Equipped with the Wii Wheel, Mario Kart is back and everything has been multiplied. From the tracks, to the characters, to the weapons, and even to the karts. But is more a good thing for this series? Read on.

As with all the previous Mario Kart games there really isn't a story. It's just a whole lot of Nintendo characters mashed into one game about racing go-karts.. and go-bikes? Get 1st place!

Nintendo left nothign to the imagination. It's all here. Mushrooms, gorillas, and babies in karts.

Pretty much every Nintendo character mash-up game has the same look, and Mario Kart Wii is no exception. It still has the Pixar-like look but this year comes with a number of advantages thanks to the slightly upgraded Wii hardware (as opposed to previous entries in the series).

First off the game runs at a smooth 60 frames per second both in single player mode and 2-player split screen. It does however dip with 3 or more players. But having 2 player split screen at 60 frames per second even when playing online is a huge plus, especially when you consider other games on the market like Wipeout HD which runs on more powerful hardware can't.

All of the different characters have their own unique look and animations, which makes it that much better to play as your favorite. And seeing your kart get smashed and bounced around is enjoyable, at least from a visual standpoint but more on that later. All of the weapons are easy to identify and while none of them stand out as particularly devastating to see, they still get the job done. Your karts and bikes can also do tricks off jumps and all of them look cool to see, since this is a first in a Mario Kart game.

Tracks on the other hand are not quite as pretty to look at. The retro tracks are slightly upgraded from their original look on their respected systems, but they still look outdated. It would have been nice if Nintendo took the exact track design and instead made them look incredible. The non-retro tracks look decent, but could be better. The water however does look good and reminds me of Zelda: Wind Waker, for the brief moments you see it. And there are a few unique moments that are outstanding like in Bowser's Castle there's an area where the floor is continuously warping itself as you drive over it. Nothing we haven't seen before but it's things like that that stand out in a kart racing title.

The classic tacks, are more dynamic and play better than ever.

After playing Wipeout HD for so long (still playing it to this day since I picked it up), hearing Nintendo's typical classic midi style music gets on the nerves a little. Music is one thing Nintendo continues to do well in terms of the actual layout of the songs, but fails to use real instruments and introduce epic solo's to players. We want more out of the music in our Nintendo titles, and we want Nintendo to get out of the past.

That being sad none of the songs are terrible. All of the old songs for the retro tracks are intact and from what my ears can tell, exactly the same as they were in the original games. Would have been nice to hear complete remixes from them, but you can't deny the charm of hearing the song from SNES Mario Kart Circuit 3; classic stuff. The songs for the new tracks are typical and don't really stand out.

The stearing wheel, isn't a gimmick. It plays well and adds quality to the stearing.

Sound effects are again typical Nintendo style, and they all fit well and I have no complaints here. In fact I commend them for using the speaker in the Wiimote. Whenever a dangerous weapon is behind you you'll see an icon on the screen letting you know what direction it's coming from, but you'll also get a warning sound coming out of the controller; very cool.

I've heard the complaints from players about how the character voiceovers and one liners during races can get annoying. I haven't really had that problem yet, and most of the time it's actually pretty amusing to hear Daisy scream in a high pitched voice as she gets bounced around by Bowser on the track. But in all seriousness I never ended up irritated, with the exception of maybe Donkey Kong. It's not so bad when he's your opponent but if you play as him; it can get to you.

Making games more casual is what the Wii is all about, but Nintendo has done it's best to balance that out with games that were super popular in the past to make it enjoyable for both types of players. They've attempted to do it to Mario Kart and both succeed and fail. Some choices were excellent ones, but other have just completely ruined the experience.

First off I'm going to assume you've played a Mario Kart game before so I won't go into the depth I normally do. You still go around a track for 3 laps, use weapons, boosts, ramps, and try to make it into 1st place when all is said and done. You've still got Grand Prix, Versus, Time Trial, and Battle Modes. But let's talk about what is new, and what's changed.

There's only 2 new additions as far as modes go; online and team play. Online is self explanatory and allows you or you and a buddy on your couch to head online against others player around the world. You do not need friend codes or anything like that, you can just hit up a quick match with anyone on the game. You can also vote on the track you're going to race on before the race, very cool. Team play is basically just racing with half the field on your side and half the field against you, and each position in the race (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) gets your team a certain number of points which is then tallied after 4 races and the higher score wins.

Another addition however is the inclusion of Bikes instead of Karts. Bikes generally play the same but you can pop a wheely on a straight away to gain extra speed. Other than that they're pretty much the same as karts, but hardcore players will take advantage of the bikes slight advantage.

The final addition is that of the inclusion of the Wii Wheel with the game. You snap your Wiimote into the wheel and use it just like you would a normal car steering wheel. It works well and adds to the experience, and using a controller after playing it with the wheel for so long just felt unnatural and not all that fun. So props to the piece of plastic in the shape of a wheel.

As far as changes go, there are a ton. Races are no longer 8 players, but 12 players. Tracks are widened slightly to accommodate the extra players, but even still the track ends up extremely crowded. There are also extra weapons including with the POW Block which hits everyone on the ground at once, Squid Ink (not sure if that was in the GC game, but it was in the DS game) which squirts