Dad Creates ‘Real Life’ Super Mario Kart Course For His Son During Lockdown
Selma Teskeredzic
Posted On May 1, 2020
Since all of us are stuck in our houses for weeks, a lot of parents have been forced to come up with ways to keep their kids entertained during this lockdown. Andrew Dawson, from Cheadle took classic video game Super Mario Kart and turned it into the real thing for his son.
This took 30 hours to put together and it’s really impressive…Andrew said it was a way of stopping his little boy from being sucked in by modern technology.
The commercial manager said: “We’ve been trying to create various learning and play ideas during lockdown that minimise the use of screens, such as the TV and games consoles.
“He enjoys Mario Kart on the Nintendo when he goes to school holiday sports clubs, and keeps asking for an Xbox, which we don’t want to introduce just yet.
“As remote control cars are fun for kids, I looked online for a Mario Kart one, and bought it originally as a toy for the house, but when it arrived I realised how powerful and fast it was so thought it would be best enjoyed in a bigger space.”
Andrew explained: “With a garage full of cardboard, due to reduced bin collection days at the moment, I decided to build a track outside over the sunny Easter bank holiday.
“What started out as an initial idea of just flat cardboard progressed as my enthusiasm for the idea increased, screwing eggs boxes, tea bag boxes and tissue boxes to the track, as bumpers to keep you on course for turns.
“After working quite rapidly, I then decided to improve the aesthetics by painting bumpers red and white, turning boxes into a hospital building, and asking Rhiannon to mould a volcano from papier-mâché.”
Once he finished all of the work, the only thing left to do was to give the track a test run.
“He absolutely loves it,” Andrew said.
“He said it’s better than the actual game itself and he wants to use it so much that I’ll probably progress the building of it when I get more time – adding more 3D buildings as bumpers, a possible track extension, and even a raised bridge over one of the roads would be great.”
