Author Topic: Namco and Nintendo Reveal Mario Kart Arcade (Read 21153 times)

WindyMan · « **on:** February 17, 2005, 06:51:02 PM »

If you've ever wondered where the koopa shell launcher control was on a go-kart, wonder no more.

Every year, the All-Nippon Amusment Machine Operator's Union holds their annual show. AOU2005 is basically E3 for the Japanese arcade industry, and traditional arcade powerhouses such as Sega, Namco, Sammy, and Capcom show off their latest coin-op creations.

As for Namco, early reports from the show have revealed a rather interesting new arcade unit: Mario Kart. Running on the Triforce arcade hardware, the Mario Kart Arcade GP will allow up to four units to link up for some furious karting action, complete with koopa shells, banana peels, power slides, and everything else that makes Mario Kart great on the consoles. The arcade version will also feature magnetic cards for data tracking, similar to what Sega implemented in the also Triforce-powered F-Zero AX.

Mario, DK, Yoshi, and the standard cast of characters will definately be in the game, but making a special appearance from Namco's stable of characters is none other than Pac-Man. Yes, you can take the pellet-gobbling yellow blob, sit him down in a kart, and see how he fares against Mario and crew. A full character list hasn't been announced yet, but judging from screens, as many as 10 characters might be available. They'll all be able to race in 24 tracks set in 6 Mario-themed worlds.

The coolest feature the unit will have, however, is Namco's special NamCam system, which lets the player take his or her picture, then use it as a position marker, so other players can see who is driving which kart. Early screenshots show goofy eye and hat stickers applied over the photos (think Game Boy Camera), which could lead to some hilarious action.

Mario Kart Arcade GP is scheduled to be released to the arcades in Japan this fall. With this announcement just coming in from the Japanese show, no US release mentioned, but considering that Nintendo got F-Zero AX released in North America, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine the game coming out over here eventually.

MattVDB · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2005, 07:14:46 PM »

Dude, the screenshots look amazing. Personally, what I feel Double 7.9 Dash should have looked. I apreciate the double carts, don't get me wrong, but I've always been curious what they would have looked like with only one character per cart on the Gamecube. Amazing. I'm stoked.

Robageejammin · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2005, 07:29:59 PM »

wow interesting. I definitely hope this follows through. Oh so you say we did get the Fzero? Around where are they? what arcades?

VideoGamerJ · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2005, 07:58:16 PM »

It's always amazing at how easy Nintendo can impress us, but how rarely they really try to do it. I've been trying to buy a F-Zero Arcade cabinet for months, with no luck as Nintendo barely made any of them. Perhaps I may become lucky with this one.

WuTangTurtle · « **Reply #4 on:** February 17, 2005, 08:21:41 PM »

JESUS how much do Arcade Cabinets cost? That would be insane to have one. I seriously hope that Mario Kart GP is massively more available than F-Zero AC.

King of Twitch · « **Reply #5 on:** February 17, 2005, 08:27:18 PM »

This is sweet, but where was it 3 years ago? The Triforce was supposed to rule the world and bring about 3rd party collaboration bliss..

anubis6789 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 17, 2005, 09:05:50 PM »

I don't want to seem silly but does anyone think there will be a home version? I might never get to play this other wise.

When I went to Disney World last summer I knew it had arcades all over the place so I was about to bring my memory card with my F-Zero save, but then I figured what were the chances and I would probably just loose my memory card anyways, so I left it at home. When I got to the hotel that I was staying at, guess what was in the lobby, for 25¢ a game no less.

Needless to say when it got dark and I left one of the parks and came back to the hotel I would drop a few dollors in that machine. I tried to beat all the best times for each track ,which were all held by the same name. I wonder if my phantom rival even knows that I beat his score at the sonic loop. I still regret not bringing my memory card.

*EDIT* grammar

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #7 on:** February 17, 2005, 09:38:30 PM »

I look forward to dealing with inappropriate photography on the machine at my place of work

joshnickerson · « **Reply #8 on:** February 18, 2005, 03:06:44 AM »

I certainly hope if they release this in the US, there's be more than 100 made.

