In an effort to promote the upcoming release of the new Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii, the people of Nintendo are taking their “Mario Kart Driving School” across the country. We here at Sportable were lucky enough to be invited to the first of such days held in San Diego and the good folks let us in an hour early to preview the game. A full review will be coming once we get our hands on the game, but for now there will be a few thoughts based off about an hour of game play.

The first impression was that the Wii Wheel, which is a fantastic idea, is a little tough to get a hang of. When you get to the character selection menu, all the usual are there, undoubtedly with more unlockable characters waiting in the depths of the game. The ability to choose between a motorcycle or a go kart seemingly is a minor detail, but makes the game incredibly more fascinating, especially because of the ability to do a wheelie on the motorcycle at will.

There are 32 tracks in Mario Kart, 16 new ones as well as 16 re-makes from previous editions of the game. This means that there are eight “cup” events, four of which were playable from the beginning of the game. The remade tracks are spot on accurate from previous games, and the new tracks are great, with new dangers and nuances to get used to. Along with the new tracks comes a few new items including a pow block, a mega mushroom, and a rain cloud that I still have no idea how to use effectively, though the Nintendo representatives promised me that it was effective if I could figure it out.

The battle mode, a personal favorite of mine from the Nintendo 64 era is back with new levels and old levels coming together for great fun. Team battles provide opportunities for you to team up with computers or other players and take on large numbers of opposing CPU players, and this time instead of being limited to 3 lives, you are able to come back after being hit 3 times, the scoring system now keeping track of total take outs per team.

The time I got on the sticks of the new Mario Kart really showed me that this game is everything that I hoped it would be. The game lives up to previous editions of Mario Kart and I can definitely see multiple people sitting on a couch with the Wii Wheels doing battle. I know that I will be investing in more Wii controllers and Wii Wheels when this game is released, it is too great of a game to not look forward to. Check back for a full review when we get a copy of the game, and check to see if the driving school is coming to a city near you.