It was rumoured last week, but now Nintendo’s European arm has confirmed the somewhat disappointing news that Mario Kart Wii will only support the ability for players to communicate via text before online races, and not become the first Wii title to offer voice chat. To counter that bad news, however, we’ve the very first official shot of the racer’s new battle mode. Have a peek inside.

On the subject of text chat, Nintendo of Europe confirmed that:

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

The only conceiveable way we can see this working is with the help of an onscreen virtual keyboard or - we hope - compatibility with a USB keyboard as many of the Wii Channels already do.

Mario Kart Wii’s battle mode includes two challenges: Balloon Battle (the traditional balloon-popping deathmatch) and Coin Runner (a race between two teams to collect the most coins). Mission mode, which first appeared in the Nintendo DS version of Mario Kart also features as a mode to encourage the unlocking of bonus items. There are reportedly a total of ten battle arenas in all, with are said to host a total of eight karts. The first official screenshots (displaying the well-known Balloon Battle) is pictured (right).

Mario Kart Wii is released in Europe on April 11. A North American launch date is still unconfirmed.

UPDATE: Contrary to what Nintendo of Europe stated in regards to text chat, Nintendo of America has now claimed, reports CVG, that Mario Kart Wii’s text chat will be limited to pre-determined speech bubbles before each race.