Mario Kart returns better than ever

All things considered, Mario Kart is my favorite video game of all time. Growing up, I had a Super Nintendo and had four games. One was NBA Live 95, which was unbelievably awesome and the only force in the universe that could explain Vlade Divac scoring 133 points in a single game. The second was Ken Griffey Jr.’s Major League Baseball, offering the best game soundtrack one could ask for in 1994. And finally Donkey Kong Country 2, slightly better than the original but so much better than its sequel. Here’s a level that caused me fits for many years and elicited many words I’d rather not repeat.

One of them was Super Mario Kart, and me and my sister played it for hours. The same could be said for Mario Kart: Double Dash. But now we have Mario Kart on the Wii, which I would judge to be the pinnacle of Mario Kart. I have already declared this game to be the best of them all, and I say that for several reasons…

1) Drafting! Every little bit of NASCAR helps, and staying behind an opponent for three to four seconds will give you a speed boost akin to a mushroom. You can pull the old slingshot move to pass someone and win the race at the line.

2) New Weapons! Double Dash brought the fun with fake items and blue shells (otherwise known as spiny shells), but the Wii has several new options that make things really exciting and chaotic. Notables include the mega mushroom (imagine, the perfect weapon), the bullet (rocket to the front), the POW (instant earthquake), the Blooper (ink in everyone’s face), and the lightning cloud (I don’t like it so I won’t talk about it). In any case, the chances of getting super weapons while in the back are great, meaning you are never quite out of a race.

3) Team Racing! Sure, it can still be every man for himself, but MK Wii allows the option to split the field in two and race as separate teams. In this mode, weapons fired from your own team do not effect you, so the general chaos the game promotes goes down a bit. But still, it’s a nice addition to the game to make things a little bit more interesting.

4) Online play! If you ever wanted to prove you could be the best Mario Kart driver in the world, I guess you now have a valid way of proving so. You can race your friend who lives across the church parking lot, someone in California, or some other random person living halfway across the globe. So when you get tired of destroying your roommate, then go find someone else to beat.

5) RAINBOW ROAD! Well then, I don’t think there’s another guy out there who likes Rainbow Road more than me. It was when I saw the Wii’s version of the level when I crowned this game the best platform of Mario Kart known to man. Take a ride for yourself…

There are several more reasons, but I’ll leave it to five for now. I think at some point I shall rank my top ten levels on the game, but that would bring no drama since I pretty much crowned the champion here. In any case, go find a Wii just because you need to play this game. And use the wheel…always use the wheel!