The 'Shroom:Issue LII/Should Have Been

Should Have Been by

Hey, everybody, it's your worst enemy everyday, tacky, friendly neighbourhood super-villain MrConcreteDonkey here, to present to you Should Have Been. Sorry there was no Should Have Been last month. There should have been, (haha) but I had exams which just consumed everything else like a chicken club sandwich.

This and last month I received no PMs about the thingy I'm doing. I can't remember what it is— oh yeah this. If you have a suggestion for a game I should cover, or want to suggest something that should have been in the game I am covering, just send cuttlefishCuller a personal message (PM) on the MarioWiki Forum.

So, let's-a-go! This month, with Mario Kart 3DS being announced at E3, I'm going to do Mario Kart Wii!

Without any further ado...

Any second now..

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I'm going to start writing it in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

SQUIRREL

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/13320_380062113230_314298658230_3943908_142668_n.jpg

What should have been in this game?
Starting off, I really enjoyed Mario Kart Wii. It had a great range of playable characters, fun tracks, cool features, great online capabilities, and smooth graphics. It was great to see Funky Kong making his Super Mario debut, among other cool things. Therefore, there isn't too much I think could have been improved on this game. But don't worry, because there's also some pretty cool beta elements! And I'll also nitpick like the fussy teenager that's inside us all!

Well, first, I find some of the unlockables a little too hard to achieve, especially if you go by number of races. Unlocking Toadette and Birdo is really easy via Time Trial, and hard via number of Vs. races, so, even though this is a pretty pointless complaint, I think that could have been a bit more balanced. Sometimes, when I try to go into an online race, I, being the klutz that I am, forget that I didn't turn on the internet. Which means for several minutes I just have to wait until I get an error. This is particularly annoying, so I think there should have been some kind of way to stop trying to connect. That might not have been possible, however, but I still believe something could have been done to improve that.

I find team racing fun. It adds an element of teamwork to the game, among other things. But with the maximum amount of racers in one race increased to 12, why not expand from the bland red and blue that have forever swept over the Mario Kart land? I think having at least 3 teams for team races and battles would have been much more competitive and much more chaotic, which is what Mario Kart is all about. Yes, racing has nothing to do with anything.

The Competitions are great; racing on tracks reversed and the like is fun. But one kind of Competition really hasn't been presented enough: bosses. There has only been two bosses in the whole history of the Competitions: number one was against a Spiked Topman on Galaxy Arena, a never-seen-anywhere-else, awesome arena. Complete with epic music. Then against a huge Pokey in Thwomp Desert. There should have been more of these new boss battles, especially with the world record time up for grabs. But that's it, just two. All Nintendo does now is repeat some of the old competitions. But I want new competitions, with more boss battles, and I hope some of you do too.

On the topic of online world records, hackers undeservedly hold world record titles by hacking a race to win almost instantly. For example, once on Toad's Factory, I watched a replay of a hacker just zooming into a wall and winning a race. I think Nintendo should have done something where they kind of patrol the online world records, taking away those of hackers and giving them to those who really deserve the title. Now onto a small side topic: '''WHY THE HECK DOES THE THUNDER CLOUD EXIST?! Okay, I've just found out it was all ''Mario Kart Arcade GPs fault, but come on! Why bring it back? There's loads of better items from the Arcade GP games. There should have been one of them...like...uh...

A thing I find disappointing about Mario Kart is that it never crosses over series. There's no cameos, if I remember correctly, from any other series. It's sad, really. Maybe there could have been a course based on another Nintendo series, or a character from said series (why did we have to get MII x2 COMBO?), or even a cameo. Sticking with Mario for the lose! Another thing related to that the series lacks is Easter Eggs. If you read my special section in Issue L, you'd know how keen I am on these things. The best secret this can present to us is some bland shortcuts and a bucketload of unlockables.

Beta elements
FINALLY. THE BEST PART.

Okay, there's not as much here as usual. First, there are some unused character icons for four characters: Paratroopa, Petey Piranha, Hammer Bro. and *grumble* Mii Outfit C (gets a C for originality). Paratroopa and Petey were both playable in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and, if I remember correctly, were the only characters not to return from that game. How sad, because they were two of the most awesome too.

Where's Mii Outfit C, you say?

...

Moving on, there were also some items that never made it out of the beta. Looking at the image nearby, you can see four beta items. The instantly recognizable one is the Chain Chomp, two others later being revealed as the Fireball and the Wiggler, which were apparently available in some special event or something? The fourth, however, remains unknown. The beta logo was different to the final one, as was the HUD. The design of the Standard Karts (S, M and L) was changed slightly.

Two beta courses were found, but both are pretty boring. One is called "old_mario_gc_b", and is basically just GCN Mario Circuit without the Chain Chomp, and there are no Warp Pipes (yet still there are Piranha Plants). The other is "draw_demo" - Mario Circuit with no lap or route data and completely trippy graphics. Scrapped sprites include a view of Mario in a Kart, the American flag, a Mii, a single Wii Remote (surprisingly not turned on its side), a Wii Wheel, a couple of lights and a retro Coin.

That's all, folks! See you next month! If you have a suggestion for a game for me to cover, or something that should have been in Mario Kart Wii, just PM cuttlefishCuller on the MarioWiki Forum. Bye!