While taking a break from the PS2 fun, I met a couple guys who road tripped all the way from Iowa to come to the festival. They read about the tournament right here on Planet GameCube! They all had lost at Smash Bros, except one of their friends, so while we waited…we played some multiplayer Mario Kart Advance. Why not right? Their buddy ended up taking third in the Super Smash Bros. World Championship. Ironically, he doesn’t own a N64.

The Smash Bros. Tournament Finalists	The Winner is you!

It was then time to start the Mario Kart 64 World Championships. It was a one-on-one tournament (VS mode), 100cc, on Mario Speedway. The games were about to begin. And my butt was about to go flying across the mall and splatter all over the Dippin’ Dots cart.

Walter Day gets the show rollin'	Walter is praying to the gods

I will crush you like fly!

In the first round I took this guy out right before the finish line with a red shell and a golden mushroom. Gotta love Mario Kart’s power ups sometimes! They’re part of the beauty that is Mario Kart. The second round I got lucky again with some red shells and a star, and crossed the finish line; it was all about racing across grass. But, the glory was not mine to keep, for I got my ass handed to me in the third round. I don’t even remember the last time I played Mario Kart 64 (my TV’s busted), and my newly developing mad skills in Mario Kart Advance really didn’t help me.

I'm proud to say I toasted this kid

None-the-less, it was a really fun time meeting some readers and taking on some good gamers—even if I got my butt kicked. I am hoping this is just the beginning of more tournaments like this. Japan has video game tournaments all the time. Every Space World there is a freakin’ tournament. There’s been Mario Kart 64, Mario Tennis, and this year it’s Mario Kart Advance and Smash Bros Melee. Even though I’m disappointed that there’s no Wave Race competition, it’s pretty damn cool. There needs to be more of this in the US, and the world for that matter.

Even though this was billed as the “Console Video Game World Championships”, I know plenty of people that could kill some of today’s winners in the console arena. I’m not whining, because I know I would have lost either way (because I suck), but what I am complaining about is the fact that there really aren’t a whole lot of tournaments for consoles. It’s not like people were going to drop a thousand dollars to fly in from Japan (or somewhere far away) to play in these “World Championships.” I guess what I’m saying is, there were some good players here, but I’ve seen better. Still, this is a start.

Hopefully Twin Galaxies, or other official organizations (Come on Nintendo! Do it again!) will continue to put on more tournaments like this on a normal basis. More or less a CPL for console players would be really cool. Hopefully with the dawning of the next generation and their online capabilities this will be more possible. But I like the in-person experience much more. Today was a heck of a lot of fun. Obviously I would have liked to have won the Mario Kart tournament, but that’s the way it goes. (If it wasn’t for that pesky red shell…) One thing this tournament taught me is that no matter how good you think you are, there’s someone out there who is better and who can beat you.