System: Nintendo Wii

Publisher: Nintendo

Reviewer’s rating: ***

ESRB rating: Everyone

Game type: Racing

Kind of like: “Super Smash Bros.” with cars

Best feature: The new slipstreaming technique adds another trick.

Worst feature: Fundamentally, this is the same game we’ve been playing for years.

The bottom line: Perhaps at Nintendo, when they were trying to think of a name, “Mario Kart Wii” is all they could come up with. After all, it’s still just “Mario Kart” — but for the Wii.

A few things have changed, but this is really the same game we’ve been playing for a long time now.

It’s still a good game, easy to learn and always full of funny events when you play with friends. In “Mario Kart,” you drive a little go-kart. As you race, you run over boxes that give you items you can use to mess up everyone else.

The primary difference with the new game is the controls. Although you can play with a Classic Controller or a GameCube Controller, you can use the new Wii Wheel. This isn’t really a new controller so much as a wheel-shaped holder for the Wiimote. You turn it just like a steering wheel, driving wirelessly. We believe the game is harder with the wheel than with a GameCube Controller, but it’s also more fun if everyone has a wheel.

The other major difference is that you can take your Wii online and play with friends.

A new technique in this game is slipstreaming. Drive right behind someone for a little while, and you’ll suddenly get a tremendous boost.

The Wii version also adds motorcycles along with the karts.