Mario Kart Tournament at Uniqlo

Nintendo fans take note: there’s a new game in town, and it’s a fashion game. UNIQLO has launched a new collection using the new Mario Kart game as a launching party.

On Saturday, 20th of May, Uniqlo organised a Mario Kart 8 tournament on the Nintendo Switch. A few selected lucky fans were able to participate, competing for prizes which included a Nintendo 3DS console bundle for the winner.

To celebrate its new collection and launch to the public, UNIQLO organised the same event around the world. Our reporter Lea Fourmaux took part in the London event.

The ‘party’ started at 11 pm - though

people were arriving as early as the store opened - and went on until 6 pm.

Situated on the third level of the 311 Oxford Street, the floor was fully decorated for the occasion with the Nintendo theme. A few Mario warp pipes were placed in the room for people to recreate Mario's famous jump.

Along the pipe was a giant Nintendo poster, covered with different characters of the universe. There were also signs of our favourite characters such as Links (from Zelda) and Pikachu (from Pokemon), which were disposed on the top of the t-shirt stands.

The 25 t-shirts were separated into three sections: men, women, and children. Men had the widest range of choice of design, but the line for children had more originality.

Some are simply designed with only a giant Mario star on it, or with a big Pikachu in the middle. But some are more complex like the Mr. Resetti - a ode to Animal Crossing and its importance to save the game - or also like the Star Fox that will take you back to the old Nintendo 64.

My personal favourite: the grey t-shirt full of Pokemon Yellow version Pikachu and the ‘I am Legend’ with loads of reference to the world of Zelda.

On each side of the room were Nintendo Switches, yes two Nintendo Switches, in the same room, with the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to play.

The one on the left was just for playing while the other was for the contest. I played for a while on the first one to get some practice in, and in truth, get a first taste of the new Nintendo console.

Even with a queue to play behind us, Marco - one of the Switch Manager - let me play as much as I wanted and when my conscience forced me to let others play, my heart still had a hard time letting the controllers go.

“It’s nice to have this kind of event,” said Marco, who was not allowed to give his surname, a 31-year-old Uniqlo staff member. “First it brings people together and nothing better to introduce a collection than a geek party!”

UNIQLO organized two contests for the occasion: when guests arrive at the event a hostess signs them up on an iPad, where later they will have a chance to win a 3DS.

The second one involved the Nintendo Switch; everyone who wanted could have a try. The contest was simple, on a pre-selected ‘Mario Kart Stadium’ track, guests chose their character and kart, then completed to be the fastest over three timed laps.

It sounds easy but when you have never done it before, it really isn’t! Luckily we could have a practice go. The fastest one was a 36-second tour of the circuit, which required a near-perfect run.

“It’s really hard,” said Paul Stoneman, 25. “People don’t realise how hard it is to be the fastest in a video game.

“The collection is really nice,” he continued, adding: “I don’t think my bank account is going to like me at the end of the day.”

A lot of people took the competition very seriously. While I was queuing, people were training with their own Nintendo Switches to try to beat the fastest time before participating in the contest.

The prize for the fastest track was a t-shirt, chosen by the winner.

Outside of shopping and gaming, there was also a space to relax and socialise with other Nintendo fans. Mario and Luigi also joined in and came to visit us while we were waiting to play. So, of course, I had to take a picture with them!

I then had a closer look at the collection, which has a diversity of designs. Most of the famous games from Nintendo’s catalogue are covered. It didn’t turn into a Mario and Pokemon collection, which is good, it was nice to see Metroid designs and one featuring Star Fox.

“It was pretty amazing,” said Namer Merli, 28, Italian blogger. “I really like the variety of designs and being able to play the Switch made my day.”

The event was going until 6 pm but once you had looked at the collection and played on the console, there were not much to do. It was more a come and go event but it was fun.

This year, Uniqlo and Nintendo worked together for the UT Grand Prix 2017, to select fan-designed t-shirts for a new Spring/Summer collection.

This year, Uniqlo and Nintendo worked together for the UT Grand Prix 2017, to select fan-designed t-shirts for a new Spring/Summer collection.

The theme for 2017 contest was Nintendo, and fans all around the world were inspired to create the best design possible. This year’s annual contest had the highest number of entries ever for the famous Japanese shop, with more than 16,000 designs submitted.

Professional designers and amateurs had a lot of options to include in the design, from Nintendo’s library of characters and games such as Kirby, Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, Pokemon, and Metroid.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario and Zelda, and his team decided on the overall winner of the design contest, and also selected a further 24 designs to be placed in the range.

The winner is Japanese contestant Takashi Kawazoe, who created an 8-bit Mario t-shirt. Along with having his design sell in every Uniqlo, he won $10 000, a Nintendo Switch signed by Miyamoto and a ‘special commemorative prize’.

Second place went to fellow countryman Shino Yamazaki with his ‘Splatoon’ design, for which he received $3,000 and also a Nintendo Switch signed by Miyamoto.

The 23 other designers won $500 each, and of course the chance to see their designs being sold in Uniqlo shops.

The t-shirt collection was launched on the 19 of May 2017, in all their stores. The t-shirts will be sold at the price of £12.90 for adults and £5.90 for kids.

Every year since 2005, Uniqlo has organised a design contest for one of its clothes collections. The contest goes on for six months, with the collections revealed and released the following year.