It was never going to be much of a surprise headline but Mario Kart Wii is quite fabulous and is so far my favourite Mario Kart ever. Why? Automatic slides. It's a REVELATION I tells thee!
This means that as well as being easier to control so letting you concentrate on bombing your opponents before leaving banana skins for them to slide on, it also means that your mum probably has a reasonable chance of actually beating you. To be fair, Mario Kart is the only motorsport game she'd probably ever want to play anyway. The wheel is a neat little incentive to people who aren't really keen on gamepads and adds to Mario's sweet, almost Disney-ish charm. It is very responsive and can take just a little time to get used to - I guarantee that most players will initially spend the first five minutes making swooping steers off to the left and right and cursing as they end up facing the wrong way.
There's a cute mixture of new and old in this game too. There is, as ever, a number of levels from the many previous Mario Karts for your racing pleasure (and there are a limited number of variations on a race track I suppose - Bowser has enough property to make Donald Trump look a bit skint).
On the new front there are motorbikes!!! These as well as allowing you to do tricks for speed bonuses also give you the giggles every time you see Mario's podgy arse on them. Another of my favourite new features is the ability to play, and be absolutely creamed by, players from all over the world. You can also create a Mario Kart channel to document all your ghost runs, best times and invite others to beat them.
All in all, this is an incredibly fun game to play which is showing no signs of getting boring. It's going to be difficult to get a copy of this in the immediate future but it really is worth it. We're already looking at a strong contender for game of the year.
