Retailer confirms Japanese Mario Kart Wii working with Freeloader

When NCSX got their shipment of Japanese copies of Mario Kart Wii, they immediately popped a disc into a U.S. system to test the rumor that it wouldn't work with the Freeloader. At first, their experience bore that rumor out: the game boots to a black screen.

But what we thought would break Freeloader support actually seems to have fixed it: after updating the Wii's firmware to version 3.1U (with a Brawl disc), Mario Kart ran just fine through the Freeloader. Of course, this is no guarantee all updates will be so accommodating to the Freeloader, but you've at least got the green light to import Kart.