So here’s a bit of product placement you didn’t see coming. Mercedes-Benz has inked a deal with Nintendo to place its new GLA-class crossover in the latest iteration of Mario Kart.
Intersections between real life and Mario Kart are nothing new, of course. A couple of years back, West Coast Customs built life-size versions of game vehicles and displayed them at the L.A. auto show. Earlier this year, Jaxx Pacific announced a drivable, powered kart for the lightweight set to scoot around on. But this time, the move is in reverse, with a digitized, kartified GLA appearing in the game. At least in Nintendo’s home country.
According to a report from Eurogamer, the GLA cart might make its way to other markets. A U.K. spokesman told the site, “The announcement this time was made by Mercedes-Benz Japan regarding their collaboration in Japan with NCL. As for the information relating to the distribution of the GLA kart for MK8 outside Japan, we will be able to announce in the near future.”
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Meanwhile, Nintendo Japan is promoting the crossover with a sublimely weird ad featuring Mario driving the GLA in the Super Mario Bros. 2D, 8-bit environment, then crossing over into some semblance of the real world. But what’s the deal with the male-model type playing Mario? It’s unnerving, jarring, and we dislike it immensely. Captain Lou Albano will always be the real meatspace Mario. This flim-flam sham of a fancy boy just ain’t cuttin’ it with us. Seriously, dude. Your princess isn’t in another castle. Last we saw her, she was at the tanning salon getting airbrushed.
Davey G. Johnson has been writing about the machines that move us since 2001. His first automobile was an El Camino, his first motorcycle a Guzzi, and his first sports car a Porsche, informing his admittedly fungible belief that one should haul American, drive German, and ride Italian.
