News Articles
Tuesday12th Jul 2022
Poll What's The Best Mario Kart Game?
Rate them Rainbow Roads
Some of us here at Nintendo Life Towers are convinced that your favourite Mario Kart game is simply the one you played first with three other players in the same room — or just one other player if you were there at the very beginning with Super Mario Kart on Super NES. We tend to think this because while we can all agree...
Wednesday20th Apr 2022
Video This Game Made One Video Producer's Childhood
The lovely Felix on one of his favourites
We've all got that video game that we played over and over again while growing up that we just absolutely adore. It might be the first game you ever played. It might be a Christmas or birthday gift. Or it might just be something you spent a lot of time playing with your best friend while sitting on your...
Sunday1st Aug 2021
News Nvidia Shield Shutting Down Nintendo Wii Game Downloads In China
Fortunately the Switch has found success
In 2017, rumours became real when it was confirmed Nintendo would release select Wii ports running at 1080p HD, 60 FPS on the Nvidia Shield in mainland China. It began with the release of Super Mario Galaxy and was followed by other titles like Donkey Kong Country Returns, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight...
Friday15th Jan 2021
News After 13 Years, Mario Kart Wii's Rainbow Road Finally Gives Up Its "Impossible" Ultra Shortcut
Fancy a 22-second lap?
Mario Kart Tour and Home Circuit might be Nintendo's focus these days (We still love you too, Deluxe), but there remains a dedicated player base out there for Mario Kart Wii. Despite being almost 13 years old, it was still pulling in
Thursday31st Oct 2019
Random Fan Makes Amazing Mario Kart Mod Where Waluigi Races By Running On Foot
And he's incredibly fast, too
There's something special about Waluigi. Something that makes fans have particularly strong feelings either for or against him, something that saw him win an official Valentine's Day poll, and something that makes people want to see him run around a Mario Kart circuit without being in a car apparently. Mod developer...
Sunday21st Jul 2019
Random Three New Ultra Shortcut Glitches Discovered In Mario Kart Wii
More than a decade after its release
Whether you like it or not, Mario Kart Wii is still the best-selling entry in the series to date. As a result, it's got a huge following – even after the more recent success of Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. With this in mind, three new "ultra shortcuts" were recently discovered in the Wii title within...
Tuesday7th May 2019
News Mario Kart Wii Sold Five Times As Many Copies As Mario Kart 8 Over The Last Financial Year
Despite being 11 years old
If you need any further proof that Nintendo's evergreen classics are of incredible importance to the company, this little statistic should do very nicely indeed. Towards the end of last month, Nintendo shared its latest financial report. Thanks to this, we were able to share lists of the all-time best-selling games across...
Monday4th Mar 2019
Video Mario Kart Wii Mod Doubles The Number Of Characters In Every Race
More racers, more fun
If 12 racers in Mario Kart wasn't already infuriating enough, how would you feel about 24? A video game modder named MrBean35000vr has been able to get 24 karts up and running in Mario Kart Wii. As he explains in the above video, his mod can handle between 24-29 racers, but the game crashes when 30 or more karts are added...
Wednesday31st Oct 2018
News A Decade Later Mario Kart Wii Has Now Sold 37.14 Million Copies Worldwide
Speeding ahead
Nintendo's latest financial results have revealed the Switch has now shifted 22.86 million units worldwide. The system has done so well, it has already outsold the lifetime sales of the GameCube. While revenue for the company is predominantly coming from its new hybrid device released early last year, there's a certain...
Friday3rd Aug 2018
News Mario Kart Wii Will Soon Be Playable On The Nvidia Shield In China
Will Wii emulation ever come to Switch?
You may well be aware that a number of Nintendo's first-party Wii titles have been ported to the Nvidia Shield in China as part of the two companies' growing friendship, with several classics already being available. Now, it looks like Mario Kart Wii is about to drift its way into the action, too. During...
