Mario Kart Wii was released for the Wii in 2008. The first I ever played was Mario Kart Double Dash on the GameCube. I have also played the Wii version and didn't like it quite as much but then I heard the same thing from people who played the Gamecube version after playing the Nintendo 64 version. I think this is one of those games that you tend to like the first version you played the most.
My initial dislike for Mario Kart Wii came from the motion control aspect. While holding a steering wheel in the air to steer with is a neat gimick, it really doesn't give you quite the same level of control and ends up being more frustrating than fun in the long run. Playing with the standard Wii controller is ok but it's really just not as good as using the GameCube controller. Also, since the Gamecube version was the first one i played, I got used to having two characters and switching back and forth between them. The Wii version goes back to having only a single driver.
Mario Kart Wii provides 16 new tracks along with 16 classic tracks from previous versions of the game. This seems to be the formula with these games - include a bunch of new tracks and some 'best of' tracks in each new version. Maybe one day we will get a version that includes all of the tracks ever made.
One thing I find particularly annoying with Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS is that they dropped support for online play. I suppose this comes with the territory of modern online games and centralized game servers but it sure is annoying. I miss the days of being able to host your online game without the need for centralized servers.
Whining aside, the Mario Kart series, including the Wii version, is a great series of games and is still one of my favorites. Mario Kart Wii is still a great game, even if you can't conveniently play it online any longer.
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