
We've all been having so much fun playing Mario Kart 8 here at NL Towers that we've forgotten all about the existence of that other game that's not quite 'in the series', Mario Kart Arcade GP DX. Thankfully the good folks at Namco Bandai Entertainment haven't forgotten and are continuing to support the arcade game to keep players interested.
As of today arcade operators should be able to update to the new version of the game, which introduces the long-awaited new course "Pac-Man stadium" along with two courses of "Namco Circuit". In addition to this, from what we can discern using Google translate, there will be some adjustments to the Match Play mode which will make things more fun regardless of the player's skill level, apparently.
Here's how the translation of the description of the new tracks puts it, worth a read for some humorous language in any case:
Pac-Man statue is impressive, it is gorgeous courses sparkling neon! Tight had curve is large, it has become the technical layout! Successive curves to the left to the right is going to cut the handle rhythmically remember the order!
Spell the history of Namco games, circuit, such as the museum! Straight lines and gentle curve is large, ultra-high-speed battle to enjoy! Use well the new course gimmick "acceleration area", gonna at a stretch difference with rivals!
It's great to see this arcade game continue to receive such impressive support. We can't help wishing to see the game at home on the Nintendo NX, along with a mainline Mario Kart 9 of course. Make it happen Nintendo & Namco!
Head over to Famitsu to check out all the screenshots for yourself.
[source famitsu.com]
Comments 53
Judging from the starting line, that track looks phenomenal.
Why didn't the arcade tracks become available as MK8 DLC again?
Bloody hell man Namco. Port it to the WiiU already! I've recently come back from Japan and me and my brother had several goes on Mario Kart GP 2 and it was excellent, gives us that too. And if you're reading this Nintendo, give us the Luigi's Mansion arcade too - that was amazing as well!
Nintendo missed a great oppertunity keeping this (and other arcade hits) from Wii U. Shame, this looks really fun too!
I'd ask for this on Wii U as more DLC for Mario Kart 8 seems like a no-brainer, but I suspect any new efforts are going to go to the new console. I think we'll have to content ourselves with eShop releases and Virtual Console on Wii U. That's fine with me; especially if we get a lot more Wii releases and maybe one or two more HD GameCube remakes.
Nintendo won't have games like this ported to their home or portable consoles when there's already a Mario Kart game available. They'd be too worried about loosing out on sales of a full priced game and their biggest selling franchise.
That's one reason I think we haven't seen F Zero in so long, and partly (other than Rare owning rights to certain characters) we won't see Diddy Kong Racing.
Cool!
Translation gonna long curve time not so great! Boost fast on grammar mislead funk wagon!
Yazoo!
Dear Nintendo Life Editor Man,
Can you give me a writing job on the site?
With Kindest Lovey Kisses,
Commander Sniffums.
My local arcades better still have their GPDX machines...
And have had this update...
Might have to pop up to check it out~
Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack 3!!! Please?!
Google Translate translates to "gonna"?!? What is the world coming to...
@Snader
Children these days say all kinds of crazy things. Like 'ganache'. I mean, what the hell.
Google is a typical American teenager. Lazy, trying on make-up and dancing. All that dancing.
Japanese, the language most commonly known for its over-excessive use of exclamation marks. Imagine if NLife would do that with every sentence in an article. My brain is starting to hurt already just thinking about it...
@AlexSora89 "Why didn't the arcade tracks become available as MK8 DLC again?"
Well, obviously they wouldn't want to mix the two versions together, and the entire arcade game appearing on Wii U is also not an option, seeing as we would then have two different Mario Kart games on one console.
Me? I just play the older titles (Arcade GP 1 & 2) on my Wii by running them through Nintendont...
I think they should definitely port this and the Luigi Mansion Arcade game to NX as launch window titles as we await MK9 and LM3 that comes later.
It seem that Mario Kart Arcade GP is its own series now. Kinda interesting that a spinoff has another spinoff.
I wanted this ported to Wii U and still do. It's not like it would hurt the sales of Mario Kart 8, nothing can stop that game from selling.
I think that Nintendo should collaborate with Bandai-Namco again in the future, and make the next Mario Kart game for the Nintendo NX, and...
...Who knows? Maybe they'll include some playable Bandai-Namco (probably Namco) characters like Pac-Man or Taizo Hori (Dig Dug), some stages from Pac-Man World Rally, and an arcade option.
