I’m going to open up a private room about 8pm.

I’m hoping (although this is the first time I’ve done this so…) that if you go online -> Friends and Rivals and then find me you’ll have the option to join my room. There will likely be a limit of 12 people (which is about what previous tournies have had), if it’s full and spaces open up I will get on Twitter and let you know.

You will find this MUCH EASIER if we’re Wii Friends first – BrigBother (go to your friends list and add me) – I will check around 7:45pm for requests, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it when we start racing, so if you’re intending to come and play DO IT NOW before you forget. You will need both DLC packs – if you’ve not downloaded then DO IT NOW before you forget. If you’ve bought the second DLC pack it should start downloading if you boot up MK8 if you haven’t done so already.

There will be voice chat in between races, you can turn it on or off with your – button.

If the worst comes to the worst I’ll set up a tournament last minute, but the point of this is so we can all race together without splitting up. I’ll have my iPad open with Twitter running, so follow @bothersbar for updates.

I’m aware that Nintendo have decided to crash my party with a Splatoon demo at 8pm, we’ll still be going until about half nine so feel free to join us after.

• It’s the Pick Me! pilot in Manchester tomorrow. If you’re going do tell us if it’s any good. Under an assumed name if you’d prefer.
• This Friday there’s another The Hit List runthrough, with the emphasis on fun for you at home (i.e. they’re testing the software). Follow @hitlistquiz on Twitter for the latest details. The Mysterious Mr B (spoiler, it’s David Bodycombe) suggests from 3-4:45pm-ish and there might be prizes. This is good timing, because you’ve all taken the Friday off to stay up and watch the election on Thursday night. It will be LIVE! on Youtube once again, presumably.
• The next Bother’s Bar Mario Kart 8 Super Challenge will be this Saturday from around 8pm to around 9:30pm. This one will be slightly different, I’m going to open a private room and you will need to search for me (go online -> Join Friend and look for BrigBother) so it will ensure we can all race together. You MUST have both DLC packs. The previous tourneys maxed out around 12, so if this proves popular you might get a bit unlucky as 12 is the maximum, I’ll shout on Twitter if and when a space opens up. There may well be chat in between races, you will need to accept there might be adult language.

Thanks to @hideousyolk for pointing this in our direction, last night saw ZDF’s newest attempt at a big Saturday night event show to replace Wetten Dass? and is proof if proof were needed that nobody does large scale studio games like the Germans (Miljoenenjacht not withstanding).

If you want to watch it you can catch it on the ZDF Mediathek for the next week before it disappears into the ether. It is ungeoblocked as far as I can ascertain. It’s a shade under two hours thirty.

In it 1,000 contestants are reduced to a single winner who wins €100,000 by surviving the cut over a number of rounds, beginning with a obstacle course round the ZDF car-park to get rid of 500, a Test-the-Nation style intelligence test to get down to 250, an observation round to cut to 100, balancing on a post to find the top 50, a tactile work-out-the-value-of-coins-by-touch-alone test to get to 25, a “creativity” test involving placing odd shaped bricks into a small case so the case shuts to get to five, a “build an unusual house of cards using beermats” test to find a final two, then the big €100,000 finale is wine glass Jenga. There are occasional guests to break it up. It’s basically Massively Multiplayer The Krypton Factor, the auditorium is quite something.

For me it needed to get on with it a bit quicker during those early quiz rounds – the time limit for each question was rather lengthy and every couple of questions they’d be a chat with some contestants and I’m not sure there’s really any point at that stage – when it gets down to the final 100 and all the games are played on stage the pacing felt more correct. I quite liked the way contestants learnt their fate by hoping their armband lit-up. The games for the final 100 were in the main well shot and lit, although I think the wine glasses probably could have done with some closer overhead shots to show placement a bit better.

Otherwise it’s a fairly entertaining watch which worked rather better than Das Spiel Beginnt back in March. Apparently not a recording without it’s problems though, apparently one contestant had a heart-attack on the obstacle course (they survived) and there was a suggestion of other accidents but you don’t see anything.

You might have noticed there’s a general election on Thursday – hey, the most important gameshow in real life, yeah? – so here’s an episode of If I Ruled The World, the Richard Osman devised and produced panel show from the late 1990s which is also Sweden’s most popular show, or something.

The next Bother’s Bar Mario Kart tourney is next Saturday night, if you want to join in remember to add me as a Wii U friend (BrigBother) and make sure you’ve downloaded both DLC packs.