This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on May 2, 2008.

“Is the Wii Wheel required to play Mario Kart Wii?”

I received an email with this question a day ago and I thought it would be better to answer it here as I’m sure many librarians aren’t quite sure what to make of the Wii Wheel.

The short answer is NO, the Wii Wheel is not required to play Mario Kart Wii. But here’s an explanation of just why that is and what you can do in the future ahead of time to know what controller configurations work with which games.

A small graphic indicating every controller configuration that can be used with a game is included in the top right corner on the back of every Wii game case. The graphic for Mario Kart Wii looks like this…

It’s a little hard to see, but there is a “4” inside the Wii Remote symbol. That means the game supports four-player simeltaneous play. The other symbols mean that it is also (optionally) playable with the Wii Wheel, the Nunchuk (with a Wii Remote), the Classic Controller (with a Wii Remote) or a GameCube Controller. Every game will have some combination of these symbols to indicate what controller options players have with it.

Finally, a little about the Wii Wheel. The Wii Wheel is actually just a plastic shell that the Wii Remote snaps into it to make it feel more like a real steering wheel. It is perfectly acceptable to play Mario Kart Wii by holding the Wii Remote sideways and using it to steer your kart. The game would work exactly the same as if the Remote were plugged into the Wii Wheel.

If any librarians out there ever have any other questions, feel free to email them to me at videogamelibrarian AT gmail DOT com.