Cheap/good Wii game that uses the wheel? Help...arrgghh!

[PinballFamily]

DS10 (with autism) got a Wii wheel from an uncle for his birthday the other day. Great, right..? Um...not so much. (!) We don't have any Wii games that use the wheel! (The wheel came directly from Amazon - don't know about returns there...more trouble than they're worth?) But...

Of course, DS is dying to try out his wheel and is looking online at MarioKart, but it is $50! (Plus, it comes with ANOTHER wheel that we don't need.) I'm hating that the poor kid is wanting to spend ALL the rest of his birthday gift $ to buy something he needs to play with one of his other gifts...

Are there other good/cheap Wii games you'd recommend that need the wheel? I'd be happy to even pick up a used game for him at GameStop, etc., as long it is fun (appropriate), and well-priced.

Gratefully accepting any opinions and advice - thanks so much!

 

[lucigo]

As the mom of an autistic 6-yo, I recommend you get Mario Kart and another wheel, and play with him! Its an excellent way to interact and build communication skills if you use it for that and not plug him in and let him go. We are working on being a gracious winner AND a gracious loser right now. The newest bonus is that now he wants to play mario kart in our pool...we race around the sides of the pool on our noodles and throw water wings as turtle shells. We are interacting with our child, using video games as a basis for our pretend play. Who would have thought!?

You might also look for M&M Kart Racing, I think it uses the wheel also, however I still recommend you get 2 wheels and play with him.

I also wanted to add 2 more bonuses we have gotten from Mario Kart...
1. A love for all things Yoshi, including a stuffed Yoshi who sleeps with him now (instead of us!)
2. He now eats bananas!!

 

[pixiewings71]

Or you could try Game Stop and buy a used game, most of the used games do not come with things like microphones or steering wheels.

 

[rcraw45425]

MArio Kart is great, but Amazon.com is really good about returns, if youreally don't want the wheel I'd suggest going to their contact us page, there is a place to click and they will call you right away, you can find out your options for a return. I kow they do have a 30 day policy though.

 

[harleyquinn]

As the mom of an autistic 6-yo, I recommend you get Mario Kart and another wheel, and play with him! Its an excellent way to interact and build communication skills if you use it for that and not plug him in and let him go. We are working on being a gracious winner AND a gracious loser right now. The newest bonus is that now he wants to play mario kart in our pool...we race around the sides of the pool on our noodles and throw water wings as turtle shells. We are interacting with our child, using video games as a basis for our pretend play. Who would have thought!?

You might also look for M&M Kart Racing, I think it uses the wheel also, however I still recommend you get 2 wheels and play with him.

I also wanted to add 2 more bonuses we have gotten from Mario Kart...
1. A love for all things Yoshi, including a stuffed Yoshi who sleeps with him now (instead of us!)
2. He now eats bananas!!

ITA!!
OP:
I know it's hard to spend that much, but if you bought a Wii then you should be prepared to spend that much a lot of times. Mario Kart is BY FAR the best game with the wheel, since it was made to go with it. Unfortunatly it is such a popular game that you would be hard pressed to find one used. I thought that you could buy the game without the wheel though...

If you REALLY need a budget racing game, I would look for Excite Truck. It's very good and was a system launch game, so you should be able to find it cheap.

Bottom line, the wheel works with ANY racing game, so just go to your used store and find the cheapest one--but you get what you pay for.

 

[bgirl29]

As the mom of an autistic 6-yo, I recommend you get Mario Kart and another wheel, and play with him! Its an excellent way to interact and build communication skills if you use it for that and not plug him in and let him go. We are working on being a gracious winner AND a gracious loser right now. The newest bonus is that now he wants to play mario kart in our pool...we race around the sides of the pool on our noodles and throw water wings as turtle shells. We are interacting with our child, using video games as a basis for our pretend play. Who would have thought!?

You might also look for M&M Kart Racing, I think it uses the wheel also, however I still recommend you get 2 wheels and play with him.

I also wanted to add 2 more bonuses we have gotten from Mario Kart...
1. A love for all things Yoshi, including a stuffed Yoshi who sleeps with him now (instead of us!)
2. He now eats bananas!!

I just wanted to say that I love that the video games are influencing your son in such a positive way! It touched my heart to read this.

I have 3 children from 17 to 8 and they all like the mario kart game too.

 

[Halbleib1]

If you can afford it I also recommend that you get Mario Kart. My son is 4 and loves to play this together as a family. You do not need more than one wheel to play this game as you can use the controllers as wheels but an extra wheel would be great as well. Esp. for those that prefer to use the wheel. We currently only have the wheel that came with the game but we are looking to get another wheel in the future. If you have wireless internet you can play online as well. If you take into consideration that an extra wheel usually costs 10.00 that brings the cost of the game down to 40.00. If you have a Sams Club membership you can get the game and wheel for 45.00 when they have them in stock.

 

[PinballFamily]

Wow - thanks, everyone for your speedy and helpful responses!

