Mario Kart Wii FAQ

Release Dates:

Japan: April 10 (Confirmed)

Europe: April 11 (Confirmed)

Australia: April 24 (Confirmed)

United States: April 27 (Confirmed)


Starting Roster

Light Weight
Toad
Baby Mario
Baby Peach
Koopa Troopa

Middle Weight
Mario
Luigi
Peach
Yoshi

Heavy Weight
Donky Kong
Wario
Waluigi
Bowser

Unlockables

Light Weight
Baby Luigi
Baby Daisy
Dry Bones
Toadette

Middle Weight
Bowser Jr.
Daisy
Birdo
Diddy Kong

Heavy Weight
Dry Bowser
Funky Kong
King Boo
Rosalina

-Any Mii is playable-

Tracks:

Mushroom Cup:
Luigi Circuit
Moo Moo Meadows
Mushroom Gorge
Toad's Factory

Flower Cup:
Mario Circuit
Coconut Mall
DK's Snowboard Cross
Wario's Gold Mine

Star Cup:
Daisy Circuit
Koopa Cape
Maple Treeway
Grumble Volcano

Special Cup:
Dry Dry Ruins
Moonview Highway
Bowser's Castle
Rainbow Road

Shell Cup:
Peach Beach (GCN)
Yoshi Falls (DS)
Ghost Valley 2 (SNES)
Mario Raceway (N64)

Banana Cup:
Sherbert Land (N64)
Shy Guy Beach (GBA)
Delfino Square (DS)
Waluigi Stadium (GCN)

Leaf Cup:
Desert Hills (DS)
Bowser Castle 3 (GBA)
DK's Jungle Parkway (N64)
Mario Circuit (GCN)

Lightning Cup:
Mario Circuit 3 (SNES)
Peach Gardens (DS)
DK Mountain (GCN)
Bowser's Castle (N64)

Game Modes:
Grand Prix (1 or 2 players)
Time Trial (1 player)
Versus (1 to 4 players)
Mission (Unlockable)
Battle (1 to 4 players [Team play only])

Race Types:
Kart-Only 50CC - After completing press + for mixed
Bike-Only 100CC- After completing press + for mixed
Mixed 150CC

Confirmed Weapons:
Green Shell
Triple Green Shells
Red Shell
Triple Red Shells
Spiny Shell
Mushroom
Triple Mushrooms
Golden Mushroom
Mega Mushroom *NEW*
Lightning
Lightning Cloud *NEW*
Banana
Triple Bananas
Blooper
Bob-omb
Pow Block *NEW*
Star
Fake Item Box
Boo
Bullet Bill

Random Tid-Bits

-24 Playable characters

-12 player online races

-8 player online battles

-Online leagues, ranking and local ranking

-Most of the online ranking would be done from a whole separate channel (Mario Kart Channel)

-Online spectator option which allows you to view your friends races and join in at the start of the next course

-Text chat feature which allows you to select from a series of predetermined phrases

-Each character starts out with 3 Karts and 3 Bikes

-16 Brand new tracks

-16 remakes of old tracks

-10 Battle stages

-Mario Kart Channel can be downloaded to your Wii. This Channel lets you check up on a host of options without the need of inserting the Mario Kart Wii disc into your system, such as downloading other players' ghost times for the game.

-No Snaking!! Speed boost determined by how long you hold the slide, minimal if any benefit from snaking.

-Stunts will play a big part of the game, allowing the player to gain a boost after a stunt. Speed boost from landing, can be done on any size jump...substitute for snaking?

-5 Control options: Wii remote, Wii remote+nunchuck, Wii Wheel, Classic controller, Gamecube controller

-Improved items! Mushrooms tweaked to give more of a boost, mega mushroom = huge size, allows ploughing through objects. POW block, opponents must jump at the right time to avoid being hit. Lightning Cloud, gives temporary speed boost, but after a variable amount of time delivers electric shock to carrier, bump other karts to pass the cloud. Bullet Bill turns your kart into Bill and puts it on a speedy auto-pilot. Items can be turned off in multiplayer races.

-Steering has a larger 'dead zone' than Excite Truck did, meaning there's a reasonable degree of leeway in how much you can turn the remote before the kart starts turning. This gives you more control, since turning left and right require more deliberate turns in that direction, rather than the way it was in Excite Truck where the slightest rotation of the remote made the truck start to turn leading to all sorts of slippery-slidey shenanigans as you frantically turned the remote left and right just to straighten up.

-If a player is hording an item, you can drive into them and bump it out of their possession. It will spill out on to the track and you can pick it up by driving over it.

-One addition is the ability to see and hear when a player is coming up from behind with a power-up. When a shell or a powered-up racer is approaching your rear, a visual icon will jump up beneath your cart and the Wii Remote speaker will play a warning sound to let you know.