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Mario Kart Arcade GP DX! Played it? [roundtable]
 
I somehow found myself at a Dave & Buster's yesterday, rubbing elbows with... the heads/shoulders of others. (Seriously, I almost stepped on three kids.) Anyway, the place was pretty dismal, overall. Mostly ticket redemption "games", gigantic arcade-sized ports of moblie games, and licensed Raw Thrills racers/light-gun shooters. But there were a couple of cool cabinets:

1) Pac-Man Vs. (the new one, not the Miyamoto version) - Although I briefly played this in Rochester, it was cool to get another taste. Or it would've been, if the sticks were working. Ah, well. Still can't believe the Wii U version was cancelled. It's such a perfect fit for the platform.

2) Let's Go Jungle!: Lost on the Island of Spice - A Sega shooter that takes you on a deadly safari, which is unexpectedly attacked by all sorts of critters. Luckily, the jeep is equipped with dual machine guns and infinite ammo! Kind of funny. And INCREDIBLY CREEPY. Seriously. The first level is just an army of fuzzy, squealing tarantulas jumping at you. Then bugs. And we finally bailed out on the maggot stage. Ugh. Amusing tidbit: The main characters are a teenaged male and female and it gives you a love compatibility rating at the end of every level.

3) Some 3D light-gun shooter from Namco, which I've seen before but still didn't get to try.

4) Some dogfighting game with a big, curved screen which I also didn't get to try.

5) Four-player Air Hockey!! - Which I ALSO didn't get to try it, unfortunately, since we ran out of credits, playing...

6) Mario Kart GP DX: Originally, I thought this was just the original Namco Triforce Board Arcade game. But once I finally got to play it, I noticed a gliding section, so I checked the copyright year, and it was 2013! It's the new one, I guess, which incorporates some of the newer MK twists. Or maybe just gliding. I dunno. Honestly, it played VERY similarly to the original Namco Arcade Mario Kart (and its sequel). Random assortment of items from a huge overall list, automatic shield during power drifts, Pac-Man, etc. I tried some Splash something track (no underwater section) and a Taiko No Tatsujin track set in a Japanese festival. The graphics were decent, I guess, but it was super-slow and the tracks were suuuuuper-wide. And I STILL had trouble drifting through the turns with certain karts, due to the sloppy handling.

My favorite part of the game was that it takes a picture of you before the race starts (like many recent arcade racers), and you can put all sorts of overlays on it, thereby transforming you into Wario/Luigi/a pirate/etc.

Other than that, though, MK8 is waaaaay better. It might seem like it would be a nice bonus to use the arcade tracks for MK8 DLC, but I can see why Nintendo kind of pretends these games don't exist. That said, the machine was utterly mobbed. Brand power!

Have you guys tried this game?

Also, why doesn't Nintendo just put stuff like Smash Bros. and MK8 into arcade cabinets as-is?!

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11/09/14, 17:12  
 
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Yeah, I played it against my sister at a Dave and Busters, myself. Pretty awesome. I don't know why they don't do a home console version, to be honest.
11/09/14, 18:15   
I've only played the original - never touched (or even seen) the DX version. I don't get out to arcades all that much anymore though. And admittedly, the one out of two times (total) that I've seen the first one was when I took my kids to Chuck E. Cheese.
11/09/14, 20:56   
I never played it but I did play the original arcade game, which was not particularly great. The home versions are way better.

Not to disagree with Kris on a sequel that I never played, but do you remember when like TONS of people on the IGN boards were constantly calling Nintendo insane for not bringing the arcade game to the Gamecube / Wii to give a struggling console more games? And then I played it and was like yeah, ok, Nintendo is right here.
11/10/14, 16:11   
The Pac-Man game is called Pac-Man Battle Royale. It's pretty awesome! I too mourn the aborted Wii U port.

Yeah, I played GP DX earlier this year at a D&B, when I stayed in Boston after PAX East. It's really not great. There was a ton of rubberbanding. I honestly don't know if racing ability was a factor at all whether you won or not.
11/10/14, 18:02   
@Zero

Well, I haven't had enough time with the game to tell you whether the physics or whatever are up to par. Just seemed like a fun Mario Kart game to me that I figure would sell pretty well.
11/10/14, 18:49   
I've never played any of the arcade games, but I would probably buy them if they were released on a Nintendo system.
11/10/14, 21:03   
Regarding the quality of Namco's takes on Mario Kart, to be fair, I haven't played each for that long. Maybe they get faster? The force feedback wheel was nice, and the wealth of items is pretty cool. My randomly chosen projectile was a beetle!

There are also tons of motorcycle games at the arcade these days. Like, with Hang-On type bikes which turn through physically leaning. Man, they're tiring! I was on the verge of breaking a sweat.

Which reminds me, I also played the arcade version of Tank! Tank! Tank! at a Gameworks. It was pretty awesome in versus. I should really try the Wii U version.

@Guillaume
Yeah, that's right. Battle Royale. It was pretty interesting. Pac-Man deathmatches. Each round lasts until only one Pac is left alive. The ghosts are just ancillary obstacles, sort of. The cabinet was really swank, too.
11/11/14, 03:40   
Edited: 11/11/14, 03:42
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