Closing in on Rosalina...

Friday night I played a little Kart before bed. I kept on playing the Star Mirror cup with my Mii and Super Blooper, kept getting A ranks, so close, finally I started switching characters and bikes to change things up. Finally with Bowser Jr and the Super Blooper, Star status was attained, then went on WFC and got my score up to 6800+. Overall pretty productive evening.

Saturday afternoon we spent some time on our Wii Fit with the family, after that since the Wii was warm, I slid in the Mario Kart disc. I used Funky Kong and the Flame Runner bike to get a star on the Lightning Mirror cup after about 5 trys.

Then some friends came over, we played some Super Mario Party 8. After they left, I fired up Mario Kart again. On my second try with Bowser Jr & Super Blooper I won the Special Mirror cup, but I only got an A rank, with 52pts, very close.

After the win, there was a special ending and a different commemorative photo. That also unlocked the Large Phantom Bike. So now I have everything unlocked except Rosalina. I just need to get that Star Rank on the final Special Mirror Mode cup. That will also give me a star next to my name when I race online. Who knows, maybe tonight I will get it done....

Succesful Kart Sunday

I really did not race much Mario Kart this weekend as I was too busy following the live Internet coverage of the Bassmaster Classic. There was kind of a lull in action on Sunday morning, so I fired up my Wii console.

I had been trying to get a star on the Banana Mirror Cup, this time it I got a star on my first attempt with Toadette and her Magikruiser. So naturally I attempted to tackle the Leaf cup and got a star on my first attempt at that using Funky Kong and the Flame Runner. So with that win, I unlocked the Jet Bubble Bike for small characters.

Since things were going so smoothly this fine morning, I took a shot at the Lightning Cup with the Funky Kong / Flamer Runner combo. I won it, but I think I only got a B Rank. The win still unlocked the Blue Falcon Kart, which I can use with medium characters like my Mii.

The only things left to unlock are the Phantom Bike (Win Special Cup Mirror) and Rosalina (Stars still needed on Mirror Star, Special, Lightning), hopefully later this week!

My Mii got a new ride!

Monday night I took my Mii Outfit A with his Super Blooper and rung up a star on 150cc Flower Cup, so then I moved onto the Star cup. On the first attempt I was able to take the Gold but only got an A Rank, so I will have to take another crack at getting a Star Rank on this cup. But the win did unlock the Dolphin Dasher, which is a medium bike.

I then took it for a spin and re-raced the Star Cup, I won but actually got a D rank that time. It handled really well but was kind of slow. I think the old Dolphin Dasher could be decent bike, but it may take some getting use to.

Saturday Night Jetsetter

Friday night I was able to get stars on the 150cc Shell, Banana, and Leaf cups. I took one attempt at the Lightning Cup, failed and got tired. So Saturday night, I sat down determined to get that Star. On about my 3rd try with the combo of Funky Kong on the Flame Runner I got a 2 star score.




I actually used the Funky/Flame combo on all 150cc Retro cups except for the Banana, for that I raced Toadette on the Magikruiser bike. That combo seems to be best on off road, so it seems to good for that set of 4 tracks.


So at this point, I have at least one star on all the tracks I had raced, so I went on the WFC to see if I had a star next to my name. Nope!!! Guess I need to get stars on the Mirror cups as well. I got a single star on the Mushroom cup with Peach in the Super Blooper before I raced some friends in Regional WFC. Got my score up to around 6600 before bed.

Dry Bowser is Mine!!!!

Last night I finished getting stars on the 150cc Wii Cups, so last night I got the Star Cup in a single try and it took about a half dozen attempts at the Special Cup.

So my formula was the following for each Wii Cup Circuit:

Mushroom Cup - Diddy Kong with Mach Bike

Flower Cup - Peach with with Super Blooper

Star Cup - Mii with Super Blooper

Special Cup - Mii with Super Blooper

All this was with Automatic drift. Overall the bikes seem to be faster and I like to wheelie, but I was just getting pushed off the tracks too much with the bike, going with a quick kart seem to help with that respect. You can win and get stars with just about any character, this just worked for me.

