The game will add a MK channel to your Wii so you can see if your friends are online without having to put the game in which helps.The whole online play is really seamless tbh. You can send friend invites from within the game or the channel to people in your address book without having to write down a single code which is a huge improvement. Surely all games will have to adopt something similar.
Finding online games is really easy and you will be linked up with players quickly (now at least). Once linked up you get to see the LIVE action from the race the people are currently in and you can even switch the viewing camera and the person you are viewing using 1, 2 and - on the WiiMote.
Having played a few online games though they are what can best be described as frantic. Way too much going on to be about the best driver. It's all about the weapons and how and when to use them.At times there is so much going on that it's difficult to follow, especially in a 12 player race, yet as described elsewhere there is no slowdown whatsoever which is amazing.
I have to say that I enjoyed the 4 and 5 player races more than the 12 player ones but they are all fun and so much better than playing a straight 1 player game.

The bundled wheel (Wiil) initially looks a bit cheesy but is actually a very ood way to play the game, and within a few laps just feels like second nature to use.I have heard that in 150cc mode the AI and traditional rubber band catch up (aka cpu cheating) is set way too high and kind of spoils it, but I haven't played that mode yet.All in all an excellent game.

It even made me blow the dust off MKDS to play online in bed.