I don’t know about you guys, but I spent a good chunk of my childhood perched in front of the television honing my racing skills in arcade games like the Nintendo classic Mario Kart. A good chunk of my adult life too, for that matter. The point is I’m super stoked Mercedes decided to include an arcade racing game in the new 2020 CLA Coupé compact.

Playing Video Games In The 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA - It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This

This latest addition to the 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA Coupé’s infotainment offerings was unveiled during the 2019 Mobile World Congress technology convention in Barcelona late last month, during which Merc gave attendees a chance to try the very latest MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience) infotainment system features, as well as the fruits of of a number of tech company collaborations.

Thanks to one of those collaborations, the CLA now comes with a playable games app, specifically SuperTuxKart, an open-source arcade racer that looks as though it runs quite well on the Mercedes infotainment system platform.

“For thanks to autonomous driving, in the future there will be more time on board a car to make use of the entertainment on offer,” Mercedes explains in its press release.

The interior lighting will also change from red to green at the race start, the HVAC system will actually blow progressively harder as your character races faster and faster, and the seat belts will tighten when you crash. Pretty cool stuff.

While I have yet to play SuperTuxKart, can we all just take a moment to acknowledge how ridiculous those blue shells can be in Mario Kart? Seriously - I was leading the whole race, every single lap, and now I’m in last place on the final straight because some back-marker lucked out on a blue shell from the drop boxes? Bullshit! And SuperTuxKart, I Mario Kart still salty, yes.

On another note, I’m happy Mercedes is looking to give customers what they really want - am.

As for the 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA, it comes with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine producing upwards of 221 horsepower (13 ponies more than the outgoing model) and 258 pound-feet of torque. Routing the output is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and available 4Matic all-wheel drive system. Sixty mph arrives in roughly 6.5 seconds.

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more chances to play video games

Read our full review on the 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA.

Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Mercedes-AMG CLA 45.

Read our full review on the current 2014 Mercedes-AMG CLA45.