Consider, for example, you are trying to achieve a double star rating. You need to take first place in all 4 races and be in 1st for most of the time and not fall off, etc. You may run a really good race but only get one star. And you next closest opponent’s rating? By the standard you are set to, they would get a silver trophy and probably get a rating of D or E.

This might be a criticism of the rating system, which we have discussed before. This may just be me whining. As human players, are we held to a higher standard? Should the ultimate objective be the same for all, human or AI? I can’t account for Super Mario Kart, but MK64 and MK Double Dash don’t have the star ratings and the only thing for the player is to finish in first place in the cup. In Double Dash, your point total is recorded, but does not determine if you unlock anything. I feel that this is ideal. Those games were still considered to be good games and were challenging, but maintained the same standards for all racers.

What do you think?

On the main screen of Mario Kart Wii, you can see the cups you’ve won as they are displayed on your license. This was a very good idea, it makes it very easy to see which race you’ll want to play next before you even start the game. The problem with this system is that it only shows you the medal you got (that is, gold, silver or bronze.) Unfortunately, there is no way for you to see your rankings.

I am in the process of trying to get a star rating on every cup. I know I have some star ratings for each class, but I can never remember which class I need to be working on. Class, however, is the FIRST thing I have to decide after I click on Single Player Race. Choosing Class first is not *bad* per-se, but I then have to choose a character, vehicle and drift type before I can even see the rankings that I have in each cup. At which point, if I have picked the wrong class I have to back all the way out and start over again.

Now, this could be easily solved by having a “View Records” tab, which actually showed you your racing records for each track and not a bunch of mildly interesting but mostly unimportant statistics. (Some of the statistics are neat to see and I do wish they had more of them, but that is not the point I am trying to drive at right now.)

But a second solution and potentially more beneficial one would be to simply choose the Cup right after the Class. First off you would choose a Class, then choose a cup. This way, if you chose the wrong Class you would only jump back one page to make your change. After choosing the Cup you could then choose your Character, Vehicle and Drift and you would be set to go. You could even throw in a “Here are your settings, all set?” page at the end.

Is this important? Overall, this really isn’t going to bother most gamers who play Mario Kart Wii. It’s a little thing. That said, little stuff matters. It’s the small fine tuned perfections that make a good game into a great game.

One of the worst things I think was done in the Mario Kart Series is to put coins on the race track. I know it was part of the original, and people make mistakes and can amend those. In fact, it was amended! Mario Kart 64 had NO COINS in it. But then it game back in Super Circuit.

Here is my biggest problem with coins: they basically make you drive in a particular path (or at least attempt to get you to go in that path) for the whole race. In my opinion, it is hard enough to get a good rating while battling with you opponents, attempting to stay on the course, and dealing with whatever else, even before dealing with the coins.

I think the idea that you have to have so many coins to unlock certain things (like extra cups) is actually a creative way of doing it, but I don’t think the number of coins should determine your rating. This is why when I have gold on all cup in Mario Kart Super Circuit (only one away) I will consider the game conquered.

Apparently, Nintendo developers (and possibly other gamers) had the same thoughts, as I do, and coins have not made an appearance on the race track since.

N64-Toad’s Turnpike (Mirror)-The definition of “fuster cluck”
SNES/GBA-Rainbow Road
Wii-Rainbow Road
SNES/GBA-Broken Pier
Wii-Wario’s Gold Mine

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while… compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360, the Wii is seriously lacking when it comes to additional content to games that you need to play with a disc or download. Now dont get me wrong, I want the game creators to put out the game they intended to make. It’s ridiculous when creators put out a game, and then make additional content available 3 weeks later. But I feel Mario Kart Wii was the game they intended and after almost a year and a half, it wouldn’t hurt to be able to download an expansion. This could even be more retro tracks, but people would eat them up!

I would totally pay 500 Wii points to get another set of 4 races to add to the current ones. Ideally, I would like to play all tracks from all games on one platform.

Am I asking too much here? Will a sequel be more likely than an expansion?

The original Mario Kart did not have blueshells. Blueshells were introduced in Mario Kart 64. The concept of a blue shell was that it would race ahead of you and attack the person in first. If there were other racers in the way, it would bowl them over in the process.

This was a great item for people who were in 7 or 8 place. It nailed the person in first but did a bunch of damage along the way. By hitting other racers it gave the last player a chance to catch up and get back in the game.

With Mario Kart Double Dash All that changed.

Now the blue shell had wings and flew along the track till it reached the person in first. Presumably this is because the tracks began to become more complex and had jumps and rockets and tunnels which didn’t allow for shells to follow the path easily.

This wouldn’t necessarily be bad, but what didn’t change were the requirements to get a blueshell. To get a blueshell you had to be fairly far behind, usually in 7 or 8th place. Consequently this weakened the usefulness of a blueshell.

No longer was a blueshell a helpful means of gaining ground, now it was an item of spite. Knocking out the person in first rarely helps the person in 8 or for that matter 12 place (I’m looking at you Mario Kart Wii). A blueshell tossed by someone who can’t possibly win is almost like making an obscene gesture. “I can’t win so screw you!”

A blueshell thrown by someone in last is more of a help to anyone in 2 or 3 place than anything else. A well timed/placed blueshell can determine who wins the race, but it gives the decision to the person in last.

It’s worth nothing that it is possible to receive a blueshell while not in last or second to last place, but it’s typically rather rare.

The blueshells themselves have different quirks, depending on which Mario Kart you are playing. It’s interesting to note their lock-on time. In some games it’s entirely possible to get hit with a blueshell while in second place if you are passed at just the right time.

Another quirk of note is the frequency of blueshells based on the mode played. I haven’t done as much ‘research’ as I would like, but with. Mario Kart Double Dash, in mirror mode, I can see 7 blueshells in one 4 race grand prix. On the other hand I can play through all 4 cups on 50cc and only see one blueshell.

Obviously, I would expect mirror mode to be harder, but a blueshell is the one item which only hurts one person. Every other item is capable of injuring anyone on the track. A blueshell is only guaranteed to take out one person. Frequent appearances of thus blue item is just punishment for the best racers.

So let’s think about this. If I’m a good racer, and good enough to get a half or a quarter of a lap ahead of my opponents, what good will a blueshell do? If I’m far enough ahead, I’ll stay ahead of everyone else, and if I’m good enough to get that far ahead, I’m good enough to get that far ahead again.

Now in Mario Kart Wii, it’s even less likely to get a blueshell if your in the top half of racers which I think is silly because there are 12 racers rather than 8. The proper place for a flying blue shell should be 2-5th place.

I can’t prove this, but it always feels like I get hit with more blueshells than anyone else. Granted, I tend to spend more time in first, especially against the computer players, but when other people are in first I don’t see as many blueshells as when I’m in first. Again, it’s hard to see blueshells if you are not in first or somewhere close, but I just can’t shake the suspicion that the computer hates me.

Only recently have I learned (about) a technique to dodge blueshells. It’s possible, but takes quite a bit of practice. Honestly, this just makes the blueshell even more useless, since it now neither helps any nor provides cathartic pleasure.

So what is the point of the blueshell? Items like the green shell or banana have had a constant mission throughout the years, but it seems to me that the blueshell doesn’t know what it wants to be. Some of this is Nintendo being stupid with their item choosing algorithms (but that’s a whole different blog post.)

What do you think about blueshells?