Mario Kart Wii allows lobby text chat; no in-race trash talk

By Pete Betcher by Feb 27th, '08 at 6:43pm CST

080226karttext.jpg

All those hoping to see voice chat finally surface with the release of Mario Kart Wii may have to bite the bullet just a little longer. With a posting on Nintendo Europe’s official site came the news that text chat would be the primary form of communication.

As groups of friends wait in a lobby they can text each other messages while waiting to start their race. Messages will have to be selected from a set pre-chosen phrases and words, of course. You can’t say exactly what you want to say…it just wouldn’t be Nintendo.

Nintendo Europe

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Categories: Wii

About the Author: Pete Betcher

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  • robertj15

    Sigh….

  • WolfeatingRaven

    Ok the no voice chat is expect and tbh welcomed in this game, could you seriously imagine trying to play online with 11 other people yelling “stupid green shell” all the time, it would be impossible for anyone to really comunicate, not to mention distract from the race.

    What i really dislike is this selecting things to say crap, i played fifa 06 online on the psp and they had the same system and you know what happened… nobody ever bothered chating cause the things were all so generic and basic.

    I thought text chat would work well at least then you could talk between tracks and i assume you could just use a usb keyboard.

    I mean you could text chat properly online since the days of the Dreamcast, i mean heck when Phantasy Star Online was brought to the GameCube you could text chat freely.

    Now perhaps i’m wrong about this but couldn’t you voice chat online with some DS games?

  • matthew

    And Nintendo is getting ready to start charging us for an inferior online experience.

    Amazing!

  • Michael

    Voice chat was available in a limited way in Metroid Prime Hunters.

    I always fall back on my argument of parental controls. Set it up so that parents have complete control over what their kids are allowed to do. If they don’t want their children listening or talking with random strangers, thats fine, I understand the need to keep the online experience clean for the kiddies, but there is a simple and effective fix to allow the rest of us to communicate and enjoy ourselves. I know that. And if I know it, you can be sure Nintendo has thought about it.

    So what’s the holdup? As much as I hate to say it, I have a feeling Nintendo is arrogant sometimes, and decide to leave out features that they don’t feel are necessary. Look at Sakurai and the whole online experience that was dropped because he felt that only the people who were at the very top would enjoy themselves. It’s a poor judgment call that shouldn’t have been his decision. (If it was his in the first place…)

    Apart from that, I can’t think of any other reason..

  • Fausty

    sometimes, nintendo are really shit.

  • http://www.thetanooki.com Christian

    I’d like to point out that while the DS has a built-in mic and can use an optional headset, there is no such practical device for the Wii yet – not while racing with a controller at the same time, anyway.

  • WolfeatingRaven

    Your right there no mic for the wii yet, but theres no reason that you couldn’t use the mic on the ds, i mean wheres all the ds/wii connectivity we were promised?

  • http://www.gamegym.blogspot.com travis_hendricks7

    This text chat is only for pre-determined text options. So there certainly won’t be any keyboard support for these chats.

    And the ball just keeps on rolling down the hill.