This Sunday’s post is late, and short.  But if you missed my post earlier this week, A Response to College Christian, you should check it out and join in on the ongoing commentary.

Mario Kart Wii dropped rather quietly a few weeks ago, in the shadow of GTA 4.  I hadn’t been hearing much about it, positive or negative, so I wasn’t clamoring to grab a copy.  When I finally got around to giving it a go this weekend, the experience was underwhelming.  Really?  It’s been 5 years since Double Dash and this is all you’ve got for me?

It’s not like there’s nothing.  The bikes are fun, and there are more battle maps this time around, but it’s very much just a console version of Mario Kart DS.  I know, there’s the Wii Wheel accessory, but I’ve never considered Mario Kart to be much of a “driving” game… I’ll stick with my GameCube controller, thanks.

The best feature is the online play.  12 person battles on the new, bigger maps are a blast.  But of course, we can’t chat.  And there isn’t a friends list.  And I disconnected twice in one evening, with my Wii sitting right next to my Wireless N router.  Playing Nintendo games online is like trying to take a cat for a walk on a leash.  You can do it, I guess, but it’s mostly just a pain in the ass.

I felt the same way about Super Smash Bros. Brawl, really.  Lots of hype, a long development cycle, and we ended up with a 7 hour story mode, some more characters and a lackluster online offering.

Here’s the thing:  Nintendo has created a fantastic platform.  And people keep buying it.  Apparently Wiis were still hard to buy THIS Christmas, over a year after their release.  There are plenty of fun games: Twilight Princess, Trauma Center, Super Mario Galaxy.

Nintendo isn’t stupid…  They’re obviously making a pile of cash, and so I won’t presume to tell them how to run their show.  But why is the online play so punishing that I’ll probably never log on again?  And how come they couldn’t stick Mario Kart on a Dual Layer disc and double the tracks, karts and characters?  And, on the flip side, why is Super Smash Bros. Brawl on a Dual Layer anyhow?  I hope there aren’t 3.5 GB of trophies / stickers / other useless collectables tucked away in there…

The funny thing is, even though I think they really screwed up with both Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., those games are still going to be standard time-killers when I have a couple of guys over.  Oh well.