Ther's "this guy" I know, and he downloaded a copy of Mario Kart Wii today, he tells me it works perfectly on his chipped machine.

Just sayin...

Piracy FTL

Are people so impatient that they can't wait a few months for it to be released in America? I mean it's not like we're in Europe where every game takes 6-8 months longer than Japan and the US.

@Cruithne: Pirate!

Yea you could import and use Freeloader...or you could be sensible and wait a couple weeks. How the hell is doing 2 steps and possibly not playing the game easier than doing one step and guareenting you will?

somebody actually wants this game that bad? now....will the wheel work in america? that IS the question...

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

No way; its strictly used for legit purposes... Kinda like Vanilla Ice having a "word" with your mother. Its just whole hearted banter. =)

Disgusting how people pirate these games.

@LittleBigPlaneteer: All your software and music is paid for, right? Oh, what am I saying? Of course you'll tell me it is.

@P.N.03:

You can't just go around attacking people like that. Who do you think you are?

Three words for all those who say we ought to respect games companies.

European.

Rock.

Band.

The case for the defence rests, your witness...

@Cruithne: I see what you're getting at, but not all game companies are the same..

Will it work on firmware 3.2U?

@dead_red_eyes: And what do you gain by defending him? (or her?) It's common knowledge that many of us pirate SOMETHING, whether it's games, music, software, video, etc.

No one would ADMIT to it online (read: suicide) but most people have SOMEthing.

Anyway, the game, so far, so meh...

@ProfWho: "my friend" has the latest firmware, it works fine.

@NeoAkira: Not this time, my american friend. Mario starts his european engine this friday!

I was playing online against someone from Canada earlier. So either s/he had a US Wii + Freeloader + JP game, or a JP Wii + JP Game....

Oh and yeah, UKer here. Got my game this morning!

I don't get why (some) North Americans can't wait a couple of weeks and feel they HAVE to import it from Japan, pretty sad.

Especially given that they love to tell us "whiny Europeans" to shut up for moaning about waiting half a year for some 1st party Wii titles!

@Kazzahdrane:

Because their e-peen is bigger than yours.

Duh.

@IanC: Can I ask, how was the lag handling?

Does the game stutter online?

Online plays strangely perfect... lag free, i mean, absolutely no lag at all, just like playing someone else in the same console... weird...

What kind of morons actually pay 5x as much to play the game a few weeks before everyone else in a language you cant understand? People are dumb. It's like the whole mother Mary toast scam.

@Kazzahdrane: I agree w/ you about people buying it a few weeks b4 it's out.
On the second note, you guys need to run your stupid (Nazi)BBFC off of your continent and that will solve your game delay problems.

@todde7: Yeah the BBFC are very 'nazi like', what with banning two games in their entire history of rating, and both being overturned on appeal. A rating body is needed, if you can come up with a sensible alternative to the BBFC then go for it, but they seem far more relaxed than many systems in place elsewhere, and the alternative of the government being more directly involved is far worse. And of course they're the reason for Rock Band/Smash Bros et al coming out late. And finally BBFC=BRITISH board of film classification, so running them off the continent is a bit extreme.

@Modus_Operandi:

There were rumours that Mario Kart Wii (from all regions) included an update that killed the Freeloader altogether. That's bad news for those of us in PAL-land who import games from the US (which is something that many of us do to avoid having to wait six months extra and pay twice the price for games).

If the Japanese version works with the Freeloader, then that probably means that the rumours are false. That's certainly good news.

Online is pretty sweet I have to admit, easy to get into and lag free.

@yashichi8bit: It looked lag-free from the video on Gametrailers. Just look up miraged's videos

My copy of Mario Kart arrived today, in the UK. It is very good indeed.

To the people saying you should just wait for it to come out, there's a VERY important reason we don't: It's not the release TIMING in this case, it's the COST. Remember how Australians and Europeans pay double for games when they are already too expensive? Yeah.

@TalKeaton: Game Design Major:

All @LittleBigPlaneteer said was "Piracy FLT" and people start attacking him. Hell yes I'm defending him because he's not condoning piracy. Pirates can fuck off and die for all I care.

@PurpleSfinx:

I don't think we were asking Europeans or Australians to wait. The article was about American Wii's being able to play Japanese copies of Mario Kart Wii with a Freeloader. So the outrage was over an American consumer who is SO impatient that he/she can't wait the extra 1-2 weeks to buy an American copy of the game.

