Tiny Cartridge

This Blue/Black Nintendo 3DS XL bundle with Mario Kart 7 pre-installed goes on sale for $200 starting December 2 — another decent system deal, considering the handheld alone is typically sold for that price. Whats really interesting about this news is it falls in line with recent gossip that the standard-size 3DS will be sold for $140 by at least one retailer soon. Buy: Mario Kart 7See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

This Blue/Black Nintendo 3DS XL bundle with Mario Kart 7 pre-installed goes on sale for $200 starting December 2 — another decent system deal, considering the handheld alone is typically sold for that price.

Whats really interesting about this news is it falls in line with recent gossip that the standard-size 3DS will be sold for $140 by at least one retailer soon.

Buy: Mario Kart 7
See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

Real Mario Kart 7 trophies! These miniature (12 x 10 cm) trophies are being offered for 5000 Stars each through European Club Nintendo. Pretty cool for a region with a reputation for somewhat weaker CN offers.

Buy: Nintendo 3DS XL Red or Blue,  Nintendo 3DS
Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more
See also: Previous Club Nintendo rewards
[Thanks, MaxRoivas!]

3DS firmware, Mario Kart 7 updated»

Your online Mario Kart 7 racing experience should now be filled with less cheaters, thanks to a patch released last night that fixes the shortcut glitches in Maka Wuhu, Wuhu Loop, and GBA Bowser Castle 1. You won’t be able to play online without downloading this update from the eShop.

A 3DS firmware update was also made available last night, updating the system software to version 4.1.0-8. In case you’re wondering what the deal is with this update, users haven’t reported any major changes so far, except for the ability to access the System Update option while parental controls are turned on, without a PIN. So… the only thing this system update affects is system updates. Cool. 

Buy: Mario Kart 7
Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more
See also: "Exploitable" Mario Kart 7 comics
[Via Umino]

eShop hipster John and pals return for another goofy but fun 3DS commercial, this time for Mario Kart 7.

Based on the limited exposure we’ve had to these guys, I’m assuming this set/home is meant to be ginger John’s. I can’t imagine the other fellows decorating their living rooms with rotary dial telephones, pinscreens with hand imprints, and prints of utility poles and wires.

Looking through the Tumblr blog for the actor who plays John, I found it hilarious that he’s almost exactly like his character in this video of him playing games in college.

Buy: Mario Kart 7
Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more
See also: More game commercials

“I understand that he has some popularity. Somehow.”

Shigeru Miyamoto talking about his least favorite Mario Kart character, Toad, and how baffling it is that people actually like the strange little guy.

Buy: Mario Kart 7, Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

[Via PopWatch]

A completely original racing game for iPhone created by Chinese developer Taomee.

I can’t imagine this having any sort of decent controls — I’ve played a few iOS racing titles recently (e.g. Forever Drive, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing), and their controls are garbage. I would rather play Magnetic Shaving Derby on my face for reals than spend more time with these.

On a similar topic, Joystiq has a shrewd editorial today on how virtual controls are still total ass for some iPhone games (Not all! I’ve enjoyed a few that were tolerable.). I thought we’re supposed to be well past the point where “pretty much everyone’s figured [out iOS controls] by now”, but some game types really are best suited for physical buttons — there’s still life for handhelds yet!

Buy: Mario Kart 7, Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

[Via @NintenDaan]

“Exploitable” by Tom Preston (click for a larger version). There’s a video for this dastardly Mario Kart 7 cheat that’s floated around for a week now, but I’ve avoided posting it because I don’t want dudes to use it in our small Mario Kart 7 community. I mean, if you’ve been one of the guys who’ve had a chance to race us, you would know that we’re already getting murdered out there without everyone having this additional advantage over us. Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts [Via Tom Preston]

“Exploitable” by Tom Preston (click for a larger version).

