Serious business

At the dawn of time Nintendo Life arranged community nights of online Mario Kart 7, and the gamers were happy. And lo, the ceremonies were ended in favour of seeking new forms of entertainment, exploring the world of online Nintendo gaming and seeking places where all could meet, unite as one, and compete in fun games. So began a lengthy and fruitless journey, before all returned back to the original homeland, and the sweet embrace of portable kart racing...

OK, we're being silly, but it has been ages since we last did this. The hope is that the upcoming Mario Kart 8 will give those of us with Wii U systems a game where we can meet in our own dedicated community areas but, until then, the charms of its predecessor will do the trick. Provided we all have enough fun — and actually show up — for this jamboree, we'll make this a regular occurrence; we'll maybe even invite some special guests in the future.

So today at 9pm UK time, 10pm Central European, 4pm Eastern US, 3pm Central US and 1pm Pacific US, the 'NLife All Items' community room will be back in action; that was your choice in the community vote. Quite a few of the Nintendo Life staff will be in attendance at various times to race, and we're hoping you'll join us; yes, the Battle Room is also an option, but this often struggles for numbers.

NLife All Items (150cc races) — 00-2104-5343-9763
NLife Battles — 63-1489-1510-4932

If you want to know how to get into these Community rooms, check out our official and oh-so-serious guide below.

In order to get started with some Mario Kart 7 awesomeness with fellow Nintendo Lifers, simply open the game, select Online Multiplayer and then Communities. If you've played with us before you may have 'NLife All Items' in your list of favourites. If not, select Enter Code and input 00-2104-5343-9763. This is a 150cc all items room, so it may get chaotic. For Battles follow the same steps as above, but input code 63-1489-1510-4932.

Now, it's common to experience connection problems with Mario Kart 7 communities, and if you don't then we can only imagine that you're hard-wired directly into Nintendo's servers. If you do have problems connecting or receive an error message, make sure your wireless is on and position yourself as close as possible to your internet router. Please be patient and keep trying, because more often than not you will eventually get in.

There may be more than one room open at once, so remember the basic rules. Play nice, and if someone annoys you settle it like grown-ups... out on the track. Please be considerate to others in the lobby area, and only start the race when there are enough racers and everyone's ready.

We hope you'll join us for some Mario Kart mayhem; we'll be checking the comments below, tweeting extensively on our Twitter page and getting up to all sorts of shenanigans in the game itself. If you are tweeting, be sure to stick #NLracenight in your messages.

See you on the track.