control scheme, it will work well.
Ealdst Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 06:49 || Total Comments: 2
To all those moaning that the motion controls will suck wait until you've actually played it before you decide. Ok so tilt controls have been rubbish in the past (although I have no problem with the tilt in Mario Galaxy's Ray Surfing) but to say they will suck in this game just because they have in the past is like saying Metroid Prime's controls have to be like Red Steel's. Things change, they get worked on and they get refined so keep an open mind about it.
Knirfie Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 07:07 || Total Comments: 45
@Drift - Something is just wrong with you.
Though I'm not a big fan of having this control method for Mariokart, the motion controls in Excite Truck were quite precise, responsive and worked really well.
Solitanze Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 07:16 || Total Comments: 1813
I think the underlying conclusion is this...

Nintendo are promoting the game with the use of the "STEERING WHEEL ATTACHMENT". How many owners of Mario Kart Wii will have more than one of these when playing multiplayer? Not many. Nintendos efforts are all about "accessibility" these days (as demonstrated by Super Mario Galaxy most recently), so in order to avoid the potential disadvantage of someone NOT USING the steering wheel attachment thus having INFERIOR control of the kart and hampering the fairness element, I would expect to see a feature incorporated into the final game where on the character selection screen you can select between either using full motion control to control your kart or analogue control with the nunchuck attachment. No additional sensing capability will be used with the nunchuck, except for just the control stick to move your kart.

Just had a random thought here regarding an item that I would like to see in Mario Kart Wii, a Megaphone that you activate when your right near the opponent(s) you wish to target. It amplies the horn of your kart and causes an erruption of soundwaves and if your target gets caught in the soundwaves, it severely slows down the victim for a few seconds along with causing jitteriness and bluriness on the players screen making it more difficult to navigate. Would be a good item to get right at the end of a race, PIP SOMEONE right at the end...
Scythe3000 Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 07:44 || Total Comments: 204
Personally I hope they ONLY have Wii motion controls in this game. If it doesn't I'll be boycotting this game.
Pookiablo Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 08:23 || Total Comments: 160
Knightendo and Ealdst are completely on the right track.

New things get introduced - if it were just Mario Kart with a traditional pad, I doubt it'd advance much over the Gamecube version (of course, sans crappy two character vehicles).

Nintendo know their controller better than anyone else and I'm sure they'll have spent more hours than we can possibly imagine, making sure they optimize the Wii remote with this game. Afterall, it's one of their big hitters, they have to try their best to get it right!

I say we play the wait and see game before we actually start moaning about something we've never even experienced! (the something being the new Mario Kart game).
Drift Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 09:12 || Total Comments: 291
Alot of you seem to side with nintendo because thier Nintendo. I normally agree with what Nintendo do, cause often they do know what they're doing. But people, if you haven't noticed yet, the company can be VERY stuborn.

Look at thier track record, they've refused for the longest time to embrace online play, they still haven't with thier friend code system, they're being stuborn for the sake of being stuborn. The stupid 512mb of inbuilt flash memory, everybody knew it wasn't enough, but Nintendo insisted. They're still refusing to release an external hard drive even though they have perfectly good USB ports in thier system. Back in the N64 era, they refused to go with CD's, then, in the gamecube era, they realised DVD's/CD's were the way to go, yet STILL refused to go with DVD's out of shear stubornness. Don't mention copy protection, it never hurt the PS2, and anyone who did want to copy GC games could so so anyway by moding thier Wii, which would have to be done even if Nintendo did use proper DVD's.

No matter what everyone here might want to think, Nintendo is a very stuborn company, they always have been, it's part of thier history and one of the reasons they failed against the PS1 all the way back during the N64 era. You might say that we should trust Nintendo, but it's likely that Nintendo is going with this stupid motion control idea again simply because thier too stuborn not to. They have a console with motion controls and they want to flaunt them around no matter what, and while they're at it they're flinging around this "accessibility" excuse, which in all honesty is rubbish. (if you hadn't heard, they think motion controls will allow a non-gamer to compete on the same level as a pro).

it's as simple as this guys, an analogue stick has a natural center allowing more accuracy and the ability to re-align your vehicle. The motion control method does not. Thats it guys, no argument, no discussion, thats the facts. The motion controls add nothing really, they just remove one of the best features of the analogue stick, and infact every control system up till now. Motion sencing has it's place, it works well in galaxy, and great for FPS games, other games like Twilight Princess also found innovative uses. But this here is not an innovative use, it's just different, and unlike what alot of you seem to think, different does not mean advancment, it just means different, and in this case a step back.

