What's the big deal about friend codes? MKWii pretty much lets you add someone to your list if you both agree and you're in the same friend hosted room.
No thanks to custom tracks. I could only dream of the abominations... Also limited tracks encourage you to get better at knowing tracks and time trials would be meaningless if there would 1,000s and 1000's of tracks.
Items help balance things. Take Sonic and SEGA ASR for instance. There's no spiny shell or spiny shell equavilent to help those in inferior carts. A player using Shadow can stay in first for an entire race unopposed. Unluckily, Mario Kart isn't like that. Also, VS mode of MKW has an item option for local multiplayer. Maybe there should be an option for online with friends. Still, part of Mario Kart's charm and sense of identity has been items. Maybe it's just me...
Pixel Art can be fun.