A person can dream, you know.
@TheRealThanos

Aaaaaaaaaaaand you managed to make me jealous. Here's your reward.
Wonder why these characters, items, and tracks never make it to home consoles...
@TheFatPlumber i agree as well....with both mario kart gp and luigis mansion...its not like itd be hard for luigu's mansion...can either use the gamepad or the wiimote...could even just be a simple $15 eShop title
@DiscoGentleman- a gastropub with a Mario Kart arcade machine?! In what utopian splendour realm do you dwell within Sir??
I still haven't played MK8 since the first week- I literally played only a few races that week then shelved it for some reason. Nor have I played Pikmin 3 which I got free with it. I have to get with it.
@AlexSora89 Jealous? Why on Earth? Anyone can find these games and softmod a Wii...
http://bfy.tw/5O0Y
First link, several iso's. Ignore the program they mention and look for Nintendont instead (Letterbomb the Wii first) or use Dolphin on PC.
Why can't Nintendo bring this game home????
Mario Kart in the arcade is such a bore. Even playing an expert track is easy they just give it a few more turns.
@TheRealThanos
I don't mod consoles... much. I've done it in the past a bit, but that's it.
Daisy is coming soon too!
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/we-are-daisy/images/9/93/Mkdxpresent3.png/revision/latest?cb=20160303171519
I'm really getting fed up with these Mario Kart games being arcade exclusive. I loved the arcades back in the day as a preteen and as a teen, but I don't do arcades anymore, especially seeing as they're pretty much nonexistent in my area anyway. Port these to consoles already, so some of us can actually play them. It would be beyond easy money for Nintendo...
@AlexSora89 Well, if you still have your Wii, it is more than worth it. And the same actually goes for vWii on Wii U. Running all games from my Wii's hard drive will also assure that the console will last a whole lot longer because the DVD-drive won't wear down.
And Letterbombing on Wii is completely risk free. I've modded around 15 Wii's now, and especially on my own Wii, which now contains emulators and games from nearly every console and handheld from the Colecovision and Atari2600 to the original Playstation and N64, and all of them run near perfect.
It is now my ultimate all-in-one retro console and it really gave it a new lease on life after I was finished buying original games because of there only being shovelware left and Just Dance titles, which I don't care one bit about...
@AlexSora89 But if you're not up for that, for whatever reason, you could always try the Dolphin emulator on PC. It's real easy to set up and the visuals are pretty good if you have a decent system.
But to me personally, modding the old Wii to give it a bit of a boost into this century is more or less a no-brainer...
@AlexSora89 P.S. I never modded any other consoles myself either, so the Wii was the first one I've ever done. For all my other consoles/handhelds I have original games.
I HATE emulation, but this is going to make me soft mod my Wii.
It looks complicated though (i realize it's probably not).
MK Arcade GP (series) is more of a battle racer than a real Mario Kart. The AI is brain dead compared to the vindictive and spiteful AI of the home versions! The only real challenge will come from the people who sit down in the other seats.
@RobNYC1977 Letterbombing takes all of a half hour (45 min. if you do a back up of your NAND memory, which is recommended) and you need a 2GB SD card, that isn't High Capacity. For this game, and the others I linked to in comment #24, you will need cfg usb loader and nintendont. Run games from USB stick or external HD.
All in all, you will be up and running in one short afternoon/evening. Good luck!
@CreamyDream @masterLEON All you two said is true, but I do think that there is plenty of challenge in the game, and also more incentive to want to be better, since later tracks can be quite challenging, although all tracks are conquerable with a bit of practice, obviously. I do agree that the adversaries aren't too difficult to beat and personally I feel that most of the challenge comes from the tracks themselves; trying to make perfect racing lines and getting all the coins and so on.
Doesn't take away from the fun though, and this is indeed an arcade racer, so that may be in part why it's a bit more bare bones, since it just has to do one thing: offer fun in short doses, and it does.
And then there's also the mini games. Most are too simple to speak of, but some prompt you to want to do better each time you play them, and they can keep the replay value going.
As for the graphics; these are games made on the Triforce board, which is basically just a GameCube Deluxe, with slightly better graphics and bigger sprites, so it fits perfectly on the Wii, but indeed not on Wii U, although this latest offering described in the article is obviously looking more graphically polished than the first two games.
