Jaquette Wii de Mario Kart Wii, Mario et Luigi lancés en moto

Mario Kart Wii: the wheel, the bikes and 37 million sales

1645 words | Reading time : 8 minute(s)

GameMario Kart WiiNintendo Wii

A plastic wheel in the box, and racing opens up to everyone. Released in April 2008 on Nintendo Wii, this entry introduces bikes, tricks that earn a boost and a grid of twelve pilots. With 37 million copies sold, it long held the series record.

In the timeline of the Mario Kart series, the Wii entry holds a place of its own. It sits between Mario Kart DS (2005) and Mario Kart 7 (2011), but it is the one that brought racing into homes that had never held a controller.

All its appeal lies in one great balancing act: the most accessible face of the saga, laid over a competitive scene of rare harshness, one the community still mods today.

Contents

April 2008: racing finds a new audience

Mario Kart Wii was released in April 2008, first in Japan, and then in Europe and North America. The console was by then in millions of living rooms, and the game aimed at the whole household: its mission was to democratise.

It was developed and published by Nintendo, by the in-house Nintendo EAD team that has handled the series since Super Mario Kart. On production duties, Hideki Konno oversaw the game and its wheel: he had stepped back from directing in the mid-2000s to become the saga's regular producer.

The title belongs to the line of Wii masterpieces from the Satoru Iwata era, alongside Super Mario Galaxy (2007) and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, all of them built for a new audience.

The Wii Wheel, the item that opened up the series

The big new arrival is neither a track nor a character: a hollow plastic accessory without a scrap of electronics, into which the Wii Remote slots. One comes in the box, and extra wheels are sold separately.

Steering relies on the motion sensing of the controller: tilting the wheel turns the vehicle, and a flick triggers the stunts. Four control schemes coexist.

  • The Wii Remote on its own, held sideways or slotted into the Wii Wheel.
  • The Wii Remote paired with the Nunchuk, for stick steering.
  • The Classic Controller, closer to the series' habits.
  • The GameCube controller, in the ports the Wii had kept.

Same logic on the driving side: an automatic drift welcomes beginners, while manual mode keeps all its depth.

Bikes, wheelies and tricks: driving rewritten

This entry introduces the bikes alongside the karts. The line-up runs to thirty-six machines, half karts and half bikes, split evenly across the three weight classes.

The signature mechanic of the two-wheelers is the wheelie : front wheel in the air, the bike picks up speed on the straights, but its handling degrades and the slightest contact drops it back down.

The balancing follows directly from this. Karts keep the two-stage mini-turbo, while bikes only reach the first stage and get the wheelie in compensation.

Then there is the invention that spread across the whole series, the tricks : as you leave a bump or a ramp, a flick of the Wii Remote triggers a stunt that grants a boost on landing.

One last change of scale: the grid goes from eight to twelve pilots per race, on track as well as online.

Twenty-four pilots, a Mii and a reworked arsenal

The roster brings together twenty-four pilots, half of them to be unlocked, plus one brand-new recruit: the player's Mii becomes a fully fledged pilot. It is also an entry full of first appearances.

  • Baby Daisy is born here, with no game of origin and no plot to introduce her: a roster creation before being a story character.
  • Baby Peach, born on DS in 2005 in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, takes to the kart and never leaves it again.
  • Rosalina, unveiled by Super Mario Galaxy the year before, makes her debut as a pilot.
  • Dry Bowser becomes playable for the first time in the saga, with Dry Bones in the same wave of promoted skeletons; King Boo, for his part, signs up again after Double Dash!!.

Unlocking is the hidden face of this very welcoming game: getting Dry Bowser requires at least a One Star rank on every 150cc cup made up of the new Wii tracks, or 4,350 races completed.

The game harbours the most merciless meta in the saga: Funky Kong, an unlockable character and one of the fastest heavyweights in the game, paired with the Flame Runner bike, crushes the competitive scene so thoroughly that the title inherited the mocking nickname Funky Kart.

On the item side, the Mega Mushroom makes its first appearance in a home-console Mario Kart: it enlarges the pilot and their vehicle, grants immunity to off-road terrain and most items, and flattens rivals, who drop their inventory. The POW Block becomes a rare racing item that makes everything driving ahead of the player spin out.

The Thunder Cloud is the electric variant this entry introduces as a usable item, a hot potato you get rid of by bumping into an opponent. The Lightning Bolt is reserved for pilots placed ninth or lower, the Golden Mushroom peaks around tenth place, and the blue spiked shell still flies: this entry closes the winged trilogy.

Thirty-two tracks, online play and 37 million copies

The track offering follows the same principle of abundance: thirty-two tracks, sixteen brand-new and sixteen retro drawn from the five previous entries. Among the new layouts: Toad's Factory, Coconut Mall, DK Snowboard Cross, Koopa Cape, Maple Treeway, Grumble Volcano, Moonview Highway and the closing Rainbow Road.

Dry Dry Ruins is the game's Pokey track, those cacti that cost precious seconds; Peach Beach from Double Dash!! returns with its Cataquacks, beaked bouncers ready to catapult a careless pilot off the track.

Online, the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection brings together up to twelve players worldwide, continent-wide or between friends, with a points system; a Mario Kart Channel centralises rankings, ghosts and competitions. Battle mode, for its part, is played exclusively in teams.

The service closed in May 2014, and fan-built servers took over: the game remains very active thanks to mods, CTGP Revolution chief among them, which adds hundreds of custom tracks.

Commercially, the verdict is clear-cut: 37 million units. Only Wii Sports does better on the console, but it was bundled with it in most regions. The series record held until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Critical reception was very favourable, with two reservations: the randomness amplified by the twelve-strong grid, and a Battle mode locked into teams.

Mario Kart Wii at a glance

Type Racing game
Developer and publisher Nintendo (in-house Nintendo EAD team)
Release April 2008
Console Nintendo Wii
Tracks 32 (16 new + 16 retro), in 8 cups
Vehicles 36 machines, half karts half bikes
Pilots per race Up to 12
Sales 37 million units

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FAQ

  • Is the wheel included with Mario Kart Wii?
    Yes, a Wii Wheel comes in the box, and extra wheels are sold separately. It is not an electronic accessory: the Wii Remote slots into it and does all the work.
  • How many tracks does Mario Kart Wii have?
    Thirty-two, in eight cups of four races: sixteen brand-new layouts and sixteen retro layouts drawn from the five previous entries, from the Super Nintendo to the DS.
  • What do the bikes bring compared with the karts?
    The wheelie, which gives a burst of extra speed on the straights at the cost of degraded handling. In return, bikes only reach the first level of mini-turbo, while karts get two.
  • How do you unlock Dry Bowser in Mario Kart Wii?
    You need to earn at least a One Star rank on every 150cc cup made up of the new Wii tracks, or complete 4,350 races.
  • How many copies has Mario Kart Wii sold?
    37 million units. Only Wii Sports does better on Wii, but it was bundled with the console in most regions. The record then passed to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Thirty years of racing

From the Super Nintendo to the Switch 2: our guide traces the whole Mario Kart series, its tracks and its items.

🏁 The complete Mario Kart guide →
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