Could have been epic

This could have been the ultimate Mario Kart. A few things have kept me from enjoying this title as much as Mario Kart DS though. I will be honest. I snake. I snake hard in Mario Kart DS. In addition, I star r*** like there is no tomorrow. I have to show those darn kids who is boss right? Alas, there is no snaking in Mario Kart Wii. That's cool, well can I at least talk with people online? Oh wait, no I cannot. Well then, the best non-snaking racer must win on a consistent basis then right? No, the rubber band physics will put a stop to that half the time.  
 

The visuals are good in this entry of the series. I could see nothing wrong with how Mario and company are shaded or how the courses look themselves. I do find it strange that the bushes are hard as a rock when you drive into them, but hey that is Mario Kart. As for the controls, I feel they are slightly dumbed down. They have mapped hopping and reverse to the same button, which takes away the joy of hopping freely whenever you want. Some of the greatest and most funniest moments I had in Mario Kart DS came during random online play, when I would just start hopping around in place out of nowhere and shockingly my random opponents would start doing the same. I do not want the game telling me when and how I can hop, but with reverse function mapped to the same button, it takes away the ability to do so. I do admit, it is convenient that players can use either the remote by itself, the remote and nunchuck combo, classic controller, or Gamecube controller. However, I do miss the freedom that came with the hopping and reverse functions mapped to separate buttons.
 
As for the online play, I am continually baffled by Nintendo's decision to silence communication between all online players.

Nothing would feel better than to know someone is cursing me out because I beat them in a race. The point of online play is not only to play with the best players, but to interact with real humans. How do I know I am playing against humans if they cannot even type hi on the screen? The people who dislike such interaction should be able to disable that function. But Nintendo has decided to err on the side of caution and disable any human interaction for all online races. It is nice that I can at least see the Mii names of the other players, and some of the names and the Miis that come with them are quite funny and well made, but this is 2010. I should be able to at least add people I like playing against from the random worldwide mode to my friends list. 
 

I feel the courses could have been designed better as well. I cannot stand courses where one fall completely eliminates you, especially in a game where other players could be targeting and aiming to get your racer off course. Mushroom Gorge is especially guilty of an unfair design where the best racer could be pummeled and sent to last quickly with a well timed POW or shell during the mushroom bouncing parts. The new Rainbow Road spreads out the field too much (if you are playing online that is). Half the field will be plummeting off the edges to last, while one or two racers get lucky and build a daunting lead heading into the last lap. I do not consider the winners of the Rainbow Road races to be the most skilled because there could be a very skilled racer trying to make a move from midpack, but got hit with something while in midair or racing on the side and fell. Ironically, the older courses such as DS Delfino Square and N64 Sherbet Land stand as the "fair" tests of racing. Whoever takes the tightest turns and knows how to use the bike wheelies on those courses should win. One more thing about the new courses. What I do not understand are those parts when you enter a star like formation and get shot across the course like a cannon (found in Rainbow Road, DK's Snowboard Cross, Maple Treeway). That may sound cool, until you realize every time this happens, you cannot control anything for 4 or 5 seconds. This disrupts the flow of the game.
 
So why play this game? It is Mario Kart still and it does have an online mode. The online features for this title could have been

much, much better (and easier to use for that matter). But hey, as I said, it is Mario Kart still, which makes this better than a ton of games out there. Did I mention it does have an online mode? Although I failed to write more about this, there is also a Battle Mode both offline and online. It works similar to the Super NES version battle mode, and even features some of those retro courses. Also, instead of a win/loss record, everyone gets VR points online. The VR for racing and playing battle mode are separated. You can get more points for finishing in front of a racer with high VR, even when losing the race. Considering the game's rubber band system of those trailing getting the best items, getting to over 9000 VR could be a daunting task for most. I know it is a difficult task for me at least. Right now I am around 7000 VR. I play this game because I still like Mario Kart, even a flawed one, over most other games. I also play this game because it does have an online mode, even if it is also flawed. For most people, these two reasons will be enough. This gets four stars from me. Without the online mode though, the story would be much different.