For fans of the Mario Kart series, these are good times. A new iteration of the game shows up for every console they make, with one coming to the WiiU later this year. But Nintendo hardware is not the exclusive realm of Mario Kart – in 2005 Namco partnered with Nintendo to bring the series to arcades with Mario Kart Arcade GP and two years later followed up with Mario Kart Arcade GP 2. In addition to giving players realistic driving controls as opposed to a gamepad, these titles also featured exclusive content and the “NamCam” avatar feature that Namco uses on many of their arcade games. Since the release of the second arcade outing of Mario Kart, we’ve heard occasional rumors in regards to a third installment but so far nothing credible has come forward until today.
That news came out via Highway Games, which is a credible source for arcade news, recently they broke the story about the international version of Namco’s Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 coming to Australia and New Zealand. They have some Namco reps visiting them next week too and I doubt they would run a rumor on MKGP3 if it didn’t have some backing to it. Aside from the revelation that Mario Kart GP 3 is coming sometime in 2013, there are no further details about it yet, although their news article makes some allusions to Namco’s recent efforts to integrate online functionality with games like Tekken Tag 2 and Maximum Tune 4 so perhaps thats a hint that Mario Kart Arcade 3 will also enjoy such features. I reached out to Namco for comment but it being the start of a weekend and a lot of Namco people busy clearing out the EAG Expo, I had not heard back yet. Once we do find out more we will be sure to share, in fact for now what sort of features would you like to see from the game?
Personally I hope it’s not just a carbon copy of the upcoming WiiU version with the added driving controls but we will have to see more about the planned features to make a final judgement on that. My guess is that they will have some similar features and content to save on development costs and the WiiU version will probably be using a camera to boot. The potential for the game to use online servers though opens up an interesting thought – if true, this could see a return to cross-platform play, something we have not seen in a while when it comes to arcades and consoles. Such crossovers have not been common although they have been tried, see Sega’s Alien Front Online from 2001 as one example. Of course if that is the case then I am sure that the courses will all be the same, perhaps any other differences in content would be in platform exclusive characters. Hopefully we will find out sooner than later!
It’s awesome if it’s true! First Mario Kart Arcade GP was good but the second installment was a lot better. So good in fact that many operators are looking for it. Unfortunately, the production run was limited so second hand MKAGP 2 machines are hard to find and are selling for very high prices… If good, MKAGP 3 would be an instant hit! I hope that it will play like an arcade game and won’t suffer from sluggish controls inherent to console-to-arcade ports…
I hope it’s true also and my guess is that if it is true it may be unveiled at the next arcade trade show in Japan in February. If it does more better that the previous 2 then this will certainly be the arcade racer of the year to buy for any location because let’s face it what kid and adults doesn’t like mariokart 🙂
That’s great news if its true but I hope there are more new features to the new instalment unlike the sequal. To be honest the second game felt more of an upgrade rather than a true sequal as it had all the same tracks and characters and the same cabinet with the only new features is the commentator and the 50, 100 and 150c level of difficulty. As for the namcam is no longer exclusive to the arcade version since the wiiu controller has one built in they could have other features such as vibrating seats e.g. Namco’s tank tank tank and 4D elements dark escape (wind in your face in a snow level) but in particular the sort of seats used in a taxi arcade game made by gaelco called Smashing Drive if anyone remembers that game or even namco’s dead heat avatar game feature etc there are lots of ideas that can be done just in the arcade, I can see MKAGP 3 game using the same cabinet as namco’s WMMT4 game to be honest
I’d like to see this as the shot in the arm the amusement industry needs, but that will depend on if the race and course settings will match what the “real” MK players come to love on consoles. GP didn’t get anything right last time, so I hope they’re putting a little more thought with us in regards this time.
I don’t think that if you win the race and come first that you don’t continue onto another track like you do on the console version (well you continue either) the game should reward you for winning and if you came either second or 3rd even then you should be able to continue onto another track
The original MK had a limit to how far you fall behind before it cost you a continue (5th place?), but later games forgave this and just threw in your rank at the end of a cup race. That’s what groups of players need in order for this thing to work. Select your cup, race four courses (all different like console) and get your points totaled. .