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Mario Kart Wii will support text chat. Welcome to 1994, Nintendo photo

Nintendo has recently announced some of the new online features that Mario Kart Wii will contain. First, lets start with the good. The game will be up to 12 players online and players will also be able to watch their friend's race in spectator mode. You'll also be able to compare your race times against other players through the Mario Kart Channel. Easily the best part of Mario Kart's online service is that you'll be able to download other people's ghost data so you can see how they were able to get such a good time on tracks.

Now here's the bad news: You can talk to your friends, but only through text. You can create a room and invite people to text while waiting to play the game, but you can only text them in these rooms. And God knows how broken the texting system will be. If it's anything like Opera's text Wiimote interface, then forget about it. 

How long is it going to take Nintendo to realize their Online service is completely broken? At least the service is free ... oh wait, nevermind!


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68 comments | showing # 1 to 50

Justice's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 19:39
Justice
Lack of voice chat is incredibly stupid.
DaedHead8's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 19:40
DaedHead8
Y0j1mb0's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 19:42
Y0j1mb0
LMAO!!
Lord The Night Knight's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 19:43
Lord The Night Knight
The Wii has a keyboard interface now.
Toneman's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 19:45
Toneman
Mario Kart Wii will support what I'm doing right now. In a sense, commenting on Destructoid is very much like playing Mario Kart Wii.

Oh, I got a red shell somebody's fucked.
grrza's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 19:49
grrza
How the fuck are you supposed to type and play mariokart at the same time?

Looking at other people's ghost data seems dirty... but awesome!
mgmgarcia01's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:12
mgmgarcia01
Fuckin Nintendo, why cant i break up with you already, you fuck my shit up SOOO many times
jdub28's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:13
jdub28
toneman may be on to something:



am i doing it right
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:18
Dexter345
Breaking news: Nintendo blows at online.

Next on the agenda: Microsoft's console breaks and PS3 has no games.
jdub28's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:21
jdub28
im only buying mario kart if DK can ride a dog

Lord The Night Knight's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:27
Lord The Night Knight
"Breaking news: Nintendo blows at online.

Next on the agenda: Microsoft's console breaks and PS3 has no games."

BTW, why do you need voice chat in a racing game?
B-Radicate's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:31
B-Radicate
Because the MOTHER FUCKING DS has voice chat, Lord The Night Knight. That's why.

Nintendo can lick my balls. I'm done with them after Smash comes out as it'll likely be the last game I ever buy for my Wii.
skyler's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:48
skyler
Nintendo has created this amazing new technology where up to 12 people can "talk to each other" in a "room" by typing messages on a virtual keyboard! just when you think nintendo cant be more innovative, they turn around and blow your mind with something like this! Sony must be crushed by this new gameplay innovation. If nintendo can do something like this in the year 2008, imagine what can happen in 10 years! i cant wait to see their new inventions adopted by their "competitors"( i use this term loosely)
Luigi takes over's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:55
Luigi takes over
Once again, its no surprise or disappointment that nintendo's online strategy for Mario Kart is sub par.

I'm okay with text comments. I don't see what the big deal is with voice chat. It's typically for games that require some sort of team strategy occasionally, Mario Kart not being one of them. Brawl might have needed it, but not Mario Kart.

Pokemon Battle Revolution didn't have voice chat or text chat OR a visible leader board. I kept playing matches online because it was fun to have a living thinking opponent.

I'm sorry you cant shout racial slurs at the next person who blue shells you just before you cross the finish line on the final lap.
StriderS's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:56
StriderS
grrrrrrr!!! i hate nintend my wii is dusty cause of their crapy online i ply my xbox way moar
Orionsaint's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:58
Orionsaint
Funny how ahead of their time Nintendo was in innovating the gamepad, but how far behind they've been in other areas, like being late to using CDs/DVDs. Now with online gaming. They take baby steps.
Wiizilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 20:59
Wiizilla
@unstoppablejuggernaut

Becouse you know, the SNES and N64 Mario Kart did have online voice chat. How the hell is adding a lobby where you can actually comunicate, like WITH WORDS THAT YOU CHOOSE, a step BACKWORDS for nintendo? In fact this is HUGE for them!

