Having a chance to reflect on Wii as a game through unlocking everything for the first time gives me a chance to reflect on it a little bit more than multiplayer revisits brimming with nostalgia, and as such has helped me realise that while it's still a great game, it's one bested by others both before and after it in nearly every department for me. Double Dash and DS nail the track design and have better single player experiences (also DS is still my favourite to play due to the complexity of the drifting system, something that while gone from this game it manages to replace very well), and 7/8 are much better at presentation and variety especially owing to 8D's number of tracks on display.

MKW is often a game that feels larger than life due to what online multiplayer and leaderboards spawned, as well as the completely overhauling mods that I still think of more when I think of this game, but as the basegame itself goes... It's pretty middling. I'd still highly rate it as a multiplayer experience especially alongside a trackpack like CTGP. but as a base it's pretty solid but far from the best the series has to offer.