Mario Kart Coming To Japanese Arcades This Summer, And Beyond?

As a guy who keeps his Wii in standby mode so that when the Mario Kart channel sends a message about a new tournament I can get to work post-haste news of a Mario Kart arcade game possibly entering an arcade near me at an unspecified date is awesome.

Bandai Namco has made an official announcement that it will be bringing the Nintendo racer named 'Mario Kart Arcade Grand Prix DX' to arcades in Japan this summer, and didn't mention that it wasn't coming out in other parts of the world later.

As you can see the cabinets look like they are the real world counterpart to Sugar Rush, the saccharine kart racer from the movie Wreck It Ralph, and that's not bad. You can also see four cabinets can be linked for multi-player fun times!

This version has four game modes (Grand Prix, Battle Mode, “Alter Ego” Battle mode, and Team Co-Op mode), 10 redesigned courses, over 100 items, flying karts, and online updates. Since Bandai Namco is putting in the work on this machine they'll be putting their Don-Don character from their game Taiko No Tatsujin (another arcade machine I wouldn't mind finding in 'the states').


Namco Formally Announces Mario Kart Arcade Grand Prix DX [Arcade Heroes]

Donkey Kong Meets Jabba The Hut

A giant creature captures a woman with a man trying to save her. If you look at it that way there's a lot of stuff that could fit that description. Red Bubble user mjcowan has decided to Take the framework of the arcade classic Donkey Kong and replace the characters with that of the sci-fi classic Star Wars.

Teenage Mutant Ninja -- Koopas?!

You can call a Koopa Troopa whatever you want, but you know deep down inside you that it's just a turtle. Well, not just a turtle because the last I checked turtles don't kill you with one hit. You get what I'm trying to say -- right?

What I'm trying to say is get some toxic ooze to expose the Koopa Troopas to and wait until they are teen aged and mutant. Then phase 3 is profit -- or shirt and then profit.

Dr. Marpheus Gives You A Choice In Shirt Form

You take the blue pill and you wake up in your bed feeling like total shit and just lay there watching the Price Is Right like a sick little kid, or you can take the red pill get better and jump out of bed like a over caffeinated ninja ready to do work like a boss. The choice is yours.

So do you trust Dr. Marpheus? If you do you may want to wear this Matrix inspired shirt to show him you do.

The Nintendo 3DS After Midnight (Purple)

If you've been waiting to get a 3DS you will soon have a new color to factor into your buying decision. On May 20 a new color will join the North American color line up of Pearl Pink, Flame Red, Cosmos Black, and Aqua Blue gaming handhelds. Midnight Purple.

Frankly I like this color a lot. It's not flashy or loud, but it's not droll or boring either. I'm pretty surprised that Nintendo has brought out so many colors already and that this isn't a color that's already been in Japan. Yeah, North America is getting this first!

Thanks Nintendo, I feel special now.

Midnight Purple 3DS Blooms In May [Siliconera]

Check Out This SNES Arcade Cabinet

Since arcades are becoming as endangered as something really endangered people who want that arcade experience are beginning to take drastic action by making their own arcade cabs. Since they are making their own cabs, why not make them unique?

Here we have a SNES arcade cab made by Redditor Echoobrain. The cab is adorned with a Mario on one side and Link on the other with a triforce on the front of the control deck. The marquee is of course a Nintendo logo.

The controls are an arcade quality joystick and buttons, but share space with a feature that arcade cabs don't usually have -- a cartridge slot. While the cab is set up for one player there is a regular controller stashed in a drawer in the cab fora second player.

I got to admit I'm super jelly that I don't have one.

It's finally finished Reddit... SNES Arcade! [Reddit via Technabob]

Operation Rainfall Collector's Case

Operation Rainfall is a group of gamers that has been lobbying to bring three major Nintendo Wii titles out in North America. The group has been very impressive with it's professionalism and never say die attitude. Thus far the operation has gone two for two, but the final showdown is drawing near -- 'Pandora's Tower'.

Operation Rainfall caption read "Not Final Art"

In an effort to court state side publishers Operation Rainfall is putting together and sending publishers that 'meet [Operation Rainfalls] criteria' a collectors case full of the Operation Rainfall games including a European version of Pandora's Tower.

To put together these promo packs Operation Rainfall is taking pledges like PBS. There are two levels: $5 which will get Operation Rainfall themed desktop wallpapers and $10 will get wallpapers and a collector's case (without the games of course).

When the dust finally settles on this chapter I wonder what their next set of goals will be.

Good luck Operation Rainfall!

