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Mario Kart Wii is a game that is played on the Wii console and is the eighth installment of the Mario Kart series overall. Just like every Mario Kart game, Mario Kart Wii includes new features such as new race courses, along with other older that appeared in past Mario Kart games, more like its predecessor Mario Kart DS. New items and characters were included, as well as an increased number of players for the races. Mario Kart Wii also introduced the use of bikes that vary in capabilities along with the classical karts. Game modes are also present such as the Grand Prix, Versus, Battle and Time Trial, many of them making use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for worldwide online play.

A Wii Wheel, designed from the ground up for the Wii, is included in every Mario Kart Wii's package. Mario Kart Wii is, however, compatible with other controllers as well.

This game requires 23 blocks on the player's Wii system to save game data. Also, the game data cannot be copied. As a result, players are not able to transfer this game data onto another Wii. The game also includes its own Wii Channel called the Mario Kart Channel which allow players to play in special tournaments and trade their racing profile with others around the world. This channel uses 74 to 88 blocks (depending on from which region the game came from), but unlike the game data, players can copy the channel onto their SD cards.

Basic Controls

• Accelerate: When drivers hold down the corresponding button, the vehicle goes forward.
• Steer: Steering lets drivers move around corners.
• Brake: Braking slows the vehicle to an abrupt stop.
• Reverse: The driver's kart goes backwards if the driver holds the brake button. If a vehicle reaches maximum top speed, the vehicle will drift instead.
• Look Behind: Drivers can look behind their vehicle. In this way, drivers can be alert from other drivers incoming to steal their place. Drivers can also use this feature to see where they are going while backing up, or to aim a weapon at an opponent following up. This feature once appeared in Super Mario Kart.
• Drift: Drivers drift to keep the vehicle's speed and take corners much easily, with the benefit of getting mini-turbos. The feature can be set to happen automatically or when a button is held.

Advanced Controls

Koopa Troopa performing a Rocket Start.

• Rocket Start: Drivers can perform a speed boost at anytime when a race begins. If drivers hold down the corresponding acceleration button right after the countdown timer displays the number two, then he/she will receive an extra speed boost when the word GO! appears on the screen. However, if drivers hold down the acceleration button for too long and when the countdown ends, their engine bursts and they get an even worse start than a regular one and take a few seconds to recover.
• Mini-turbo: When drivers drift for a reasonable amount of time varying on the vehicle used, blue sparks erupt from the vehicle's rear tires. Releasing the drift button gives them a short burst of speed. In a kart, drivers can keep drifting for longer periods to get orange sparks and a longer boost. However, orange sparks cannot be created on bikes. Of course, the drifting stats of the vehicle used also matters. Drivers can also perform a "standing mini-turbo" by holding the brake and drift buttons at the same time. A mini-turbo can't be performed when drifting is set to automatic, but the standing mini-turbo can.
• Tricks: Drivers can pull off a trick when they jump in order to gain a momentary mini-turbo. Drivers can perform a trick by flicking the Wii Remote, pressing the on Classic Controller, or on the GameCube Controller in any direction when going off a ramp or hill. They obtain a speed boost when landing.
• Wheelie: Wheelies can be performed only when drivers ride Bikes. Drivers can increase their speed when they lift up the front of their bike. While drivers hold the front of the bike up, the bike can hardly turn. The wheelie can be ended by braking, hopping, waiting for the wheelie to end, or simply setting the Wii Wheel or Wii Remote back down or pressing . If drivers are bumped into while they are performing a wheelie, they lose most of their speed.

Modes of Play

Luigi in a mirrored Mario Circuit 3.

• Grand Prix (1 player) In this mode, drivers race against 11 other CPU players in a quest to finish first. There are eight cups to choose from, ranging from the most to the least difficult. Drivers earn points by placing within twelve positions (see chart above.). A driver with the most points at the end of the four races wins the cup.
• Time Trial (1 player) Drivers race for the fastest time on a selected course. The fastest record is able to be raced again as a ghost. Drivers can also race staff records, Regional Records/Champions (WiFi must be used,) World Records/Champions (WiFi also must be used,) and Friend Records (Friend must be registered, friend must send the ghost for Ghost Races, and WiFi also must be used.)
• VS Race (1 to 4 players, up to 12 online) Drivers can race to their own custom settings, but it is otherwise relatively the same to Grand Prix, other than the fact that drivers can see the other racers' character's names.
• Battle (1 to 4 players, up to 12 online) Drivers team up with each other in a battle for the most points. Items only work against the other team so it won't have an effect to the driver's team. The player can only select the Standard Kart or Bike. There are two ways to battle:
  • Balloon Battle: Drivers get points by using items to hit their opponents. If drivers lose all of their balloons, one point is deducted.
  • Coin Runners: The goal for drivers is to obtain more coins than the other team. If drivers hit opponents, opponents drop their coins. However, the certain amount of coins fall depends on the item that hits the player.
• Ghost Race (Mario Kart Channel, 1 player) A Time Trial race with ghosts made by players around the world with relatively the same skill level to the actual player.
• Competition (also known as Tournament) (Mario Kart Channel, 1 player) Drivers compete in a timed competition with specific goals (see list below). This mode serves as the replacement of Mission Mode from Mario Kart DS. New tournaments are posted twice a month.

