There is still no firm US release date for the upcoming Nintendo racing game Mario Kart Wii but that doesn’t stop the news from pouring in about it. Mario Kart has always been a blast to play and I’m sure this one will be no different. But I gotta say some of the news coming out for the game leaves me a little wanting. First off the game will not support voice chat. It will have great text chat though right? Well according to the boys over at IGN.com it won’t have great text chat either.

In our original article, we speculated that players might be able to use a USB keyboard or at the very least the Wii remote to enter customized text messages. Not so, according to a rep for Nintendo of America, who contacted us today to clarify. Apparently, gamers will only be able to select from a pre-determined number of phrases that can be sent along as rudimentary texts before matches. Nintendo is clearly playing it safe.

The Wii Wheel will be an amazing new gaming controller right? Kotaku posted a story about a blog post on Wii Wii by Bulent Yusuf. He had a chance to use the Wii Wheel, his impressions?

Finally, the Wii Wheel. This was the most disappointing thing, simply because it’s absolutely crap.

 Though Nintendo valiantly tried to convince us otherwise, it’s a silly gimmick that detracts from the quality of the game. Fortunately, you can play using the standard Wiimote and Nunchuk, or you can bust out the GameCube pad and be proper old school.

Don’t know why Nintendo thought this thing was necessary; perhaps it looks good in advertising? A good way of bumping up the price? Either way, it’s rubbish.

You can check out the blog, but you won’t find anything because the post has been taken down. Maybe Nintendo didn’t like him dogging on the Wii Wheel?

Lastly there’s the news that you can purchase the Wii Wheel separately. Although it doesn’t sound like you’ll be enjoying it enough to buy more then one.

This is one Wii game I’m truly looking forward to, because you know it’s gonna be a blast to play. I’m not surprised that the wheel sucks and I was fully planning on turning the Wiimote on it’s side and using it that way. With that said I’m continually disappointed in the Wii these days. Sure voice chat isn’t that big of a deal but it’s still nice for a game to include that right? If no voice chat give us full text chat at least. While it still remains for each of us to decide if the Wii Wheel is any good, I’m not holding out to much hope. Isn’t using the Gamecube controller or really even turning the Wiimote sideways really just making this another Mario Kart game?

What do you think? Let us know.