Consistently regarded by many as one of the best video games ever made, Super Mario Kart on SNES was originally released seventeen years ago and has spawned five sequels.

Burn rubber across 20 tracks rendered in fluid Mode 7 graphics, including many courses so enjoyable and beloved that they are still featured in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS today. Take on the original Ghost Valley, Bowser Castle, Koopa Beach and the infamously challenging Rainbow Road…

For 800 Wii Points you can go head-to-head with your friends in split-screen, enjoy the multiplayer favourite – Battle Mode or go solo racing against an all-star line-up of Mushroom Kingdom characters.

And it wouldn’t be Super Mario Kart without the sublime controls; power slides are super-precise and outmanoeuvring your opponents is still as fun now as it ever was. The only question left is: do you have the skill to dodge a red shell?

Now watch it and thank me afterwards.

‘I’m gna womp you motherfucker don’t even pretend’

A Tesla Black

At E3 when Sony blew the lid off a lot of new software titles, one that immediately stuck out was the LittleBigPlanet community-inspired kart racer, Modnation Racers. Based on the same premise as LittleBigPlanet, it’s as much a racing title as it is an engine to create things with, going with the motto “Race Create Share”. Lucky us, we got to have a go of the full game before it gets released to the masses.

Loading this title up is satisfying, as it has a very nice, bouncy way of explaining what the game is and what it does. With funky background music, a charming English gentlemans voice and graphics to match the nice vibes of this title, your introduction to what you do next couldn’t be better explained. Well, maybe if it had Stephen Fry to do a monologue.

Then the game places you in a courtyard, with some round-abouts and buildings in which to explore. This is a networked area, just like your pod in LittleBigPlanet, where other racers are zipping around, wasting time rather then actually racing. In here, there are some interesting tid-bits. First, there are display area’s showing the weeks top character creations (the Helghast, Ratchet and Mario look-a-likes have yet to be toppled from the podium) and the top three karts of that period of time. All of which are free to download and use by anyone. If you make a great creation yourself, it can’t get to a public display like this without actually “sharing” it. More on that later. A giant screen on the other side of the colourful courtyard also displays the top tracks, again, also fully downloadable as well as a list of the top racers.

A side section to this area brings you to the racing pits. A few gates exist here with one big statue of the Modnation default character in the middle. Here you can choose to race multiplayer, single race (time trial) & split screen. In our version, only the multiplayer and time trial options were available. Time trial is self explanatory, pitting your time against other Modnation Racers around the world. Multiplayer is the main draw here. There are ranked XP races, where XP will give you currency with which to buy items in the virtual shop (which during our test was not available) as well as “casual” races to play against other people. You can also host races on your own selection of self-created or downloaded tracks.

Level creation is so easy it's childsplay

Whether hosting or joining a race, the game will set you up in a game room party system, where users can join in based on the difficulty level and type of race they selected at the menu screen. In the code we had, there was no sign of creating a party of PSN friends but this seems like such an obvious thing to do that it would be madness not to include it at launch. Depending on the host settings, you can have a different number of racers going at it. Most seem to use 8 cars, and if racers don’t populate the server the host can choose to fill the empty slots with an AI car. In the lobby area pre-race you can chat to your friends or foes through mic or a text-based chatroom. On top of this, you can browse other users in the room, looking at a virtual gamer card system that shows their stats and creations – all of which you can download if the user has selected to share them.

Racing itself is fun. It’s mario kart in HD, on crack. The variety of cars and characters as well as communication makes this a bit more fun, and a more personalised experience then any kart game before it. The same rules apply as any other racing game, and balloons are strategically placed around the track (depending on who built it, of course) which unlocks weapons like electro-shock and tornado’s, or bonus skills like boost, or double-boosting. Speaking of, boost plates a-la Wipeout are in the game too, to aide you as you try to zip around the track as fast as possible. It’s worth noting that despite the variety of cars, they all pretty much travel at the same speed. It all comes down to skill and luck, just like any other karting game online.