You can say to give Nintendo a chance all you want, but once it's done it's done, so I think i'll complain now, and hope Nintendo has the forsight to add in multiple control schemes as in Smash bros. oh and before I finish my rant, all of you people who think this control scheme is great because it's "different" I dare the lot of you to go play Smash Bros online with the Wiimote.
Drift Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 09:13 || Total Comments: 291
PS: i'm angry at Nintendo not you guys, you guys are great, so sorry bout the way that comes accross, I've loved every mario kart game so far, and it's one of my favourite party games, I'm just really annoyed at the potential let down this is going to result in <_<
Scythe3000 Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 11:01 || Total Comments: 204
@ Drift almost all of ur comments about things u dont like about Nintendo are things i DO like about Nintendo! Viva la resistance!
TK-XF Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 11:11 || Total Comments: 13
WOOHOO 12 players at a time!!... stunts hmmmm i dont no it cant be that bad
Jamie Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 11:21 || Total Comments: 291
12 sure is impressive but Mario Kart DD supported 16 players, I know online is a whole different ketle of fish to LAN play but still, 4 more couldn't hurt right?

...or are we starting to see the limits of nintendo's free WFC being pushed here?
Darkflame Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 11:35 || Total Comments: 1073
" it's just different, and unlike what alot of you seem to think, different does not mean advancment,"

It does when its closer to the "real life" version of what you are trying to do.
You are absolutely right with the re-centering point. That is a mark against using the wiimote as a wheel.

But you are wrong to say its "less accurate".
The Wiimotes motion controll sensativity is quite beyond the analogue sticks degree's of sensativity.
Its harder, not less accurate.(and its absolutely wrong to think harder means worse. Games should have aquired skills to do)

Whether its too hard due to the lack of centering remains to be seen, but its wrong to rule it out at this stage.

" (if you hadn't heard, they think motion controls will allow a non-gamer to compete on the same level as a pro)."

Indeed.
Because the "moving the stick" skill has nothing to do with the "rotateing a wheel" skill.

The question that is more important is;

Will a person that has played MK Wii a lot be significantly better then those that have not?

If thats not the case, then the game relays too much on luck.
But then, this has been the critism of the stick-based games too.

"Don't mention copy protection, it never hurt the PS2,"

The system no.
The game sales of individual companys YES.
Hell yes, absolutely massively.
And even moreso for the PS1 (1/3rd of all games, if I remember right).

Nintendo makes far more money on games then the others, their 1st party games sales eclipse's the other many times over.

Without profits from titles like Mario64 and Zelda Nintendo might not have survived till today.

Not to mention cd-loading of that era would have made Ocarina of Time near impossible.

Sure, Nintendo has made some mistakes, but dont claim they did X,Y or Z just too annoy you.

They did it because they valued some things over others.
Loading times and save abilitys over storage capacity, for instance.
Low entry price, power consumption and small size over raw processing power and "HD".

ect.
You might not like it, but its a balance.
Its not just them annoying you.
Darkflame Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 11:38 || Total Comments: 1073
"which would have to be done even if Nintendo did use proper DVD's."

err..nope actualy.
PS1 and 2 can run unmodded stuff.
So can the cube, incidently.
The codes where cracked in the end. Get a mini dvd and you can do it with the right stuff at the pc end.

The question is timescale. The Gamecube needed a lot more work to pirate. The PS2 was easy.

Nothings "impossible", crackers allways find a way.
The key is is how widespread it is.
Nintendos measures made it less with their system by quite a bit.
OOADDCAMOoWii60DX Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 12:20 || Total Comments: 68
Here's a novel idea, hows about u wait until it gets released then try it before u all b*#ch about it!?

