Mario Kart Wii — Is There Life After Nintendo WFC?

Mario Kart Wii, released worldwide for Wii in April 2008, is the sixth installment in the racing video game series Mario Kart by Nintendo. Like with the previous installments, the main idea of the game is to compete in various kart races and to use special items scattered across the race tracks to slow down your opponents and gain advantages. With 37,24 million copies sold, Mario Kart Wii became the best selling game of the Mario Kart series, the best-selling racing game and the best selling Mario game for Wii. The game originally supported online multiplayer options via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but as of May 2014, along with other Wii and Nintendo DS games that allowed online play, the feature has not been available anymore due to it being discontinued.

A screenshot of the now-discontinued Nintendo WFC online play feature. Ah, the nostalgia…

At the time of its release, the game consisted of four game modes, Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus and Battle, where Versus and Battle modes were available for up to twelve participants worldwide via online play, regional and worldwide rankings included. I feel like this was a really enjoyable feature for many fans of the game and seeing it getting discontinued really made it feel like a big part of the game was lost forever, the remains of it haunting you every time you open the game.

There they are, right under Single Player and Multiplayer options, reminding players of the times when those features were still available.

So what does the game have to offer now, you might ask? Though one of my favourite features of the game is no longer available, the game still provides a lot of fun and enjoyment for family game nights, and we can still hold Mario Kart Wii tournaments like we used to before the online feature got discontinued, as long as we get all participants around the same console. If you are one of the so-called Mario Kart Wii veterans like me who loved the online play feature, feel free to mourn the loss of the feature with me as you wish it’d one day return, and if you’re a newcomer who never even got a chance to try it, don’t worry – those Japanese lads felt almost unbeatable anyways.

Grab your Wii Wheels and enjoy the many different game modes and race tracks the game has to offer for up to four players — the enjoyment is still there!