Expecting anything more would be just setting yourself up for dissapointment. Next thing you know you'll refuse to buy a ps3 BECOUSE mgs4 you can't strip the bad guys naked, pile there uncontious bodies onto eachother and watch in glee as they wake up in suprise and struggle to get out of the massive orgy you put them in.
Luigi takes over's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 21:04
Luigi takes over
@unstoppablejuggernaut

If the lack of voice chat breaks the whole game for you then you didn't want the game in the first place. Also, I find it ironic that you're going to go play a game lacking an online function entirely instead. Why not pick up some RIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR instead.

@b-radicate
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW


Just saying, I end up muting half the people who talked when I play Halo 3. The other half who talked I ignored. VOICE CHAT IS AWESOME. The only people I really talked to were my friends. AWESOME.
BluFire's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 21:25
BluFire
If you're giving out text chat, there might as well be voice chat. You can do just as much in text chat as you can in voice... basically. You can't do this in voice chat (excuse me if this messes up) :


_________________________________________________
| \
| \
| |
| /
| /
__________________________________________________
\
) ' \
( | \
\
( ^ \
^ ) \
( ' ' \
^ ^ |
) ( |
! \ ] /
\______/\_____/

Meh. I know it's gonna come out wrong. But you know what it is.
Anyway, what does limiting to text do? I don't understand.
bleep's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 21:32
bleep
You don't know what you got till its gone
freeman1's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 21:32
freeman1
I think it's completely stupid that Pokemon on DS has voice chat, but Brawl and Mario Kart don't.

Is the text chat FC only? Or can you actually talk to other people? And can you actually enter a 12 player race without exchanging FCs with 11 people?
Wiizilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 21:40
Wiizilla
@freeman1
You've always been able to have random matches with people in like EVERY online game nintendo's had. Why the fuck do people keep acting like you need FC's to play online at all.

Seriously, it seems like people make everything nintendo does sound a lot worse then it really is just becouse they're bitter that the "family device" is beating out their high end graphical bahemeths. I'm also refering to the last line in the article.
WDot's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 21:46
WDot
It's not so much the fact that it's text chat only that sucks, but the fact that you still have this stupid friend code and friends-only mechanism in the Wii. Half of the fun of playing some online games is just chewing the fat while you play. I understand Nintendo wants to protect kids from pedophiles or some crap, but the fact is plenty of forums allow people to give out their friend codes like candy. I've met total strangers that were NOT child molesters (some of them probably younger than I am) through DS games, it's just that Nintendo has made it inconvenient for me.
Sharpless's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 22:07
Sharpless
@Lord The Night Knight
Why the hell WOULDN'T you have voice chat in an online-capable video game in frigging 2008? I let it slide when Brawl wouldn't have voice chat, but this is getting ridiculous. Nintendo is seriously overdoing this "Wii/DS is for pedos" damage control thing. You sure as hell can't tell me that it's outside of their technological capabilities. If Sony and Microsoft can do it, so can Nintendo.

I'm increasingly starting to believe that Nintendo just doesn't give a fuck anymore, simply because they're on top of the world and no one can knock them off.
Wiizilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 22:19
Wiizilla
well, considering no other online nintendo game so much as had any kind of lobbies at all, Nintendo seems to slowly but surely getting something exceptible.

Well, for you anyway. being a gamecube only owner last generation I'm just happy to have online play.
freeman1's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 22:26
freeman1
@Wiizilla
You can't have random wi-fi matches in every Nintendo game. In Pokemon D/P you HAVE to exchange FCs in order to play online.

And I don't own a PS3 or a 360. I only have a Wii. So I don't know what my "high end graphical behemoth" is, unless you're talking about the one behind my zipper. And I don't need anyone's help beating that one.

