News Blips: Super Mario Kart on Virtual Console, LittleBigPlanet Is Now Edutainment, Less Than a Mil Xbox's Banned, and More

An unexpected contender for your holiday gaming time has entered the race.

News Blips:

Super Mario Kart is now available for the Virtual Console! The first (and arguably best) Mario Kart game is now available for 800 Wii Points. Hell yeah!

The Obama Administration is announcing a new initiative to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among kids, part of which incorporates LittleBigPlanet. Among the programs being implemented as part of the STEM program, is one titled Game Changers, which involves Sony donating 1,000 PlayStation 3 consoles and LittleBigPlanet games to various libraries and community organizations. Youth participants are then to be encouraged to create levels, using the game, that involve the previously stated disciplines. Apparently Math Blaster just isn't cutting it these days. [Kotaku]

Microsoft claims that less than a million Xbox 360 users were banned from Xbox Live recently. Microsoft’s Xbox Live chief, Marc Whitten, refused to give a precise number of pirates/users who were banned despite reports over the past couple of weeks ranging between 600,000 and 1,000,000 users. He maintained that it was less than a million. Whatever the number is, there are a bunch of Xbox owners right now who can't use Twitter or Facebook on their consoles and that's just sad. [VentureBeat]

The US Air Force is in the market for some 2,200 PlayStation 3 consoles. The machines (and their powerful Cell Processors) would be added to the current stock of 336 PS3s the Air Force currently has, in the name of super computing research. We hear they would have gone with Xbox 360, but it would take too long to deal with all the Red Rings of Death. [InformationWeek]

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Tags: News Blips, Super Mario Kart, LittleBigPlanet, Math Blaster

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Andy Bates

November 22, 2009

Super Mario Kart: Arguably first? Yes. Arguably best? No way. On a related note, did anyone else notice that Super Mario Kart did a two-screen view 15 years before the DS? It was so ahead of its time! (aside from being the worst Mario Kart game, that is.)

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Raymond Fernandes

November 23, 2009

Andy is obviously smoking crack. It may not be the best, but it's sure as hell ain't the worst. That, and you can't argue that it's the first. It's a fact that it is.;) On a side note, there is nothing sad about cheaters and pirates not being able to use Twitter and Facebook on live.

Raymond, you obviously aren’t familiar with Ye Olde Mario Karte, produced for the Nintendo Daguerrotype System in 1841. Players would control their car (or, “karte”) through a series of rod, pulleys, and wires. However, the villain was not Bowser, but rather President Martin Van Buren, which sets it as arguably outside of the main Mario canon. What do you think the worst Mario Kart game is? I would argue that the games generally build off of the previous installments, so Super Mario Kart couldn’t be the best. It’s 2D(-ish), for one thing, and seems very dated compared to later installments. It was great for the time, but later ones improve on it so much, it would be hard to call it the best.

Nick Nordstrom

It's the best because it's fucking charming.

Jeff Grubb

Who is Charming and why is someone fucking her?

Joshua Henderson

Because she's damn hot. That's why.

Jeffrey: "It" refers to Super Mario Kart, the only thing discussed in this story's comment section. "Fucking" is used as an adverb to modify "charming." :P Ah, the ambiguity of the English language.

Alejandro Quan-Madrid

Well, what would you guys say is the best Mario Kart? 64? DS? Please don't say Double Dash...

I would say Super Mario Kart is the best in the series, followed closely by Mario Kart 64. However, I haven't played SMK or MK64 in eons, so I'm not sure if nostalgia is amplifying my feelings towards these games. Double Dash is so far out of contention that it can't even huff the fumes of Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64.

I’m not sure why every is so down on Double Dash; it’s a great game especially for younger kids, as they can participate by throwing turtle shells, without having to worry about driving. That said, I can’t see how Super Mario Kart can hold a candle to any of the 3D racers. I would say that Mario Kart DS is the best, with Mario Kart 64 in close second.

I remember when the DS Kart came out, one of the developers made a comment about living up to Super Mario Kart, suggesting it was quite the fan favorite, and thinking they did it that time around. There was too much crap going on for me in Double Dash to really get into it. The Wii one is pretty fun too, for the record.