I’ve long asked MTV News reporter Chris Harris to stop writing about legal shennanigans and heavy metal stars and blog some about video games. So I go on vacation and he sends me a report about how he plays “Mario Kart Wii” as a character called Y’all Suck:

I’ve always had a thing for sociology, and anyone who knows me – truly knows me – will tell you I take great pleasure in getting a rise out of complete strangers. On the street, in the subway, while standing on lines – I always do and say things to get a reaction.

Call it an ongoing sociological experiment, to see just what I can get away with and how patient people can be.

Read more…

Dear Nintendo,

I’m writing you in hopes that you can address some of the issues that I have had since I began playing “Mario Kart Wii” late last week.

I’m about as big a fan of the “Mario Kart” series as you can be. I remember purchasing “Super Mario Kart” using a $10 coupon from the back of a Nintendo Power. I’m the one guy who played more “Mario Kart 64” than “Golden Eye.” “Double Dash,” and “Super Circuit” were both system-sellers for me. I bought the DS version the day it was released. I’ve even fed more than the cost of any of the aforementioned games into a local “Mario Kart Arcade GP2” arcade machine. In other words, I’ve always loved the game.

But I feel more than letdown with “Mario Kart Wii,” and I was hoping you might be able to explain yourself.

Please don’t get me wrong, there were some aspects of this game that I really enjoyed. In fact, they were some of the things that I expected to dislike the most. Motorcycles, wheelies, and tricks were all new to “MK Wii” and it turns out I really enjoyed taking advantage of them. The new courses are also, for the most part, a standout feature, of which I would have loved to see more. I also applaud your use of the remote’s speaker - it really adds to the experience. For these things I commend you.

However, there are some things that I didn’t like. Read more…

Box art is a big deal.

That’s why when a game’s artwork is off for some reason, the game company offers to send you a new one.

That’s also why last November Rockstar revealed the box art for “GTA IV” with this elaborate wall painting.

And after waiting and waiting for what seems like forever, “GTA IV” finally hits stores this week. Since no game is too big or too small for our shallow assessment, we continue onward with our weekly feature of judging games by their cover art. First things first…

“Grand Theft Auto IV” (Xbox 360, PS3)
What the Box Tells Us: Rockstar relies on formulas. Ever since “GTA III,” all the covers for the franchise have been designed in similar fashion — game characters, vehicles and one lucky lady grace the cover, Hollywood Squares-style. While the number of boxes and ratio of vehicles to characters is different each time, every single cover has a helicopter featured in the top left corner. What does it all mean? I have way too much time on my hands because I’m staring at box art and still waiting for the game to come in the mail. Gimme.
Love It or Leave It: Maybe I’d love it if I could see it up close. *cough cough*

Read more…

My co-workers often act like they have better ways to spend their every waking minutes than playing video games. But I know that they’re all secretly crazy for this stuff. Case in point, colleague Michelle Rabinowitz, she whose arm I had to twist to try “Echochrome,” recently offered this confession about “Mario Kart“:

“Around these parts I’m known for nerding out on election results and campaign ads, but during my senior year of college I pretty much nerded out on one thing…Mario Kart. I spent most of my spare time playing “Mario Kart 64” with my four housemates in our dump of a residence. Stephen Totilo’s coverage of the new Wii Wheel and “Mario Kart Wii” brought back a flood of memories…including one I’m kind of embarrassed I mentioned (since he asked me to blog about it).

“We actually renamed parts of our college campus (big ups Wesleyan University) after the game’s 16 tracks. For example, a trip to the deep-fried campus eatery WesWings might include a shortcut through Yoshi Valley. My bike was stolen from Choco Mountain behind the science center. OK, it might be time for me to buy a Wii.”

***

Note from Stephen: clearly, it’s healthy to share. If anyone else has a gaming confession they need to make, let us know.

There are five official ways to control “Mario Kart Wii.” But what if you wanted to explore some other options?

Gaming blog Joystiq has done a wonderful job putting each of the five official control schemes through a very scientific round of tests.

But they missed two additional controllers.

