The latest series of Iwata asks interviews promise gamers insight into Mario Kart Wii. President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata recently chatted to lead designer Kenichiro Ashida, Hideki Konno and Shigeru Miyamoto about the many Wii Wheel prototypes.

The Wii Wheel is the biggest change for the latest installment in the popular Mario Kart racing series. However, it turns out that Nintendo went through about 30 prototypes to get the Wii Wheel just right.

“With regard to weight, we thought carefully about how many grams would best suit gameplay,” Ashida commented. “When considering durability, we wanted to make something strong using thick materials, but increasing the weight by even 30 grams would have been considered too heavy for some people. We eventually designed it to be as light as possible so people could use it for a long time without getting tired too quickly.”

Ashida believes that the Wii Wheel is different to other wheels because “it’s a wheel that’s used mid-air,” it doesn’t have a drive shaft and it is light. It “only seemed natural to make the Wii Wheel pure white” since both the Wii Zapper and the Wii Balance Board were pure white.

The Wii logo was placed on the back so the player would not always see it but it was still visible to people who are watching. The blue ring was placed on the back to make it more fun and consequently the blue ring was used in the logo for Mario Kart Wii.

Miyamoto’s comment on the Wii Wheel was that “it costs a lot, so we needed it to do a lot of work!”

Mario Kart Wii is due to be released across Europe on the 11th of April and North America on the 27th of April.