So here is Dry Bowser, he is very bad ass looking and makes cool noises when you drive him. Now I just need to dig into the Retro 150CC cups, which I think are a little easier and open the Jetsetter. Then also I should have stars on all tracks that I have raced, so I then should have a star next to my name online. I have unlocked Mirror Mode but have not raced. I am resisting the temptation so that I can get the star rating and then just get one star at a time in Mirror Mode to preserve that ranking.

Mario Kart Unlockables

So once you start playing you start winning a few Grand Prix tracks and the next thing you know you start getting new characters, new karts and new bikes to race with. Then you start seeing your friends or other people online with more & more characters and vehicles that you don't have and you wonder how get them..... Hmmmm...... Well, here is a map to unlock everything below.

Unlock all the Characters

14 characters in all can be unlocked in Mario Kart Wii, in addition to the 12 characters already available at the start of the game. The following characters can be unlocked by completing certain tasks:

• King Boo - Win the 50cc Star Cup


• Diddy Kong - Win the 50cc Retro Cups


• Mii (Outfit A) - Win the 100cc Special Cup


• Dry Bones - Win the 100cc Leaf Cup


• Daisy - Win the 150cc Special Cup


• Baby Daisy - Get 1 star in all 50cc Wii Cups


• Bowser Jr. - Get 1 star in all 100cc Retro Cups


• Dry Bowser - Get 1 star in all 150cc Wii Cups


• Rosalina - Get 1 star in all Mirror Mode Wii & Retro Cups (or, have a Super Mario Galaxy save file and complete 50 races)


• Birdo - Play 16 Time Trial Mode courses (or, win 250 WiFi matches)


• Toadette - Play 32 Time Trial Mode courses (or, win 1000 WiFi matches)


• Funky Kong - Unlock 4 Expert Staff Times in Time Trial Mode


• Baby Luigi - Unlock 8 Expert Staff Times in Time Trial Mode


• Mii (Outfit B) - Unlock 32 Expert Staff Times in Time Trial Mode

Unlock all the Karts

Nine unlockable karts are also hidden within Mario Kart Wii:

• Piranha Prowler (large kart) - Win 50cc Special Cup


• Turbo Blooper (medium kart) - Win 50cc Leaf Cup


• Royal Racer (medium kart) - Win 150cc Leaf Cup


• Honeycoupe (large kart) - Win 150cc Lightning Cup


• Blue Falcon (small kart) - Win Mirror Mode Lightning Cup


• Cheep Charger (small kart) - Get 1 star in all 50cc Retro Cups


• Jetsetter (large kart) - Get 1 star in all 150cc Retro Cups


• Tiny Titan (small kart) - Unlock 1 Expert Staff Time in Time Trial Mode (or, win 50 WiFi matches)


• Sprinter (medium kart) - Unlock 24 Expert Staff Times in Time Trial Mode

Unlock all the Bikes

Similarly, nine bikes can also be unlocked upon meeting certain requirements in Mario Kart Wii:

• Shooting Star (large bike) - Win 100cc Star Cup


• Zip Zip (medium bike) - Win 100cc Lightning Cup


• Quacker (small bike) - Win 150cc Star Cup


• Dolphin Dasher (medium bike) - Win Mirror Mode Star Cup


• Phantom (large bike) - Win Mirror Mode Special Cup


• Jet Bubble (small bike) - Win Mirror Mode Leaf Cup


• Sneakster (medium bike) - Get 1 star in all 100cc Wii cups


• Magikruiser (small bike) - Play 8 Time Trial Mode courses


• Spear (large bike) - Unlock 12 Expert Staff Times in Time Trial Mode

Unlock Mirror Mode

In addition to unlockable characters, karts and bikes, Nintendo also included an unlockable Grand Prix mode in Mario Kart Wii: Mirror Mode. To unlock Mirror Mode, one must place 1st in all races in the 150cc mode.

There are a few other ways to unlock some of these characters, for instance if just play online enough some of these characters can be unlocked as well. For instance you can unlock Rosaline by winning about 5000 races, or get Diddy Kong for a great value of 450 races. If you get all these done, you have put some serious time into the game. Also, you only unlock them for your license that you are playing.