Saturday, February 19, 2005
Oh my God... Oh my God.... Oh MY GOD!
No words... look!
Weeeee!
Check it out! It's the pie pan from Sno Bo Kids!
It's Pac-Man driving a kart!
If you haven't figured it out yet, there's a brand new Mario Kart for the arcades! And it's already being tested in Japan! How did this happen? How did Nintendo's fourth biggest franchise have a huge, amazing new title slip through the god damn cracks? Heck, Gamespot had a freaking rumor about a new Age of Empire game being announced for Christ's sake, and no one caught wind of a new Mario Kart game until it's already out? Man! Best. Surprise. Ever.
So here's some of the details. After Nintendo has proven time and time again they simply should not be allowed anywhere near the Mario Kart franchise anymore (Double Dash was good... but MK64 sucked) they let Namco, Holy Grail of Gaming; ambrosia for the soul; Honey for my unsweeted milk; the company that gave the Dreamcast it's best game and the world Katamari Damacy; Namco, complete control over making this game. Thank God.
Oh, and they ditched the gimmick karts and the two per ride deal from Double Dash, they ditched the lame track design as well (I hope). They added... well... here's a picture:
They added the Nam-Cam. It takes your picture before the race and paints you up to look like the character you're controlling. The guy who is Mario looks like an evil, and decidedly pissed from being dead so long, version of Karl Marx. Wait... Groucho Marx. Yeah, that's the one. Just give him a cigar and, I don't know, a duck? And watch him go! Look how weird that lady chick looks as Yoshi. I'm steering far away from that freak.
What else is new... well, the jumping is back. You can go airborn by hitting break and accelerate at the same time. Power sliding is still in there as well, though I'm not sure how it works exactly. There are still items, but racers are more race-centric as opposed to the last two console titles.
Man, I think I want this game, right now, more than just about anything ever. I want four karts in my apartment right now. 24 tracks, we could go a week or more without stopping. There's even a battle mode in there. I have no idea if this is ever coming to America, but I would bet Nick's hair it's coming to the Gamecube. It's being made on the Triforce Arcade Thingie, a collaboration between Nintendo, Namco and Sega (I wish Sonic was in this...) that makes porting a snap. They could delay this for next year's Revolution release, but what's the point? It looks like a Gamecube game, though much better than Double Dash, and I want to play it now!
More pictures:
That's Donkey Kong. A monkey riding a kart; what will they think of next?
Here's a tiny piece of art showing off the new items. Let's see how many we can identify:
I honestly have no idea what most of those are. Twenty items? I can't even fathom the possibilities. I'm just happy Boo is an item again. Boo and coins are back, can you ask for anything more?
Ok, the one thing more I would ask for would be Koopa Troopa. But we do have Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man and Blinky! Weeee!
With the prospect of a bunch of these bad boys lined up at E3, there's a chance I won't even be able to make it out of the Nintendo booth. I just hope that Perfect Kart Zero is playing near Mario Kart GP so I don't even have to move for three days. How many more days until E3 anyway? 87 days? If anyone wants me, I'll be running head first into a wall to induce a two and a half month coma.
Weeeee!
Check it out! It's the pie pan from Sno Bo Kids!
It's Pac-Man driving a kart!
If you haven't figured it out yet, there's a brand new Mario Kart for the arcades! And it's already being tested in Japan! How did this happen? How did Nintendo's fourth biggest franchise have a huge, amazing new title slip through the god damn cracks? Heck, Gamespot had a freaking rumor about a new Age of Empire game being announced for Christ's sake, and no one caught wind of a new Mario Kart game until it's already out? Man! Best. Surprise. Ever.
So here's some of the details. After Nintendo has proven time and time again they simply should not be allowed anywhere near the Mario Kart franchise anymore (Double Dash was good... but MK64 sucked) they let Namco, Holy Grail of Gaming; ambrosia for the soul; Honey for my unsweeted milk; the company that gave the Dreamcast it's best game and the world Katamari Damacy; Namco, complete control over making this game. Thank God.
Oh, and they ditched the gimmick karts and the two per ride deal from Double Dash, they ditched the lame track design as well (I hope). They added... well... here's a picture:
They added the Nam-Cam. It takes your picture before the race and paints you up to look like the character you're controlling. The guy who is Mario looks like an evil, and decidedly pissed from being dead so long, version of Karl Marx. Wait... Groucho Marx. Yeah, that's the one. Just give him a cigar and, I don't know, a duck? And watch him go! Look how weird that lady chick looks as Yoshi. I'm steering far away from that freak.
What else is new... well, the jumping is back. You can go airborn by hitting break and accelerate at the same time. Power sliding is still in there as well, though I'm not sure how it works exactly. There are still items, but racers are more race-centric as opposed to the last two console titles.
Man, I think I want this game, right now, more than just about anything ever. I want four karts in my apartment right now. 24 tracks, we could go a week or more without stopping. There's even a battle mode in there. I have no idea if this is ever coming to America, but I would bet Nick's hair it's coming to the Gamecube. It's being made on the Triforce Arcade Thingie, a collaboration between Nintendo, Namco and Sega (I wish Sonic was in this...) that makes porting a snap. They could delay this for next year's Revolution release, but what's the point? It looks like a Gamecube game, though much better than Double Dash, and I want to play it now!
More pictures:
That's Donkey Kong. A monkey riding a kart; what will they think of next?
Here's a tiny piece of art showing off the new items. Let's see how many we can identify:
I honestly have no idea what most of those are. Twenty items? I can't even fathom the possibilities. I'm just happy Boo is an item again. Boo and coins are back, can you ask for anything more?
Ok, the one thing more I would ask for would be Koopa Troopa. But we do have Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man and Blinky! Weeee!
With the prospect of a bunch of these bad boys lined up at E3, there's a chance I won't even be able to make it out of the Nintendo booth. I just hope that Perfect Kart Zero is playing near Mario Kart GP so I don't even have to move for three days. How many more days until E3 anyway? 87 days? If anyone wants me, I'll be running head first into a wall to induce a two and a half month coma.
// posted by Tom @ 9:43 AM 
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