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I broke down and picked up Mario Kart the other day. While IGN rates it high and follows that with praise after praise, I would like to append a few of my own gripes.

1. Blue Shell
Everyone complains about the blue shell, even IGN and XKCD does, but that won’t stop me. You can be cruising along, in the best race of your life, and BAM, the dude in last place slams you with a blue shell, while the guy in 2nd to last sends a POW your way, and before you know it, you’re in 10th place. This happens an understandable amount in 50cc and 100cc, but it seems a bit too coincidental in 150cc for it to be an accident. This would be fine, but there’s NOTHING you can do about it. *grinds teeth

2. Online Play *slow clap
Hey, 2001 called, they said congratulations for finally attempting online play and somewhat succeeding (yes, I know, 2003 called, they want their joke back). Online play is there, but comparing it to XBox Live, as IGN does, is laughable. Sure, going online to play against other real people is great, but trying to coordinate playing with other friends is impossible. I have to be in the online section to see friend requests, and they’re not queued. There’s no meeting engine, other than pure luck. You have to coordinate via phone, txt, IM, or some other communication media. With XBox live, you can be in ANY game and receive a friend request to play any other game. Then there’s the obvious lack of in-game shit-talking, which XBox Live does well too, but get into a game with one whiny 12 year old and you’ll be able to give or take that feature.

3. The Wheel
Yes, it’s neat. People can come over my house, and pick up the wheel and play along. But anyone who’s played any game with an analog stick will feel endlessly more comfortable with the wiimote/nunchuck combination. I picked that up and was able to fly through the game very comfortably. Use the wiimote/nunchuck in manual mode with mini-turbos and you’ll be a happy kart-er.

So, while online play lacks for me in terms of setup and communication, the game still gets like a 9.5/10 for playability in single player, local multi-player and online play. It’s definitely at the top my collection and won’t make it into the “sell at ebgames” pile anytime soon. If you have a wii, and you didn’t get this game yet, you are definitely missing out.