Technical question re: Mario Kart Wii

[dothog]

Is the Wii hardware capable of doing 4P Grand Prix races on a single console? I'm just curious what a game needs to be able to render 4 players participating in an 8 kart race on the same console. Is the Wii powerful enough to render a 4P GP in the SMK graphics/engine? Or MK64 graphics? Or MKDD?

I'm very happy with the "look" and game control of DD. If Nintendo were to strip away the second racer (take the "Double" out of DD, I guess), add in more cups/tracks, beef up the battle mode, and make 4P GPs (instead of 2P), that to me would be a fine karting game.

I ask because whenever my family gets together for holidays, we do 4v4 to kill time, and it usually winds up being boring for the 1 or 2 cars in back. A 4P GP would keep everyone excited by giving each person somebody to race against no matter their skill level.

[Riyonuk]

Umm Double Dash does 4P, no? And the N64 version was 4 players. I'm sure the Wii will.

[nnja]

I'm pretty sure he means 4 player grand prix. I've conceeded that it's never going to be added but it would be a tits feature, something I've really wanted since Mario Kart 64

[Vinny]

They should be able to do it... I see no hardware limitations preventing them from doing so.

[Riyonuk]

Oh...yeah they have 2P grand prix. Sure they could do it, it would be just making 2 AI be controlled by humans. That shouldnt be a problem for them. Though they probably have no idea anyone wants it.

[dothog]

I see no hardware limitations preventing them from doing so.
The GC was incapable of handling 4P Grand Prixes on MKDD. I read about it on an IGN chat--the story is that it didn't have the power necessary to keep track of 4 human players and 4 AI players and synchronize everything on the 4 little displays.

If 4P GP play were possible on a single Wii console/Mario Kart game, this would be a expand the game as a party force to be reckoned with. I know it's hard to believe, Nintendo, but the inability of most people to sync up multiple consoles/copies does not mean that they wouldn't enjoy the ability to have more than 2 human controlled racers in a Grand Prix.

[Vinny]

The Wii might be similar to the GC but it's more capable hardware and more feature rich.

As Mario Kart DD stands now it's probably not possible on the GC. But if they if they had reduced other factors in the game (like the polycount, texture quality, etc.) they probably could've done it on there too.

[ArthurDigbySellers]

I ask because whenever my family gets together for holidays, we do 4v4 to kill time, and it usually winds up being boring for the 1 or 2 cars in back. A 4P GP would keep everyone excited by giving each person somebody to race against no matter their skill level.

My wife and I play the in-laws in this exact way but we have a "rule" that every other race, the players on the same car switch so everyone gets to drive. It's crazy because at the beginning of each race, you hear everyone yelling "1-2-3 Switch!" It's not a real easy thing to do b/c both of the players have to hit the Z button at the same time.

Good times. I really look forward to playing Wii Sports Tennis against them.

[LinkinPrime]

Have they announced Mario Kart Wii yet? I wonder if its going to be the one that's in the arcades right now with Pac-Man playable characters. :-k