Seriously tho they motion controls in the above mentioned have been pants, I am sure Ninty will offer an analogue method also.
Swan Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 12:28 || Total Comments: 316
I seriously hope there is an 'advanced' control option available for those who want it - I was really looking forward to a much tighter and controllable set-up with the Wii control which looks unlikely now. I think tilt controls can work well in certain situations - excite truck was good as there was quite a lot of room to maneuver on the track, and the corner were quite gentle. Can you imagine doing, say, Yoshi Circuit, with tilt controls though? You'd never get near the precision turning needed to nail in on the GC.

My perfect set up would have steering done with the analogue stick, and corner boosting done by rocking the whole nunchuck back and forth so you can keep your steering exactly where you want it and still build up through the powersliding flame colours to the boost. Then, the Wii remote would be great for firing a new range of weapons, or the old ones - I think being able to aim away from your direction of travel would be great, firing green shells and throwing bananas would be taken to another level.

As for the whole stunt idea ... seriously not a fan at the moment, shouts pointless gimmick at me like nothing before.
Nintendo-master2 Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 12:52 || Total Comments: 1533
WOH! a lot of comments here! O.o
anyway didn't we already know this? everytime there is a Mario kart update its the exact same thing...literally!!(<--yes it deserves TWO exclamation points)
Ganepark32 Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 13:37 || Total Comments: 611
I think the thing that is going to be most disappointing about this Wii iteration of Mario Kart is that there are only 16 new tracks and the rest of the tracks will be made up of ones from other games. Why they can't just make them all new tracks is beyond me but then it is nice to play the classic tracks now and again.

And I believe that the stunts will reward the racer with some kind of boost once they hit the track again. But whether this means that snaking is out in place of stunt boosts is beyond me.
Dark dragonic Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 13:46 || Total Comments: 98
"Nintendo are promoting the game with the use of the "STEERING WHEEL ATTACHMENT". How many owners of Mario Kart Wii will have more than one of these when playing multiplayer? Not many. Nintendos efforts are all about "accessibility" these days (as demonstrated by Super Mario Galaxy most recently), so in order to avoid the potential disadvantage of someone NOT USING the steering wheel attachment thus having INFERIOR control of the kart and hampering the fairness element, I would expect to see a feature incorporated into the final game where on the character selection screen you can select between either using full motion control to control your kart or analogue control with the nunchuck attachment. No additional sensing capability will be used with the nunchuck, except for just the control stick to move your kart."

in case you havn't noticed, the wii wheel adds very little to the wiimote. You'd be able to grip the same, reach the B button the same. Inferior controls don't exist.

This is a 1st party game which usually means better. Just wait and see what happens.
D_prOdigy Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 14:21 || Total Comments: 1674
CAN EVERYONE STOP ARGUING, YOU'RE RUINING CHRISTMAS FOR ME!!!
23isnumber1 Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 16:07 || Total Comments: 276
Lol, my christmas is already ruined because I won't be spending it with MoHH:2. I'm also worried about the controls for mario kart, but as many have said already, it's only fair to reserve judgement till the wheel's in my hands. Nintendo will hold it back until the controls are nailed, and however bad the tilt sensors are they can't be worse than on the PS3 sixaxis (played on a friend's for the first time tonight).
Hamish Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 18:17 || Total Comments: 271
Christmas can't be ruined because you don't get a game. :(

