Mario, Me & The Wii

If there's one topic that makes me feel like an old fart, it's computer games. At 29 years of age, I've grown-up with computers my entire life. Between the ages of 4 and 11, I played on a VIC-20, Commodore 64, Amiga, Gameboy and NES. From 12-19, I moved onto a Super Nintendo, Playstation and Playstation 2. But, after leaving my teenage years and heading into my twenties, the internet and using computers for "serious work" (like, er, blogging) became more interesting to me...

I was tempted to get a Nintendo Wii last year (the future came early with its motion-sensitive remotes), and the Blu-Ray capabilities of the Playstation 3 might earn itself a purchase soon (if the price drops below £200). But, other than buying a £30 GameCube off Ebay a few years back, and receiving a ("non-Lite") Nintendo DS as a Christmas gift, my gaming life is practically dormant now.

But I have a weird connection to that lil' plumber Mario. The sole reason I got a DS was to play the brilliant old-school Super Mario Brothers game (no 3-D tosh, just side-scrolling coolness), and I also snapped up Super Mario Kart DS. Meanwhile, my GameCube basically became an arcade machine for Super Mario Kart: Double Dash.

I just love Mario. It's a childhood thing fuelled by nostalgia. But only the classic-style games, mind. I never liked Mario-64's 3-D world, and Mario Sunshine on the GameCube was dreadful. The Wii's Super Mario Galaxy does look inventive and challengng, but I prefer my Mario simple.

That's why Mario Kart is so utterly, utterly brilliant. The graphics get better every incarnation, but it's essentially the SNES original with improvements. Mario Kart 64 was weak, but every update since then has been wonderful. Mind you, it's strange how the battle modes have never replicated the giddy experience of the SNES ones, but that could be because multi-player gaming isn't anything special these days. Remember when the SNES multi-tap (four players!?) seemed like nirvana?

Super Mario Kart Wii is out today in the UK! Yipppeee! You can ride around on motorbikes! You can do mid-air stunts! You can be super-sized with a mushroom! You can get a speed-boost if you hang around in another kart's slipstream! There are more courses, including classics ones! You can buy a special steering wheel (just £7 each)! But the best thing about it all must be the online experience. Yes, you can race against karters from around the world! Nintendo even have a ranking system, so you can try and become the best karter in your neighbourhood, country, continent, or even the world! How amazing is that?!

And relax. Okay, perhaps I'm a bit too exciting about this. I'm scaring myself now. This is "a kid's game" after all, and I'm pushing 30. But I have such fond memories of playing Mario Kart on the SNES in the 90s. It really was the Best Game Ever. It was also the only game my dad would want to play with me and my brothers. I'd often find him lingering around my SNES, ready to thrust a gamepad into my hands, with a two-word greeting: "battle mode?"

I don't have a Wii, so I can't get the latest Kart game, sadly. I'm tempted to buy a console just because Mario Kart Wii is out, but I can't justify it. They're still £180 (more with a game?) and it would become an expensive dust-collector in 6 months. If I was 12, Mario Kart Wii would be played to death every day after school -- but I'm an adult now.

I'd perhaps manage to play on it for an hour after work, but then I have stuff to do: ironing, cooking, cleaning, shopping, other tedium, etc. Yawn. I understand why some people have kids now; it’s so they can loiter around their toys and relive their youth...