The informant is a 21 year old student at USC studying Vocal Arts.  He lives in a house with some friends and they have a copy of Mario Kart.  This game turns Mario Kart into a drinking game.

“Kario Mart is a drinking game.  You are playing Mario Kart but the objective is to finish an entire beer or your drink, whatever it may be, by the time you cross the finish line.  However, because you can not drive while drinking, if you want to drink your drink, you have to set your controller down and effectively stop driving to drink at all.  So you’ll have to start of drinking, or however you want to do it, set your controller down, finish your drink before you cross the finish line.  Otherwise you have to take a shot.”

“I feel like this game is fun for a few rounds until everyone is buzzed well enough that you  forget that you need to play the drinking game and you just play Mario Kart.

“One of my friends told me this game. I would play this game on a weekend evening just hanging out with a small group of friends. You know when you are like ‘what else are we going to do? We’re going to play Mario Kart”.  But you were going to drink anyway so why not incorporate the drinking into the game.”

Analysis:

This game incorporates several elements of modern 20-somethings’ culture.  One element is that there is a strong affinity towards and enjoyment of the games of their youth.  There is a lot of nostalgia in playing video games that you enjoyed when you were young.  This enjoyment is only amplified by a light buzz.

Another element that it incorporates is the understanding that driving while under the influence is dangerous.  It both acknowledges this, by having the rule of the game to be that you technically can’t “drink and drive”, and makes light of it, as one of the main points of the game is to be amused as players’ skill levels drop while they drink more.