Mario Kart Just Got Real

          Mario Kart the video game has now been transferred and transformed to be done in real time. This was not done by only adding Mario Kart accesories in real-life: speed bursts, turtle shells and four-player split screens. This all occured in order to cross-promote Nintendo’s new Mario Kart 8 with a new Pennzoil motor oil, the two companies joined forces to create the most accurate version of the beloved racing game on a real-life track. The break down of this is each kart was outfitted with an RFID tag reader that registered RFID tags on the track. These tags were item icons: speed bursts, turtle shells, etc. When a kart hit a speed burst icon, it sped up; when it hit a turtle shell, it slowed down. Each race consisted of three-and-a-half laps around the RFID-laced track. The karts also have GoPro cameras that fed each driver’s point-of-view to a jumbo monitor next to the track. These feeds formed a four-player split screen that resembled the video game’s split screen.