VideoGamer's Review

Mario Kart Wii is an excellent return to form for the series and tremendous fun when played with friends in split-screen or online. The often infuriating Grand Prix mode is likely to polarise gamers though, with some loving the unpredictability of it while others will simply give up after being taken down at the last minute by yet another Spiny Blue Shell. Other than online play, which to be honest isn't anything over and above what the majority of racing games include these days, Mario Kart Wii is pretty much more of the same fun gameplay, with the addition of a brilliant wheel that will do wonders to encourage newcomers to give the game a try.

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Thunderbolt's Review

Enough moaning, because despite these problems Mario Kart Wii is still a very welcome title to the Wii and indeed this current generation of games. The Wii Wheel shakes off early misconceptions and shows that it is indeed a worthy piece of kit that adds to the experience tremendously, the courses have been designed with the Wheel in mind so the action remains thick and fast, and you have a nice sparkly online mode to indulge in. I just feel that it's an opportunity spared, that for local multiplayer perhaps courses with narrower routes could have been choked up to keep the nostalgia flowing. Nintendo's draconian online service isn't a reason to dislike Mario Kart Wii in the same way that it's wrong to dislike a really beautiful woman because her husband is a complete tosser. It's a shame that the title has been pushed in this direction without thought for those who maybe can't access it, nor wish to. Gamers with VGA cables will be delighted to hear that Mario Kart Wii is 60Hz compatible, so the blurry textures and haze effect that you'll see through a scart connection get ironed out and the game on a whole looks very sharp and vibrant, much like Super Mario Galaxy.

As a Wii owner, we've got the definitive racing game on the console. For everyone else, it's another excuse to get drunk with your mates, which is no bad thing.

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Eurogamer's Review

Powersliding has been at the absolute core of the Mario Kart experience ever since the SNES game. Now that the d-pad-friendly wiggling of the DS game has been removed, sliding in Mario Kart Wii is all about controlling the perfect line with gentle, progressively applied counter-steer. That is far easier and more satisfying with the Wii remote than it is with a stick, and the gorgeous Wii Wheel makes it more enjoyable still.

Ultimately, the sheer sensory pleasure of playing Mario Kart Wii - from the charming animations, to the bopping tunes, to the sugar-rush boosting, to the exquisite steering - far overcomes the few concerns we have about it. It still has to be docked a mark for the awkward structure and compromised battle modes - but it's still unreservedly recommended to anyone for whom Mario Kart is a gaming cornerstone. And really, that should be everyone.

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