Mario Kart Wii

drifting on a bike, a new vehicle type for the series, during a race on Mario Circuit. The heads up display indicates race information in the four corners of the screen (clockwise from top right): race time, laps, mini-map, race position, and collected power-up. Mario Kart Wii is a kart racing game featuring single-player and multiplayer modes. The players control one of many selectable Mario franchise characters and participate in races or battles using go-karts or motorbikes on courses thematically based on locations from the Mario franchise. Mario Kart Wii supports four different control schemes; the primary control scheme is the Wii Remote, optionally used in conjunction with the plastic Wii Wheel accessory, which uses the controller's motion-controls to simulate operating a steering wheel. The other supported control schemes are the Wii Remote with the Nunchuk attachment; the Classic Controller; and the GameCube controller, all of which allow the player to instead steer using the respective controllers' analog stick. While driving, the player collects power-ups from item boxes placed in various points on the track—these power-ups allow the player to attack opponents, causing them to slow down or spin out of control; defend against such attacks; or gain boosts in speed. Unlike Mario Kart DS, where characters can drive a kart exclusive to that character and the standard go-kart, each character is assigned to one of three different weight classes, which affects the selection of vehicles the character can drive. Thirty-six vehicles are available in Mario Kart Wii, each of which has different properties that affect how the vehicle handles while driving. Half the characters, vehicles, and courses are initially unavailable to the player; certain objectives must be completed to unlock each one. Mario Kart Wii features multiple game modes: Grand Prix, Time Trials, Versus, and Battle. All modes support single-player gameplay; Versus and Battle support local multiplayer for up to four players, with or without computer-controlled players. There are ten arena courses available for Battle mode, which include five original courses and five retro courses. Versus and Battle modes were available and supported up to 12 participants, and up to two players could connect and play from the same Wii console. Players could compete against random players from within the same region or from any continent, or could compete only against players registered as friends. At the end of each race or match, each player's VR (versus rating) or BR (battle rating) would change based on their final ranking. The Mario Kart Channel also offered additional online information, including regional or worldwide rankings for Time Trials, and monthly Nintendo-sponsored tournaments with special objectives. ==Development==

(shown in 2011), who originally produced the previous two games of the series, returned as a producer. Mario Kart Wii is the sixth game in the Mario Kart series, following Mario Kart DS. Hideki Konno, who worked with the Software Development Department of Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) division and had previously worked on the first two Mario Kart games as well as Mario Kart DS, served as the game's producer. Shigeru Miyamoto acted as "General Producer" and gave miscellaneous advice on various aspects of the game. The game was the first in the series to feature motocross bikes as drivable vehicles, an idea which Konno had proposed since Double Dash out of his passion for extreme sports but was rejected due to the seemingly bizarre image of Mario riding a bike. The game was briefly known internally under the name "Mario Kart X before its final name was decided upon, referring to the "X" in the word "extreme". Mario Kart Wii was officially announced at E3 2007; the online features and the first footage of the game were shown at the Expo. During Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé's presentation, he unveiled the game via a trailer that showed some of the new characters and tracks. The trailer also displayed that the game would include up to 12 simultaneous racers. Additional details of the game were later released in conjunction with the Nintendo Fall 2007 Conference held in October 2007, where it was revealed that it would include bikes and the Wii Wheel. New gameplay footage from the game was also shown, and the release date was revealed to be set for spring 2008. To complement Mario Kart Wii unique motion controls, a plastic, wheel-shaped casing for the Wii Remote was included with some versions of the game. The designers tested roughly 30 different prototypes of the wheel with different shapes, colors, and weights based on real-life go-karts. The game's music was composed by Asuka Hayazaki and Ryō Nagamatsu, who both used new interpretations of the familiar melodies from earlier games alongside original material. The speaker on the Wii Remote is frequently used during gameplay, with sound effects being emitted from it. During the extensive testing of the different Wii Wheel prototypes, the developers decided to have the voice actors play the game during recording sessions. ==Reception==

