NintendoMan
09-27-2005, 05:04 PM
"Mario Kart GP Comes Stateside
Namco's unique arcade racer is headed to America. Details and photos inside.
by Matt Casamassina
September 26, 2005 - Nintendo and Namco today announced that the unique arcade racer, Mario Kart Arcade GP, is on its way to America shores. The unit, formerly available in Japan, is set to debut in arcades stateside in October, according to the companies.
Mario Kart Arcade GP is an original racer developed jointly by Namco and Nintendo. The title shares in the same franchise as the GameCube exclusive Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, but is otherwise entirely different.
GP has been designed with the arcades in mind and is therefore optimized for up to four players. The title boasts 11 familiar and new characters, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Wario, as well as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Blinky. In addition, it spans some six words and 24 race courses. (Namco claims that with variations in time and environment there are up to 68 stages, although that's a stretch.) On top of everything else, there are more than 57 objects (or power-ups) in the racer, of which 40 are brand new. These power-ups can be hurled forward or backward at opponents, depending on the item. Some pick-ups act as projectiles and others function as shields. There's even one that turns the mascots invisible.
Namco describes the gameplay in Mario Kart Arcade GP as both "furious and fun." In addition to racing through unpredictable courses and using power-ups, players will need to collect coins to gain speed.
A GP cabinet enables two players to compete side-by-side against each other. The unit comes complete with NamCam 2s, which take photos of participants and paste their faces into icons above race characters on-screen.
IGN will post impressions of the arcade cabinet once we get a chance to try it out. In the meantime, though, we've included a revealing photograph of the unit's design."
Here's the Linky:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/653/653827p1.html
Yes, at least it's finally announced it's coming stateside! Yes, it's been announnced in Japan, but finally in the US! Now all we need is it to be announnced for the GC. If anyone caught the NINTENDO MINUTE a few weeks back, REGGIE said it would be no problem to port the game to GC. Boy would that be great!
I just hope there is one around here in the arcades. There is a Dave + Buster's by me, and that place would be the only hope of me getting to play it.
I guarantee I will own one of these machines years down the road when I have money!
Any one else excited to play this? Mario Kart is one of my fav. games of all time so I personally am ecstatic.
Namco's unique arcade racer is headed to America. Details and photos inside.
by Matt Casamassina
September 26, 2005 - Nintendo and Namco today announced that the unique arcade racer, Mario Kart Arcade GP, is on its way to America shores. The unit, formerly available in Japan, is set to debut in arcades stateside in October, according to the companies.
Mario Kart Arcade GP is an original racer developed jointly by Namco and Nintendo. The title shares in the same franchise as the GameCube exclusive Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, but is otherwise entirely different.
GP has been designed with the arcades in mind and is therefore optimized for up to four players. The title boasts 11 familiar and new characters, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Wario, as well as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Blinky. In addition, it spans some six words and 24 race courses. (Namco claims that with variations in time and environment there are up to 68 stages, although that's a stretch.) On top of everything else, there are more than 57 objects (or power-ups) in the racer, of which 40 are brand new. These power-ups can be hurled forward or backward at opponents, depending on the item. Some pick-ups act as projectiles and others function as shields. There's even one that turns the mascots invisible.
Namco describes the gameplay in Mario Kart Arcade GP as both "furious and fun." In addition to racing through unpredictable courses and using power-ups, players will need to collect coins to gain speed.
A GP cabinet enables two players to compete side-by-side against each other. The unit comes complete with NamCam 2s, which take photos of participants and paste their faces into icons above race characters on-screen.
IGN will post impressions of the arcade cabinet once we get a chance to try it out. In the meantime, though, we've included a revealing photograph of the unit's design."
Here's the Linky:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/653/653827p1.html
Yes, at least it's finally announced it's coming stateside! Yes, it's been announnced in Japan, but finally in the US! Now all we need is it to be announnced for the GC. If anyone caught the NINTENDO MINUTE a few weeks back, REGGIE said it would be no problem to port the game to GC. Boy would that be great!
I just hope there is one around here in the arcades. There is a Dave + Buster's by me, and that place would be the only hope of me getting to play it.
I guarantee I will own one of these machines years down the road when I have money!
Any one else excited to play this? Mario Kart is one of my fav. games of all time so I personally am ecstatic.