DS is truly a "Mario addict" (he sleeps with a stuffed "One Up Mushroom" toy!!! - so I laughed when a pp said her son sleeps with a Yoshi!) so I'm glad to hear that so many of you feel the MarioKart is worth the $$$. I suppose I *thought* that the multi-players would share a wheel, but it seems like both/all players benefit from having their own. DS loves video games and we encourage this (within reason!) as this activity gives him something relevant and appropriate to discuss with his peers (both typically-developing ones and other kids on the spectrum) - it is a hoot listening to all of them chatter on about the intricacies of the games. My eyes do glaze over after awhile, though....!

We're also still hard at work on helping him with the gracious winner/loser aspect (!) - so it sounds like MarioKart (like so many of the multi-player games) is yet another chance to continue our efforts on practicing this social skill in a fun way. (Boy, this isn't easy - just when we think he's got it, we keep having setbacks!!!) Amazon seems to have the best price on the game - $45 - funny, though, the one WITHOUT the wheel is even more $$$...go figure!

As always, we appreciate everyone's time in assisting us - thanks bunches! The DIS is terrific!

 

[mjkacmom]

We all love mariokart, especially ds6 (he's amazing). Four of us play at a time sometimes (you don't need the wheel to play). Actually, the only one who needs the wheel is mom, me.

 

[zoemurr]

Ours has lots of Wii games to borrow. They also keep a copy of Mario Kart, as they have game days throughout the year. (If yours does this maybe they'd let you try it privately one day.)

I have to agree.. we borrow tons of games, and have some, and we always go back to Mario Kart. I was at Game Stop one day and some employees were talking about recommending games, and how it's hard because everyone's tastes are different. Then one of them said, "but no one ever regrets buying Mario Kart."

 

[rcraw45425]

another thing is our Movie Gallery rents games for like $8, good way to try it out first.

 

[pixiewings71]

Oh no, you can't share the wheel if you're racing each other, the races are simultaneous! We have 4 wheels so we can all race each other. FTR, you don't have to have the Wii Wheel either, so if you get yourself one get a different brand, we have Nerf brand that was like $9.99 I think. And I have seen used Mario Karts at Game Stop, the salesguy said when they get them used they just sit because everyone wants it new so they can get the wheel. Mario Kart is definitely worth the $$, we ALL play it!

 

[lucigo]

As I am reading all of these replies it does my heart good to know that my boy is at least "normal" in his love for Mario Kart! As I write this he is on youtube finding new tricks and shortcuts (he figured this out on his own).

Tonight my son was playing against a friend (also with autism) who was having trouble with the wheel, so they got out the old gamecube controllers and the game does work with them also...so if you want to change things up or add more players this is an option also!

 

[anewmac]

I love mario cart LOL sadly we have 2 wheels and dh and I are the ones that need them LOL. the boys just use the remotes LOL.

Check game stop they may have used games for less. And usually they have a week time frame to play and check out if anything is wrong you can return them. Thats where my boys get their games. Also try your library.. YOU MIGHT find some wii games... maybe? I know our has PS2 games and such, and a handfull of other game system games.. nothing wii yet.. but different areas you never know!

 

[onelostsockie]

You should totally get Mario Kart Wii! You might be able to save $5 by getting it used at a game store, but I say just splurge and get an un-scratched one you can register with nintendo club. You could go through some old games and trade them in for credit at gamestop!

The wheel itself is really cheap, it doesn't hurt to have a few of them. If it was a gift and you don't want to return to it Amazon, you could always return it for in-store credit at Wal Mart or somewhere...

I personally think Mario Kart is hard with the wheel control. I play it with the remote and nunchuck. The think the joystick gives you more precise control. My boyfriend and I have unlocked EVERYTHING in the game (ohh..the hours spent!)

My boyfriend bought a cheap racing game at Wal-Mart for either $10 or $15 and it was NOT worth it. I can't even remember the name of it, it was so bad. We sold it at the flea market for $8. With most video games, you get what you pay for.

 

[oldbay]

Get Mario Kart and the second wheel! My 7yo DS and I love playing this together. It is a blast and a lot of fun to have something you can do together! Worth every penny!

Watch out though - it is fun for the parents too, sometimes play after the kids are in bed!

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

I know that there are other cheaper "cart" games around. I saw M&M cart at Sams club and Target for $14.99. I've never played it, but it might fill your needs.

http://www.amazon.com/M-Ms-Kart-Rac..._2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1244566226&sr=1-2

 

[BeckyScott]

Another autism mom saying to get Mario Kart!

Oldest DS got the game and two wheels for his b-day, and our youngest (the ASD one) loves it. It really does help to have two wheels so you can race together.

As a side note, I find it easier to drive using the wheel rather than trying to do it with a joystick. I've never been that good at the driving games, but the wheel did help.

 

[brettb]

If somebody mentioned this already, I missed it.

Something I *really* like about Mario Kart is that you can truly play *with* somebody. You can play on the same team so you're not competing - you work together to score the most wins in the grand prix races or collect the most coins in the battle games.

 

[dawnn12]

we have a game called monster 4 x 4 world circut its a racing game and you can choose different vech. if you have a 5 below near you they have wheels there and you can play up to 4 players with that game oohhh the game was 20 at walmart and if you have a game stop around go there you might get it even cheaper the greatest thing i love about that game is they have a school bus(im a school bus driver) on it and you can change the colors of the different cars( your son might like to control that and its cheap)