However fun racing is, this game really kicks it up to a whole other level when it comes to the customisation. Personally, I had a wealth of ideas for LittleBigPlanet, which never got realised because the more challenging aspects of level design in that title were more difficult and time consuming then I wanted to put into it. While those tools were incredibly powerful and effective, for a cute side-scrolling level creator, I just didn’t want to invest that kind of time. I would rather go and learn how to do level design on a PC games engine, a-la Source to build Team Fortress maps. Modnation does not suffer this fate at all.

Guess who?

First, it’s worth noting that a lot of the customisation options were locked down for this demo, but there was still a lot to do and see, and nearly infinite combinations of styles to commit to. Character creation is a lot of fun. Using a default shape, you can apply textures and stickers to it, creating a cartoonish face and skin, adding clothes and “stickers” to it afterwards. My creation came out with a suit, helmet and face mask, making him look cute but with sinister headgear. I was incredibly impressed with my creation until I saw the amazing work of other creators who had built, from scratch, Mario &0 a Helghast trooper among others. Whether or not characters like Mario will remain in the full release has yet to be seen. One of the banes of the LittleBigPlanet community was parodying other titles, like Mario or Sonic, which instantly had your maps and hard work removed from their servers for fear of legal issues with the original copyright owners.

Kart creation is much the same. My Kart is a Ferrari formula 1 car. Of course, it looks like a cart but has wings and pods just like the F1 car as well as a similar paint job, featuring sponsorship and all! A lot of the karts are silly, made of cardboard with engines run on hamster wheels, including the hamster. Each engine available makes a different sound, so the starting line up can sound very interesting indeed!

Where the engine really comes alive is the creation of tracks. The tools here were limited again but the creations already available are mind blowing. When a full community with all of the tools open get their hands on this stuff it will blow this game out of the water. Creating tracks really is easy. You can change everything from the track surface, weather conditions and even the height and pitch of the ground. Seamlessly, without any odd loading times or hitches from the Playstation, and all in real time. It’s spooky how well it works. Once your track is complete you can auto-populate it with tree’s and houses surrounding the track as well as placing power-ups and boost pads…. or you can add all of that stuff yourself! Anyone with access to the beta that is currently running can find any of my tracks because I’ve tagged them with [ shoryuken.ie ]. It’s worth seeing my loop-dee-loop track that goes skywards before giving you a huge hill to drive down on… very fast.

Guess again...

Overall my experience with this title was fantastic. I was excited when I saw the developers at E3 show off their creation, but this will blow peoples minds when they see it. Once a community gets their hands on these tools it’ll be fantastic. Imagine creating a series based on the F1 tracks and drivers with friends, each week contributing to creating the next circuit? The possibilities are almost endless. Modnation Racers is definitely going to be a hit, and will definitely carry the “X Create Share” mantra into 2010.

There is no confirmed date for release, but the rumours indicate a June release for this one. We’ll keep you posted as we get news!

This is actually a photo of Ireland at the moment

This game does nothing new. Nothing, at all. It’s Mario. There’s little to discuss because it’s the same, tried and tested formula again. Sure, it looks nicer then older games, but it’s the same idea. Story doesn’t matter – just wonderfully imaged worlds filled with colour.

New features include Nintendo’s use of the Wiimote which almost mimics the SIXAXIS design. You hold the controller sideways like the SNES controller, with additional controls specific to certain gameplay modes and options being done by moving the Wiimote around, shaking it, etc. For example, some ramps show up that are controlled by tilting the Wiimote, allowing you to cross area’s, reach higher platforms or collect lots of extra coins.

New power-ups include a chopper-hat, which allows Mario to jump and fly up into the clouds to collect more “stuff” for a short period of time. There’s also a frog-suit (Mario 3) rip off in the Penguin suit which helps you when under-water.

This game feels like Mario. It’s hard to describe that, but somehow I doubt I have to. It looks fantastic, but my television is a big 40″ HD set, which makes the game artifact all over the place as well as generally look awfully pixellated in parts. Though it still looks a lot nicer then most other Wii titles on the market.

Rotor-suit is by far the best addition to the game

Adding the word “New” to the title is a bizarre move from Nintendo. The DS version of the game is not new, but still retains the title new. It also conjures up images of new design and thinking behind the title, but it has nothing of the sort. Hell, even the music is the same as old school mario music. I’m not complaining, the music is fantastic, but calling it “new” is a bit of a miss-sell.

