Mii support, bike wheelies, and an April date for Mario Kart Wii

Three pages packed with Mario Kart Wii info and screenshots charged out of Famitsu this week, rounding the corner into someone's scanner and speeding right to your computer screen. In addition to revealing an April 10th release date for Japan, the magazine shows our mascots pulling off aerial tricks and racing against Miis! Will these personalized characters be a new standard for multiplayer games on the Wii? If it's easy to implement, why not?

Mario Kart Wii will also have GameCube controller support, multiplayer for up to twelve people online, online leagues, global rankings, time attack sharing/rankings, ghost uploads/downloads, and 32 different courses -- 16 of which are new, the remaining 16 being classic tracks. We're sure we spotted Delfino Square in at least one of the screens! You can have a look at the scanned pages yourself after the post break. The first one of you to identify the figure drifting past Luigi on the top left of the first page wins a cookie.*

*A cookie made of lies.

Click the resized scans for the full images:

Reader Comments (35)

I have never lost a race on Moo Moo Farm. Regardless of what system I've played it on. It will be nice to continue my tradition online.

Have you not played Mario Kart DS? MKDS features Moo Moo Farm online.

@Sonic_13: I don't think you quite understood Barry. He did say he wins in Moo Moo Farm "regardless of the system", so I do believe he has the DS version. Either that, or uses Download Play to do multiplayer.

But in reality, just as long as one of the "classic tracks" isn't Yoshi Falls. I don't like how short it is.

That is true. I was just mentioning it though because he said "It will be nice to continue my tradition online." which suggested he hasn't played MKDS online.

So Donkey Kong?

interesting... let's hope this doesnt disappoint. april 4th is awfully close, a lot sooner than i had expected.

April 4th? It says April 10th for Japan in the article. Maybe I read it too fast somewhere. So if it is April 10th in Japan, that means like mid May? Fair enough. That gives me two solid months of Brawl before buying another game.

Hmm. To me the figure appears to Donkey Kong...only glowing a little orange.

I am definitely looking forward to this game. Racing as your Mii seems like an interesting idea. I had not heard about the GCN controller support - I doubt I'll use it though, as I love ExciteTrucks' control scheme and I am assuming MK would feature something similar. I'm glad they will be featuring ghost downloads and world records, etc.

I read on IGN that Mario Kart may also feature a separate channel (ala Wii Fit) for viewing World Records, etc. without actually having to load the game.

I really hope that you can race online with four people per console. That would be great since my friend down the hall has a Wii and we could then do 8-player races.

I hope it controls more like the DS version rather than Double Dash. Controlling karts which manoeuvre like bricks with wheels is not fun, even if you place a two-rider gimmick on top of it.

The Mii idea sounds cool. I can unleash some of the Penis Mii's I've downloaded from the Mii channel onto the real world - by real world I mean Mario's world.

second that!

Looks like Bowser to me.

It's Donkey Kong (technically it's DK Jr.), you can tell from it's barrel kart.

Oh and I've had one of those cookies made out of lies, needs more sugar.

It's not Bowser. It's not DKJr.

It's just Donkey Kong.

Sorry guys.

I think Kenofthedead is referring to it as Donkey Kong Junior in the original sense. By that, the fact that the original Donkey Kong was Cranky Kong by the DKC games, and the DK we know nowadays is the former DK Junior. No idea why he had to use that reference there, but yes, Kenofthedead is in fact correct.

Donkey Kong Jr. last appeared in the original Super Mario Kart (SNES). Since then, it has been simply "Donkey Kong" in every Mario Kart game. The modern Donkey Kong was originally the GRANDson of Cranky Kong (from Rare's Donkey Kong Country Series for the SNES), and thus, presumably (and confusingly), the son of Donkey Kong Jr.

This should make the modern "Donkey Kong" technically "Donkey Kong III," right? It would, except, in Donkey Kong 64, they changed it around to make Cranky the father, not the grandfather (which would bring Donkey Kong III back to Donkey Kong Jr.). The truth? Does it lie somewhere lost in the translation between Donkey Kong's original conception in Japan and his later rebirth in a UK development house? Perhaps. Or is there something more sinister going on? Chinatown comes to mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Kart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranky_Kong

Thanks for helping me procrastinate from doing homework :)

Wow, Matt. Just...Wow. Thanks for the clarification.

Since Brawl is almost here, this is the game that I'm currently excited to get. (Still need Brawl moar)

It looks like some sort of dog or fox-like creature and the cart its driving has big mouth full of teeth. Could it be Star Fox or perhaps Poochy from Super Mario World 2?

It could also be some character from Animal crossing, but I've never played that game so not sure.

I still say there's no way that this is going to get in by that point, considering how they had playable demos of Super Mario Galaxy back in May 2006...

Oh, and that figure is almost definitely Donkey Kong,

This game is so not gunna get to the April 4th date.

Mario Galaxy got delayed like twice, Brawl got delayed like 4 times, there's no way this isn't gunna fall victim to the same thing. At least once.

I'd say I'll have this game when it comes out in like June or July.

I guess that means Raw Meat Cowboy was right in saying 16 new and 16 old courses.

Delfino Plaza; YES~! One of my favorite Mario Kart tracks ever~

That's so Donkey Kong... how can people not see it? He probably is getting hit or has an invincibility star or something, that's why he's orange.

Baby Peach, Miis, and Motorbike tricks seem to be the only new things I see. This games graphics are great. The online looks great also. The May Release is awesome! Though...how will I balance Brawl and MK? >_

So, is Sonic confirmed or what?

They should just put Sonic in every Mario game now.

can't forget snake either

I'm really doubting the validity of the GC controller support.

yeaaa.. April doesnt really help those of us not living in Japan. anyone have any news of a North American release date?

Tanooki Mario?
I swear I see a mario hat there... somewhere

baby peach!

It's DK all right.

just played Mario Kart Arcade GP the other day at an arcade for the first time and fell in love with it. if this game is anything like that or better it's a definite buy for me.

I'm rockin' it Wavebird style, then. Can't have any slack in the steering on those turns, and to me ExiteTruck veers all over the place. But will Baby Park make a comeback? Me, my wife and her brother have marathon sessions on Baby Park (first to 25 wins).

how do u change into ur mii to race?

Mii support, bike wheelies, and an April date for Mario Kart Wii

Reader Comments (35)

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 1:53PM Scrayn said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 3:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:15PM jpc168 said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 1:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:24PM Nigeria said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 8:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 12:57PM kenofthedead said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 1:29PM Sketchampm said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 1:39PM Shadow31 said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 5:43PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 7:12PM burgerbat said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 1:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 2:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 2:06PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 2:15PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 10:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 2:38PM hvnlysoldr said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 3:01PM Dopple Boppler said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 4:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 4:24PM OMGITSJAD said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 4:28PM WiNGSPANTT from TopTierTacticsco said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 8:40PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 4:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 4:43PM jetsetter883 said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 6:47PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 7:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 7:34PM Haohmaru said

Posted: Feb 6th 2008 8:37PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 7th 2008 10:16AM TVGenius said

Posted: Apr 24th 2008 9:06AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Max Payne 3 ships 3 million units, PC launch pushed worldwide June 1

Featured Stories

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier review: More than just a soldier

Entering the Rzhev Meat Grinder in Company of Heroes 2

Now Playing: May 21-27, 2012

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW