Nintendo Wii

Nitrobike for Nintendo Wii is a racing game.  The controls work like most other Wii racing games with you holding the Wii remote sideways and tilting it to control the turning.  The controls work pretty well for this game, although I found it not very responsive when trying to do tight turns.  The other main control is pressing the arrow button any direction do use the boost.  You have to be careful with the boost because if it reaches the end of the meter you blow up.  Thus you need to let off before you reach the top unless of course you want to blow up and likely ruin your chances of winning the race.

Overall I enjoyed trying this racing game, but it is not all that interesting because there are too many tight turns in the second race making it too hard to do well enough to unlock more.

Myth Makers Super Kart is another Wii racing game I have tried out.  In case you have not noticed I seem to be drawn to trying the Wii racing games despite the fact that most of them have horrible controls.  Myth Makers is among the ones with the worst control responsiveness for turning and definitely on my Wii racing dislike list.

The controls just never gave me the feeling of being in control because sometimes they were unresponsive and sometimes I would do the same thing and they were too responsive.  Also, I got annoyed at how you flip over just getting near the side.  Not to mention the annoyance of the controls pretty much not working at all if you get stuck going the wrong way.

I liked the games graphics as the scenery was at least in the realm of unique and interesting to race through.  The sound was not too great because you mostly just hear the karts engines, but the sound effects when you collect stars and burst the bubbles do make it a little more bearable.

Overall this is the worst racing game I have tried on the Wii and do not recommend it at all.  The graphics may be interesting, but the gameplay makes it too frustrating to even get around to enjoying the graphics much.

Billy the Wizard: Rocket Broomstick Racing is an interesting concept of a game.  It is very Harry Potter like with Billy looking a little bit like Harry Potter and the castle part you race around on your broomstick looking a lot like Hogwarts.  The problem is that the controls are pretty complex to get used to, as they do involve both the Wii remote and nunchuck and are not very natural feeling.

As I said I like the concept of the game because it is pretty unique, but overall I found it pretty frustrating to try and play it.  I never even got anywhere near beating the first race and actually barely even got through the tutorial.

Overall it is a cool idea to be racing on a broom, but I think we need a better game developer and possibly an actual Harry Potter broom racing game to make the concept into a good Wii game.  Unless you have a lot of patience this game is one to pass up.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast is a racing style game, but it is not an annoying one that poorly uses the Wii remote like a steering wheel. Instead you use the Wii remote and nunchuck by alternately shaking them up and down like you do to run in games like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The point is that it is supposedly to be a movement like playing the bongos. It is an extension of the Donkey Kong Gamecube games that used the bongos and was originally planned as a Gamecube game.

The controls can be kind of hard to get used to, but the tutorial is pretty well done. I know a lot of people have bashed the game, but I actually love it. One thing I can agree about, though, is that it would have been a much better game if they had made it so you could use the bongos through the Gamecube ports.

The graphics are Gamecube quality, but they are at least interesting in terms of the way the scenery looks as you fly through the levels in your little flying race vehicle. The sound is not too bad because it changes depending on how you play the bongos to move your vehicle and is thus does not seem like a repetitive soundtrack.

Overall this is a good racing game to check out if you are into racing games and do not like the way the Wii remote ones work, however, it is still not the same as a racing game with a joystick, so it does take some getting used to the controls.

If you have noticed there are a good amount of racing games. Just to name a few there is Mario Kart, Excite Truck, Need for Speed, and Sonic Riders. I love racing games and the variety for the Wii seems great at first glance, but in the end most of the ones I have played have turned out to be disappointment. Thus the Wii racing genre is overpopulated with cruddy racing games in my opinion. The main reason for this is that a lot of the games do not end up having controls that work. By this I mean the steering is usually too jerky or too slow to react to how you tilt the Wii Remote. A few of the racing games have made the controls at least bearable.

So, is Speed Racer just another one of the Wii racing games that fall short of being worth playing? First off control wise I would say the reactivity is about as good as it gets and it does seem that the newer racing games such as this and Mario Kart Wii have figured it out pretty well and it is the older ones with most of the steering problems. The steering is not perfect, though, and is not as good as joystick controls at steering, but it is bearable.

I have not played Speed Racer to give it a real review, but the little I have experienced it seems that it could offer a good amount of entertaining hours. The main thing that I found impressive about it is the unique Speed Racer tracks. These tracks are mostly much more detailed and intricate than you see in most racing games. Best thing is when they have loops you drive around. Thus this aspect along with the fact that it is in the minority of Wii racing games with bearable controls is why I think it is more than just another ho-hum Wii racing game.

I have had the Sonic Riders game in my rental queue for a while and finally got it earlier this week. I thought it would at least be interesting to try out and several times almost bought it in the store. Now that I have tried to play the game, I am so glad I did not buy it, as I was very disappointed and frustrated by the game.

The controls seem simple enough using the sideways holding of the Wii remote and steering like in racing games and the Sonic and the Secret Rings game for the Wii. The thing that got me, though, was I entered the tutorial and all it did was tell me an objective, but not how to play the game and achieve the objective. As much as I tried I could not get the second level in which you are supposed to do some sort of dash. I even tried searching the Internet for help on the controls with no luck. I am not saying the info is not out there, but a simple search did not produce any useful results and I did not dig deep to find the info that I felt should not even require going to the Internet for.

Basically this could be a fun game, but I got turned off from wanting to play it after the crappy tutorial stumped me. I am not saying it is a bad game overall, as I honestly did not really play it. I am just ranting at the confusion of playing it. Perhaps if you have it and the instruction manual or are just better at figuring out the controls from scratch, then it is not as frustrating.