It looks cool. I wonder if there's going to be the ability to bring in your Double Dash save and maybe unlock a special course or character in the arcade game, depending on what you unlocked in Double Dash. I kind of doubt Nintendo will go to the trouble of porting this to the Cube though, since Double Dash is still doing well. It'd probably shut IGN up though. *L*

Oh, and did anyone else notice that the coin system is apparently back?

*Continues to wait for Ian to pop up, complaining about Nintendo releasing yet ANOTHER Mario game.*

Pale · « **Reply #9 on:** February 18, 2005, 03:31:18 AM »

Again, as does the DS game, it amazes me that Nintendo has gone completely away from the themed carts. I really think they had something going there....

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #10 on:** February 18, 2005, 03:31:20 AM »

My question is are we looking at Mario Kart Revolution with these screens?

Sony has talked about including a camera as a part of its new system.

Nintendo could be doing the same...Personally if I had a camera within the system I would want it installed to the controller and not the console, but I dunno if that would work.

I think this is awesome, and I hope to see it for the next system not Gamecube, because there is just enough time to really jazz up a home edition for launch with a new system.

Also just another aside, IF Nintendo is preparing this for a launch game and includes that cool camera feature, then it means some kind of online gaming support.

All around I think this is great news.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #11 on:** February 18, 2005, 04:26:22 AM »

*agrees that this should be "remade" for the Rev*

But of course with even more tracks and battle stages!

couchmonkey · « **Reply #12 on:** February 18, 2005, 04:34:22 AM »

No, this isn't Mario Kart Revolution, it's based on the Triforce project, which was all about building arcade games around the GameCube hardware. The graphics in the one and only screenshot are only marginally better than Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Edit: Okay, okay...that's not to say it COULDN'T be remade for Revolution as Bill suggested, I just think/hope that Revolution Mario Kart will look a lot better than this *kicks self for being a graphics ho*.

I hope the reason we aren't seeing themed, two-character karts in recent Mario Kart games is because Nintendo wants to save it's more creative ideas for the home console versions of the series, but I don't know. While I personally thought a lot of the themed carts looked stupid, I liked the concept and I think it would be awesome if more time and effort was put into making the designs more go-cart-like. And the two-character set up added a nice twist, I don't think it needs to be in every game, but I'd like to see it again, for sure.

JonLeung · « **Reply #13 on:** February 18, 2005, 05:06:26 AM »

I'm guessing that Mario Kart appeals to both guys and girls, and a larger age range, with characters more recognizable to casual gamers than F-Zero. (It's also not nearly as difficult.) Just a few reasons why arcades that passed on F-Zero AX should still take a look at this.

It should be more likely to show up in arcades, though by how much is anybody's guess. I never saw an F-Zero AX machine at all around here... :/

Pale · « **Reply #14 on:** February 18, 2005, 05:16:05 AM »

I personally think themed carts should be a staple in the series. Two person racing should become a new mode that requires 2 player. I think that would be a great way for the series to go. It would give users more options and wouldn't make double dash look like the odd ball out.

Edit: Hell, wouldn't it be awesome if these arcade cabinets had a spot for a person to stand on the back? Make it so two people could still play for the cost of one normal play as long as one was willing to not drive. Give them a fire forward and fire back button along with a little screen showing their item. Then make the floor tippy so that it can sense which way they are leaning to activiate the blue sparks. That would be a bad ass arcade game then.

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #15 on:** February 18, 2005, 06:35:42 AM »

I don't think the graphics are marginally better than double dash. Go look at it again. If that is running at 60FPS then that is much better than Double Dash, and really all that needs to be done is added even higher resolution textures, online play, and more features.

I would rather have a Mario Kart look that good and launch for Revolution then have it look potentially better, but wait 2 years.

24 Tracks is alot, but I am willing to bet many of those tracks are old track designs redesigned with higher resolution.

I think added tracks, adding battle courses, and resolution will be enough to make it a revolution game.

And theme Karts could be hidden and unlocked...I like that idea best.

