Japanese kids take portable gaming record

The Guinness World Record for "most people simultaneously playing on the same handheld" has been snatched up by a group of Odawara school kids armed with over eight hundred DS consoles.

Famitsu reported on what seems to have been one of the quietest gaming World Records ever set, with all 849 participants chugging away at demos of edutainment range Tokutenryoku Study, provided by event sponsor Benesse Corporation.

In ten minutes, the group of students and parents had taken the crown from the UK, where 659 gamers took the title last year. Presumably the new record will be unofficially smashed on 3DS launch day, when seventy five gazillion people simultaneously 3D themselves into a coma.

Interestingly, the Odawara Academic Development Committee were the prime organisers of the event, which suggests the official body is interested in promoting scholastically-inclined video games as a learning aid.

Thanks, GayGamer.