The fact is Nintendo's online sucks. Mario Kart Wii sounds like it's going to have the best online features of any Wii/DS game to date, so at least they're showing improvement. But it's still years behind Microsoft and Sony.

Not everybody who criticises Nintendo is a Nintendo hater. The fact is, if they never got any negative criticism they probably wouldn't be as great as they are today. People complain about Nintendo's crappy online because we hope that eventually they'll hear us and fix it.
Wiizilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 22:34
Wiizilla
@freeman
[i]You can't have random wi-fi matches in every Nintendo game. In Pokemon D/P you HAVE to exchange FCs in order to play online.
[/i]
but that was only so people would be forced to buy pokemon battle revolution to get there share of random online matches. It would be fully possible on the DS.

here's a question, how do you know nintendo's online sucks if your a wii only owner and don't have anything to compare it to?
---AMARU---'s Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 22:42
---AMARU---
pay and play can suck me
Wiizilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 22:47
Wiizilla
@---AMARU---
how could you have something when you don't even know how it works?
freeman1's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 22:47
freeman1
That's a stupid question. I've played the other consoles, I just don't own them. And I do have a PS2, and even that had better online then Wii.

And even if I had never played any other console in my life, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that having voice chat would be better then not having it. Or that having one gamer tag for every game would be better then having individual friend codes for each game. I could go on, but you get the point.
Wiizilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 23:07
Wiizilla
@freeman

I wrote a long response to your post but it didn't go up becouse something wird happened and I'm not typing it all again so I'll summerizes it:

I agree that firend codes per game is retarded but with nintendo's family firendly image there's no way they can allow comunication with strangers without people being dicks to little kids. They allowed emblems in MKDS and people used that opertunity to draw dicks. Stranger chat will be safe when Communism becomes an acceptible form of government, meaning when human kind becomes perfect, meaning never
LarkOhiya's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 23:17
LarkOhiya
This has nothing to do with any other consoles or how people are threatened by the Wii. this has everything to do with Nintendo continually failing somehow with every generation in the most Obvious way.
Wiizilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 23:25
Wiizilla
@LarkOhiya
That's exatly what this is about. I'll say it one more time: they can't include stranger chat becouse people, especially hardcoregamers, get there kicks out of tramatizing kids. and don't bring up the curinf 13 year old you met on Halo, becouse this is Mario Kart and has a different audience.
Lord The Night Knight's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/26/2008 23:46
Lord The Night Knight
"Why the hell WOULDN'T you have voice chat in an online-capable video game in frigging 2008?"

What kind of voice chat would you use in a Mario Kart game.

I am dead serious about that question? Do you want it "just because", or do you have legitimate uses planned for it?
JonDarkwood's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 00:02
JonDarkwood
Lord the Night Knight, it's not a matter of why you'd use it in a Mario Kart game, it's a matter of it being a lackluster implementation console-wide where the other two big players have a much more fleshed out online service.

There's not really any excuse for things like this to be ignored, other than "it's nintendo" which seems to be a pretty easily accepted if pathetic excuse.
Mr Bas's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 00:08
Mr Bas
It's the same as with Brawl, but please think about this now:

XBOX360 has voice chat
PS3 has voice chat
Wii HASN'T voice chat

BUT

For the 360 you need Live, which costs
For the PS3 you need a PS3, which costs MOAR than a Wii

You only get what you pay for. Some people here think they have a right to have voice-chat included in a game. Maybe you'll get it someday, but when/if that happens, it's going to be via Pay and Play.

@Wiizilla

I completely agree with you and that's exactly the point I made in the Brawl discussion, still some retards think Nintendo's first priority is to make the hardcore feel comfortable.
BlackSunEmpire's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 01:13
BlackSunEmpire
Nintendo doesn't seem to have really got a hang of multiplayer past 4 people sitting in the same room waggling with each other (intentionally made to sound dirty). This online thing is something theyve tacked on because they had to, they are not choosing to implement it well.