@RobNYC1977 And to add to the modding tips, here's some more: as far as the cfg usb loader is concerned, look for v70r78, and look for nintendont to be able to run the Triforce games. (and all GameCube games region free... )
You can look for lists of games on Emuparadise or the site linked in comment #24. (which is The ISO Zone, just in case you see something else)
@TheRealThanos
I will see what to do, dear mad titan formerly known as Thanos.
@AlexSora89 Just mourning a little and paying respects to a great musician. When I turn the page of another year soon, I will revert to my purple-skinned self...
@TheRealThanos The graphics are gorgeous, they're colorful, and have very few frame drops. On DX I was hoping for more of a Double Dash-y co-op instead of the turret. In all, I get that they have to make the game easily accessible to everyone. But throw us hardened MK veterans a bone here! If I could beat Metal Mario on the first try, then that's a sign that it's ok to dial things up just a little more, lol!
@DiscoGentleman I was in Tokyo and me and my brother spent a few nights in Electric Town - their arcade and anime section. It was truly excellent!
@masterLEON I'm assuming you mean the new version discussed in the article?
@TheRealThanos

I'm feeling guilty when enjoying Weird Al Yankovic's Word Crimes due to a line that can be seen as both a jab and a shout-out (when advising against writing words with numbers as letters, "unless you're seven / or your name is Prince"). Even worse, given the music video also acts as a lyric video, the line is accompanied by the following imagery...
@AlexSora89 Enjoying music, whichever artist or group is your favorite one, is never something to feel guilty about.
And being able to laugh about things is also good. Life is simply too short to not enjoy it to the fullest and continuously being busy holding yourself back because you think that it might offend someone. Obviously, there are certain moral exceptions, but any clear thinking person will be able to apply these himself without other people interfering.
But hey: Thank God It's Friday!!! Weekend! Party time!
@TheRealThanos
thanks!
@RobNYC1977 You're more than welcome. Let me know if you run into something or have any other questions. Don't know if you have an Xbox Live profile, but that might be better to talk in more detail, considering softmodding is still a touchy subject here.
Also let me know when you got it running. I'm always curious about people's experiences with it, and I might be able to help out with some fine tuning, also with any other systems you might want to emulate on the Wii. (see comment #30 for an idea of what's possible)
@TheRealThanos Wait, I think Metal Mario is in GP2. Nonetheless, my opinion on the MK Arcade (series) remains unchanged. It's not enough to sway me from my shooting games at the arcade. Still working on Let's Go, Jungle! and Dark Escape 4D.
@masterLEON Well I have both the old Arcade GP games and I don't remember Metal Mario being in either one of them, so he must be in the new game or you're mixing up different Mario Kart games...
@TheRealThanos Hm, can't find anything that doesn't point to DX. Were there any special races that unlocked after beating the last cup (special or rainbow, can't recall what it's called) with all 1st place finishes?
Come one N, touch up the graphics and release this on the Wii U. Or, touch them DOWN and release it on the 3DS. Please?
As someone who has been able to play the Arcade version, I just have to say that while it of course is fun, I don't think you are really missing anything with the courses. They are very simple compared to the likes in Mario Kart 8, for example, so I don't think they would really suit home consoles, at least not many of themat a same time. Of course they might look nice and having the extra weapons (which are quite similar to each others) and special characters is fun, but on consoles I definitely prefer the products we have seen. That said, of course if you have a chance to try the arcade version, try it because it's fun especially with friends (as is any game)! Just saying that you don't need to be sad for not seeing it on consoles because the system was created for arcades.
@masterLEON Well, that's what I meant: Metal Mario is in the newer version that the article describes. He is not in the two older Arcade GP games. (those aren't called DX either, just "Mario Kart Arcade GP" 1 & 2)
@TheRealThanos Clarifying, Metal Mario as a bonus race after completing the last cup in GP2, not as a selectable character. If that's what happens in DX, my apologies. Though, my timeframe for that memory is back before my local Dave & Buster's replaced GP2 with DX (the setups were in totally different areas, so I remember different surroundings). Anyway, it's no big deal, I only played it for one session.
@masterLEON No apologies necessary, since I didn't know either. I was just curious.
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