Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

When Mario Kart Arcade GP was first mentioned in February 2005, I immediately assumed the game would come to Gamecube. The lackluster Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (which was a fun game for a while but eventually went flat) really needed to be left behind, and the look of this game really had my attention.

Of course, it never did make it to the Gamecube, but I have a feeling some of the resources, or at least some of the concepts, are going into Mario Kart for Wii.

This is Mario Kart Arcade Grand Prix, by the way:

The arcade machine supports four-player network matches, so the concept is solid for online play on the Wii with four players. This is also how online play works in the DS Mario Kart, up to four players. Note Namco characters in there, as they had a hand in building this game.

Sorry about the lousy video. IGN’s videos are nicer, but they’re not embeddable.

So here’s a look at what I want to see from Mario Kart Wii.

Lots of tracks.

The retro circuit was a great feature in Mario Kart DS, boasting sixteen tracks taken from the earlier Mario Kart games. Each of the four cups in the retro circuit had one track each from Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Super Circuit, and Mario Kart: Double Dash, recreated carefully in the Mario Kart DS engine. A brilliant idea, lots of nostalgia effect for those of us who’ve played older Mario Karts, and having the original songs come back (composed for the new hardware, sounding great) was a nice touch.

Take it one step further and give me access to all the tracks from all the earlier Mario Karts, even if I have to unlock them, in addition to many brand new tracks. A mirror mode track does not count as a new track. They’re fine, but they don’t count.

Oops, adding this in now, thanks Dannyboy. I had this in mind when I started the article then completely forgot: We want a track editor. Diddy Kong Racing on DS has it, and more and more Nintendo titles are showing up with level editors. Leaving this out would be pretty mean of Nintendo.

Lots of drivers.

There have been 25 different drivers spread across all the games in the series. I want all 25 in Mario Kart Wii, and maybe some new ones. Give us eight to twelve to start, make us unlock the rest. Take a tip from Mortal Kombat Armageddon, they did this. I’d be happy with all the old ones and no new ones, in fact. I’d even be OK if they left out Waluigi, because he’s stupid.

Not so many cars.

There were something like seven karts you could use for each driver in Mario Kart DS. I only use two or three, and I can’t imagine anyone else wants that many to choose from. Use the resources freed up by dropping the extra karts to add more drivers.

Online play, with mixed races and in-race chat.

This was in Mario Kart DS and I decree that it shall henceforth be a standard for the franchise. It’s OK if it’s only four drivers per race, but it has to be there. Let me play online, wearing a headset, and laugh my head off as I get slammed by a red shell at the finish line. Let me race with people who aren’t on my friend list at the same time as I’m racing with people who are. It’s OK if I can only chat with those on my list. Let everyone in the race who’s got my friend code hear me laughing.

Precision rule control.

In multiplayer of any kind, online of off, I want to be able to set rules for the game. Rules such as… no snaking. No blue shells. No banana peels. Things like that which the game can restrict. Don’t get me wrong, I love blue shells and banana peels. But if I don’t, let me turn them off.

You’ve heard my list. What do you want to see in the next Mario Kart?