willster
Mario Kart, Wii
So Mario Kart Wii, I've been really looking forward to playing this. Not quite sure how I feel about it yet.
They've certainly pushed the innovation all the way up to 11, which consists of a mash-up of old courses from the SNES through the DS right up to the new Wii levels.
It sounds good so far, but the simple pleasure of classic Mario Kart was always the ability to hook-up a few corners, arm yourself with a red shell and then let course knowledge and hand-eye to do the rest. The new Wii version seems to have abandond this approach in favour of a complete melee of weapon items, drivers and a less than accurate control system.
The problem as I see it right now is that the control system isn't as reliable as you need it to be in the midst of a roller coaster battle with eleven other drivers and a 90 degree bend staring you in the face. As a result you wil our character around the bend and the Wii wheel takes you off in a complete other direction.
Some things they have corrected from the Gamecube version however like the way you can do power starts, and you can now hop or drift around corners again. However that Wii wheel, it's just so infuriating.
The Wii wheel is a great idea don't get me wrong, the issue is that because you're essentially rotating a round piece of plastic in 3d space there's no feedback. The net result is that on a number of occasions I've found myself 180 degrees to the direction I'm supposed to be. It gets worse though because if you try using one of the standard controllers (you can use the nun chuck, classic controller or a Gamecube pad) it's like trying to play a first person shooter with a joystick - you under steer constantly because the game has been designed for swift freedom of movement using that wheel.
So ultimately my initial impressions are that they did a really good job with this game, but having to wait an entire console generation for another installment to fix the shortfalls is quite disheartening. They've fixed so many things, given a nod to retro fans and really upped the visuals - but all this coupled to a less than refined control system the game falls short.
Ultimately the SNES version is still definitive for now, I hope Nintendo see sense and release it for the Virtual Console soon. As for Mario Kart Wii, I'll play it but I just know that I'm going to get really frustrated with that wheel.
Mario Kart, Wii
So Mario Kart Wii, I've been really looking forward to playing this. Not quite sure how I feel about it yet.
They've certainly pushed the innovation all the way up to 11, which consists of a mash-up of old courses from the SNES through the DS right up to the new Wii levels.
It sounds good so far, but the simple pleasure of classic Mario Kart was always the ability to hook-up a few corners, arm yourself with a red shell and then let course knowledge and hand-eye to do the rest. The new Wii version seems to have abandond this approach in favour of a complete melee of weapon items, drivers and a less than accurate control system.
The problem as I see it right now is that the control system isn't as reliable as you need it to be in the midst of a roller coaster battle with eleven other drivers and a 90 degree bend staring you in the face. As a result you wil our character around the bend and the Wii wheel takes you off in a complete other direction.
Some things they have corrected from the Gamecube version however like the way you can do power starts, and you can now hop or drift around corners again. However that Wii wheel, it's just so infuriating.
The Wii wheel is a great idea don't get me wrong, the issue is that because you're essentially rotating a round piece of plastic in 3d space there's no feedback. The net result is that on a number of occasions I've found myself 180 degrees to the direction I'm supposed to be. It gets worse though because if you try using one of the standard controllers (you can use the nun chuck, classic controller or a Gamecube pad) it's like trying to play a first person shooter with a joystick - you under steer constantly because the game has been designed for swift freedom of movement using that wheel.
So ultimately my initial impressions are that they did a really good job with this game, but having to wait an entire console generation for another installment to fix the shortfalls is quite disheartening. They've fixed so many things, given a nod to retro fans and really upped the visuals - but all this coupled to a less than refined control system the game falls short.
Ultimately the SNES version is still definitive for now, I hope Nintendo see sense and release it for the Virtual Console soon. As for Mario Kart Wii, I'll play it but I just know that I'm going to get really frustrated with that wheel.