The last we heard about Nintendo’s newest kart racing extravaganza, Mario Kart Wii, was that the game would feature 12-player online multiplayer races, as well as local 4-player split screen match-ups. Gaming site Jeux-France is now reporting that the game will also support up to eight players in online battle mode.
As you will discover upon inspection of the image at the bottom of this page, there are eight player icons on the map in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. It’s not a split screen, so one can logically assume that an online match is in progress. Woooo!!!
In other, sadder Mario Kart Wii news, Nintendo has confirmed that not only will voice chat be missing from the power-sliding, shell-tossing competition, but even text-based chat will be abandoned in favor of pre-determined phrases. These will only be available between matches, and will likely be totally boring (and probably corny). "Let’s race!" and "I won!" come instantly to mind.
