Glen Atwell
Shaun InguanzoOnline impressions: Mario Kart Wii
April 17th 2008 06:33
The best karting experience is even better online
TAKING Mario Kart Wii online is as easy, and as satisfying, as whacking the snooze button on your alarm clock.
Like most Wii games, Mario Kart has the Nintendo WiFi option available from the main menu, and it takes just 10 to 15 seconds to log into the service.
I was connected wirelessly to a router running a mere 1500/256kbps ADSL connection while playing online, and my greatest fear was that I'd be lagged out of each race.
I should note that I was sharing the connection with a person playing World of Warcraft in another room.
Nintendo has created three options for online: World, Continent and Friends.
Although self-descriptive, let me explain.
World sources opponents from around the world, Continent mode does so from your continent, and Friends mode allows you to add and then challenge friends to a race or battle.
Having no friends (on the Wii!), and not wanting to be limited to Continent mode, as I figured barely a soul in Australia would have a copy, I chose World and crossed my fingers.
Mario Kart Wii has an online matching system similar to Halo 3 on the Xbox 360. It chooses opponents for you based on skill and quality of connection, but does so behind the scenes.
The service then shows a 3D globe that twirls around to a specific location, revealing each matched opponent and their global location.
It's groovy to watch, and I soon learned that I would be racing against five Japanese players, and one European player (appeared to be England, but for some reason the globe zoomed to the UK but the country flag didn't appear beneath his/her name).
It appeared I had joined their party, and instead of waiting in a boring lobby, the game allowed me to spectate the active race.
As soon as that finished, gamers returned to the lobby where we had the chance to each vote for our favourite track.
Unlike other online games which tally votes, Mario Kart Wii then shows you everyone's selection and 'spins the wheel' so to speak until it randomly chooses one of the tracks.
Love it or hate it, it didn't land on my choice - Mario Raceway - it instead landed on Wario Mines - a rickety, rollercoaster like experience that started to make me feel I would have bottom served to me on a platter.
After a short loading time, the race began. It was a frantic affair - I had Mario in a faster kart that featured a trade-off of poorer steering, and was using the manual drift mode in order to be able to jump, and gain a mini-boost.
I was also using the Wii Wheel - something I've tried to maintain in order to put this game and the wheel's intended use to the test.
All karts were off to a speedy start in the three-lap race, and something I observed is that there was never a moment when one person was too far ahead of the pack - obviously due to the in-game items, some of them devastating for race leaders, such as the purple homing shell that now flies through the air until it strikes the first-place driver.
However, the race and its items aside, I was more amazed by the fact that there was no lag! I could only conclude that, without playing it for a few more hours, it was due to me being the host (which the game doesn't tell you) or it is just brilliant to play online.
Believe it or not, I won the race after collecting the infamous trio of red homing shells while in fourth place. I survived half a lap in the lead, clear of the competition and using an old Mario Kart tactic to prevent objects striking me.
That tactic is using the pathetic banana peels as a shield, by holding down the object use button and not releasing it. Should a shell come your way, it will clean up the peel, but not your kart.
I celebrated, my heart pounding, and the game then went to the post-race screen.
I received 5000 points for the win plus an additional 80 points for using the wheel - indicated by an icon next to my name. I take it this affects your online ranking, and, I hope, means you can unlock some goodies.
We'll have more on the online mode in our full review next week, but until then, it's back to the Wii Wheel to discover more about Mario Kart Wii.
Should you wish to know any more, please post questions and we'll do our best to respond promptly.
For our first impressions of the single player experience, click here
TAKING Mario Kart Wii online is as easy, and as satisfying, as whacking the snooze button on your alarm clock.
Like most Wii games, Mario Kart has the Nintendo WiFi option available from the main menu, and it takes just 10 to 15 seconds to log into the service.
I was connected wirelessly to a router running a mere 1500/256kbps ADSL connection while playing online, and my greatest fear was that I'd be lagged out of each race.
I should note that I was sharing the connection with a person playing World of Warcraft in another room.
