Video Games Through Art History

Shirt.woot! recently ran a contest for people to design a shirt that represents video games through various art styles. The first place winner is below. The Mario Kart Blue Shell.




Check out other ideas that people came up with over at shirt.woot!

Mario Kart Tournament

Last Friday the Law School held a Mario Kart Tournament. Of course I knew my friends and I were a lock to win the whole thing. We easily won the event, dominating the competition. We owe OUR success to two things: First, the jalapeno poppers and pizza bites we consumed the night before during our practice; Second, Adibobea9 kicking our trash online during the practice. He humbled us and the competition we faced paled in comparison to him. Here is my team holding our winnings from the tournament.

I just wish I had a picture of Ben racing with one hand on the Wii Wheel and the other hand in the air with his index finger pointed to the sky. Classic.

Showdown

Adibobea9 is back in the country and is playing Mario Kart Wii again. I have mixed feelings about his return. I loved having all of the records, but I was no longer interested in the game. The competition is why Mario Kart Wii has been my favorite Wii game so far. I have a feeling that we will be swapping records back and forth for a long time to come.

On Fire

One of my favorite things about video games is that I seem to get better at them even when I am not playing them. There have been numerous times when I get stuck on a certain level. No matter how much I practice I can never seem to overcome the problem. So I put it aside and move on to another game. I can come back months later, without practicing, and breeze through the place where I was previously stuck. For some reasons it just clicks in to place. Today I had one of these moments playing Mario Kart Wii. I have been unable to beat some of Adibobea9's records. As of yesterday there were seven that I had not yet beat. I was becoming frustrated and have been playing more Wii Fit and Pokemon in lieu of Mario Kart. Tonight I sat down and played Mario Kart and the records began to fall. Currently I only have one record left to beat: Grumble Volcano. I am down by eight second to Adibobia9. I am half tempted to win easily with the following cheat.

But I am determined to win fair and square.

Fifty - Fifty

The Mario Kart Records graph on the right pane of this blog is pretty self-explanatory, but I needed to do a special post to give a place for Adibobea9 to respond. In response to the Mario Kart Challenge not only have I easily beat 10 of his records (and Ribeye's record on DK Summit) but I now hold the fastest time on half of the courses. Adibobea9 hasn't even been gone a full week. Three more weeks to try and beat the other half of the records.

Mario Kart Challenge

Mario Kart Wii has the most addictive competitive elements that does not include direct head to head play. Time Trial mode not only allows you to race against your best time and Nintendo Staff ghosts, the Mario Kart Wii Channel also allows ranks your best time compared to your friends, your region, and the whole world. It became an obsession for the first few weeks I owned the game to make sure I had a faster time trial time then all of my friends. That was until I went on vacation for a week. I came back and now I don't have any records. 31 of the 32 track records belong to Adibobea9, the other one to Ryan.

However, with Adiboboea9 going on abroad for school for a month I have a chance to recapture some of the top times. He only thinks I will get 10 records while he is gone, I think I will get over 20. The competitive nature of the rankings make the time trial mode extremely addictive so I will imagine I will be wasting a lot of time while he is gone to beat his records.

Holding on to What's Golden

If you looked at the 3 Balls blog in the past week you probably noticed a widget for Mario Kart Wii. It came out April 27th and I have been sinking a lot of time into that game since my finals are over. Today I was playing my friend Adibobea9 online. As I started the first race I noticed that my Wii Wheel icon on the screen had changed from white to GOLD! Altough many people have been negative towards the Wii Wheel I love playing with it. I think the wheel makes the game more immersive. Plus, it will be easier for Carter to get into the game.



As a bonus, to celebrate my Golden Wii Wheel, click below to listen to "What's Golden" by J5.

Mario Kart Records