“Mario Kart Wii”
Genre: Driving
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Price: $49.99
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Grade: B+

Good news: Mario Kart Wii is about as good as Mario Kart ever was.

Bad news: Mario Kart Wii is almost as bad as Mario Kart ever was.

The point is, anyone who has loved Mario Kart since its debut in 1992 won’t be disappointed with the new Wii edition. And anyone who had been indifferent toward Mario Kart — well, they might not be bothered to take a look.

Yet they should. There’s more to MKW than the franchise’s history suggests.

Let’s start with the basics: MKW, debuting in U.S. stores today, sports 24 different drivers, including Mario himself and assorted characters who seem to have no business holding a drivers license, such as Donkey Kong and Baby Daisy. Up to 12 characters can race at once in karts or motorbikes. They bound along 32 different tracks — about half of them resurrected from previous Mario Kart games — dodging obstacles and seeking speed boosts along the way.

Winners gain points toward trophies that help unlock more challenging race courses. And unlike previous Mario Kart titles, where speed was all that mattered, weight now plays a factor. So, say, Bowser running a heavy kart on a fast course probably will struggle to stay in first place, while the same arrangement on an off-road course might be exactly the ticket to the winner’s circle.

Floating across the courses are boxes that drivers must hit to gain special powers, but the boxes are marked with question marks so it’s not clear what comes with each box. And they’re mixed among obstacles, such as the Thunder Cloud that strikes karts with lightning and shrinks them, costing players power and position, or the “POW block” that stuns several drivers at the same time. Trying to aim for a box also could put players on course for trouble.

In fact, it possible to suffer hits from a barrage of time-wasters and wind up pushed back from first to last just yards from the finish line. Be warned then that first place means nothing before reaching the finish line.

MKW sports four modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus and Battle. In Grand Prix, players challenge the computer to four three-lap races at three different speeds: 50cc, 100cc and 150cc — the object being a trophy that unlocks other tracks. Players also receive one- to five-star ratings for their performance. The more stars, the higher the rating, which aids in placement prior to subsequent races. Time Trial is self-explanatory and Versus pits two to four local players against each other with or without the other characters.

In Battle, there are two sub-modes — one in which teams of players try to hit one another and pop balloons tied to their karts, thus costing them points, and the other in which teams run over coins on the course, collecting as many as possible.

MKW, by the way, also taps into the player’s Mii archive and populates the grandstands or decorates posters and roadside statues with their faces. This way, players see someone familiar in the audience cheering them to victory. Players also can put one of their Miis behind the wheel.

To help with steering, the folks at Nintendo have packaged a “Wii wheel” (initially selling separately for $14.99, now knocked down to $9.99) which the Wii controller snaps into and which some players might think makes steering with the Wii controller easier, though players also can choose between a remote-nunchuk combination, the “Classic Controller” or the old GameCube controller if they prefer.

Probably MKW’s biggest plus, however, is the online racing via Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection, supporting up to 12 competitors from around the world racing at once. This is probably the best use of the Wii’s Internet connectivity since Wii came out. Not only does the service automatically match players by skill level, it offers in-game text chat between opponents. There’s also a Mario Kart Channel option installed to the Wii Menu that displays international rankings and allows online racing without the MKW disc installed.

Though Game Guy has played various Mario Kart versions in the past, he never was wowed by them. A race or two into every game, he’d be ready to turn his attention elsewhere. But with MKW, Nintendo did a better job managing the pace and comic distractions — among them, silly obstacles, out-of-nowhere bomb attacks and strange but thrilling jumps and leaps. And this time, there are midair stunts possible depending on how players flip the Wii wheel.

The graphics are a little dull and the action somewhat jerky at times, thanks to the Wii’s lesser image-rendering capabilities compared to the more powerful Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Still, there’s enough entertainment value in MKW to keep even indifferent Mario Kart players engaged a good long while.