Mario Kart Arcade GP
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Mario Kart like never before!
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Mario Kart Arcade GP is an arcade sub-series of the Mario Kart series developed and published by Namco and later Bandai Namco under the license from Nintendo. Nintendo had a limited role in development, mainly for quality control purposes. Currently, four games so far have been released in the series.
List of video games
- Mario Kart Arcade GP
- Mario Kart Arcade GP 2
- Mario Kart Arcade GP DX
- Mario Kart Arcade GP VR
Why This Crazy Race Is Heating Up
Overall
- The idea of a Mario Kart game that is an arcade game sounds interesting. There are car games that do exist in the arcades and some do turn out to be fun. Simply giving a Mario Kart gave the arcade treatment still fits well with that concept.
- The controls themselves work well enough to translate a Mario Kart game to an arcade racer. You got the typical steering wheel, acceleration, and brake pedals.
- Gameplay here stays true to what made Mario Kart fun. All you have to do is a race to the finish line while being able to use items whenever you get the chance.
- Before Mario Kart 8, this is the first game of the series to feature a roster that does have a crossover feel to it. Pac-Man himself gets to appear in almost all of the installments. He isn't the only one as some games feature Ms. Pac-Man and Blinky also.
- The roster does keep the spirit of Mario Kart. You know, a variety of characters to choose from.
- The first two games allow you to adjust your seat within the time limit. To do that, you have to move a lever near your feet and slide it to any position on the machine. If you feel alright with your position, you can play on it!
- Colorful graphics. Becomes even more noticeable with later installments due to the evolution of technology.
- Before the race begins, a camera attached to the machine will be ready to take a picture of you. After that, you will get clever results. You could get to use character-specific faces while other games may allow you to use faces that have nothing to do with your character.
- DX and 2 not only give players standard karts to ride on, but you will have the option to use a unique-looking car. Many of the cars look either cool or just plain funny.
- One of the cars that appear in one of the games happens to be the Wario Car from Wario Land 4
- Another interesting car would be the Soul Varoon from Xevious making an appearance as a car.
- New items are found in this game. Yes, you get to use the typical items found in Mario Kart, but what about the new ones like a Gold Shell, a Black Shell, a Tub, a Tornado, a Snow Cloud, a Rain Cloud, a Soft Gummy, etc. Some items are specific to certain characters. For example, Mario and Luigi can use Fireballs, Donkey Kong can use a Conga, Wario can use Garlic, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man can use a Power Pellet, etc.
- If that wasn't surprising enough, a Virus from Dr. Mario, Rally-X, a Galaga Boss, and Pooka from Dig Dug got to appear as items.
- As you expect from Mario Kart, Grand Prix, and Versus comes with this game. If you know Mario Kart well, you know what we are talking about. This only applies to the first three games of the series.
- The first two games have a Time Trial model. Also familiar with Mario Kart fans
- The first two games have a mode that is new to the series. This is called a "challenge game". They are similar to the Missions form Mario Kart DS where you have to complete to earn a special item exclusive to the character and finish the stage. The second game made an improvement to the mode where clearing the challenge is not necessary to complete a cup.
- The tracks are new to the arcade games. You got Diamond City from WarioWare, Mario Highway, Pac Labyrinth, Omatsuri Circuit, Namco Circuit, Yoshi Park 1, Waluigi Stadium, Kingdom Way, and different versions of Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road.
- The game has a voice-over that feels like a racing broadcast. Boy does that feel like NASCAR to you or what! This only applies to 2 and DX.
- Multiplayer. What else is there to say. Sure is a fun feature that has been used in Mario Kart countless times.
- The gliders from Mario Kart 7 are now implemented in this game. Only applies to DX and VR.
- Athmospheric soundtrack. What would you call Mario Kart without such relaxing and fun ost?
Arcade GP
- If you complete the Rainbow Stage for the first time, Special Mode is unlocked. In Special Mode, + Items are unlocked after each win. Rivals are much harder and many stages will have much more gimmicks.
- Complete special mode to get 150cc mode. In 150cc, unlocking items goes back to the former yet the item is unlocked as a "Triple item". There is Robo Mario where you have to beat him. This mode is similar to 200cc mode from Mario Kart 8. If that wasn't enough, completing 150cc mode will give you 150cc Special mode. Should you complete 150cc Special mode, you will get a unique credits screen.
- Coins are scattered on the road to increase top speed. It's no secret that coins had been used in Mario Kart before. During Special mode and beyond, the difficulty of the races outweighs the effect of coins giving them minimal use.
Arcade GP 2
- Much more content is added in the sequel as an improvement to the previous game.
- This game introduced two new characters. The first one happens to be Waluigi, but the other character is Mametchi from Tamagotchi as a full on newcomer to the franchise.
