Another Nintendo system, another Mario Kart game. This one -- the appropriately if obviously titled Mario Kart Wii -- is being pushed by Nintendo as a "bridge game" to move casual Wii owners past Wii Sports and into the hardcore gaming scene, so to speak. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's ever played a Mario Kart game. The series has always acted as a sort of neutral ground for gamers -- a pick-up-and-play racer with hidden depth; a competitive game that lets even newcomers stay competitive; a sometimes punishing game with a bright, friendly exterior. Mario Kart Wii fits so squarely into this mold that it skirts by some potentially game-crushing pitfalls with relative panache.

Speaking of pitfalls, let's start with the Wii Wheel, that round, plastic Wii remote case included in the box as a concession to gamers who feel more comfortable turning a steering wheel than flicking an analog stick. On the plus side, the Wheel is solidly constructed and adds some much-needed weight and balance to the flimsy remote. On the downside, the remote that slides into the Wheel's casing is woefully inadequate for the precision driving and power-sliding required to succeed in the game. Sure, the tilt-a-Wheel controls perform passably enough on the slower (and easier) speed classes, but once you hit the 150cc races, there's no amount of arm twisting and flailing that will make up for the slight lag between the turn of the Wheel and the corresponding on-screen reaction.

Luckily there are other, more precise control options available, though two of these options have a nearly fatal flaw. Both the GameCube controller and the Wii classic controller do a fine job replicating the classic Kart controls, butMario Kart Wii's most prominent new features -- the mid-air tricks and speed-enhancing bike wheelies -- have for some reason been mapped to the digital pad, forcing the player to move their thumb off the control stick for a split second in the middle of the race. The result is a control scheme that unnecessarily gets in the way of the racing experience. Luckily, using the Wii remote and Nunchuk together fixes this problem by mapping the tricks and wheelies to a perfunctory, almost effortless flick of the remote, meaning players can save their attention for the racing.

Not worrying about the controls also leaves more time to focus on the excellent course design. Along with 16 classic Kart courses come 16 original tracks that show a degree of imagination and forethought that's unmatched in most racing games. Whether it's driving through an autumnal, leaf-strewn forest trail, cruising around inside an escalator-packed mall, or bouncing around on a glen of magic mushrooms, each level is brimming with enough life and color to bring a smile to all but the most cynical of faces. While some of the levels do bear more than a passing resemblance to some Kart classics, each one has been tweaked just enough to avoid feeling entirely like a retread. The multiple shortcuts and little Mii-inspired background touches are just an added bonus.

Unlike the consistently excellent course design, the difficulty level in the single-player modes jumps schizophrenically from incredibly easy to ridiculously unfair. The 50cc and 100cc modes fulfill Nintendo's promise of building a "bridge" game, primarily by slowing down the opposing vehicles to the point where practically any newcomer can win races easily from their first sit-down (the only real challenge in the 100cc difficulty is the introduction of the overly tight motorbike controls), but the difficulty dial gets cranked just as far in the opposite direction in the 150cc difficulty, where even a slight mistake almost inevitably means a plummet from first place to the middle of the pack. It doesn't even have to be a mistake -- just as often, one of the game's wide variety of items will come hurtling at you from behind to ruin an otherwise perfect run mere moments from the end.

Yes, the imaginative items are what set the Mario Kart games apart, but they seem to have reached a zenith of ridiculousness in this latest effort. While first-place racers are "rewarded" with near-useless Banana Peels and Green Shells, those savvy and or sorry enough to languish near the back are showered with items practically guaranteed to put them back in the hunt. Chief among them is the Blue Shell, which makes its return here as the unblockable scourge of first-place racers and possibly the most patently unfair item in all of gaming. Other items shrink the kart, spin it out, and cover it in vision-obscuring sludge with such depressing regularity in the 150cc races that I almost found myself longing for a more banal, realistic racing game like Gran Turismo.

It's a shame, because were it not for the interference of these items, Mario Kart Wii would rank as one of the most skillful games in the series. Any player that masters the game's new boost-granting mid-air tricks and the difficult-but-rewarding motorbike wheelies will likely develop a sizable lead over any unlearned competitor, but that skillful lead is all for naught if the opponent gets a Blue Shell, a POW Block or a Bullet Bill that can effortlessly transport them from eighth place to first in the blink of an eye. The net effect is a race that is always thrilling but rarely satisfying -- a luck-of-the-draw mess where hanging in the middle of the pack until the final seconds is a quixotically winning strategy.

This problem is allayed somewhat in the multiplayer modes, where a Blue Shell launched by a desperate friend is somehow less frustrating than one launched by a soulless game system. The local multiplayer modes suffer from their own problems, though, not least of which is a noticeably jumpy frame rate when three or more players race on the same TV. What's more, the last-man-standing battle mode -- a series staple -- has been transformed into a team-based, timed affair in which groups of players battle to a generally anticlimactic conclusion as the clock winds down. It's an interesting twist on the formula, but one that should have been an addition to the traditional battle mode, not a replacement for it.

The new team-based battle modes are better-suited to online play, which is an impressively smooth experience this time around. The much-maligned Wii friend codes are still around, but now players can at least use the Wii Message Board to send invites to already-registered friends. The matching system makes it incredibly easy to face off against up to 11 other racers from around the world or around the region, though there were some occasional server problems during our playtest. The ELO-style, point-based ranking system provides a big improvement over Mario Kart DS' simple win-loss system, although these ratings seem to have nothing to do with the race match-ups (perhaps this will be fixed in the occasional, time-sensitive online tournaments Nintendo plans to run). Nintendo also places a nice twist on the high-score list by letting players race against downloadable versions of the fastest recorded races, which can spice up the normally staid time trial mode. Racing against a version of the best racer in the world is a humbling experience, to say the least.

These are the kind of surprising, humbling features that make Mario Kart Wii a success despite its flaws. All the frustrations over cheap item selection and inconsistent difficulty seem petty and forgivable when the core design is so tight and joy-inducing. Nintendo has succeeded in creating a game that new and old players can enjoy equally, and one that I find myself jonesing for even after an entire weekend absorbed in it. If that's not a sign of a good game, I don't know what is.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.