Mario Kart Wii features text chat; still no voice support

I own both a wii and a 40gb ps3 and I have the say wii online is pretty fucking dissapointing. Friend codes system sucks, no way to communicate with the people you play with if they aren't your friends is really frustrating too.

I knew when I bought my Wii that is was going to be my ancillary console that I played less, and mainly was buying into for the big first party Nintendo games. I knew it was going to offer me the online or graphical experience of my 360, nor was it going to satiate my hardcore gaming desires like the 360 or PS3 was. And I was ok with that. For $250 with those first party exclusive games, why the hell not?

But this is just stupid. Want to make an online system with no integration between games? Fine, I can live with that, I'm only playing a couple games on the Wii anyway. Want to make me enter some stupid friend code to connect to people? Fine, I'll deal with it. But FFS, let me talk to my friends while I play. The whole point in games like Mario Kart and Smash Brothers are the fun social experiences they are. And I want to relive that with all my old college buddies who have moved away. But if there's no voice chat, I may as well be playing some random programmable AI because really there is no difference if we're not actually interacting.

But the worst part is that there's no excuse for not having it in there. This isn't some super-tech that only the 360 and PS3 can power, it's freaking voice chat. With the money Nintendo is printing out they should be able to implement this in less than a day. And if their concern is maintaining their image of being the easy choice for children/casual players and wanting to keep the language/racial slurs, etc out of it, just limit it to friends only or offer the option to limit it to friends only. Aren't they doing this with the text chat anyway? So just do the same damn thing with the voice chat for all I care, just put it the hell in there.

And of course, the game (and console) will still sell millions so they won't have an incentive to add it later on. It's a shame they're not being punished for this crap. I will be passing on this game because the single player game isn't worth $50, and if I can't chat while I'm playing online it may as well just be more single player. And it just pisses me off how bad all of the wii's success is for the non-casual gamer. I just hope MS and Sony don't try and follow suit next gen.

I realize that voice chat isn't a big deal in Japan, but Nintendo still sells a sh**-ton of units in America and Europe.

Since when did voice chat become an "essential" feature to gaming? Or online play even? Sure a lot of other games offer these options, but that doesn't make them essential to games. Back in the old days people still managed to have fun without online, and voice chat.

Did anyone think of how many younger gamers are going to play this game? Nintendo's demographic isn't 20-30 year old gamers. They probably don't want children hearing a ton of profanity, because lets face it Mario Kart can bring the worst out of people. If you want voice chat, and all the online features the Wii isn't for you. If you want to have fun with racing with colorful cartoon characters lobbing turtle shells, and banana peels at each other this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Nintendo is just trying to keep everything clean, but the older demographic sees this as ignoring the gamers "needs".

It honestly is a horrible day when I have to agree with Curmeo...

Yes he's a troll but he has made some VERY VALID points in this discussion/thread.

As for Nintendo...I love you but sometimes I hate your mothaf*cking policies.

Its just sad to think of how much MORE FUN this game could be if it were on the 360...

Maybe next time around Nintendo won't be lil pansies.

Okay, I already disliked Nintendo's online service, but there's one thing I gotta wonder: Why is TEXT chat viable?

That's technically a step backward in online terms. I mean, text chat is really only useful in PC games because of the quick keying of the keyboard. With the Wii, you either use a USB keyboard [which I doubt will work for the game itself] or type it out with the Wiimote.

It's an odd move on their part. If they're trying to protect people, then they really shouldn't even have the text chat. That can convey the profanity well enough, I'm sure. [unless they have a censor, which, as a former member of their forums, I could definitely see them doing.]

One of these days, someone really should question Nintendo on the voice chat and online system. They really need to realize just how much needs to be improved. I'm not saying they should shoot for Xbox Live glory, but they should at least improve it.

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I think i agree with Mr.Kahn. This IS a step forward..for Nintendo anyway.It's only text chat ,but it does take care of what IGN complained 2 pages about. It will at least help you solve the questions like "play again?" or "what track?" We should seriously stop comparing every console with each other and just compare them to themselves. Because i mean if every console had the exact same features/functions wouldn't that make it really uninteresting? What ever happen to just having a love for ALL things games.

the amount of Nintendo zombies on this site is fucking SICKENING

heh

Update: noy really.

'not'

..............