Aha!! I have pretty much won everything there is to win in Mario Kart: DD. The game play is best described as different from the old Mario Kart. I'm ok with that, other people seem to have issues. I think that some people basically wanted them to make another Mario Kart, that was the same as the last, but with some new courses, or something. Nintendo seldom just makes another game that is the same as the last (exception the 18 million sidescroller that came out from the SNES and NES, as well as the GB and GBA, mega man in particular). The new Kart is great, it really does allow for cooperative play that is HIGHLY cooperative. That is a interesting aspect of the game. The karts and items are personalized for each of the 16 characters (plus Toad and Toadette makes it 18) which means that you have more to think about than just, who is light who is heavy. The questions are often, do I use Marion for the fireball option, or do I try to get Toad or Baby Mario for the spped boost through golden mushroom or chain chomp? Then there are the kart issues of which players play better on each kart. Then there is the actual game, which is great. The only down side, as I said before is that it needs online support. X-box is kicking everyone's ass with online shit right now, so nintendo needs to catch up. Oh, and Rich worried me by telling me that Nintedo might go the route of Sega and become solely a software developer. That would make me sad. No, that is an understatement. It would make me sad, then furious, then furiously sad until I didn't konw what to do.

In other gaming news, I got to play Mario Party 5 for the 'cube. Mario Party had for a long time been an exception of the rule of Nintendo doesn't just repeat games. The difference between 2 and 3 and 4 just isn't that great. The fake star thing was a big part of it, but that is all. Well, MP5 has a slight difference that might separate it as the game to play when looking for a drinking game. The difference is in the item selection and what it lets you do. Rather than getting items you get capsules. Capsules can do the things that items do, warp to shit, try to steal shit, etc. But the als o can be played on the board to change a square on the board into a different type of square. For example, there is a bank capsule where if you play it on a square that sqaure now becomes the bank and takes money from everyone who passes it. The final type of capsule are action one where you can fuck directly with a person, but they have to be within range. Anyway, it seemed like and interesting change on the game because now the board is static. The only thing I didn't like about it is that they kept the same bonus stars, which we all know are too easy to figure out on the fly. Will this game separate itself from the Mario Party pack? I like to think so, but I'd have to put more time into playing it to convince me that it is better than any of the others.

M