Date: 28 March 2014
Time: 1:35 AM ET
Mood: Ate too many Oreos D:
Have you ever had the urge to go to a go-kart track and reenact your favorite Mushroom Kingdom characters in a flurry of power ups and high speed chases? Well, look no further. Thanks to the partnership of oil company Pennzoil with Nintendo, the two companies have brought our dream into a reality: a go-karting experience that mimics the popular racing game in true blue fashion - only without damaging your friends in the process. Located in Austin Texas, this true-blue Mario Kart track was unveiled at South By Southwest (SXSW) and although it's just in it's preliminary stages can promise something that every Mario Kart fan from across the globe would want to experience.
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Here's how it works: the electric karts are rigged with sensors that will activate when driven over a specific decal that is laid down on top of the course. These decals represent different items in the video game: mushrooms, green shells, stars, etc. When the kart ends up running over a positive item such as a mushroom, a signal will be sent through your kart that will momentarily increase the top speed of your kart, thus giving you a speed boost. When the kart ends up driving over a negative decal like a green shell and then activated, it will target the closest kart in front of you and decrease the top speed of their kart. Effectively by doing so, you are mimicking the game mechanics of the game. One mechanic though was dropped at the last minute - the banana pool. Initially, Pennzoil wanted to use this item to effectively loosen the steering controls of a kart that drove over it, but quickly came to the realization that this could cause accidents or even worse, lawsuits.
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Combined with this, are the simple aesthetics that make it even more enjoyable to watch the entire experience from the sidelines. Poles with cameras on the end are strapped to the backs of each of the go-karts, in turn mimicking the camera angle that you would see in the video game. At the same time, a jumbo tron can be seen on the edge of the track, split into four mini screens for each racer like in the game. Paralleling Mario Kart, it shows when each person obtains an item and activates it, as well as the changing in poll position. At it's current state, it would probably be actually more enjoyable to watch the experience from the sidelines than to actually drive it. But I digress, as the experience itself is still one of a kind and with some minor tweaks here and there could prove to be something very promising.
Daily Video - "SXSW Real Life Mario Kart Video" by Youtuber Jeff Weisbein
Shockingly, this feat by Nintendo and Pennzoil was completed in under four months times. Think of the possibilities that may come of this if they push this simple design even further. If moved indoors, the ideas are limitless to make the experience even more immersive. Huge props from the games could be littered all around the course, as well as small projectors on the kart that fired (non-hurtful) items at the karts in front of you. Include an augmented reality aspect to it, and you've got a great combination in the making. What do you think of all this? Would you ever go real life Mario Karting? What would you like to see them add to this to make it better? What's your favorite Mario Kart game/character from the series? Comment below as I'd love to hear and discuss about what you have to say about this topic!
‡ As always, the "Daily Bloggity" is self written by myself and includes just some of my opinions on different mediums. If you have a subject that you might want me to touch on, feel free to PM me or comment below! I would love to hear some of your ideas! Tune in tomorrow at 5PM Eastern Time for the next edition of the "Daily Bloggity!" Cheers! ‡
- elheroeoscuro