Multi-player is fun, especially with 4 others in the same room. Very easy and is probably the only real way to enjoy this game. It’s potentially one of the best party games created aside from Rock Band. No one will say no to a game of Mario on the Wii. Just make sure everyone signs a waiver, as on a HDTV they may end up blind by the end of the session – squinting past the pixels and artifacts.

The game is not easy, not by any stretch of the imagination. 4-player games make it a little easier to take, and I’ve found trying to speed-run through levels makes it a littler easier as you ignore the enemies and burn through obstacles.

4-player co-op is great fun

There are 8 worlds which progressively get more difficult. There is a “super guide” to help you through the game after you loose 8 lives. Luigi will jump into a level you find difficult and will get you through the level itself. Most of the time you won’t need this, but that doesn’t mean it’s entirely useless – just like the level skip option in ‘Splosion Man. Your only concession here is that Luigi will not discover secret items and collect every single coin, but at least you get to skip through to the next area!

This is a nostalgic experience that doesn’t offer much to new players, ironically given the title. However, everyone is a fan of Mario and they’ll no doubt jump into this one very quickly. It is Nintendos only real offering this Christmas. Not a system seller by any stretch of the imagination, but if you own a Wii, this is as good an excuse as any to dust it off and give this game a go!

Some stages are wonderfully coloured, others can be dull and dark at times

Very rarely do we review Wii games here. Not because the Wii is a bad console, but because the Wii is a terrible platform for games right now – consistently being beaten down by what feels like its bigger brothers: the 360 and PS3.

But once in a while a title that isn’t featuring Mario or Link arrives that can really warm the cockles of your heart. This time, it’s the turn of A Boy & His Blob. This is a disc release, not a virtual console download. Probably one of the nicest, cutest and easiest platformers out there that uses the Wiimote in lazy fashion – just how I want it. This can be played in classic controller style, which appeals to old fogies like me a lot.

The game has a simple premise, you control a boy in a wonderfully rendered cartoon world, and you’re friend, who happens to be a blob, helps you go through platforming objectives by turning into ladders, holes in the ground, and so on. Your only real enemy are various sized black blobs (yours is white). It’s funny, this game hasn’t gotten any of the slack from the evil blobs being black that LocoRoco did. The claim there being that it was racist. The story follows the blob who lands on earth into the path of the boy after his home planet of blobbolonia…. you get the jist. This is typical Nintendo light & fluffy story telling.

Use of lighting effects on the hand-drawn artwork is wonderful

You control the boy and unlock abilities of the blob by collecting jelly beans as you progress through the game. These jellybeans are accessed by an in-game menu that pops up akin to Crysis, ironically. Each Jellybean is thrown on the ground for the blob to eat, and he will diligently perform whatever task assigned by said jellybean. These are mundane tasks such as becoming a hole in the ground, or a ladder but get interesting when you can parachute or make the bubble go around you in order to bounce around a stage.

This game came out originally on the SNES 20 years ago, designed by the Pitfall series creator, and was re-released earlier on DS, only to get a full port on the Wii. It features four main area’s and a total of 40 stages to platform your way through, as well as packing 40 challenge area’s.

The graphics are beautiful. The hand-drawn style really lends itself to the Wii, and it features some seriously impressive lighting effects that will whimsically make you smile like a 10 year old boy. The only downfall to this artwork is that throughout the game, a lot of motifs are re-played over and over as the four different stages of the game take places in roughly the same locations.

Blobolonia looks a bit Mario Land ish at times

To give this game extra cute factor, you can hug the blob for doing a good job. Or, alternatively, you can scold him for being a bad blob. Do both and you can probably scar the blob for life, turning him into a white trash hill billy blob that’ll undoubtedly raise a family of unruly young blobs to ruin Blobolonia’s suburbs.

Check this game out if you find it. I only stumbled across it and thought it looked interesting enough to dust off my Wii. It was released earlier on the DS so there’s a high chance of finding this in a bargain bin or second-hand shelf. It’s worth the experience. The full Wii version is due later this week.

My favorite is the Braid esc Mario one below but if you want to kill 5 mins and look at them all – here