Mario and Ronald McDonald Kick Off Nintendo Wi-Fi Service

Posted on November 14, 2005

Mario and Ronald McDonald in a McDonald's restaurant in Chicago kicked off the debut of the Nintendo Wi-Fi service that will be available in McDonald's restaurants. The first game available for Nintendo's Wi-Fi network is the Mario Kart DS game.

Nintendo says in the announcement, "When racing using a wireless local area connection, up to eight players can play, even if only one of them has a Mario Kart DS game card. When using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, up to four players across the world can join a race. Friends share their DS Friend Code to find one another online using their friend roster."

Hopefully it will work as easily as Nintendo describes: "Outside the home, when a user brings a Nintendo DS unit and a Wi-Fi-enabled game into a Wayport-enabled McDonald's restaurant locations, the user simply launches the game in Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection mode. No setup is required."

Expect a great many more deals like the Nintendo-McDonald's Restaurant deal as mobile gaming continues to grow in popularity. Gamespot has more on the product launch. More information on the Mario Kart DS game can be found here on the official website.

Photo: Nintendo