Topic: Mario Kart Arcade Delayed in Japan

[WindyMan]

Mario's arcade racing debut gets pushed back from the fall to December in Japan.

Mario Kart Arcade GP was first shown at the Japanese Arcade Operators Union show in February.  The game, developed by Namco on the Triforce arcade hardware, promised to bring the Mario Kart action we all love to the arcades, and it looked like it would do the job.  Reports from the AOU show floor indicated that the game would be released to Japanese arcades in the fall of this year.

Not anymore.  It seems that the release of Mario Kart Arcade has been pushed back to December.  No reasons were given for the slip, but it may not be an accident that new release date of the arcade game falls closer to the expected release date of Mario Kart DS, which is also due for a Japanese release at the end of the year.

This delay for the Japanese version of the arcade game means that if an English version of Mario Kart Arcade was coming stateside, it probably won't be in 2005.  Hopefully, the game will be on the E3 show floor, as the Triforce-powered F-Zero AX was in 2003.  If it is, we'll bring you the latest in our E3 coverage, so stay tuned.

[Dasmos]

Oh well!
It probably won't even hit the shores of Oz anyway  

[RABicle]

FZero hit Australia and surely Mario Kart could be as big to arcades as Daytona and Sega Rally.

But really wouldn't it be better for Nitnendo to release this BEFORE Mario kart DS? I mean then like Mario kart would be in the minds of people because it'll be all over arcades and then BAM, portable version.

[Ian Sane]

I figure they're "delaying" it so that they can release it as a launch title for the Revolution.  Mario Kart as a launch title would be a pretty big deal though it would work best as part of a several launch games.  Logically it makes no sense to release it on the Cube when the Cube is going to be nothing in 2006 and it already has a Mario Kart game.  This is already pretty much done so why throw away a near-complete launch title for no reason?  Plus it's a game that Nintendo could show at E3.  Even if they just showed the arcade version just the announcement of a Rev title with screens and possibly even demos would build a lot more hype then just a showing of the console with no actual titles shown.  Obviously showing actual Rev titles would be better than an arcade game but the arcade game is better than nothing.

Of course the big question is as a Rev launch title would it be online?  Realistically the Rev could be online from day one.  The PSP did it and I'm pretty sure the Xbox 360 will do it.  Odds are pretty good the PS3 will be as well.  It certainly would be beneficial for Nintendo to announce that the Rev would have online games from day one.  And if it's not it would be kind of a waste to have Mario Kart be offline.  What would have greater impact?  Mario Kart Online later down the road or Mario Kart offline at launch?  Personally I think Mario Kart Online at launch would be ideal but that requires a lot of, well, competence from Nintendo.

[Nephilim]

I would say revolution release
360 has a Digital camera, Sony has a Digital camera
I would think Nintendo would use this game to launch there own digital camera

[NWR_Lindy]

It's pretty obvious what we're looking for here:  an upgrade/port of Mario Kart Arcade with online capability that launches with Revolution.

Nintendo...are you listening?

silks

[UncleBob]

Or, perhaps, a Mario Kart GX (RX?) that can dial into/connect via the Internet to Mario Cart AX - wherein you can battle others playing the console version *or* the arcade version...

Or what about the arcade version having built in NiFi protocols so it can talk to your DS.... and tell it things....