Tuesday31st Jul 2018
Video “Beta" Version Of Bowser’s Castle Uncovered In Mario Kart Wii
A technical mouthful
Mario Kart Wii introduced many new features to the long-running series including motorbikes and 12 racers on-track at once. While the exploitation of the 'wheelie' mechanic was rife back in the day, generally the Wii version is still looked upon as a memorable entry in the series thanks to its online play, accessible nature and...
Friday25th May 2018
News Fan Creates A Playable Version Of Super Mario Odyssey's RC Circuit In Mario Kart Wii
A contender for future Mario Kart tracks?
We've seen a rather generous supply of fan-made Super Mario game creations, hacks, and large-scale projects over the last few months; a couple of weeks ago saw the return of Super Mario 64 Online with Sonic as a playable character, and earlier in the year we had a re-imagining of Super Mario Bros. DS with 80...
Thursday4th Jan 2018
Random Mario Kart Wii Made Amazon's Top 100 Games In December
Did you get the right Mario Kart under your tree?
Christmas 2017 was a bumper one for Nintendo, with the Switch - and its software - selling impressively. However, it would seem that older Nintendo games have benefited from the increased exposure, as Mario Kart Wii - which is almost a decade old - made Amazon's top 100 video game best seller
Wednesday24th Feb 2016
News Nintendo Targets and Blocks Mario Kart Hack Videos From YouTube
MrBean35000vr just switches them to Twitch
In the past we shared some videos from the MrBean35000vr channel on YouTube, particularly in the case of intriguing mods and hacks to Mario Kart 8. The channel had found a way to mess around with the source code for the Wii U title - though had minimised public details of the hack - and created some fun...
Friday10th Jul 2015
News Catch Up With the Mario Kart World Cup as it Enters the Knockout Stages
A blue shell away from glory
Mario Kart is one of Nintendo's most beloved and bankable franchises - with just one release per system and the addition of DLC on Wii U, it's an integral part of any console from the big N and a must have. Mario Kart 8 on Wii U is no different. It's also a popular game to watch, and the next two weekends bring an...
Friday8th May 2015
News Producer Of The Mario Kart Series Appointed As Head Of Nintendo’s Mobile Development Division
Likely to mean Hideki Konno
Following Nintendo's big announcement in March that it would partner with DeNA to bring popular Nintendo IP to new games on smart devices, there was much speculation about how exactly this enthralling venture would unfold. Now Japanese news outlet Sankei is reporting that Nintendo's latest financial results have shed...
Thursday21st Aug 2014
Video This Drake-Inspired Mario Kart Rap is For Champion Racers
"Got all these races looking like they're just time trials"
There are only a few Nintendo franchises that can bring on very real trash talk; no, that Nintendo E3 press conference attempt for Wii Sports Resort back in the day does not count. One of these franchises that'll have friends and family boasting red shell success is Mario Kart, to this day...
Monday7th Jul 2014
News Four Students Set New Mario Kart Marathon World Record
"As a matter of fact this was an incredibly difficult thing to achieve"
Many of us have had some excessively long gaming sessions, after which we may look back and think "what was I doing?!". They can be fun, though, and there are often teams of people that use gaming marathons to raise money for charity, among other things, taking what is an...
Friday16th May 2014
Video Check Out This Mario Kart 8 And Mario Kart Wii Moo Moo Meadows Comparison
Ahead of the pack?
With Mario Kart 8 getting rave reviews all over the interwebs, Family Gamer TV has dialled in for some close up comparison of the Moo Moo Meadows level on both the Wii and Wii U. While it is of course expected that the Wii U version looks better, quite how much better is kind of mind-blowing. Certainly this night and day...
Tuesday15th Apr 2014
Play Mario Kart Wii With Nintendo Life on Twitch - Live!
There will be blue shells
Nintendo Life does Twitch! Hopefully without it crashing, breaking down and basically not working. We're going all modern and trendy — next up an annoying catchphrase to open every stream! Well, maybe not on the catchphrase. We are, however, planning to run regular live streams of various Nintendo games that'll include...
