While many racing games emphasise Law over Chaos, Mario Kart has always strived to balance the two forces in near-equal amounts, which has always resulted in a kind of bizarre elixir of thrills, vindictiveness and complete addiction. Mario Kart Wii is classic Mario Kart in every respect, though at first glance it seems a lot more interested in tipping the balance toward Chaos.

The Wii iteration introduces some new concepts as well as a few novel features, which are far from a revolution but the key to Mario Kart's success is in not deviating from the original's mechanic. The first worthy addition would be the increase to twelve players from the previous limit of eight. What this means is that there are now eleven other racers baying for your blood and hurling a barrage of offensive (yet unmistakenly amiable looking) weaponry in an attempt to send you into the literal abyss. Thankfully, the pickup system has been designed to dish out powerups relative to a player's position in a race, but while being knocked out of first place and into last is far less tragic than it sounds, it does happen all too often. Of course, the riposte to that criticism is that Mario Kart's inherant random element keeps every single race a nail-biting experience, with no guarantees who will win until someone crosses the finish-line...which could be construed as just a poor mechanic but the players who learn the tracks and play their powerups at the right time will always finish races in the top tier.

Which brings us on to the next addition: stunts. Aside from the traditional pickups, Mario Kart Wii grants players a boost at almost every opportunity: the new tracks are strewn with boost pads, players can slip-stream to gain a boost, drift round corners to gain a boost, pull a wheelie on their bikes to gain a boost and now players can perform mid-air stunts to gain a boost. Pulling a stunt is as simple as shaking the steering wheel as a player leaves the ground, at which point they're treated to a brief Tony Hawk's style exhibition, then upon hitting the ground again receive a boost. Although pulling a stunt is simple, it's the mixture of knowing when and where to use any one of the boosting techniques that balance out that random element and add a masterable skill to each track.

It's a pleasant suprise to find the dreaded Wii Wheel is actually a very robust and accurate method of control. In fact, Mario Kart Wii can be played with just about any other peripheral avaiable for the platform but the Wii Wheel (which comes with the game at no extra cost) certainly deserves preferential treatment. The wheel itself is just a comfortably shaped piece of plastic that the real star of the show, the Wii remote, slots into.

The major selling point of Mario Kart Wii, especially with the hardcore Kart fanbase, will likely be the online mode. After a brief inital setup, joining an online race is a simple case of choosing your character/vehicle and you're away. The online aspect has been expertly crafted and even though online gaming is not, as yet, an integral part of Nintendo's strategy it easily surpasses many an Xbox Live title in pure ease of use (and without the hefty toll on moolah to boot).

While Mario Kart Wii may not be as revolutionary as say, Mario Galaxy, it continues to be a vessel for Nintendo's ethos of good, clean, simple fun...and bananas, apparently.

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