Yeah, just wait guys. It is actually hilarious reading this... but there comes a point when you realize you lot will be running the country in the future.
Swan Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 19:30 || Total Comments: 316
general thoughts and ideal desires for video game control scheme in shock correlation with future (assured? assuredly successful?) political career
HolyBlade Says:
December 18th, 2007 at 20:30 || Total Comments: 49
Don't wanna be annoying, as i'm new around here, but i read one comment where a guy said that nintendo only survives today because of games like mario and zelda.
That's a very incorrect notion.
Here's a list of the top 10 best-selling games of all time, not originally bundled with their consoles:
1. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green (Game Boy - 20.08 million approximately, 10.23 million in Japan, 9.85 million in US)
2. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES - 18 million)
3. Nintendogs (DS - 15.77 million)
4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2 - 15 million, may include PC and Xbox versions)
5. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2 - 14.87 million)
6. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy - 14.51 million approximately, 7.6 million in US, 6.91 million in Japan)
7. Super Mario Land (Game Boy - 14 million)
8. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA - 13 million)
9. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS - 12.17 million)
10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 - 12 million)
One can conclude that pokemon generated far more profit than any other game.
The 2 super mario games on the list were both launched more than 15 years ago. What paid nintendo's bills at the end of every year for the last 10 years or so, was pokemon my friends
Nintendogs is another game that deserves far more honors than it receives. While a shallow game, it is what made nintendo get back on the track to domination. If you get the news from april, 2005, psp was beating ds badly. It wasn't until nintendogs came around that ds sales skyrocketed in japan and from there it became a snowball effect to make nintendo raise up again.
One can still see how the GTA games have been important. Number 11 on the list would be GTA 3. They have revolutionized games in the last generation.
Last, pokemon is not only the most sucessful nintendo game of all time, but overall the most sucessful game of all time. The gaming comunnity ignores pokemon. While it's true that the series are quickly becoming stale, they are one of the biggest landmarks in the gaming history, and i don't believe any games will be able to steal pokemon green, red and blue position as best selling games ever anytime soon. They'll forever be the best selling games ever, and for me in the top 10 games ever
Solitanze Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 02:23 || Total Comments: 1813
NO MORE SALES GT: 3 A-SPEC! GT5 bombing out on PS3 would compensate sufficiently though, heres hoping. Let there be one failure in the series for once (i.e. selling less than 5 million units)...

Far too much of an increase when I last saw it... Its really threatening Super Mario Bros 3s record now, considering the most successful console of all time (i.e. PS2, looks to be selling MORE UNITS for another 5 years of so)... Very sadening to see two PS2 efforts now in the top 5 selling games of all time...

---

If this game had HD graphics would we really care about the control scheme?
For_Gods_Sake Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 03:03 || Total Comments: 95
holy blade- where europe on those pokemon no.s did we not buy any

again sol wants this and wants that. grow up man- I WANT gets you nothing. i want a million quid does not mean i'm going to get it. lump it or leave it. You never know it might turn out to be game of the yr. stop moaning till you have played it. if you dont like it then complain and stop playing it. simple really.

What i will hate is by the time we get it the japs will know every shortcut, will be able to powerslide even down the straights and just thrash us. Heres hoping they do a Mario Kart day and the game comes out same day or at least week around the world
Scythe3000 Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 03:42 || Total Comments: 204
Lol thankyou Holyblade u just pwnd solitanze so badly :P
Falcofire Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 03:44 || Total Comments: 132
''the japs will know every shortcut, will be able to powerslide even down the straights and just thrash us''
or ditch the whole snaking thing - it ruined MKDS online
the controls on excite truck are brilliant - if a third party can get controls as good as that then nintendo can do even better!
Solitanze Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 05:02 || Total Comments: 1813
... I'm scratching my head here... I don't see how in any way I was owned, as I share the same stance as the poster in question regarding Nintendogs, I share the same stance with Pokemon that its Nintendos ONLY franchise in the league of Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo (the rest fail on average units sold per game release) but I do not agree on Pokemon being the most successful franchise of all time as per previous calculations (especially if you do not count Pokemon Red/Blue etc as separate games). But I will admit that I have been wrong. Gran Turismo may just be more successful than GTA, 4 games, averaging over 11 million units per game. Justification with new calculations will followed if requested...
Solitanze Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 05:37 || Total Comments: 1813
^-- Correction: may have been wrong "instead" of have been wrong...
Evilslayer Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 07:28 || Total Comments: 213
The only reason GTA have sold so many copies per game is because it's always been a multi-console game. And successful PC games sells like crazy. Zelda would have most likely been on that list if each individual game had been released on multiple consoles, or at the very least for PC besides Nintendo consoles.
Scythe3000 Says:
December 19th, 2007 at 11:41 || Total Comments: 204
So badly pwnd he's in denial!
Solitanze Says:
December 20th, 2007 at 06:55 || Total Comments: 1813
QUOTE: So badly pwnd he's in denial!

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 Mario Kart Wii - Click to see game details
Mario Kart Wii

System:
Wii

Genre:
Racing

Developer:
Nintendo

Publisher:
Nintendo

Release Dates:
Out now
Out now
Out now
Out now

Memorycard:
N/A

Multiplayer:
Online

Last updated on:
Feb 6th 2008