Other information

• Additionally, in this game, both normal races and battles are playable online through the use of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC). This is the second game in the series to utilize the WFC and the first to allow for online battles. Races and Battles will now cater up to 12 players via Wi-Fi connection [1].
• Just like Mario Kart DS, it is not possible to play Grand Prix with multiple players. Players can now only win cup trophies by playing alone.
• In Battle Mode, the player can only play in teams. Also, the Spiny Shell makes its first appearance in Battle Mode. It chases the player of the opposite team with the most points. Also the Thunderbolt is an item in Battle Mode. It shrinks the drivers of the opposite team and makes them lose their items, but does not take a balloon or drop coins.

Competitions

A list of Competitions or tournaments up to the current one can be found here.

Baby Mario collecting coins in Tournament Mode.

Mario Kart Wii introduces a new mode for the Mario Kart series, entitled "Competition Mode" (also known as Tournament mode in the North American versions). Competition Mode is somewhat similar to Mission Mode from Mario Kart DS. Competitions can be played on the Mario Kart Channel, so as long as the Mario Kart Wii disc is in the Wii. Competitions require an Internet connection, and WiiConnect24 to be turned on before they can be played. After a while, a competition is retired to make room for a new one. However, the rankings of older competitions can still be viewed on the rankings table.

Types of Competitions

• VS. Race - A standard VS. race; however, race courses are somewhat altered.
• Time Trial - A standard Time Trial; however, race courses are somewhat altered.
• Numbered Gates - The player must drive through ordered gates as fast as possible.
• Coin Collecting - The player must collect the coins on the stage as fast as possible.
• Boss Battle - The player must fight against a special boss.

Licenses

An example of a Mario Kart Wii license.

Licenses replace normal save files. It is the first Mario Kart game to feature save files.

Each license contains users' data, their Mii, nickname, Friend Code and a table including all categories and cups with an empty space. After a cup is won, the corresponding space is filled in with a colored square: gold for first place, silver for second, bronze for third. If at any time the Mii being used for Mario Kart Wii is deleted from the Mii Channel, the in-game Mii is also deleted.

Friend Roster

A friend roster.

Players can add different people around the world on to their Mario Kart Wii Friend Roster. Two people need to add the Friend Codes on their licenses. There are 5 people on each row, with 6 rows. So, a player can have up to 30 people on their Friend Roster.

If two people are friends on a roster, one can open a room, which allows who is ever friends with the person to join that room. In the room, the players who joined can send messages. If a player who added the person who created the room, and another person joins and the player has not added them, they have an ability to do so. The host of the room can choose a VS Race, Team VS Race, Balloon Battle, and Coin Runners.

Items

Mario Kart Wii includes three new items: the Mega Mushroom, the POW Block and the Thunder Cloud. Items can be earned by driving through Item Boxes on the courses, just like in previous games. Once a player has done so, an item will be selected via the Item Roulette. In general, players tend to obtain a weak item such as a banana or a green shell when they are in first. However, if players are in second or a lower place, obtaining a powerful item such as a red shell or a Thunderbolt is more frequent. Usually, the lower the place of the player, the rarer and more powerful the item he/she gets.

Mushroom	Triple Mushrooms	Golden Mushroom	Mega Mushroom
Item Box	Fake Item Box	Banana	Triple Bananas
Green Shell	Triple Green Shells	Red Shell	Triple Red Shells
Spiny Shell	Star	Lightning	Thunder Cloud
Bob-omb	Blooper	Bullet Bill	POW Block

Drivers

Twelve Mario characters are available from the start, while twelve more can be unlocked for a total of 24. They are separated into these three categories:

• Small: Small drivers are able to drive small vehicles. They usually have a good acceleration and off-road stat, but low top speed and weight.
• Medium: Medium drivers are able to drive medium-sized vehicles. Most of the karts show average acceleration, weight, and off-road.
• Large: Large drivers are able to drive large vehicles. They mostly feature high top speed and weight, but low acceleration, handling, and off-road.

