Mario Kart: Arcade GP revealed

Ninty heads out of the house

In a surprise announcement, Nintendo's veteran game designer, the world-celebrated Shigeru Miyamoto, has lifted the lid on the latest game he has been involved with, but it isn't a new Cube, DS or GBA outing, rather Mario Kart's first foray into the arcade. The game is actually being developed by Namco, to run on the Triforce arcade system jointly created between Sega, Nintendo and Namco. The new machine will be heading to entertainment emporia across Japan in the autumn, but unlike Sega's F-Zero GX, no port to home systems is planned currently.

Mario Kart: Arcade GP then, sounds like a rather interesting beast, and Miyamoto admits "I was worried about how Mario Kart: Arcade GP would turn out, but it's very well balanced for the arcades."

"Players take their time when they're enjoying Mario Kart at home, but it's different for arcade games, and it's not ideal for anyone to be seriously lagging behind. The Mario Kart series features an item system so that players can catch up by using them when they're trailing behind, but with the new rubber-band system that Namco implemented, the races become a really close-pitched match," he added.

Eight familiar Nintendo characters will be selectable, with four-player head-to-head races promised and over 100 in-game items touted. We look forward to learning more on Nintendo's new dabbling soon.

By Luke Guttridge