GP has been designed with the arcades in mind and is therefore optimized for up to four players. The title boasts 11 familiar and new characters, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Wario, as well as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Blinky. In addition, it spans some six words and 24 race courses. (Namco claims that with variations in time and environment there are up to 68 stages, although that's a stretch.) On top of everything else, there are more than 57 objects (or power-ups) in the racer, of which 40 are brand new. These power-ups can be hurled forward or backward at opponents, depending on the item. Some pick-ups act as projectiles and others function as shields. There's even one that turns the mascots invisible.

A GP cabinet enables two players to compete side-by-side against each other. The unit comes complete with NamCam 2s, which take photos of participants and paste their faces into icons above race characters on-screen.

IGN will post impressions of the arcade cabinet once we get a chance to try it out. In the meantime, though, we've included a revealing photograph of the unit's design.