Starting Drivers

Mario Medium	Luigi Medium	Peach Medium	Yoshi Medium
Baby Mario Small	Baby Peach Small New	Toad Small	Koopa Troopa Small
Wario Large	Waluigi Large	Donkey Kong Large	Bowser Large

Unlockable Drivers

Daisy Medium	Birdo Medium	Diddy Kong Medium	Bowser Jr. Medium
Baby Luigi Small	Baby Daisy Small New & First Appearance	Toadette Small	Dry Bones Small
King Boo Large	Rosalina Large New	Funky Kong Large New	Dry Bowser Large New

Daisy 150cc Special Cup or 2,850 races should be won

Unlockable Mii's outfits

Mii outfit A (Racing Suit, blue Mii logo) Special Cup in 100cc or 1,650 races should be won

Mii outfit B (Overalls/Dress, red Mii logo) Expert Staff Ghosts on all 32 courses in Time Trial mode, 5,000 WFC Races, 5,000 WFC Ghost Races, or 5,100 combined races/battles should be won 

Bonuses

Vehicles

There are 36 total vehicles in the Wii installment (Here can be seen all the karts and bikes [2]). 18 karts, 18 bikes, each divided into the 3 weight classes, making 6 and 6 available to each character, 3 and 3 to begin (thus making half of the vehicles unlockables). Each has 7 stats which are shown during character selection:

• Speed: How high the top speed of the vehicle is. This does not affect off-road travel.
• Weight: How heavy a vehicle is. With a higher weight, the player can knock lighter characters away by ramming them. Bikes are usually lighter than karts, but there are some exceptions, especially when size classes are applied.
• Acceleration: How quickly the vehicle's top speed is achieved from a non-moving position.
• Handling: How tight the vehicles can normally turn. Usually opposes the drift rating.
• Drift: How tight the vehicle turns while using the drifting maneuver. Usually opposes the handling rating.
• Off-Road: How much speed the vehicle retains when off of the track. A low rating of this can cause a near-standstill for the vehicle.
• Mini-Turbo: When using the manual drift option, how effective a mini-boost will be. While all vehicles can perform a blue spark mini-turbo, only karts can execute a yellow spark mini-turbo.

The following table includes: vehicles in order of class primarily. The last half of each of these six sub-sections are the way the vehicle drifts (whether it's an internal drift or an external drift) and the unlockables; the right-hand column describes the requirement to unlock it: if it is a single cup, it must be simply won. The stats are displayed with number values, with the units being out of 80.^[2]

Vehicle Types

There are six "types" of bikes and karts (as almost every kart has a bike with similar stats):

Note: It is hard to determine each vehicles statical. Value vehicle type is subjective and the type names are conjecture.

• Standard: These are well-rounded and are suitable for beginners. Examples would be the Standard Kart L or the Bubble Bike (Jet Bubble).
• Speed: These are very fast and have a good drift, but have poor off-road and acceleration. Examples would be the Wild Wing or the Bowser Bike (Flame Runner).
• Control: These are rather slow and have low drifting, but feature excellent control and high off-road, making them mirrored to Speed vehicles. Examples would be the Baby Booster (Booster Seat) or the Bon Bon (Sugarscoot).
• Cruiser: These control similarly to Control types, but have more speed, acceleration, and drifting. However, they have less off-road and handling, and are also lighter. Examples would be the Quacker or the Nostalgia 1 (Classic Dragster).
• Rally: These vehicles are almost perfectly well rounded, but have top notch off-road in return for very poor drifting. Examples would be the Rally Romper (Tiny Titan) or the Rapide (Zip Zip).
• Jet: Normally unlocked later in the game, these vehicles are incredibly fast and relatively heavy, but are poor in all other stats. Examples would be the B Dasher Mk. 2 (Sprinter) or the Torpedo (Spear). Oddly enough, these vehicles have a slightly better acceleration rating than the Speed type vehicles, but they have lower handling and drifting.

Tracks

Wario races towards a steep downhill portion of Wario's Gold Mine.

Including both retro tracks, from all five previous games, and new tracks.

Race courses are divided into various Cups again: Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup and Special Cup for new courses and Shell Cup, Banana Cup, Leaf Cup and Lightning Cup for old courses. Notably, these are the same as Mario Kart DS.

All tracks have three laps, regardless of length and difficulty.

New Courses

There are sixteen new courses in Mario Kart Wii.