Nintendo has created three options for online: World, Continent and Friends.
Although self-descriptive, let me explain.
World sources opponents from around the world, Continent mode does so from your continent, and Friends mode allows you to add and then challenge friends to a race or battle.
Having no friends (on the Wii!), and not wanting to be limited to Continent mode, as I figured barely a soul in Australia would have a copy, I chose World and crossed my fingers.
Mario Kart Wii has an online matching system similar to Halo 3 on the Xbox 360. It chooses opponents for you based on skill and quality of connection, but does so behind the scenes.
The service then shows a 3D globe that twirls around to a specific location, revealing each matched opponent and their global location.
It's groovy to watch, and I soon learned that I would be racing against five Japanese players, and one European player (appeared to be England, but for some reason the globe zoomed to the UK but the country flag didn't appear beneath his/her name).
The box - but it's what's inside that counts
It appeared I had joined their party, and instead of waiting in a boring lobby, the game allowed me to spectate the active race.
As soon as that finished, gamers returned to the lobby where we had the chance to each vote for our favourite track.
Unlike other online games which tally votes, Mario Kart Wii then shows you everyone's selection and 'spins the wheel' so to speak until it randomly chooses one of the tracks.
Love it or hate it, it didn't land on my choice - Mario Raceway - it instead landed on Wario Mines - a rickety, rollercoaster like experience that started to make me feel I would have bottom served to me on a platter.
After a short loading time, the race began. It was a frantic affair - I had Mario in a faster kart that featured a trade-off of poorer steering, and was using the manual drift mode in order to be able to jump, and gain a mini-boost.
I was also using the Wii Wheel - something I've tried to maintain in order to put this game and the wheel's intended use to the test.
All karts were off to a speedy start in the three-lap race, and something I observed is that there was never a moment when one person was too far ahead of the pack - obviously due to the in-game items, some of them devastating for race leaders, such as the purple homing shell that now flies through the air until it strikes the first-place driver.
However, the race and its items aside, I was more amazed by the fact that there was no lag! I could only conclude that, without playing it for a few more hours, it was due to me being the host (which the game doesn't tell you) or it is just brilliant to play online.
Believe it or not, I won the race after collecting the infamous trio of red homing shells while in fourth place. I survived half a lap in the lead, clear of the competition and using an old Mario Kart tactic to prevent objects striking me.
That tactic is using the pathetic banana peels as a shield, by holding down the object use button and not releasing it. Should a shell come your way, it will clean up the peel, but not your kart.
I celebrated, my heart pounding, and the game then went to the post-race screen.
I received 5000 points for the win plus an additional 80 points for using the wheel - indicated by an icon next to my name. I take it this affects your online ranking, and, I hope, means you can unlock some goodies.
We'll have more on the online mode in our full review next week, but until then, it's back to the Wii Wheel to discover more about Mario Kart Wii.
Should you wish to know any more, please post questions and we'll do our best to respond promptly.
For our first impressions of the single player experience, click here
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Comment by Harry
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Comment by Shaun Inguanzo
Blogocratic Nightmare
If you have a wireless router, access its internal firmware and go to your security settings where it wil tell you what kind of secure connection you are using (WPA, WEP etc).
Write that down on a piece of paper.
Also write down the lengthy 'key' which you'll need to enter into the Wii settings for it to have permission to access your home network.
Go to the Wii menu, choose Internet and then set up a connection.
It will search for your SSID (the wireless network's name) and once found, will prompt you to enter those details you wrote down.
The Wii will do a series of tests and then verify whether or not the connection works.
If successful, you will be prompted to do a system update on your Wii, which should only take a few minutes depending on how quick your connection is.
Then, it's just a matter of playing your favourite WiFi-compatible Wii game and accessing its multiplayer mode!!
If you don't have a wireless router and need to use the Wii Wifi USB dongle (sold at retail outlets) then refer to the instructions that come with it - but it's really easy to install, so don't worry.
Hope this helps!