If you’re looking for a good party game, not a lot are going to top Mario Kart.
The Wii version also has one of the longest lists of playable characters among the Mario Kart titles, offering a total of 12 base characters and another set of 12 unlockable characters you gain access to as you progress through the game.
While the large roster and many tracks make sure that there’s something for everyone, mods can give you even more options.
If your favorite characters or tracks from other Mario Kart games weren’t included in vanilla, well I’m pretty sure you’ll find a mod for it.
Here are some of my personal favorites worth checking out.
9. SM64 Whomp’s Fortress
The base game already provides quite a large variety when it comes to available racetracks – including a mix of 16 new ones along with 16 retro ones you’ll probably recognize from previous installments.
SM64 Whomp’s Fortress adds yet another retro map to the mix, except this time with a twist.
The original Whomp King’s Fortress was never actually made into a Mario Kart track, but was a Super Mario 64 level known for holding races.
Modder oh ok tweaks the map a bit to make it a playable Mario Kart track making for a great addition to the available retro options.
8. GCDS Pinball Park
Up next we have another retro option, this time taking from Mario Kart Wii’s direct predecessor Mario Kart DS.
Modder Alfreduzzo wanted to merge two of his favorite MKDS tracks GCN Baby Park and DS Waluigi Pinball, which resulted in the birth of BCDS Pinball Park.
The pack even comes complete with a custom music file that adds a modified version of the Waluigi Pinball soundtrack from SEGA Genesis.
7. Galaxy Colosseum Battle Arena
Galaxy Colosseum was another popular Mario Kart Wii map, but was unfortunately only available during certain online tournaments.
Online play was one of the game’s biggest features at launch, but support has since been discontinued with the closing of WFC.
The mod community couldn’t just let Galaxy Colosseum be forgotten, of course, as modder H1K0USEN makes it possible to play the map even in offline mode.
His mod also transforms the map into a fully functional battle arena map instead of a typical racetrack.
6. Luigi On Foot
New maps are only half the fun when it comes to Mario Kart modding.
There’s a long list of character mods to explore as well.
While this first one doesn’t exactly introduce any new characters to the game, it’s definitely one of the more interesting options.
Luigi On Foot actually replaces the Mach Bike in the game allowing Luigi to race without a vehicle instead.
Who knew he could run so fast?
5. Sonic
Sonic, being from a completely different developer and having his own series of kart racing games, has never made an appearance in a Mario Kart game before.
That’s without modding, of course, as Sonic mods are actually one of the most common ones you’ll find for any Mario Kart game.
Mario Kart Wii is no different.
Modder The Lone Devil makes our favorite blue hedgehog a playable racer in the game.
The mod even includes his Speed Star from Sega All Stars Racing and even proper voice sfx as well.
4. Darky Mario
DarkyBenji is a name you just can’t leave out when it comes to Mario Kart modding.
He’s created so many custom textures for the game that you can actually get a mod called Darky Kart Wii which will change almost everything in the original.
The “Darky” in his name comes from the signature sinister appearance of his skins, making it pretty difficult to miss.
Darky Mario is obviously one of his most downloaded mods, but there are separate mods for some of his other characters and maps to choose from as well.
3. Pepsiman
This next one might be a bit biased on my end, and might not even be familiar to many of you.
Pepsiman was huge when I was a kid though, and I still remember playing it when I was younger.
Nowadays, you probably couldn’t even imagine there being a video game based around Pepsi. But towards beginning of the 2000’s that’s what we got.
Modder cartuga_ gives us Pepsiman as a playable Mario Kart Wii racer, and even comes complete with his own custom Pepsi vehicles to race with.
2. Sans Recolor Mod
Okay fine, Pepsiman might be too old for you to appreciate – so here’s a newer character for some of the younger gamers out there.
Sans from Undertale was originally brought to Mario Kart Wii by modder AtlasOmegaAlpha, but bain made a few tweaks to give us some additional options for how Sans looks in the game.
The mod includes 17 different color options for Sans, but you’ll still have to replace Wario to add him into the game.
1. Peter Griffin
If neither Pepsiman nor Sans sounds very exciting to you, well then I’m hoping this final character mod is going to catch your attention.
We all love Family Guy, right?
So who isn’t going to grab the chance to have Peter Griffin in Mario Kart?
That’s right: thanks to modder snakey_spy, we can have Quahog’s own Peter Griffin added right into the game – and he fits in perfectly if you ask me.
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