Below is an excerpt from his post:

Hated

Online play: OK, so this is the Wiis fault, not the game’s, but online play just feels so…impersonal. Mario Kart’s a series where multiplayer has traditionally been about shit-talking and good times, not racing some nameless, voiceless opponent. If ever a Nintendo game needed voice-chat, it’s this one.

Sterility: I can’t quit put my finger on it, but compared to previous MK games the whole thing just feels really…clinical. Maybe even soulless. This is most telling in the dry presentation.

Too Many Karts: I’m sure the idea of having more (there’s now 12) racers on the track seemed like a good one while sitting around the design table. And it looks good as a bullet-point on the game’s marketing. But for many tracks it just results in too many items flying around and too many (yes, there is such a thing as too many) cheap shots. It it’s not broke, why fix it, etc etc.

Item Unbalance: Mario Kart’s built around a principle of elasticity. Last can go to first, and first to last. But this time around, it feels like they’ve gone too far. Thanks to overly-powerful items like Bullet Bill and the return of the fucking blue shell, which as said above are being thrown around by even more racers, you’re no longer being challenged for being in first place. You’re being punished. Again, if it’s not broke, yada yada…

Wii Wheel: Perhaps the game’s single biggest let-down, since the new peripheral was all that was keeping this from being, well, a Double Dash 1.5. While it’s adequate, it just doesn’t work as well as a Nunchuk and Wii Remote.

Online Play: I have to agree with Luke on this one.  The online play system is just not up to part with Xbox Live or PSN.  It is definitely an improvement over previous Wii titles, but Nintendo is still leaps and bounds behind figuring out the online solution for the Wii.  Let’s all hope that they get with the program soon.

Sterility: I can see where Luke was going with this comment, but I think that you really have to get into the game with some friends in order to truly enjoy the way the worlds are modeled.  Its correct to say that some of the updated older tracks are a little lackluster, however, it feels like very organic Nintendo material.  Some of the newer tracks are nothing short of brilliant, and the bikes add a ton of fun to the experience.  I wasn’t sold on the tricks either until I started getting the regular boosts, which brought me back to the giggle inducing days of Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing for the N64.

Too Many Karts: I disagree with this observation completely.  I loved the feeling of having some many karts on the road, especially on the tight levels.  Think of taking the drivers in Formula 1 like Raikkonen and Alonso, going back in time to when they were five and tearing around in go-karts, and giving them banana peels to throw at one another.  One word: Awesome.  The multitude of karts forces you to up the intensity of the competition.  Yes, there are tons of shells and items flying around, but that is what Mario Kart is built upon.  If it were just a racing game, we would just have a cute, scaled down version of Gran Turismo with Nintendo characters.  But there are tons of crazy things to chuck around, and there is nothing more satisfying than dropping back to last place because of a Lightning Bolt, and then grabbing a Bullet to come charging back at your opponents.  Especially when you can take out seven or eight along the way.  That leads me to the next point…

Item Unbalance: The only item that I thought needed a little more tweaking was the Blue Shell.  It is a great equalizer in the tougher races, especially with friends, but I agree that it shows up way too often for the computers and that getting hit four times in one lap is quite ridiculous.  Perhaps Nintendo should have added a way to avoid the Blue Shell with a special combo/boost/giganto banana.

Wii Wheel: Here is the deal with the wheel.  It’s free with the game, or $15 through a retailer.  Don’t go out and buy four of them so everyone can use the wheel, especially because not everyone is going to like it.  But take my recommendation: play Mario Kart with the Wii Wheel before you switch to another control system.  Why?  Because using the wheel is so satisfying, especially when drifting around corners and counter-steering so you can get the double boost.  The whole experience on the Wii is built around physical game play, and although it may be easier to control with the Wii-mote and Nunchuck combo, you’ll really enjoy playing with the wheel once you get used to it.

Overall Impression: If you weren’t around for the Gamecube versions, or even if you were, you are going to enjoy Mario Kart Wii, and it will definitely be worth the money.  The addicting nature of the game is definitely still running strong, and this game definitely scores high marks on the fun scale.  Sure there are a few things that I wish were done differently, but I am extremely satisfied.  This isn’t necessarily a must buy, but if you call yourself a Nintendo fan, you won’t be able to have a complete library without this title in tow.

Official FatalVision Rating: Highly Recommended

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While it all looks like a bunch of latin mumbo jumbo, its actually really important for the designers. Normally you want to make sure that your font fits with the design of your site, but often the actual content or text hasn’t been written. This is where greeking comes in.

Greeking involves inserting nonsense text or, commonly, Greek or Latin text in prototypes of visual media projects (such as in graphic and web design) to check the layout of the final version before the actual text is available, or to enhance layout assessment by eliminating the distraction of readable text. Text of this sort is known as “greeked text”, “dummy text”, or “jabberwocky text”. Lorem ipsum is a commonly used example. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

In other words, by having unintelligible text, you can focus on the design of the site rather than getting distracted by the words you are reading. You can use any sort of text to greek, just as long as you can’t really read it.

The greeking I’ve use above was generated by Duck Island’s Greeking Machine.

You can render things in many different styles, including marketing and matrix-esque output.

SageFilio on Flickr

Fatal Vision is my collection of information about gaming, technology, and other related industries.  Thanks for reading, hope to see you back soon.