Nintendo Okie

There is one thing that you can be assured of every time Nintendo releases a new platform; a new Mario Kart game is sure to follow. Every platform that Nintendo has released since the days of the Super Nintendo has had one entry in the popular racing franchise, and you knew the 3DS was going to be no exception. Mario Kart 7 is the latest entry in the franchise and it brings along some new innovations as well as some old friends.

What You Need To Know

Mario Kart hasn’t really changed much over the years in terms of the core gameplay. You race through a number of Cups, which consist of four races each. Placing higher earns you stars and trophies, as well as unlocking new content as you go along. There are eight different cups and 32 tracks overall. The cast of characters (in this case 17) will always be interesting, blue turtle shells will always come out of nowhere to cause you frustration, but you’ll always keep coming back for more. Once you’re done unlocking all of the characters and karts you’ll inevitably end up online where you can race against people around the world.

It’s Mario Kart. It’s Still Fun

There’s a reason Mario Kart continues to be one of the dominant names in the kart racing genre. It’s arguably the king of its kind. The core game play hasn’t really changed since the days of Super Mario Kart, but it hasn’t needed to. The racing at its core is still very solid and very fun. You’ll have those moments of complete frustration because it seems like the AI controlled racers are teaming up with you, but just when you think all hope is lost you get the one item that you need to catapult you to the front of the pack.

There’s just something about the way this game is presented, the characters and just the way the driving is handled that combines to create one of the best non-simulation racing experiences out there. Nintendo has somehow managed to craft a game around a silly concept with crazy items that just works. The formula hasn’t changed much, but it hasn’t really needed to.

New Items

Every game in the franchise always brings something new in terms of the “weapons” that you’ll use. Mario Kart: Double Dash introduced character specific items, some of which are still around today, though available to everyone. The Bullet Bill was introduced in Mario Kart DS and allowed you to quickly move through the pack with no fear. The Wii brought items like the Super Mushroom to the track allowing you to run over items and other racers.

The new items in Mario Kart 7 bring even more innovation to the track. While items like the Fire Flower act very similarly to the Green Shell you do get considerably more of them that can be fired in a rapid fire manner. That means you could potentially clear out a group of racers in front of you all at one time. The Tanooki Tail can be used either offensively to swipe at other racers and knock them over, or defensively to protect you from incoming projectiles. This is a very close range item, but if used properly can be devastating.

The most unique item of the bunch, and one I’m not really sold on, is the Lucky 7. This basically is a catch all item that gives you seven power ups in one; some of them offensive in nature, while some of them are defensive. It’s got a lot of potentially devastating uses, but I’ve found that trying to pick the proper item in the craziness of the race can be a bit difficult as you’ve got to anticipate when the item you want will be at the front of your kart while lining up any potential attacks at the same time. It’s a nice item to use, on paper, but hard to pull off in practice. It also doesn’t come up very often. I’ve seen it three times in about nine hours.

New Courses

Racing games are only as good as their track design and Nintendo really outdid themselves with this release. I think this is probably the best set of tracks that I’ve seen in a game ever. All of the new tracks are really good and a lot of fun to drive on. Places like Rainbow Road mess with the gravity and actually allow you to drive on the moon. Hitting a crater will send you considerably farther than a normal jump on land. The new Donkey Kong Country course really highlights some of the characters and terrain features of that series. Rosalina has her own course this time around, though it takes place on an Ice World rather than in space like one would assume. My favorite new course is the Wario themed one that basically takes place in a ship graveyard. You’ll race through the sunken hulks of sailing ships and you’ll be constantly going back and forth from dry land to underwater and up in the air. It’s a great track that really highlights how good the new flying and underwater mechanics really are.

Online Play Is Fantastic

Mario Kart is best played with other humans. The single player portion of the game is really only there to get you used to the controls and to unlock more karts and racers to choose from. It’s the online portion of the game that really shines. Online play came to the forefront with the release of Mario Kart DS and it’s improved in the two iterations since. Mario Kart Wii introduced some nice features like downloadable Ghost data that you could race against and a points system that would pair you up with racers of equal skill.

Mario Kart 7 brings many of those innovations from an already solid online infrastructure and adds even more nice features on top. The biggest is the ability to create custom communities. These communities allow you to tailor the play to a style that you and your friends like to use. You create your community, choose the items and speeds you like to play at and then give a unique code out to people you want to play with. You can then choose to race worldwide, or only in certain communities so that you always know what type of game you’re going to get when you log on. These communities keep points for all the players involved to show you how you rank against other racers and it resets on a monthly basis so the competitions can continue.

Then there is the new ability, thanks to a recent firmware update that allows you to just hop right in to a friend’s game. A handy button on your 3DS Friends List allows you to join right up with them and as soon as a race becomes available you’re competing directly against people from your friend’s list.

Other Mario Kart Features

There are plenty of returning features to the game as well that are Mario Kart staples and they’re just as fun as ever. Balloon Battle has been altered slightly. Now, instead of competing against people with just a set number of balloons each you’ll be competing against each other to see how many balloons you can pop in a set time limit. You’re always in the competition and there’s always a chance for you to come back. Coin Runners also makes a return and tasks you with seeing how many coins you can collect. These competitive modes bring some fun and some different styles of play to the people that don’t like to exclusively race around a track for hours at a time.

The new kart designs really add some strategy to how you pick your kart. If you’re all about speed you’re going to want to pick smaller parts for your kart, but you’re going to get batted around a lot more. While if you’re all about beating down other racers heavier parts will be better. You can pick and choose from different bodies, wheels and gliders that all have their own stats and attributes and give you a lot of different variety in how you build your race car. They also look great. Even in first person mode where every kart has a unique cockpit.

150cc Is Still Frustrating

One of the things you have to do is unlock a lot of the content by winning the different cups at the various speed levels. Things start off easy enough and you’ll be winning races from the beginning with 50cc. Then you move up to 100cc and things get a little bit tougher, but you’re still going to be able to win fairly easily.

150cc is where many players are going to struggle. The AI gets much more intelligent. The rubber band gets a little stretchier and you’re going to find yourself losing races on the last turn because everyone decides to hold their items to use against you at that precise moment. It’s always been frustrating in the past, and it’s still frustrating now. It’s a part of Mario Kart and fans have learned to deal with it, but it still can be infuriating at times.

Some Strange Exclusions

There are some modes from previous games that are curiously absent from this release. Things like the Mission Mode from the DS (and the online portion of Mario Kart Wii) were a lot of fun and changed up the pace of play a bit. Also absent are some online feature like downloadable ghost races. There are new ghosts that will be sent to you via SpotPass, but the one on one ghost races from Mario Kart Wii were a lot of fun. The huge amounts of stats are also missing. I liked seeing all the different things that the game kept track of, like ghost wins and losses, how good you were with items and such. That’s all gone. Stat tracking is kept to a minimum, only keeping track of things like how many coins you’ve collected or your online win-loss record.

Conclusion

Mario Kart 7 is another stellar entry in the Mario Kart franchise. It takes many of the best elements of past games, combines them with some amazing new track designs and fun characters to make sure there is a reason to continue coming back for more. Online play is just as addicting and fun as ever, even more so now with the inclusion of online communities that allow you to set the rules. If you were waiting for a reason to pick up a 3DS then look no further than this. Mario Kart DS was the reason I bought that system in the first place and this is truly a worthy successor. I still hate Rainbow Road, though.

Final Score:  

Review copy of the game provided by Nintendo.
Played through all cups, earning gold trophies on all. Compiled an online record of 71-64 to this point.
Total Play Time: 11 hours