All right. I promised part 2 of the SSBB review, but I just had to play the new major title that came out:

Mario Kart Wii!

 

To start with, I'll give you a heads-up of why it's so cool.

A new device comes packaged with this game: The Wii Wheel.

The Wiimote fits into this device, and you hold it just like you would a normal driving wheel (well, 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, at least).

The awesome part about using this is while you drive your kart/bike, move the wheel's top edge upward when you go off a ramp, and you'll perform a trick!

And they're pretty cool at that, too.

 

Well, whenever you perform a trick, when you land (and you will always land safely on your wheels), you are immediately rewarded with a turbo-boost. Pretty awesome, huh?

If you're a bike, when you drive on a straight part of track, when you move the wheel's top edge, you pop a wheelie! And if that isn't cool enough, when you do it, you accelerate a lot faster, and that additional speed lasts for about 4-5 seconds before it fades away.

 

So I have played through all of the 50cc Kart tracks, 100cc Bike tracks, and about halfway through the 150cc Bike & Kart tracks, and I like it a lot.
I still have to get used to turning a little bit, since it does differentiate between karts and bikes.

For one, bikes turn a lot sharper than karts - and that's actually mentioned in the instruction book (like anyone reads that anymore, huh?).
So this can be a sudden shock when going from one type to another.
Two, I have yet to figure out how the best way to hold the wheel for turning. Sometimes it's perpendicular, others, it's about a 45 degree angle.
So when I sometimes need to make a sharp turn, I'll often fly off or crash into a wall, or go around a circular tube, completely losing my sense of direction.

But these two "problems" just come from not having practiced enough.
Anyone who plays Mario Kart Wii is going to have to practice a little bit before they actually get used to the controls - that's a dead given.
I introduced my friends to this game Sunday, and each had a bit of frustration with the Wii Wheel. After a bit of time, they were a little more used to the controls (we won't mention the Rainbow Road incident, however).

I have found a few worthwhile straightaway stretches of track to pop wheelies to speed ahead with my bike; tilting the wheel down to end the wheelie takes a little time to get to work - sometimes the angle you hold the wheel when driving won't register when you tilt it down. Thankfully, you can press B to end it.

The downside to B? You immediately start to go into a drift, and if you aren't prepared for the turn, you'll start drifting opposite of where you want to go, and then completely lose it (position, items, sense of direction, etc).

So all in all, I really like Mario Kart.

 

Oh yeah! This is the best part ever!

Nintendo really, really, I mean really, outdid the online service for Mario Kart Wii.

There are NO glitches, NO hangs, NO delays, NOTHING!

It is in my eyes, flawless...only downside could be is not finding 11 more people to play online with at any single minute of the day.

But you'll often find at least 4 other people to race with.

It's pretty awesome how you hook up to a match - if you came online in the middle of the race, you get to spectate through the remaining part of the race, usually from the viewpoint of the pole position (read: the guy in 1st place), but a few times I've seen the lead get thwomped (no pun intended) before the race ends.

Even spectating has no drawbacks!

 

Yup, you can do it online! However, there is a difference from track selection on Mario Kart DS.

In Mario Kart DS, majority ruled.

But in MK Wii, everyone picks, and then the choice is randomly selected; this means if several people select one specific track, there will be a higher probability the track will be selected, but often times it will not be.

 

For online racing, you're given a default Virtual Ranking (VR) of 5000. This will go up and down with each race, depending on how you place. The other factor is racing against other people with higher rankings than you. From what I've noticed so far, if you beat someone with a way higher ranking than you, you will gain a lot more points than had you beaten someone with a score lower or equal to your ranking.

 

As with any game, you're going to have to take some time to get used to the controls to truly enjoy the great control design.
(Thankfully, I didn't have to tilt the wheel as much as mentioned by my friend at NOA.)
All in all, I strongly suggest you go and buy it!
It's much better multiplayer than single player at first (since no one's practiced - ever)...so bring your friends along and start playing!

My score: 9/10.