The Mario Kart series is perhaps my favourite Nintendo franchise of all time, thanks to how accessible the series is for fans to pick up and play.
Even for people who aren’t massive gamers, Mario Kart is quite an easy thing to understand and enjoy, which is how I’ve managed to convince pretty much all my friends and family to do Mario Kart game nights with me over the past 20 years.
Although the Mario Kart game I’ve probably sunk the most time into would be Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch, my all-time favourite game in this franchise is easily Mario Kart Wii.
In addition to having the best tracks in the series, Mario Kart Wiialso took advantage of the console’s motion controls in a really smart way, making it such a fun title to play with friends in short or long bursts.
But for as much as I love vanilla Mario Kart Wii—or any of the games in the series, for that matter—there exists a free mod for this version that has ruined pretty much all other Mario Kart games for me.
The mod in question is Retro Rewind, a mod for Mario Kart Wii which celebrates the series’ history by adding pretty much every single Mario Kart track that has ever existed.
The mod features every track from all major Mario Kart games, starting with the first game on SNES and going all the way up to Mario Kart World’s tracks on the Switch 2, all functioning within Mario Kart Wii.
Ever wanted to have tracks like Waluigi Pinball, Moo Moo Farm, Luigi’s Mansion, and Wario Colosseum all available in the same game? Well, now you can.
Tracks from more recently released games like Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Kart Worldare also included, which makes it fun to see what are effectively “demakes” of tracks like Mount Wario and DK Spaceport in the Mario Kart Wiiengine.
Retro Rewind for Mario Kart Wii might just be the best thing in the series
To get Retro Rewind, you’ll need to own your own copy of Mario Kart Wii. You can then start installing the mod either on your own Wii console as a homebrew app or in Dolphin, which is an emulator that can run your Wii and GameCube games.
Aside from this, the mod also adds in custom tracks made by modders, giving you dozens of other tracks brand new to Mario Kart to play on.
As is typically the case with custom fan-made content, some of this new content is incredible and feels like something designed by Nintendo itself, while other tracks may not be quite as impressive.
It’s a mixed bag, but I do like that it enhances the mod to bring in lots of new custom content to the game. Altogether, it’s around 200 new tracks when you factor in the retro tracks designed by Nintendo and the custom ones made by users.
All of this is to say that Retro Rewind has pretty much ruined all other Mario Kart games for me.
The Wii version of the game was already my favourite rendition of the series’ formula, but with the added benefit of being able to play pretty much any track from Mario Kart’s nearly 35-year history, as well as plenty of custom tracks made by fans, it’s pretty much the ultimate Mario Kart game for me.
I’m sure I’ll still enjoy playing Mario Kart World or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, as those games all have features that the Wii version will never have, but for now, I’m pretty much set on only playing Retro Rewind for the time being.