- Introduced the Mario Card. It's a data card that will have a player's chosen nickname, the number of coins, the rank, the item, the amount of VS wins, the password for Internet Rankings, and the completed GP cups and class.
- Mario Coins are now used in races. Players can pick up the coins and getting enough Mario Coins will let players unlock pries to save on your Mario Card like special items or new karts. Get 4000 Mario Coins, you will change the camera to a first-person perspective akin to that of Mario Kart 7.
- Item Boxes this time around appear in a hexagon form. Unlike the typical square Item Boxes you see in the series, they regenerate quickly.
- When using a Mario Card during Grand Prix, you will get Mario Coins depending on the performance.
- Internet Rankings. Originally it was done by Bandai Namco Entertainment Japan with the requirement of a Mario Card. Nowadays they are managed at Speedrun.com.
- Like Mario Kart DS, standard karts are not the only ones existing in this game. There are more unique-looking cars that each character has.
Arcade GP DX
- Unlike previous entries, you have to finish Grand Prix just by finishing the race 3rd or better.
- Introduced a new multiplayer feature called Two-Player Co-op. Two players team up to race against two CPU teams of two players each with each team vying for first place. There is a new item that is not used by the CPU called the Fusion Kart (a tank-like kart) with the other item being a Friendship Shield.
- Compared to other entries, there are a lot more cars to pick from.
- Team Battle comes to this game. Players split into two groups of two and compete to see which team is the best. Fusion Kart returns yet it has a health bar.
- Mario Coins are once again used in this game. You not only unlock new content, but you can earn them depending on the position. Japanese versions have an update exclusive to Banapassport users only. Using a continue gives the player 50 Mario Coins.
- New characters join the game which consists of Baby Mario, Baby Peach, Bowser Jr., Lakitu, Daisy, Rosalina, and Metal Mario. And who could not forget the guest character Don-chan from Taiko no Tatsujin?
- Some characters can have alternate skins like Toad having a Blue Toad alt or Yoshi having a Red Yoshi and Black Yoshi alt, Mario having a Fire Mario and Tanooki Mario costumes, just to name a few.
- Has a new difficulty level for tracks beyond MASTER which is the SUPER DIFFICULT level.
- There is now an alert whenever items are about to hit the player with an "Item approaching!" message.
- Instead of Mario Cards, now there is a Banapassport Card to save progress. Useful for downloadable content.
- On the Japanese version, you get to play a new single-player mode called National Battle. It puts players against other people in race tracks around the region. You race to earn experience points to complete sections of the region, rank up, and gain additional frames for your avatar.
- Does get some updates. For instance, King Boo got to be available for all players after being a limited-time-only character)
- Has the most items of any Mario Kart game.
Arcade GP VR
- Get this. Mario Kart but in VR. We have seen Mario Kart work in first-person view as seen in Mario Kart 7.
- There is an attachment that goes on your wrist. For that purpose, you can use it as a method for throwing items during this race.
- Instead of item boxes, you now have balloons to store items. Sounds unique for a change of pace rather than cubes.
- Before the race, Bowser and Wario push ahead of the players as a more comedic feel to it.
- There is only one single course, but it will change themes that pull off elements from DX. Sounds interesting having to change themes.
Bad Qualities
- In some cases, the camera cannot be used. This can apply to all games due to the arcade operator setting up whether the camera should be used or not.
- The first game was criticized for having a high price due to its content.
- Pac-Man got a redesign in Mario Kart Arcade GP DX which is his appearance based on Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. It may bother those who do not like the show.
- Fewer characters are playable in Mario Kart Arcade GP VR with only Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi being the only ones. Bowser and Wario do appear but they are not playable. This game is the only game so far to remove characters owned by Bandai Namco.
- If that wasn't enough, fewer characters are not playable which makes the roster feel smaller than before like notably characters like Donkey Kong, Waluigi, Daisy, Toad, etc.
- There are only three items in Arcade GP VR which happen to be a Banana, Green Shell, and Hammer.
- Arcade GP DX had Team Battle removed on April 21, 2016.
- The first three games only allow players to use three items per race which can confuse long-time fans.
- Arcade GP DX cut the Wario and Rainbow Cups from the previous games.
- Only one lap in Arcade GP VR.
- National Battle is Japan exclusive.
- Arcade GP 2 felt misleading since it felt more like an expanded version of the original game rather than a new came compared to VR and DX.
- Daisy doesn't appear in ANY game except Arcade GP DX as a downloadable content in the Japanese version, who may disappoint American fans of Princess Daisy.
Reception
All of the games have gotten positive feedback due to it's concept of having Mario Kart into an arcade.
Trivia
- The first game had unused images meant to test mechanics such as the camera. These images consist of color stripes, mascots of Expo 2005 in Aichi, and an image depicting the Beslan school hostage crisis.
Videos
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