Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

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The classic tracks could have done with some more polish

As with Mario Kart games over the years, you've once again got the usual 50cc, 100cc and 150cc races, although this time the latter mixes bikes in with the karts. 50cc isn't going to be much of a challenge to experienced players, but 150cc can be extremely tricky and quite infuriating. It's the plethora of unlockables that will keep you plugging away though, with vehicles, characters and reverse track layouts to race for. Each character is classed according to weight, which in turn gives them differing Acceleration, Top Speed and Off-Road stats. Your vehicle choice will also affect handling and performance, so it's not just a case of picking the kart or bike you think looks the nicest.

The track choice in Mario Kart Wii is likely to divide opinion. With 32 tracks in total it's by no means short on content, but half of these are remastered versions of tracks from Mario Kart on the SNES, Mario Kart 64, Double Dash on the GameCube and Super Circuit on the DS. For fans of those tracks they're a great addition to the game, but others will be left asking where their favourite tracks are - Koopa Trooper Beach on the N64 for example.

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Visual quality also varies wildly, with the SNES remakes looking basic in the extreme, while the brand new tracks are full of detail. Running at a fairly consistent 60 frames per second during the single-player game, Mario Kart Wii isn't ugly by any means, but there's a definitely lack of cohesiveness between the tracks. Audio is largely what you'll expect from a Mario Kart game, with many tunes carried over from previous titles. At times the gleeful music can be quite maddening, but it's Mario through and through.

Multiplayer is really the biggest draw of any Mario Kart game though, and Mario Kart Wii is no exception. As always, you've got basic four-player split-screen support for solo or team races (no two-player support in Grand Prix mode sadly), although the frame rate is slowed considerably with the screen split into four and the graphical quality is reduced significantly. While disappointing it's not a huge problem, with the game remaining more than playable. Aside from racing you can compete against others in a classic-style balloon bursting battle mode or play in teams to collect the most coins. Balloon burst doesn't feel as good as it did in the SNES or N64 incarnations of the game, but it's still fun for a few wasted minutes here and there.

Bikes handle quite differently to the traditional karts

Online you can race against a maximum of 11 other players (including a friend playing split-screen on the same console), and the overall implementation is far and away the best Nintendo has ever done. You're still going to have to put up with the game specific friend codes and invites, but once you've got all your friends listed it's not a problem. In fact, playing with randomly selected players isn't bad either, primarily down to the lack of voice chat - the one thing that often ruins online games on other systems. The Mario Kart Wii Channel is icing on the cake, with leaderboards and downloadable time trial ghosts. The functionality isn't up to par with something like Forza 2 or PGR4, but it's more than good enough for what is essentially a fun arcade racer made for everyone.

Mario Kart Wii is an excellent return to form for the series and tremendous fun when played with friends in split-screen or online. The often infuriating Grand Prix mode is likely to polarise gamers though, with some loving the unpredictability of it while others will simply give up after being taken down at the last minute by yet another Spiny Blue Shell. Other than online play, which to be honest isn't anything over and above what the majority of racing games include these days, Mario Kart Wii is pretty much more of the same fun gameplay, with the addition of a brilliant wheel that will do wonders to encourage newcomers to give the game a try.

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