Monday14th Apr 2014
Play We'll Be Doing The Twitch Thing With Mario Kart Wii Online Multiplayer
Surely nothing can go wrong...
Twitch is all the rage, it seems, with the live streaming service used to watch gamers tackle a variety of titles and even team up in their thousands to play Pokémon. It's a social phenomenon in gaming. Aside from some retro titles being chaotically played by thousands of gamers at once, however, not much love is...
Tuesday8th Apr 2014
News Nintendo Releases An Awesome Mario Kart Infographic
Sorry arcade titles, you're out
With the release of Mario Kart 8 on Wii U preoccupying many minds ahead of 30th May, Nintendo is taking every opportunity to raise awareness and hype. Is there a better way to do this than with a fancy infographic? No, no there isn't. The infographic below shows the eight main series entries to date, spurning the...
Thursday27th Feb 2014
Because we all need more plastic accessories, right?
Remember the Wii Wheel? It’s a plastic peripheral that some would rather forget, and others will have fonder memories of. Despite mixed reactions, the wheel was ultimately an integral part of the Mario Kart experience on the Wii. Nintendo strongly marketed the product offering a new way to play,...
Monday3rd Feb 2014
Weirdness New Scientific Research Reveals The Horrifying Impact Of Texting On Mario Kart Drivers
Don't text and handle red shells, kids
As we all know, texting behind the wheel isn't a wise move — it has caused countless accidents on roads all over the world, and you should never, ever do it. Ever. However, less is known about the effect texting has on road safety in Mario Kart. Thankfully, some pioneering scientists (in reality nine adults...
Thursday17th Oct 2013
News New Nintendo Selects Titles Coming to Australia and New Zealand
Price drops scheduled Down Under
With the holiday season just a few months away, Nintendo of Australia has announced a list of "Nintendo Selects" titles set to be released in Australia and New Zealand at a new, cut price. Some of the most popular titles for the Wii are being offered up to those who may have missed these titles orginally. The...
Wednesday9th Oct 2013
News A Decade After Being Bought By Microsoft, Rare Still Wants To Channel The Spirit Of Nintendo
UK studio wants Kinect Sports Rivals to emulate Nintendo classics
As we all know, Rare used to be one of Nintendo's most valuable development studios, but was acquired by Microsoft in 2002 to work on its Xbox console. As the years have passed the company has seen staff come and go, and few remain who can remember the days of the SNES, N64 and...
Friday27th Sep 2013
News Awesome Mario Kart Trophies Added to Club Nintendo Europe
Four available for 5000 stars each
We suspect, based on our community game nights and events — they will return! — that Mario Kart 7 is pretty high on a number of favourite game lists. The franchise is also the classic multiplayer experience on Nintendo systems, successfully bringing out the most competitive instincts in players. Naturally, if...
Thursday12th Sep 2013
News Four New Titles Added to Wii "Nintendo Selects" Budget Range in Europe
Karting chaos, brawling and monkeying around included
Late last week Nintendo of America revealed three Wii classics getting a price reduction in the region ahead of the Holiday season. Nintendo of Europe is now making the same move, in its case adding four new titles to the Nintendo Selects range. Although recommended prices aren't provided in...
Sunday4th Aug 2013
News Boy Credits Mario Kart After Taking Control of Car and Saving Lives When Grandmother Passed Out
All that practice came in handy
Video games are often labelled as a time wasting exercise that offer nothing more than a bit of escapism but it's fair to say they have much more value to them than that. Take Gryffin Sanders, a ten year old boy who was riding in a car with his younger brother and his 72 year old grandmother in Golden, Colorado...
Friday27th Jan 2012
News Mario Kart Wii Races Past 30 Million Sales Milestone
No brakes
Mario Kart Wii has sold a whopping 31.9 million units around the world. The Wii racer has shifted 4.9m copies worldwide since April, standing as the biggest-selling Wii game of the financial year so far. It's not the only Mario game hitting milestones: perhaps due to its inclusion in the Nintendo Selects range, Super Mario Galaxy has...
