Monday, November 17, 2008

Mario Kart Wii: are you there? Hello?

I can appreciate that, when playing against strangers, a lack of voice chat can be a good thing. The absence of whiney American teenagers screaming in your ear is a blessing. But when you're playing against friends, it becomes a little soulless.

We've found ways around it. When I play Kieron and John at one of the DS's online games, we set up a Halo 3 lobby on Xbox Live, and use that to talk amongst ourselves. In fact, in a couple of days' time that won't be necessary, since Microsoft are finally implementing party chat on their new dashboard.

This evening I played online Mario Kart Wii against George and Marty, and I had to put my mobile on speakerphone just so we could have a conversation during the game. Rubbish. The game wasn't though - a fair smattering of wins from both sides paying testament to Nintendo's balancing policy, with several close finishes. Great fun.

I then went offline and completed two of the 100cc cups. I still can't get better than a silver on the last of the new tracks though - Rainbow Road kills it every time.

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