There’s a video for this dastardly Mario Kart 7 cheat that’s floated around for a week now, but I’ve avoided posting it because I don’t want dudes to use it in our small Mario Kart 7 community. I mean, if you’ve been one of the guys who’ve had a chance to race us, you would know that we’re already getting murdered out there without everyone having this additional advantage over us.

Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

[Via Tom Preston]

My plans for the rest of the weekend. How about yours? As promised, we’ve started our own Tiny Cartridge community in Mario Kart 7, which you can join if you want to race me, JC, and/or fellow readers. I must warn you that JC and I are terrible at this game, so don’t expect a challenge if you see our names pop up on your screen! Here’s our Community Code and an official page: 07-0652-2127-3196 Tiny Cartridge MK7 Community page We’ll jump into the Community when we have some free time, and we plan to schedule some sessions when we all should get on there and Mario Kart our faces off. Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

My plans for the rest of the weekend. How about yours?

As promised, we’ve started our own Tiny Cartridge community in Mario Kart 7, which you can join if you want to race me, JC, and/or fellow readers. I must warn you that JC and I are terrible at this game, so don’t expect a challenge if you see our names pop up on your screen!

Here’s our Community Code and an official page:

We’ll jump into the Community when we have some free time, and we plan to schedule some sessions when we all should get on there and Mario Kart our faces off.

Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

Is that… snaking in Mario Kart 7? If you skip to 00:35, you’ll see this Japanese player demonstrating a trick with drifting and jumping to get near-constant boosts.

Well, if this is as easy to pull off as it looks, there goes me ever winning an online game. At least people haven’t managed to hack the 3DS yet, so people won’t be able to modify their characters to shoot infinite red shells or surround themselves in a shield of banana peels.

By the way! We’re thinking of setting up a Tiny Cartridge community so we can all get together and race each other online. Should we implement any rules, or just let the game play as the lawless and chaotic free-for-all that Nintendo intended? No snakers allowed*!

Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

*j/k☨

☨not j/k. this is real talk.

Shots of Hori’s Mario Kart 7 Handle for 3DS in the wild. It’s a silly accessory, usable only when you’re using the game’s gyro-enabled first-person controls — which I still haven’t felt compelled to explore after a week of messing with Mario Kart 7 — but I suppose there are kids out there who will want this for some reason.

For those dudes, you can import the grip now from Play-Asia for $12.90. I hear Hori is bringing it to Europe, so don’t be surprised if it ends up in the U.S. eventually, too.

Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts, accessories

[Via Inside Games]

Mario Kart 7’s inside cover art — Japanese gamers once again get special treatment with their packaging, with icons peeking through the box’s eco-friendly design. U.S.? We get none of this. (Neither does Europe, this time). It’s a trivial matter, probably one we could tag with #first_world_problems, but look, they even get red boxes! Japan got blue cases for Super Mario 3D Land. All our boxes are white! Totally pouting big time over this. Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts [Via GoNintendo, gamer.com.tw]

Mario Kart 7’s inside cover art — Japanese gamers once again get special treatment with their packaging, with icons peeking through the box’s eco-friendly design. U.S.? We get none of this. (Neither does Europe, this time).

It’s a trivial matter, probably one we could tag with #first_world_problems, but look, they even get red boxes! Japan got blue cases for Super Mario 3D Land. All our boxes are white! Totally pouting big time over this.

Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

[Via GoNintendo, gamer.com.tw]

“We wanted to include a feature where friends could gather like this directly on 3DS, but schedule-wise it was tight and wouldn’t fit.

So I said, ‘I’ll do it with Mario Kart 7.’”

Mario Kart 7 director Kosuke Yabuki explaining why the Community feature, which allows gamers to “easily gather with like-minded players online”, isn’t built into the 3DS at the operating system level and available by default.

I am shaking my head a million times over this. It just may continue to shake for all eternity, turning my brain into jelly, if Nintendo decides to never implement something like this into the 3DS’s OS with a future update.

Buy: Mario Kart 7 (December 4), Nintendo 3DS

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Mario Kart 7 posts

[Via Truth101]