[Crash]

SOmeones mario kart impressions:

As of now, the selectable characters were Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Toad, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Wario, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Blinky the red ghost (Akabe!!!) Wasn't able to get any info out of any of the staff if there were hidden characters or not.

Three cups(stages) were available, Mario cup, Donkey Kong cup, and Koopa cup. Each stage had 4 tracks, and tracks also had selectable conditions(sunny, night, rain, etc.) There should be three more cups available in the final version of the game, Wario, Pac-Man, and Rainbow cups.

The game machine uses reprintable cards, and this is used for keeping track of which cups you've cleared. By clearing cups, you give yourself access to different, and I'm assuming more powerful items, for use in the game. Exactly how it will work though, I'm not quite sure since there are more than 100 items that can be used.

Controls are made up of just the steering wheel, which has your item use button in the center, and the gas and brake pedals. Hitting the gas and brake pedals at the same time causes you to jump. Steering while jumping causes you to power drift. Just like the old Snes version. If you're REALLY quick about, you can actually get the jump off by letting off the gas, slamming the brakes, then slamming down on the gas pedal again. Usually I found it easier just to hit both at the same time.

So, you sit down, select your character, then have your picture taken. Cup/Track/Conditions are either selected through majority(everyone picks the same one) or randomly if people pick different ones. From there you got to item selection where you are randomly assigned three different items. Most of the old favourites seem to be back in some form, and there's tonnes of new ones. I'll detail some of the ones I saw in another post later.

The game, happily, plays closest to the original Mario Kart on the Snes of any in the series that have been released since. Courses are for the most part narrower. The speed is quicker, including coins which you pick up to increase your top speed. The initial speed boost is intact from the starting lights as well. Controls were nice and tight, although it took some time getting used to the gas/brake hopping for drifting.

The graphics seem better than Double Dash in various ways. Having everyone driving the same karts again makes the game feel more solid thematically. Characters and karts are higher poly, mostly due to not having to animate two characters per kart anymore. After picking up items, you can tell which item you're carrying either in the item window in the left, or because your character actually holds the item in one hand while driving with the other. Bumping up against other drivers causes the characters to starting punching and shoving at each other.

Graphics for the courses also looked better as well. Reminding me almost of a mix of F-zero GX crossed with Monkey Ball, but in the Mario universe.

Anyway, taking pictures of the players comes in handy at the beginning, because at least right now, everyone can pick the same characters. Having four Bowsers racing against each other for example. Also tends to make things a little more personal than just seeing that Player 2 hit you with a tornado.

Game was lots of fun, and I never saw anyone walking away looking disappointed at all.
Think that's it for now, I'll try answer whatever questions I can if you guys have any.