A (very short) review:
MK Wii was my #1 most anticipated game for this generation. After playing it for 1-2 weeks, I'd say it's a must have, but it could have been much better.
Pro:
The new tracks are mostly brilliant, controls are tight (and very different among the various vehicles), graphics are nice, Online works perfect, Mii integration is cool.
Contra:
The items. There has always been a fair amount of randomness to Mario Kart games, but this time they've gone too far.
What's the point of the POW? Why is there no way to avoid getting hit? You see it coming and just think "god, no, not again", 3, 2, 1, SUCK.
The Red Shells are almost as bad as the blue ones now. You could avoid them with a power slide before, now you can't. They'll even wait for you while you're getting hit by something else!
Blue Shells: No comment. Average is 3 of them in one race.
The Cloud is kind of ok, because it is a tradeoff of higher speed <> getting shrunk, plus there's a way to avoid the damage by skill (i.e. passing it on to some other driver).
The Bullet Bill is stupid, because there's 0% skill required. But I see that it was necessary to counterbalance the ridiculous onslaught of items that often kick you from #1 to #12 in mere seconds.
Mega Mushroom is ok, as are Green Shells, Starman, Lightning, Squid - it's just TOO MUCH, TOO OFTEN! Probably the increase from 8 drivers to 12 is to blame, because it means there's 4 more drivers that get awarded the most powerful items all the time.
There's some other minor flaws (battle mode is teams only, why? some of the music is very forgettable), but the whole item thing is by far the worst thing. You can tell that Nintendo decided to really lean towards the newbie gamers this time, and that's awfully frustrating if you consider yourself somewhat skilled. Often you can't even drive a single bend without getting stomped by the item mayhem. N intentionally "ironed out" any way to avoid damage by skill (blue shell, red shell, f***ing POW), to ensure that even the dumbest n00b on earth has a chance to win.
Don't get me wrong, MK Wii STILL is a great game, with a lot of love and polish poured into it. That's what makes the awkward design choices even harder to swallow.
Currently playing: NSMB (Wii)
