As you might already know, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX is going to be released in the United States this Winter, being -as such- one of the very few 'official' Taiko no Tatsujin cameos outside Japan, after the online dating sim Namco High.
With today's feature, we will explore the Taiko-themed aspects of the game once more, as well as the racing game itself's changes of the incoming United States version. Credit to mariowiki.com for the images below, from the Japanese version!
For starters, the main feature of the Mario Kart Arcade GP series are guest characters from Bandai Namco's many licenses. After Pac-Man and Tamagotchi characters in the past games, GP DX's cameo drivers are Pac-man and -of course- Don-chan! In both the games, our drum buddy is a Featherweight character, capable of high acceleration speed and comfortable kart handling in spite of a low maximum speed. On the English version, his name remains unchanged,
Don-chan's signature kart is the Don Doko Drive, which grants an extra acceleration boost to the driver. Just for Don-chan, the name is unchanged in the English release.
The game's Taiko content can be found even outside this game's Driver/Vehicle roster! Among GP DX's 10 tracks, two of them are used to pay homage to the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise in the Don-chan cup. The two tracks, from left to right in the image below are the Bonodori Street (Bon Dance Street in the English version) and the Omatsuri Circuit.
Each of the two tracks (like for the others) can be played in two different variations ('Rounds') of the same layout. And speaking of layouts, we want to remember that the Taiko-themed tracks' structure are the same ones as Arcade GP 2's courses of the Donkey Kong Cup (Donkey Kong Jungle and Bananan Ruins), but with modified layout in order to follow suit the Taiko theme. Some characters from the Taiko universe such as the Lantern Eel appear in these tracks as well!
It's also interesting to know that in the English game, the Don-chan Cup is known instead as the Taiko no Tatsujin cup, marking this instance the first time the franchise's original name has been used for Taiko-related games who have branched overseas, rather than keep using the west-friendly 'Taiko Drum Master' title.
The American version of the game features almost all the arcade gimmicks of the Japanese counterpart, save for the Banapassport support, leading to alternative methods of unlocking characters in-game and saving the player's data, which haven't been revealed yet. The arcade's Online Upgrade feature is still available for the USA players, granting the periodical addition of karts, drivers and much more!
But why continue describing all those features while you can have a glimpse of the American arcade by yourself?
The video above has been recorded in one of the American location tests in Kansas, showing the gameplay in one of the Omatsuri Circuit's Rounds. Due to the background noises in the arcade, a lot of music and voice work is hard to figure out, but some changes can already be spotted from the Japanese version.
For starters, the race commentary of the English arcade is provided by a different person, ranging from GP DX's original female speaker (more specifically, Rica Matsumoto) to a male one. Plus, the background music for the racing track being played in the video above looks like a brand new song rather than an already-known Taiko track! Footage for the other courses and Don-chan's voice in the English version are still scarce to find on the Internet, but we'll post every new update as soon as more video footage gets recorded and uploaded on any video-sharing website!
Mario Kart Arcade GP DX is going to be officially released in America within the next few weeks. It will be temporarily an exclusive arcade to the locals of the restaurant'n arcade chain Dave & Busters, but it should be distributed in some of the country's arcade rooms shortly after.
