::A Geek in Korea::

It’s all over the gaming Internet web sites. Mario Kart DS has it’s own television show in Korea now. People still act like it’s a surprise that Koreans watch video games on television. Entire generations of children are used to this. I’ve been watching Starcraft on television for seven years now. If things like ESPN Classics can exist, it should surprise no one that people will watch video games, even DS games, on the television.

The game show is on Champ! which might have the most annoying, least web standards complaint website in the history of bad Korean websites. I wasn’t able to link to the page for the show itself, if it even exists on their horrid page. From what I know, the game is called “Run&Run 마리오카트 DS”. Brave people can search for more info. I’ll be satisfied with that.

It seems there is an interview with the hosts to draw out as much time as possible, then a series of races. 6 players go head to head. I don’t know it is a one off show, or going to be a tournament. If I get a chance to see it, I’ll look out for it.

My students are CRAZY about Mario Kart, and the popularity of the DS has EXPLODED in the past year or so. I get challenged to races all the time now. Since Champ! is the cartoon and Japanese animation channel, I’m sure their target audience is in the new DS target market. I hope this sort of trend continues for other Nintendo products. A Smash Brother’s league would be astoundingly awesome on TV. (Watching others play via the Internet is already a feature of the game, but a tournament on Korean television would be awesome.)