14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts announced its plans to develop and release a game called NASCAR Kart Racing for the Nintendo Wii. The game is set to be launched sometime in February 2009 and the company must be hoping that its title will be a serious contender to the very successful Mario Kart Wii made by Nintendo.
The comapany says that the game will allow players to “grab the steering wheel as a famed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and speed through treacherous landscapes, wind around rocky cliffs, jump rivers and dodge falling boulders”. That part about grabbing the steering wheel suggests that EA decided to use the Wii Racing Wheel, but there's no official confirmation from the developer.
Electronic Arts is very interested in targeting the Wii audience with its games. EA Sports has a line up of sports games, called All Play, that uses Miis and cute graphics to attract demographics and the same strategy is applied when it comes to NASCAR Kart Racing. The drivers will have big heads, there will be a lot of power ups and weapons, and the handling will be accessible to kids. However, the game will not have an online mode and will not feature Mii support.
Ryan Stradling, who is the senior developer on the game, talked to Edge about NASCAR Kart Racing, saying that “When we looked at the Wii audience, it's family-based. It's getting a lot of popularity with the moms, dads and kids. So that's one factor. But NASCAR itself is a really family-oriented sport. One of their core business objectives is to appeal to the family. And thirdly, we already released the sim-style products on PS3, Xbox 360 and PS2,” in an effort to justify why the NASCAR license is involved. He also said that the team behind the game looked at Mario Kart Wii quite a bit to see how a successful racing game could work on the Wii.