Have the worst enemies of the Wii -- dust and cigarette smoke -- returned to wreak havoc on Mario and friends once again? 

Reports of some gamers receiving disc-read errors with their copies of Mario Kart Wii are coming out of Japan. This mirrors a similar situation recently with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where the issue was pegged on the game being shipped on a dual-layer disc, and "soiling of the consoles’ optical lens by environmental factors such as excessive dust and cigarette smoke." Nintendo offered to clean consoles, free of charge. 

In the case of Mario Kart Wii, Nintendo has told Eurogamer they are unaware of the problem. Mario Kart Wii is only available on a single-layer disc, and therefore "soiling of the consoles' optical lens" shouldn't be an issue. It should be noted that at the time of writing, these reports are few and far between. Let's hope that when Mario Kart Wii hits North American shelves in two weeks there are no issues, because I need to get my Skeletal Bowser on, and I don't have time for these kinds of shenanigans.