Ok, so I know that it's not my birthday yet, but my mom sent me Mario Kart and Ciri wasn't fast enough to stop me from opening it and popping it in the Wii. :)) I had to download some updates for the Wii, but after about 5 minutes I was behind the Wiimote steering wheel. I had some trouble with the Wiimote's sensitivity in the past and I was afraid that using the steering wheel would drive me to insanity, but after my first race on the wimpy 50cc series, I was sold. Amazingly responsive to my crazy driving, I zoomed through the tracks, earning my first Gold trophy. Nice. I wanted to start slow; run an easy track on the 50cc setting using auto drifting. I remember when the Revolution was announced, Nintendo's main goal was to bring gaming back to the masses. Veteran gamers will still be able to pick up a game and have a blast, but new gamers also face a shallow learning curve so they can have fun too.
One thought that entered my mind as I passed Bowser at turn 2 on Luigi Circuit, was "Ciri could play this too." Ciri isn't much of a gamer, but on Mario Kart for the GC, she made a great teammate. She could bump, throw, and drift like no other... just don't ask her to drive. It looks like they removed the double kart concept in the Wii version, so Ciri has no other place in the game except the front seat of a Bullet Bill styled kart. So far, she's been too timid to play, although she does admit it looks easy even for her. We'll see.