GoNintendo thought - Text chat on Mario Kart Wii...why bother?

You guys spoke loud and clear yesterday. Our email was busting with messages from readers concerning the voice chat in Mario Kart Wii. The emails didn’t just offer up the news, but instead, you also included your two cents on the situation. To no surprise, almost all of you were pretty enraged with the information. Some emails were filled with such anger that I can’t even repeat the things that were said! Just incase you missed out on the news, let me give you a quick update. Mario Kart Wii was said to include text chat. The problem is, Nintendo refrained from telling us that the text chat wasn’t going to be open-ended. You’re going to have to work with preset text bubbles, just like the ones you use in Endless Ocean. Once again, Nintendo’s defense force locks us down from communicating with our friends, as well as strangers. This leaves me with one question for Nintendo. Why even bother with text chat at all?

First thing’s first…and I am sure a good amount of you thought of this as well. Isn’t it a bit sad that we were so excited for text chat in the first place? The year is 2008, and we were getting giddy over the thought of typing out messages to friends/rivals on Mario Kart Wii. Isn’t text messaging something we’ve been doing for years now? I don’t think the idea of texting back and forth is all that revolutionary. The sad thing is, when it comes to Nintendo platforms, this is usually how the evolution of online ideas comes about. While game development is top-notch, the online aspects are severely lagging. I am not even all that into online gaming, but when we do get that pleasure with a Nintendo title, it makes it that much worse when the features are gimped. The sad fact is, Nintendo hardly ever throws us a bone with online. That’s why we all cheer when they give us something more than their last offering. I mean, would it really be fun to point/toggle type with other players during race setups?

Making things even worse is the fact that we have no voice chat setup on the Wii. This is something that we can do on the DS, but the Wii has been ignored. Yes, Reggie has told everyone that Nintendo is definitely looking into it. We all know that eventually, we’ll get a title that supports voice chat on Wii. I am sure Nintendo will roll out some title that features voice chat as a prominent feature, and that addition to the Wii will truly be worth trumpeting. Until then, we are left with rudimentary ways of talking to friends on the Wii. Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS was the first game to feature voice chat for that platform. It may not have been during actual gameplay, but I have to admit that I was still impressed. It was really nice to see Nintendo supporting the feature, even if certain aspects were locked down due to safety concerns. Now we can see that most likely, the only reason the game had voice chat was due to the DS having a microphone. If the system didn’t feature a mic, I doubt Nintendo would have put the effort in to include that feature. It’s something that would have been left for Pokemon Diamond/Pearl.

Having Mario Kart online on a console is fantastic. Mario Kart DS was a blast to play online, and the Wii version should turn out even better. Will the lack of true online chat hurt the gameplay? I really don’t believe so…but it would still be a nice feature to have. Instead, we have to work our way through predetermined text bubbles. Is there really going to be anything that is worth scrolling through to say? I know that the text bubbles in Endless Ocean did provide a little bit of help when communicating to friends. That’s only because Endless Ocean is a much more relaxed title. There are no enemies to worry about, no inherent danger to avoid. Mario Kart Wii is a bit different. Looking for text bubbles while driving isn’t going to work out too well! We don’t even know for sure when these text bubbles would be displayed! It might be a menu-based chat system. Once you enter the game, you may not be able to bubble chat. At the very least, will we be able to customize bubbles with friends? Brawl allows you to create your own phrases for taunts when you are playing online with buddies. If Mario Kart Wii doesn’t, it would be a step backward from an already-low step.

That’s what my major issue is. It feels like Nintendo is stepping backwards with their online features. Okay…maybe not backwards, but a sidestep. We never really get to see a true jump forward. As a Nintendo fan, I know I get excited when I see Nintendo take a title online. It’s not often that they do so, which makes it a big announcement in the world of Nintendo. When you compare that to the rest of the gaming world, Nintendo is behind the times. I know Nintendo does things their own way, and they always will. That has worked out extremely well for them when it comes to Wii and DS sales. I love that Nintendo follows the beat of their own drum. Still though, there are things that core Nintendo fans would like to see. When an announcement like this pops up (text bubbles), you can almost hear the collective groan from the Nintendo community. It’s almost worse having preset text bubbles than it is no chat at all. It’s a constant reminder of what we would like, and what we are getting. At this point, it feels silly to beg for open text chat with friends…but I’ll take what I can get. I think that’s an attitude a lot of Nintendo fans have. Perhaps we shouldn’t take what we can get…but instead, fight for what we want.