Who is outraged?

Why are they outraged?

What is it to them if someone pirates a game, and please don't tell me that it drives the price of games up, that's a crock of shit, living in Europe does more to drive the price of games up than anything else.
If you don't like priacy, then don't do it, but frankly, all this sanctimony (look it up, dictionary.com) makes me laugh.

Oh noes! someone on the internets has issued a stern rebuke, what are we going to do?...

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

Yeah but I guess it's better than buying a game for $60 and realizing it's not worth it.

@Ollivander:

To play devil's advocate, it's $50 saved bucks out of your wallet. Most pirates I know like to support the games they pirate, by if they like the game they pirated, they buy it. If they don't, then well they don't play it again and they save money.

Is everyone importing this game from Europe or what? How's everyone playing it so early?

@deviantchicken:

A lot of people posting here are from Europe.

@Cruithne:

I assume your comment was directed at me. It's not an outrage over piracy, it's an outrage over how impatient and ungrateful some Americans are when the one time that they actually receive a game later than their European counterparts they feel the need to import it 2 weeks earlier. Americans have close to no wait time for their games compared to Europeans and yet people need to get this game right away as though it was some kind of revelation as to when Jesus will return. It's ridiculous if you ask me. People should learn some patience.

@NeoAkira: Hey, apologies if I misconstrued your post.

@Cruithne: no worries. it happens more often than you think.

All these people are hating on people who pay 5 times as much to use a Freeloader, etc. How about this for a legit situation? I live in Japan, and have a US Wii, because I don't understand Japanese enough to get through games I like such as Zelda. My friend has a Japanese Wii, and will come over tomorrow with Mario Kart (which I can understand perfectly). Now, does he have to disconnect everything and bring his Wii, or should I be able to use my own Wii? It also means he can lend me games. The defence rests.

Ah, love being a PS3 owner at times like this. When FFXIII hits, I can just, ya know, buy it and play it... Not wait for another year for the US version to hit or mod my system to trick it into playing Japanese games... I just... Play them.

@bobtheduck

Yeah, because the PS3 has so many great games out.....meh.

I played Mario Kart Wii today and it's terrible. It's super easy and half of the courses are older one, plus the power ups are unbalanced and in every race you get hit with three to four weapons at once....glad I'm not going to buy this game.

oh yeah, 5 Blue spike shells hitting me in one race? Come on Nintendo.

Oh yeah, by the way, I won every race first time. My stats are 100% wins, so don't tell me that I just suck at the game or something. I really wanted to like it, it's just very simple, and they could have done a way better job, for what this game is, it's mediocre at best.

@themadman123: Yeah I played the game today and I do find that the weapons seem to be out of wack, but I mean come on, it's Mario Kart! If you're playing it because you are focused on winning the race flawlessly as if this was an F1 sim you're clearly doing it wrong.

I played with a few friends and we all agreed that getting hit with lightning more than once in a match was rediculous, but we still had a great time with it. It's a fun game, far, far, far from terrible.

Meh, true. Maybe I just need to play it with some friends, Maybe online. I've been playing through Chrono Trigger, so maybe I just need to get a little less serious.

@themadman123:

Hmm, interesting that the weapons seem to be overpowered as Nintendo took that same approach with SSBB. I wonder if this is a new trend for Nintendo...

@themadman123: you need friends.

:3

Why do people exaggerate? The Japanese MK costs $20 more than the USA version. Where do these people get 5X the cost from? Are they prone to exaggeration? I got my copy of Mario Kart yesterday and it works on my USA Wii and Freeloader. Thanks NCS. Play-Asia lost me as a customer though. They couldn't spend a few minutes more in testing the game before cancelling my order? Dolts.

@themadman123: Not that you'll read this, as this article is incredibly old by now (in blog time, I mean) but yeah, it does have so many great games

Uncharted
Ratchet and Clank
Unreal Tournament 3 (if you use mods)
Resistance
Folklore
Even heavenly sword would be good as a 30 dollar title and MGS4 hits soon...

Seriously, it's a copout to be "lolz no gaymz on the tripple" when I mention a legitimate advantage for the PS3 over the other two systems.