Hello 1994, I mean current day Nintendo. In a move sure to piss off shell shooting racers everywhere, Mario Kart for the Wii will feature text-only chat. Ummm, what? According to IGN:

“You can create rooms for friends to join and even text chat while you’re waiting for other racers,” Nintendo of Europe revealed.

Right now, the hope is that Mario Kart will support a USB keyboard. Because if you have to type like you do with Opera on the Wii now, it’s going to be a cluster-f. Yeah, I went there. Even with keyboard support, how many gamers are going to pull one out just to chat, in a special room mind you, while they want to play Mario Kart? My guess is very little. I wouldn’t expect too much chatter there.