Since Sunday, I've been playing alot of Mario Kart online. The online is pretty impressive for a Wii game in my opinion. It is virtually lag-free, and the team battles are a great addition. In case you haven't played the game, I'll give a quick rundown of the new features.

When first starting up the game, you are presented 4 "Licenses" . Each license serves as a file, which keeps your time trials, Grand Prix trophies, and online records all neatly displayed on a 5 page record. On the face of your license it displays your face/Mii, friend code, and your Grand Prix trophies.

There is also a downloadable Mario Kart Channel, where you can download ghosts, add online friends, and check if they're online, among other things. In Grand Prix mode there are 8 cups to choose from. The Retro cups return, and the graphics for the Retro stages have been improved, and the tracks have been enlarged to fit the 12 players (did I mention there are 12 on the track at a time?). There are also several Karts, Bikes, and characters to unlock. The major difference between the older versions is that, instead of each character having their own Karts, each weight class(three in all) has their own set of karts, and bikes. Which brings me to the next new feature, the bikes.

The bikes are basically karts with more sensitive drift, and you can pull of mid-air tricks for boosts, along with wheelies. Over all, the karts are a great addition, but take some getting used to if your a veteran of the series.

The biggest change in the series though, would have to be the Wii Wheel, whichcomes packed in with the game. You snap a Wii remote into the wheel, and it's ready to go. It's basically just a wheel shell, like the Wii Zapper, but adds a sense of realism to the game. You press 2 to accelerate, 1 to brake/reverse, the D-pad to throw/drop items, the A button to look behind you. There is also a choice between Auto mode(The B button uses items, and drifting is automatic, and doesn't give you mini-boosts) and Manual mode(Press B to hop, and press B while turning to drift, which can be used to give you mini-boosts, and Super mini-boosts).

Now, onto the multiplayer. You can play with four friends on the same Wii/TV locally in splitscreen, like any old Nintendo game, and you can also play 12 other players online, whether you know them or not. Two players can use the same Wii to access online, and after picking your character, kart/bike, and whether to play either Worldwide, Regional, or with friends, the game searches for other people wanting to play. After the players are found, it shows a weather channel-esque globe, that shows you the players you are playing with, complete with their names, Miis, and a vague location, before putting you into the game. If the race isn't over by the time you enter the room, you watch a live rendition of the people you are playing with in a spectating mode. After that you enter a timed menu screen that shows all the players names, and their ranking points*, or battle points* if you are playing a battle. After that you select a stage, which is put onto a roulette with the other characters choices, and the roulette chooses the stage, followed by the race. After the race it shows what place everyone came in, and how many ranking points they gained(or lost) and askes you if you want to continue, or quit. If you select "Continue", you race with the same people in the next race. Battle mode happens the same way, but it randomly chooses whether you play a balloon, or coin battle, and is broken up into teams.

Now I will briefly explain Ranking/Battle Points. You start the game with 5000 of both, and when you place in the upper half of the ranking, you gain points, the person in the middle doesn't lose, or gain any, and the lower half loses points.

And that's the end of my wall of text, I'll post my code ^up there^ above the blog title before friday. So if you want to play, just leave your code, and I'll add you. I'll be playing mostly on week-ends, and if you want to play Brawl, I still play that too! So just comment, and I'll see you guys on WFC!