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]

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]

Make Your Own Arcade With The X-Gaming USB Joystick

In some places finding an arcade to drop some coin can take a lot of searching, time, and effort to get to if there's even one around. So why settle for memories when you can get fairly comparable experience with the X-Gaming USB Joystick.

Just get comfortable and plug this beast into your PC and play your games. The joystick is compatible with emulators and the buttons are programmable so you can play your way. It even comes with 6 arcade games to get you started. The games are Joust, Robotron 2084, Smash TV, Gauntlet, Rampage, and Defender.

The base measures about 13 inches by 8 inches with the deck measuring about 17 inches by 10 inches and it weighs in at 8 pounds. You can get the X-Gaming USB Joystick from Think Geek for $99.99.