With the help of the RetroPort connectors from RetroZone “Mario Kart” fans (sort of) have the option of using their old NES and SNES controllers. Unfortunately, much like “Super Smash Bros. Brawl,” the game is virtually unplayable with both of them.

While both feel significantly better in your hands than the Wii Wheel, they only offer the ability to give your cart gas and reverse. Since the controllers plug in via the Gamecube ports, they are treated as Gamecube controllers. Because of that, the steering is mapped to the non-existent analog sticks, while the tricks are mapped to the directional pad.

You can drive straight back and forth, but that’s it. Sadly, there’s no drag racing in “Mario Kart.”

With the help of the SNES controller I was at least able to look behind me.

Read more…

Since the last entry, I….

*Raced a few races in “Mario Kart Wii.” And. I. Enjoyed. It. This was a shocker. I thought I was immune to “Mario Kart”’s charms. I never had the SNES version. I played the 64 edition a lot (but almost only in single-player). I dabbled with the GCN and DS games and thought my life’s quota of “Kart” was complete before this Wii one came out.

But I discovered last night that the surprisingly smooth online service for “Mario Kart Wii” might make me a fan yet. Matchmaking with non-Friend competitors in Australia, Japan, and Germany (all for the same race) happened in the blink of an eye. A pre-race globe showing each competitor’s Mii standing atop their region offered a welcome sense of identity to otherwise anonymous and voiceless opponents. The races themselves went off with nary a hitch. I even came in third once, despite having no “Kart” skills. (I’m already down to 4760 skill points, after starting at 5000).

The “Kart” users seem evenly split about the Wii Wheel. I raced six or seven races last night, and about half of the competitors in any race were using the packed-in wheel shell. I didn’t notice any advantage among Wheel users or non-users yet, but I’ll keep watching.

Another positive: the ghost system works great, briskly downloading ghost after ghost to my Wii for me to compete against, all generated by Europeans who have had the game already.

I also really like the idea of Wii games that download channels to the system. You wind up with a stripped-down version of the game, basically a stat-checking app that feels similar to things like a Bungie.net or a Facebook application. It’s a great way to keep a gamer thinking about a game even when they have another disc in the drive.

*Claimed a few more stars in “Super Mario Galaxy.” I’m now at 87. I have to say, King Kaliente is a pushover. And, what do you know, the game still is able to surprise me, even though I thought everything had been spoiled. Red stars. Who knew?

*Played a little more “Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII” and am still wondering if anyone out there knows what determines the level of Limit Break attacks. Why do I do Octoslash Level 1 sometimes and Octoslash Level 4 other times?

Next: They wouldn’t send me “GTA IV” to play on a Thursday night, would they? Probably not. I think Thursday night is a “Galaxy” night.

Just got a copy of “Mario Kart Wii” in the office. Too bad my Wii is at home.

So what can I share with you fine blog readers about a game I can hold but not play?

A few things I learned from unboxing the game:

If I like “Mario Kart Wii,” I should also check out “Wii Fit.” I do love the pamphlets in game boxes that hype other games. It helps you determine who the publisher thinks their game is really for. In this case, the three games recommended are “Wii Fit,” “Mario Strikers Charged” and “Super Mario Galaxy.” Two of these games have Mario on the cover. The third has a woman doing yoga. The “Wii Fit” description emphasizes exercise. It does not mention or show that you can use the game to ski.

The Wii Wheel comes with its own instruction manual, which really must be the result of some law. Why else would I need three pages of operating instructions?

Once I take this game online I will immediately have 5000-point skill rating. The manual indicates that the number will diminish if I start losing; will increase if I ever win a match. Interesting idea for online rankings to not start a player off at zero.

You can register people as “Mario Kart” friends without exchanging friend codes — sometimes. According to the manual’s section about the game’s online lobbies: “If there are players in the room who are not registered to your friend roster, the Register icon will appear. Select it and press “A” to ask them to register you as a friend. If the other player accepts, you can register each other without exchanging friend codes.” That’s progress, though I believe this only works in lobbies where you’re already playing with registered friends. It’s the non-friends who get into those matches who you can befriend, not total strangers who you encounter in the general worldwide match play.

