Tag archive: Mario Kart

Just last month, we told you about the authentic, functioning Mario Karts produced by West Coast Customs as part of a deal with Nintendo. Well, now it looks like they're more than just photo opps — you could actually own one of them, if you're lucky. GameStop announced this week that the retailer will be giving away one of the Nintendo-commissioned Karts to a select member of their PowerUp Rewards program. Members just need to… Read More

We've brought some approximations of real-world Mario Kart experiences to your attention in the past, but when it comes to replicating Mario's wheels, there's never been anything quite like this. Nintendo and West Coast Customs unveiled a pair of functioning, authentic Mario Karts — Mario's signature ride and Luigi's “Bumble V” kart — at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week. Built as part of… Read More

Tokyo commuters recently found themselves involved in a real-life game of Mario Kart when the guys from Japanese car site Cliccar donned Mario and Luigi costumes and took to the streets in a pair of street-legal go-carts. The street-legal X-Karts have top speeds between 35-50 mph, and require a standard driver's license to fraternize with traffic on public roads. Getting your hands on one of the carts will likely cost around $4,900.… Read More

On Thursday, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata spoke with Japanese news site Nikkei to state that Nintendo isn't considering developing new games for smartphones or tablets. In addition, the company isn't interested in developing iPhone or iPad versions of it's massive library of already released titles. Iwata believes that developing titles for the iOS platform is a short term strategy that may result in higher profits, but… Read More

After Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS by over 30% earlier this week, the company announced a program to reward consumers that purchase the 3D device before the price drop on August 12. If a consumer connects to the Nintendo eShop before 11:59pm Eastern time on August 11, they will automatically be qualified for the Ambassador program. This initiative rewards Nintendo 3DS owners with ten free NES Virtual Console games as well as ten… Read More

(This article comes courtesy of N-Sider, a site for well-adjusted Nintendo fans. N-Sider has served the Nintendo community for more than a decade.) I didn't have to spend a lot of time with Mario Kart for 3DS to realize that Nintendo's playing it pretty safe with the formula. Sure, there's a couple neat new touches, like context-sensitive hang-gliders and sub transformations, but in the end, it's still Mario Kart. In… Read More

Last week, Sony made a pit stop in New York City to show off Cars 2: The Video Game. The adaption is coming to multiple gaming platforms but only the PlayStation 3 version will offer exclusive support for 3D displays. We got to spend some time playing the game and chatting with Avalanche Studios' John Warner about some of the features. It's easy to write off a Cars 2 game tie-in as a family-friendly cash grab and nothing more. While… Read More

In news that should make anyone with a daughter or sister rejoice, playing video games with their parents is believed to benefit young girls. Researchers from Brigham Young University recently studied video games and their effects on children between the ages of 11 and 16, and girls in particular responded well to participating in the activity with their parents. There’s no end of speculation concerning the impact gaming has on children and… Read More

Besides managing to embarrass ourselves on plastic skateboards while strolling through Activision’s thumping E3 booth (courtesy of DJ Shadow on a set of turntables), we also had a chance to check out a few more of the most exciting upcoming titles in person. Blur, which comes from Project Gotham Racing developers Bizarre Creations, might be best described as the offspring of one of those games mated with Mario Kart. No cartoony… Read More

Maybe the video game industry isn't as recession-proof as everyone thought: market research firm NPD has released its sales figures for 2009, and finds that U.S. sales of video games dropped 17 percent in April 2009 compared to the same month in 2008. Total revenue for the month was $1.03 billion across the industry—$510.7 million of that being games, with the rest being hardware and accessories.—and the numbers mark the… Read More

Market analysis firm NPD has released its figures for video game console and software sales for February 2008—and if one were to judge by the video game industry alone, reports of a recession have been greatly exaggerated. Video game sales were 10 percent higher in February 2009 then they were in February 2008, and the industry racked up an 11 percent increase in sales compared to a year ago, pulling in $532.7 million in revenue for… Read More

Market research firm NPD has released its video games sales figures for January 2009…and, despite the recession, the news for the industry was quite good, with January 2009′s sales representing a 13 percent increase over the same time last year. Apparently, even when times are tough, Americans are still willing to spend money on video games…potentially because they're seen as a less-expensive form of entertainment… Read More

Apparently, when the times get tough, the tough play…video games. A new Top Global Markets report that combines video game sales data from NPD, GfK Chart-Track, and Enterbain covering the U.S., UK, and Japanese markets (respectively) found that overall sales of video games in 2008 were up 11 percent—and this despite a fairly sharp drop in Japanese sales and a global economic downturn. Overall sales in the three markets totaled… Read More

Having consistently stomped the competing PlayStation 3 during 2008 and set sales records even during a recession, it should come as little surprise that the Nintendo’s Wii posted some pretty impressive numbers for the year – numbers that have never been touched by any other console. According to Nintendo, 10.17 million Wiis were sold in 2008 alone, a record-breaking figure for one-year console sales. That number represents 55… Read More

Market research firm NPD has released new video game sales figures for September 2008, and while the Nintendo Wii is still far and away the top-selling video game system, Microsoft's Xbox 360 shows surprising strength, trouncing the PS3 in the United States during September. According to NPD, Microsoft sold 347,000 Xbox 360 consoles during the month, following price cuts early in the month that put the least expensive Xbox… Read More