Mario Kart Wii is the first home instalment of the much-loved (and swear-inducing) racer to feature online play. We know Nintendo isn't big on the net, but we're at least going to get lobbies with basic text chat, right? That's a basic 1996-era feature, isn't it?
Nintendo of Europe originally told IGN: "You can create rooms for friends to join and even text chat while you're waiting for other racers." Good news then. Except they were telling porkies...
Nintendo's American operation quickly contacted the publication to explain that while there will be "text chat" in Mario Kart Wii's online mode, it'll be in the form of pre-determined phrases that can be sent as messages before the match (such as "let's race!" or "No Wario Stadium shortcut!" we presume).
There'll be no proper communication between friends in Mario Kart Wii, then. Thank you Nintendo for once again protecting us from the evils of the internet.
At least the pre-determined text will probably allow us to play with foreign racers, auto translated and all that.