That’s all I can figure out without playing this final copy of the game. Hope that’s useful! Did I mention the game is rated E and has comic mischief?

OK. OK. I’ve got nothing left.

(Want to see the Wii Wheel in action? Check out some “Mario Kart Wii” videos we posted a few weeks back.)

The week of April 27 is going to be one of the biggest weeks for video games ever. Both “Mario Kart Wii” and “GTA IV” will be released, only days apart.

The games have the potential to cause gamers a dilemma, the likes of which hasn’t been seen this side of November in a long time… which game are you going to play?

“Mario Kart” and “GTA” are two distinctly different experiences for two distinctly different groups. They are on two (well three) distinctly different consoles.

So, which one is for you?

I’m firmly in the “Mario Kart” camp, because “GTA” almost caused me to fail out of college. I fear my life could suffer similar repercussions. I swear I’ll actually get around to “IV” before the summer.

An internal poll of avalible Multiplayer contributors asking which is the game of their choice yielded these results:
GTA IV: 1 Vote
Mario Kart: 1 Vote
Both: 1 Vote

So… which game is going to get your hard-earned cash?

(Below is part of my latest GameFile column about my recent hands-on and feet-on with “Mario Kart” and “Wii Fit“. For the full thing, check out MTVNews.com.)

Game demonstration events run by Microsoft and Sony still consistently feature much more macho Xbox 360 and PS3 entertainment than the kind of stuff at Nintendo’s showing last week. The centerpieces of their lineups are usually first-person shooters or action-combat games. Instead, a visit with new Wii games has me asking questions like: “What’s this penguin mode here?” (It was a “Wii Fit” balance game that dresses a Wii owner’s Mii avatar as a penguin; requiring the player to tilt the penguin’s ice floe so he or she can catch fish.) Only at a Nintendo event am I wondering if the female characters parking cars in the middle of the track in the “Mario Kart Wii” Coconut Mall race course can also be based on Miis of friends and relatives. This is console gaming at its sunniest.

Nintendo isn’t shy about this kinder, gentler lineup of games. This is the style of Wii game showcased at last year’s E3. It’s the style of Wii game set for the spring, games designed more to make you laugh or improve your digestive health than to grit your teeth.

Check out the rest of this column at MTVNews.com.

What’s the Wii Wheel good for? I played “Mario Kart Wii” with it this morning. Watch the video and see how it works and (in the second clip) how it compares to remote-only “Kart” controls. Watch the second video after the jump to see which method I preferred.”Mario Kart Wii” comes out in in North America on April 27, bundled with a Wii wheel…

As with all MTV.com videos, it is not available to anyone using computers with IP addresses in Japan, the U.K. and Canada (sorry, Mr. Iwata!).

Read more…

The “Mario Kart” series is undisputedly my second favorite Nintendo franchise (”Smash Bros.” wins the top spot), and when I see the opportunity to play the newest game in the series I seize it.

Unfortunately, the newest entry I had an opportunity to seize last night wasn’t the much anticipated “Mario Kart Wii.” It was a version that most people will never actually get to bring home: “Mario Kart Arcade GP 2.”

Haven’t heard of it? It is the second in a series of Namco produced full-on, sit-down style “Mario Kart” arcade cabinets. When I heard about the original “Mario Kart Arcade GP,” I was convinced that a “Mario Kart” arcade game would never make it stateside. However, on Wednesday, upon wandering into my local Dave & Busters in Times Square, there it was, like a Japanese beacon from the gods, calling out to me to come and play. My time had come for me to spend my hard earned money on some arcade style “Mario Kart”ing. Having never even seen the first in it’s full electronic glory, I was pretty shocked to find this fairly rare machine, and I was already to go.

I only had time for a handful of races, but it was long enough to see that the game was simply amazing, and I can only hope that the forth coming Wii version takes note of some of this version’s nuances and ends up at least as enjoyable.

Read more…