Get the first details on the next Mario Kart game, direct from Nintendo's E3 press conference!
Although a Mario Kart game for Wii has been widely expected for quite some time, Nintendo made it official today by showing a brief gameplay trailer from what is tentatively titled "Mario Kart Wii". Due out in early 2008, the game features online racing and online battle mode (a first for the series) for an unknown number of players.
Nintendo is promising that new Mario Kart players will be able to keep up with veteran gamers, thanks to multiple control schemes. The game will also ship with a snap-on steering wheel for the Wii Remote, much like the one packed with two Ubisoft racing games at the Wii launch. The new accessory gives full access to the face of the controller, as well as an opening for the B trigger on the back. Like the Ubisoft wheel, this seems to be an inert piece of hardware -- its only purpose is to give you a different method of holding the controller.
It's worth nothing that all of the vehicles shown in the trailer were for single characters, unlike the dual-character karts of Double Dash on GameCube. During the press conference, Nintendo also mentioned that this game will have more racers than ever before. It was not clear whether this meant a larger roster of playable characters, more than eight racers on the track (a la F-Zero), or possibly more than four people playing the game at a given time. The latter has previously been implemented via LAN connection in Double Dash.
Mario Kart Wii is not likely playable at the show, but we'll be on the lookout for more information!