Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Mario Kart Wiicompiled is currently in development for PC, targeting an August beta release.
- The effort reflects the first static recompilation of a Wii title for modern hardware.
- The game will join a growing list of recomp projects, already targeting N64, Saturn, PlayStation 2, and additional platforms.
Emulators are very cool, making it easy to access vast libraries of our favorite games on modern hardware, like our favorite Android handheld consoles. But for as great as they can be, some very clever programmers have been doing one better, working to decompile and recompile classic games so that they run natively on today’s machines. We’ve already seen efforts to pull off this trick for games originally released on everything from the N64 to PlayStation 2, and today we’re hearing about what’s supposedly the first such attempt for the Nintendo Wii.
Is there any game series more universally beloved than Mario Kart? Platformers may not be for everyone, but who doesn’t feel instantly at home behind the wheel of a shell-dodging go-kart? Already this month we’ve had the classic series on our mind thanks to a very creative playable YouTube version, as well as getting news of the end of the old Mario Kart Tour app. And now Retro Rewind developer patchzy is sharing the news on X about an upcoming static recompilation of Mario Kart Wii — and they’ve already got a video preview to show off:
Announcing Mario Kart Wiicompiled!
The first static recompilation of a Wii game: Mario Kart Wii, rebuilt for PC.
Releasing in beta this August, with online play and optional Retro Rewind support, bringing over 200 tracks!
Things aren’t quite ready yet for a playable release, but as you can see from today’s teaser, there’s currently an August ETA for the first beta version — so you won’t have that much longer to wait before you can try it yourself on your own PC. Mario Kart Wii is the second-highest selling Wii game of all time, behind only Wii Sports — and just ahead of Wii Sports Resort.
While PC is the target here, the resultant codebase should just make things that much easier for anyone looking to do another native port to different architectures — maybe even Android!
But even with just the PC version, we can hope to look forward to all sorts of quality-of-life improvements, like high-res rendering, and maybe even opening the door for some third-party texture/model/sound mods.
There’s also the milestone of seeing an effort like this taken for a Wii game for the first time, which only has us thinking about the next Wii titles we might most like to see given a new lease on life with their own recomp projects. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, anyone? We can only dream.
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