played this for the first time last night and i was grinning from ear to ear for a solid two hours straight. would've been longer but i was due to get my arse upstairs.
i played one quick 50cc 4 race tournament. good stuff. beautiful graphics. nice controls. excellent options.
but
seriously..
mario kart
+
up to 12 players from all over the world on a lag free, superfast loading race and deathmatch mania
+ a collection of new and old tracks including some from the DS kart and some from the *squeaks with glee* n64 classic0
+inclusion of different kinds of carts and motorcycles
=
pure fucking win
this shit is so much fun. the n64 tracks are beautifully updated, but still identical to the original. i had so many pleasant, warm nostalgic feelings for playing the n64 for 8 hour sessions with four players on split screen back in 1997 while playing this last night.
on top of that, the system maintains the supremely lopsided luck so that those coming last get the best pickups whilst those coming first only get bananas. generally this could be annoying, but in this game, it's just heightens the excitement as it makes for closer and more wildly unpredictable final results.
it's real cute that when you join a room, you can see the mii's of each player waving from their respective point on the globe. :D
this is the shit i've been waiting for for 11 years. this is the shit i once fantasised about. last night i realised, from playing this that, despite my hellavalotta gaming experience in various forms, the past year to two year have contained the best video games console gaming of my life. what with the wii being released with the excellent wii sport to dragon ball budokai tenkaichi 2, to zelda to mario galaxy and heaps of other wii stuff to the xbox360's call of duty 4, halo3, gears of war and of course GTA IV. mario kart wii is strawberrys on the thick layer of icing on this sumptuous cake.