Operation Rainfall collector’s case [Tiny Cartridge]

72 Pins Fight Club NES Cart

Now before you go into a frenzy and think there is or was a Fight Club game for the NES I just want to say "Stop thinking that!". 72 Pins takes working NES carts and strips the original game label off the cart and puts a new custom label on in its place.

So what game do you get when you buy a cart? It's a surprise! That's a part of the fun. You get a piece of art that's also a random, but functioning, game. Two for the price of one.

The Fight Club cart is 'coming soon' so be sure to keep tabs on the 72 Pins Twitter for further updates.

The art for this cart was done by Chuck D. Gomez who has a Tumblr full of great art to check out and of course check out the rest of the 72 Pins catalog.

No One Cheats Super Mario

When playing Super Mario Bros. 3 you'd always rush to the Toad house to get a free item didn't you? Think back to the number one emotion you felt after the Toad house -- probably not super happy. Now think if you actually are Mario and your life depended on this stuff. Well, here's how Dorkly thinks he'd react.



Okay, that may have been a little over the top but I do like the new Toad. Nothing phases him.

Dorkly Bits: Toad House Is Rigged [Go Nintendo]

These Chain Chomp Earrings Are Fabulous

Etsy is awesome because it's where gaming, fashion, crafting, and creativity go and mingle. The products that clearly contain all of those qualities are easily my favorites. So what has caught my attention today?

Take the chain chomp from Super Mario and cross it with earrings and you have a product that is clever and will sell itself to others. These are not clip on (but that wouldn't be a bad next step).

These earrings are available from the Etsy shop Could Bee Yours run by Gisel Trujillo for $25.90.

Black Ear Biting Chomps with Chain Super Mario Earrings [Geeks Are Sexy via OhGizmo!]

Mario Goes Postal

Do you ever think Mario ever gets sick of being led around by the nose to find the princess? Somebody did and they even made a visual aid to help us understand what it might be like if Mario completely lost his shit. Scary -- in a silly way.



The Lakitu cloud chariot was truly the icing on the cake. It also turns out that 8-bit games could have been pretty br00tal if the developers wanted them to be. Although I would have ended up like kids today on Xbox *shudder*.

Mario Goes Berserk [Dorkly via Go Nintendo]

Here Is A Super NES Toaster

Hey, you wanna know something? Toasters are boring. Sorry, it had to be said. So why settle for a boring toaster when you can have one that look like a Super NES, well a PAL version of the SNES from Europe anyway.

Not only does this toaster look like a Super NES, but it also imprints an image of a Super Mario Bros. character on your toast. It's also strange that they show the 8-bit characters while the SNES was 16-bit -- oh god, what have I become.

If you would like the Super NES toaster you can get it from Spinning Hat for 14.99 GPB (23.82 USD).

Super NES Toaster: For The Sophisticated Gamer [Bit Rebels]

What's Gamestop Going To Do With All Their Gamecube Stuff?

After April 2 Gamestop doesn't want anything to do with your Gamecube games, accessories, or consoles. To me that was a signal that they might be getting ready to clear out their entire stock of Gamecube products. That normally means bargain bin prices, but Gamestop isn't going to just give it away.

I decided to call up a Gamestop and ask if there were any plans on the horizon for the Gamecube products, and after finishing up with a customer, he gave me the 411.

He said there were a couple of scenarios for stores depending on their Gamecube product sales.

One was that stores with low demand might be asked to box up most, if not all, of their Gamecube stock and ship it off to a store with a higher demand. The low demand store could then dedicate the space to better selling products and the high demand store could sell the Gamecube product without slashing prices too low because of the higher demand. Smart.

The option for the stores in between those two extremes could have 'buy (X amount) and get (X amount) free' sales or other types of sales which would work for stores that sell an okay amount of Gamecube product.

So no 'buy 1 get 10 free' deals? Bummer.

Now before you go taking what's written above as infallible truth, this is what one Gamestop employee told me on the phone that I found really interesting. And don't even think about quoting me, because as the N.W.A. once said "Don't quote me boy, 'cause I ain't said shit...".

Pandora's Tower Gets A European Trailer

If you are Wii owner and still want some great games to come out for it you may be aware that you've been having to fight Nintendo, specifically Nintendo of America, to get some great looking games that should be relatively easy to sell.

Pandora's Tower is the only game still left hanging in Operation Rainfall's campaign to get three hotly anticipated titles to North American shores. The other games that have been confirmed are Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story.

The European trailer shows the rather heavy story found within the game. Take a look:



If Nintendo of America would listen I'd ask them what the hell they were thinking. Pandora's Tower is set for release in Europe on April 13. Remember that in case you feel the need to import it.

Pandora’s Tower gets first English trailer [VG 24/7 via Joystiq]