Jen McGinlay, Sarah Toom, James Pllu and Keegan Friel took part in our Mario Kart Grand Prix.  Check out the action below!

Here's what everyone though about the game:

Jen
Great fun, potential to get very competitive or maybe that's just me. Most annoying that I was in 1st place several times across the 4 heats then another character would strike me with lightening or cast an Alice in Wonderland spell (drink me) so I turned into a mini-me. However it only served to make me want to play again and again (so I could learn how to do it to) - it's very addictive.

Sarah
Oh, MarioKart my old friend.  Grew up on the game on SNES as a kid and this is the next generation.

It’s way better on Wii, I think, because you’ve got the steering wheel in your hands and it feels more realistic than tapping buttons on the keypad.  I like that you get more choices for characters to be, than in previous versions.

But I was way disappointed by the sound effect that gets played as you enter your final lap in a race.  On SNES, it was this intense, impending-doom, urgent sound effect that let you know it was crunch time to speed past all the rest of the racers.  On this Wii version, I wasn’t obvious to me when we entered the final lap. But I’m just being picky now; it was good fun though overall!

James
Mario Kart on the Wii was fantastic!

I was slightly concerned that I was concentrating so much on winning that my tongue would be hanging out, I don’t know why I do that.

The Wii is great fun to play and with the controllers having no wires, I was worried I’d get over animated and start to race around the room, willing myself into 1st place. Sadly, my competitors showed some great competition that I had to settle for 3rd place (would be a bronze had it been the Wii Olympics J ) although I’m sure I could improve my placings with more practice.

It was my first time playing Mario Kart and the track is fairly easy enough to navigate. The trick I found was to be aware of picking up the bonus options as you race round the track and when to deploy your tricks (if you get any). There is the option to gain some booster rockets which can help you gain a lead over your rivals and also you can pick up banana skins to make those in your trail slip up. Stupidly I deployed my banana skins when I was already in last place but I’ll put that down to experience.

Overall the game was great fun, you can play either on your own against the Wii or up to 4 players so its perfect if you’re solo or have a crowd round. If only driving on the real roads was this much fun.

Keegan
I think the most gutting thing was that I brought Mario Kart in to the office, practised it to no end – and I still lost!!! That’s the good thing though, that anybody can win because of all the bombs, missiles and banana skins, nobody is certain to win because anything can happen. A very enjoyable game, especially if there’s more than two of you playing. I think it’d be just as entertaining watching people play it seeing them go crazy with the Wii Wheel. Definitely worth the buy!