Just a few more days until Mario Kart 7 turns your 3DS into a portable Grand Prix of insanity! Of all the games announced this year, this one tops my wish list. I love Mario Kart–every single incarnation.

As fans know, most Mario Kart games since Super Circuit have featured two sets of tracks: New and Classic. We can’t judge the new courses until we play the game, but it’s fun to look at the retro tracks and see which favorites made the cut this year. The complete track list has become available recently online, but today I’d like to just focus on the oldies. WARNING! Don’t read further if you want to keep the track selection a complete surprise. (more…)

I remember hearing, months, ago, that K’nex was releasing a line of Mariokart Wii sets. Apparently, they’ve been out for a while. But I’d never actually seen them in person until I stopped by Target’s toy section after picking up my copy of Skyward Sword at 8:00 Sunday morning.

Chain Chomps! Thwomps! Multiple expansion packs! If these had been around when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have rested until I’d saved enough allowance to build a track spanning my entire room. Considering the price tags on these sets, that probably would have taken me until high school graduation.

The difference between kids and adults is that adults need to create a plausible excuse for purchasing toys for themselves. For instance, I’m suddenly imagining a Mariokart track around the base of my Christmas tree. See? Suddenly it’s not childish, it’s “creative.”

The end of the week saw a lot of tidbits flooding out of Nintendo regarding Mariokart, new eShop games and the upcoming 3DS firmware update. What did you think? Which ones–if any–got you smiling?

In case you missed any of the details, here’s a quick rundown of the highlights: (more…)

Universal Florida has the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Disneyland Resort will have the huge, amazing Cars Land in 2012. If I had my own theme park, you can bet I’d try to get the rights for a Super Mario Country. And, yes, I’ve built one in just about every one of my countless Rollercoaster Tycoon parks.

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