I have been playing Mario Kart since its N64 days... It's been more than 15 years since the dawn of the Mario Kart franchise on Super Nintendo and the series is still going strong because of the 32 stages, online play, new controller styles and the motorcycles and the ability to play as your Mii.

So, when Mario Kart for the Wii came along I was very excited because of all of the different ways to play and the variety of controllers’ styles available to you. But only two controllers are good for the disabled gamers and those are the Classic Controller and the GameCube controller.

My personal favorites are the wii wheel and the classic controller because these are the most accessible for users of all skill levels especially for the one handed gamer. Using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk is just so cumbersome to steer with the Nunchuk and to use the Wii Remote to accelerate, break and use items against your opponents; making it very frustrating for those with motor impairment issues, like myself.

The Wii Wheel is innovate but also very difficult to control and not good for disabled gamers. It adds a feel like your really driving but the wheel is either overly sensitive or under sensitive making it frustrating for someone with limited motor function.
I would like to see the Wii Wheel adapted to work better for those with motor skills impairments; you could have an extra accessory with hand controls to ease the burden.
Also, for the visually impaired, it would be great if they added some Braile to the controller.

The classic controller is by far my favorite way to play Mario Kart because it is most like a traditional controller and by far the easiest to manipulate; you can steer with your left hand and control the accelerator and brakes with your right hand or play one-handed if need be. The keys are not reprogrammable; but a good work around I found is that you could also hold the controller vertically and play with one hand. Another great substitute is the GameCube controller, which is also compatible with this version of Mario Kart.

One of my favorite things about this new version of Mario Kart is variety of tracks and different skill levels they have within the game. So, even though there is not difficult setting first set of races are the easiest and they range in difficult from there and it ranges from medium to hard in difficult.

For example, one of the tracks that is the hardest is called Rainbow Road is just sensory overload because of all of the bright colors; it is almost memorizing. Someone with vision impairments will have major issues with this race. I would also be difficult for someone who is colorblind because it is sometime difficult to see the different between red, greens, blues and yellows throughout the game. This is especially a problem when beginning the race because you have to wait for the light to turn green to begin.

Overall, I give Mario Kart for the Wii 6.9 out of 10. This is because the game does not have subtitles and only two styles of controllers would work for a disabled gamer. In addition, people that are colorblind may have difficult with some of the more advanced races. But, if you use either the standard controller or the GameCube Controller and practice a lot on the easier races you will still have a lot of fun and it’s great to play with friends!