Pale · « **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2005, 07:16:36 AM »

I really hate the way they talk about the rubberband effect like its a feature... If it was a feature it could be turned on and off....blarg

Ian Sane · « **Reply #17 on:** February 18, 2005, 07:16:53 AM »

"*Continues to wait for Ian to pop up, complaining about Nintendo releasing yet ANOTHER Mario game.*"

You need to check out the thread in Other Systems since that's where I've responded so far.

If this was just another Cube Mario Kart game I would irritated that Nintendo would waste time and effort on something so unneeded. But this isn't a Cube game, not yet anyway. Mario Kart is one of the few Mario spinoffs that I feel should continue to appear on each Nintendo console. It's become big enough that it's really it's own franchise outside of Mario. It attracts sales because it's "Mario Kart" not just because it's a derivative game with "Mario" on the box.

I want to see this on the Revolution. I think it's a perfect easy launch title. It's already pretty much done. The track design (except maybe for battle mode), the engine, etc are all done already. It's really just a port job and they've got a major title that they can plug into the Revolution release schedule at pretty much any time. And the face mapping thing might relate to the Rev's new features as well. The only problem I can see is that if Mario Kart is a Revolution launch title then it might not be online which would kind of suck. Mario Kart NEEDS to be online at some point and having to wait yet another generation for it would be a waste.

Other then that thought they could save it for any potential post-launch drought. Imagine if Mario Kart: Double Dash had been released in February 2002. The Cube's whole position in the console wars could be completely different if a title of that calibre had been released right in the middle of the post-launch drought.

MattVDB · « **Reply #18 on:** February 18, 2005, 07:26:29 AM »

*continues waiting for a Smash Bros arcade game*
Yeah, so I'm a bit iffy about Pac-Man being in the game. Am I the only one that thinks that a bit weird? He doesn't seem to have a place in the mario universe. Correction, he doesn't have a place. Hmmpf

Ian Sane · « **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2005, 07:43:39 AM »

"Yeah, so I'm a bit iffy about Pac-Man being in the game. Am I the only one that thinks that a bit weird? He doesn't seem to have a place in the mario universe. Correction, he doesn't have a place. Hmmpf"

It's revenge for Mario's stupid commentary ruining Pac-Man Vs.

Hostile Creation · « **Reply #20 on:** February 18, 2005, 07:56:46 AM »

I hate Pac-Man. The Vs game was cool, as was the original, but that's really something you drop after games go 3D, for Christ's sake.

Spak-Spang · « **Reply #21 on:** February 18, 2005, 07:57:05 AM »

Hey, I am one that wouldn't mind a All-Star's Kart...or atleast hidden characters from different franchises in the new Mario Kart. I think its fun, and that's all that matters to me.

As for Revolution. If this was a launch game or any Mario Kart game was a launch game you would see millions instantly. Mario Kart is one of the most beloved franchises of all.

I actually think Nintendo is making a mistake launching this new Zelda for Gamecube.

This Zelda should be pushed back, enhanced and perfect for Revolution.

Launch games should include. Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, and perhaps Pilot Wings. If Nintendo did that and had Smash Brothers waiting from the next lineup of games it would be a great start.

Pale · « **Reply #22 on:** February 18, 2005, 08:12:22 AM »

Did Ian just say that having a port as a launch title was a good idea?

vudu · « **Reply #23 on:** February 18, 2005, 08:16:33 AM »

::In Ian's voice (typing)::

If this game is Nintendo's sole launch title for Revolution, I will be very upset. Plus, a port for a launch title is acceptable if it's a not a port of a game that everyone's already played.

With Super Mario DS, not only was it the system's only first-party launch title, but it was a port of a game that everyone has already played through at least twice.

Ian Sane · « **Reply #24 on:** February 18, 2005, 08:24:12 AM »

An arcade port is totally different because it's generally unfeasible for the average person to own an arcade machine. I see it more like a movie coming to video.

And yes kingvudu I would be upset if this was the sole Revolution launch title.

Not because of what this game is but just because having only one title is REALLY lame.

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Author Topic: Namco and Nintendo Reveal Mario Kart Arcade (Read 21153 times)