Mario Kart game preview - Page 2 of 2

Mario Kart
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For the first time, Mario Kart Wii will be incorporating drifting behind an opponent’s kart. You'll notice you are drifting when blue sparks and lines are emitted from your kart. This will help with gaining a potential speed boost that wouldn't be there if you weren't tailing the opposition.

If you are a Nintendo fanatic and follow the life of all their characters, you'll be pleased to hear that new to the series are Baby Daisy, Baby Peach, Funky Kong, Skeletal Bowser, Rosalina and Miis. With those six being established in the series, that brings the count up to 25 characters in the game. Having 12 participants at once racing, it's a foregone conclusion that Mario Kart Wii is going to be crazy.

Wario is ready to annoy every gamer with his physical humor.

Besides the new characters, there are 16 new tracks and 16 various other tracks from past Mario Kart iterations dating all the way back to the SNES. Also returning to this year's Mario Kart are the 50cc (Karts only), 100cc (Bikes only), and 150cc (all vehicles allowed) Grand Prix game modes.

The last thing we'd like to comment on is the online multiplayer that is sure to attract a lot of returning Mario Kart players to the Wii. Having up to two to four players split-screen, Mario Kart Wii will make you feel right at home offline. For the online, you can take a friend online with you to join in on multiplayer races that allow for 12 players, just like offline. Outside of that, gamers can look forward to the Mario Kart Channel that will be keeping track of rankings, ghost data, and how your friends are doing.

And... we're off!

For those who are looking for an 'authentic' take on racing, when the game ships here in the states on April 24, Nintendo will be including with it the Wii Wheel accessory. Look forward to GWN’s review when it releases later this month.

Preview by Dakota Grabowski.