In 2010, "Mario Kart Wii" was included in the book "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die". Anthony John Agnello and David Roberts of "GamesRadar+" ranked "Mario Kart Wii" #11 in their 2017 list of best "Mario Kart" games, the second-lowest ranking behind the cancelled Virtual Boy "Mario Kart". They described the game as "a bloated, populist mess attempting to please everyone" that "feels like the most "Mario Kart" rather than the best "Mario Kart", and as a result, it's as if it's missing the series' soul". The staff of "IGN" ranked the game #18 in their 2019 list of "Top 25 Favourite Kart Racers", deeming it "yet another solid entry in the series" and saying that its expanded track roster and inclusion of both online and splitscreen multiplayer gameplay made it "one of the system’s go-to party games". Luke Plunkett of "Kotaku" ranked the game at #7 out of the nine best "Mario Kart" games; he felt that there was little reason to play the game after the improvements made by "Mario Kart 7" and "8", and that the motion controls were "straight garbage". The tracks Maple Treeway and Coconut Mall have been ranked among the series' best, while Matthew Wilkinson of "Screen Rant" respectively ranked Rainbow Road, Wario's Gold Mine and Moonview Highway as the first, eighth and ninth most difficult tracks in the series.