Ghosts

In Mario Kart Wii, there are Normal Staff ghosts and Expert Staff ghosts. Beating the normal staff ghosts by a certain amount of time unlocks the Expert Staff ghosts. Unlocking Expert Staff ghosts can help unlock certain characters and vehicles in the game. Below are two tables: the first shows the Normal Staff ghosts, while the second shows the Expert Staff ghosts.

Normal Staff Ghosts

Expert Staff Ghosts

Game Artworks

Drivers

Mario	Mario	Mario	Luigi
Peach	Yoshi	Toad	Baby Mario
Baby Peach	Wario	Waluigi	Koopa Troopa
Donkey Kong	Bowser

Glitches

Blue Fake Item Boxes in a Solo Race

This glitch only works in multiplayer. The first player needs to start a team race. When going to the review teams screen, the player needs to go back and start a solo race. If player one selected the blue team, when they trail or throw a fake item box, it will be blue rather than red. However, as with the normal, red item boxes, anybody can trip on these blue fake items in a solo race.

Cacti Pokey

The pokey trapped between the cacti.

In the Thwomp Desert tournament, if the player has the Pokey head rolling around the area, it may occasionally get jammed between three cacti, making it unable to roll around. When this happens, it will shake in place. This glitch makes the Pokey an easy target.

Character with a Mii head

This can only be done in multiplayer. First, play as a Mii in multiplayer. Only one player has to make it to the parade. It doesn't matter between players 1 and 2. Next, play a new multiplayer game, and use the "Selecting the Same Character" glitch. Both players must make it to the parade now. If so, one player will seem to be wearing a hat with their mii's head on it. If done with a princess, and the princess is on a bike, one princess will be normal, but the one with the hat is wearing the dress. (It is only able to be done with the real characters coming in first and second, though this is still unkown for the moment.

Double or Nothing

Occasionally when the player runs over a thin horizontal strip of a rainbow boost pad (like the ones in the beginning of Rainbow Road) they will sometimes get no boost or their boost will be done twice. This glitch will usually happen at high speeds in 100cc or up and in a heavy kart or bike.

Incorrect Music

In Dry Dry Ruins/Koopa Cape, right when the player leaves the ruins/tunnel, if the player gets hit by a Spiny Shell, if done correctly, the music from the ruins/tunnel will be playing throughout the entire course. If the player is on lap one, the music will keep playing until they exit the ruins/tunnel yet again. If they were on laps two or three, the music will return to normal when they cross the finish or enter the final lap.

Jittery Topman

In the second Spiky Topmen tournament, if the player pushes a Topman while it is very angled, as if it is going to land on its side, and it stops on one of the gaps that separate one of the outer rings, it will be in some fast, jittering, frozen animation. This glitch can also happen if the second Topman pushes the other Topmen, but both of these techniques are hard to do and are rare to see.

Misplaced Item Box

In the second Spiky Topman tournament, if the player falls off a certain area of the Galaxy Colosseum they can see a misplaced Item Box, all the way of the bottom of the pit.

Neck and Neck

Occasionally in an online race if the player gets to the finish line first while there is an opponent who necks the player but doesn't pass him/her, the player in the lead will be in the position that the "necking" player was at in the score board after the race.

Selecting the Same Character

The same character glitch.

The invisible kart with the second player.

This glitch works only for multi-players. Each player has to select the character, then de-select him/her and move the cursor off. Then, the players press B to go back one screen. When returning to the characters screen, the player should notice how the ring around the selected character is flashing two colors. If the player observes what happens when one player actually selects the character, all the other players have the same animation running too. When a race finishes, the second player's vehicle is invisible.

Topman Transport

In the second Spiky Topman tournament, if the player pushes a Topman to the outer ring of the Galaxy Colosseum (but not over the edge) and then the outer ring starts to fall, it will still try to attack the player while the ring falls. Therefore, the Topman will somehow transport itself from the falling outer ring back to the main stable platform.

Using the Wrong Vehicle

The Wrong Vehicle Glitch.

When moving on towards the Kart/Bike selection screen (with the above glitch activated), if one player has a bike and one is in a kart, the player on the bike may look as though they're riding in a kart and vice versa. It does not affect the actual gameplay, and the players play as the character normally.

Wrong Animation

Sometimes when the player is watching a live Wi-Fi race, the player in first place who already past the finish line will start doing the fifth place and below animation while/or a racer(s) in fifth place or below will start doing the fourth place and above animation. Although it is more likely for the player in first place will do the wrong animation.

Wrong Clothing