Maybe things would be different if they spent a little less time on pokemon channels.
freeman1's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 01:37
freeman1
I'm even more annoyed by the lack of options online then I am by the lack of voice chat or rankings. For example, if I want to play a random wifi match in Brawl it has to be a 4 player time match. That's completely stupid. Why can't I choose to play one on one or stock matches without requiring a friend code?

That's why I asked earlier if it was possible to join a 12 player race without friend codes. I could easily see Nintendo doing something stupid like having 4 player only random races, with the ability to race with up to 12 players in FC races.

Sort of like in Pokemon Battle Revolution. You can only use half of your Pokemon in random matches, so you have to exchange FCs with someone just to use your whole team. That's retarded.

It's bad enough that you need FCs to play with specific people, but why do they have to completely butcher online play for non FC matches?
Fanatism's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 02:10
Fanatism
@freeman1
There are rankings in mario kart wii.
Cowboy TTop's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 02:24
Cowboy TTop
Oh dear Nintendo. One step forward and two back as always. Want to get online but they are more scared of the net than anyone, and tarnishing their image.

If you can't do onine properly don't bother and I'm sure gamers will vote with their feet and not use this service. It seems to be about what Nintendo wants, not what we want.

Damn, even doing something with Skype would be better than this crap. Minus 10 lives, Nintendo.
Fanatism's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 02:58
Fanatism
@cowboy
"tarnishing theier image"
They're only making those hardcore people who has a need to call people fags when they're playing as princess peach.
Necros's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 03:41
Necros
Goddammit Nintendo. Even as an IRC user, I think this is a bad decision.
Jim Sterling's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 05:15
Jim Sterling
And we are expected to pay for this.


Morons.
CALkulon's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 05:24
CALkulon
This sucks. You can't "type" more than a few words per minute anyway, the point and click interface is shite!

12 people online is great, but it's completely unpersonal if you can't TALK to people dammit.

Nintendo is making this a total fuck up, with online. Just like with GC.

Getting increasingly fed up with them catering to everyone but pure gamers, thank fuck I bought a PS3 too.
Luigi takes over's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 05:33
Luigi takes over
Talk to people in the lobby, race.

@Blufire

how is text different from voice when it comes to vulgarities? Easy! Word-filters! Also, the very fact that your penis drawing(I assume it was a penis drawing) failed to show shows that it would probably fail in Mario Kart Online.

Not as easy as say "n-word n-word n-word n-word", eh?

If they make this "pay to play" I scoff at them
Mr Bas's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 05:50
Mr Bas
@Jim

I though Pay and Play was more like XBOX Live (whatever that means). Correct me if I'm wrong but except for the price we have to pay for every game there are no extra fees for MKWii, right?


@CALkulon

You can plug in a USB-Keyboard btw.


@Luigi takes over

Even Nintendo isn't as naive as that to make MKWii pay and play.
Samit Sarkar's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 05:52
Samit Sarkar
Does the Wii support USB keyboards? If so, then I can kinda (barely) understand this decision. But “typing” using the Wiimote to pick letters from the on-screen keyboard is retardedly slow, and that’s just dumb. Either way, though, Nintendo needs to get with the damn times. This is getting ridiculous.
Mr Bas's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 07:13
Mr Bas
I tried it and it works so yeah you can use it.

People are just expecting too much from them, they aren't a company that has it's main focus on the hardcore, they still are very popular amongst the kids and families so they have to concentrate on these customers. If you don't like that it's your opinion but it's not like Nintendo is going to change their strategy.
Snaileb 's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 07:45
Snaileb
I love this article. Please raise more awareness for Nintendo's suck, or they will never learn.
Mr Bas's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/27/2008 07:55
Mr Bas
They suck because they protect their younger consumers because their parents are too dumb for that? What a retarded logic.
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