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Mario Kart Wii is a 2008 kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. Within the game, players can participate in races on 32 different race tracks using specialized items to hinder opponents or gain advantages.
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How do you play?

Players drive around an enclosed arena and attack each other using items. The players are divided into two teams, red and blue, and teammates cannot harm each other with their items.

  • How do you play?
  • Players drive around an enclosed arena and attack each other using items. The players are divided into two teams, red and blue, and teammates cannot harm each other with their items.

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Mario Kart Wii features 24 playable characters from the Mario series, the largest roster of any Mario Kart game until the release of Mario Kart 8 in 2014.[5] The game features characters who have appeared in previous installments, including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong, and Bowser, in addition to characters such as Rosalina, Funky Kong, and Dry Bowser who are playable for the first time. Unlike Mario Kart DS, where characters can drive a kart exclusive to that character and the standard go-kart, each character is assigned to one of three different weight classes, which affects the selection of vehicles the character can drive.

Mario Kart Wii uses two different classes of vehicles, Karts and Bikes, with the latter being a new addition to the series. Bikes were also subdivided further into two categories: regular and sports bikes, with sports bikes featuring an alternate drift type known as inside drifting. Mii characters saved in the console's Mii Channel are also playable.[4] Thirty-six vehicles[6] are available in Mario Kart Wii, each of which has different properties that affect how the vehicle handles while driving. Half the characters and vehicles are initially unavailable to the player; certain objectives must be completed to unlock each one.The game features eight cups sets of four different tracks for a total of 32 unique tracks. Mario Kart Wii features multiple game modes: Grand Prix, Time Trials, Versus, and Battle.

Learn how the game was created

Mario Kart Wii's is the sixth game in the Mario Kart Series created by general producer, Shigeru Miyamoto, along with Hideki Konno, who worked with the Software Development Department at Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD).

The game was the first in the series to feature BMX motorbikes as drivable vehicles, an idea which Konno had proposed since Double Dash out of his passion for extreme sports but was rejected due to the seemingly bizarre image of Mario riding a bike. The game was briefly known internally under the name "Mario Kart X" before its final name was decided upon, referring to the "X" in the word "extreme".

To complement Mario Kart Wii's unique motion controls, a plastic, wheel-shaped casing for the Wii Remote was included with some versions of the game. The designers tested roughly 30 different prototypes of the wheel with different shapes, colors, and weights based on real-life go-karts.