Who was the top Mario Karter at GameCity's DS tea party?

As might be expected, Nottingham's expert Mario Kart players - who hook up on a weekly basis to indulge their passion at Lee Rosy's Tea Shop (17 Broad Street) - proved to be more than a match for Pocket Gamer when we met up as part of the GameCity festival - albeit rather late in our case - for some Earl Grey and power sliding action.

Lexxie (right) won - although she was hosting the game so the fact she stopped the tournament after she gained the overall lead could have been viewed by more suspicious minds than ours as being slightly self-serving.

As well as DS, we tried out some iPhone gaming (Topple), while FIFA 09, New Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy IV and, for rather bizarre reasons, Ubisoft's much derided virtual dating game Sprung also received some playtime.

In between, we chatted about the state of game journalism, why Oblivion isn't something you should start playing while revising for your exams, and then drunk some more tea. Very civilised it all was.

Quote of the night however came from this gentlemen, who claimed to have completed Pokemon Ranger in four hours flat, without the use of cheats or walkthroughs. It did involve a nifty levelling up trick that probably counts as a bug.

Gamely though, he's still looking forward to the forthcoming Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. We can only hope it takes him a bit longer this time.