Mario Kart Wii received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Reviewers deemed the gameplay to be familiar and more safe and predictable than that of Mario Kart: Double Dash. Tae K. Kim of GamePro admired the variety of the character roster, though Bryn Williams of GameSpy felt that some of the unlockable characters were bland. Lark Anderson of GameSpot praised the game for being easy to jump into for players of any skill level and stated that motorcycles provide a great alternative to go-karts. as was the truncation of the battle mode from previous titles. Anthony John Agnello and David Roberts of GamesRadar+ ranked Mario Kart Wii #11 in their 2017 list of best Mario Kart games, the second-lowest ranking behind the cancelled Virtual Boy Mario Kart. They described the game as "a bloated, populist mess attempting to please everyone" that "feels like the most Mario Kart rather than the best Mario Kart, and as a result, it's as if it's missing the series' soul". The staff of IGN ranked the game #18 in their 2019 list of "Top 25 Favourite Kart Racers", deeming it "yet another solid entry in the series" and saying that its expanded track roster and inclusion of both online and splitscreen multiplayer gameplay made it "one of the system’s go-to party games". Luke Plunkett of Kotaku ranked the game at #7 out of the nine best Mario Kart games; he felt that there was little reason to play the game after the improvements made by Mario Kart 7 and 8, and that the motion controls were "straight garbage". The tracks Maple Treeway and Coconut Mall have been ranked among the series' best, while Matthew Wilkinson of Screen Rant respectively ranked Rainbow Road, Wario's Gold Mine, and Moonview Highway as the first, eighth and ninth most difficult tracks in the series. Sales Mario Kart Wii had a successful launch and sold 300,000 copies on the launch day in Japan alone, compared to Mario Kart DS which sold 160,000 copies on its first day and Mario Kart: Double Dash which sold 180,000 on its first day. In the week ending May 4, 2008, Mario Kart Wii had sold over a million copies in Japan alone, less than a month since its release in the region. In the UK, Mario Kart Wii was the best-selling video game in the week ending April 12, 2008, having "the eighth biggest opening sales week in UK software history," according to GfK Chart-Track/ELSPA. The game dwarfed all other five Mario Wii games released up until then for the Wii combined when comparing first-week sales. It ranked the fourth-best-selling game of December 2008 in the United States, selling more than 979,000 copies. According to the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track, and Enterbrain, the game has sold 2.409 million copies in the United States, 687,000 in the United Kingdom, and 1.601 million in Japan, respectively, for a total of 4.697 million copies sold by August 1, 2008. As of March 2009, Nintendo has sold 15.4 million copies of Mario Kart Wii worldwide. As of January 4, 2009, it has sold 2,133,000 copies in Japan. It is also the fourth-best-selling game of Japan in 2008. According to the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track, and Enterbrain, the game has sold 856,000 copies in the United States, 394,000 in the United Kingdom, and 218,000 in Japan, respectively, for a total of 1.468 million copies sold in the third quarter of 2008 (July–September). It was the second-best-selling game of 2008 in the United States, selling more than five million copies. With 37.38 million copies sold worldwide as of March 31, 2021, the game is the best-selling Mario game for the Wii, the second-best-selling racing game, and the second-best-selling game for the Wii behind Wii Sports. Awards The game won multiple Wii-specific awards from IGN in its 2008 video game awards, including Best Racing Game and Best Online Multiplayer Game. IGN also nominated it for Best Family Game for the Wii. During the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Mario Kart Wii for "Racing Game of the Year". Guinness World Records has awarded Mario Kart Wii with a record for being the best-selling racing video game of all time, though Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has since outsold it. ==Legacy==

While official online play support officially ended in 2014, unofficial video game mods created by fans, such as Wiimmfi, have re-established online play. CTGP Revolution is a ROM hack created by the users MrBean35000vr and Chadderz, which adds additional courses and new features, such as 24-player races, an implementation of the 200cc engine class from Mario Kart 8 (2014), and additional modes such as Countdown and Item Rain. == Notes ==