< return to blog

blog post: Mario Kart and Friend Codes

posted on May 05, 2008 @ 08:59 am

Nintendo clearly has no idea at all what they're doing with any sort of real online functionality. I'm not even sure how much protection they're adding here, they're just making it stupider and more convoluted.

When I turned on my Wii Saturday evening for the first time in about a month, I had a special Wii message waiting for me from Ravage. It was Kart specific and was a friend request so we wouldn't need to exchange actual friend codes for the game. Sounds great so I don't have to deal with inputting yet another another IP address...er... friend code, but what specifically is the point of the game specific friend code then?

Now, for people who don't know whats up, let me tell you how you can utilize this feature. To either send, or accept these requests, you first need to install the Kart Wii Channel to your Wii Menu. Doing this is kind of annoying, you've got to start up the game, go into the the first SETTINGS menu (before selecting your license) and locate the option for the channel there. I stupidly went into the actual Channel first, and couldn't find an install option there... who would have thought I would need to look under "SETTINGS"?

After you've got the channel installed, go into it through the Wii Menu. You've got 4 main buttons, that look like buttons, and a 5th item that, as of the time I write this, says something along the lines of "Tournament Challenge." Now, you've got to wait a couple seconds, because when you do, that 5th option will literally change into "Invite Wii Friends" (I'm not making this shit up folks). From there, you can invite confirmed people from your address book, one by one. So, for each you want to invite, you've got to go back to that same menu and wait for the button to cycle to "Invite".

At least it gives you the option, right? Ugh. I almost wish it didn't.

This is the ONLY way I have found where you can send friend requests through Kart, and was told to me by Ravage. If someone finds another way to do it, let us know.