Mario Kart 7 Review
Since its inception in 1992, the Mario Kart series has proved to be a wildly addictive line of games ideal for multi-player matches. Mario Kart 7 continues the series’ proud tradition of mixing strategic go-kart racing with wacky items, crazy stages, and all-around racing mayhem. Mario Kart 7 adds a few new features to the familiar gameplay to keep the action varied and includes a rather robust online mode for quick and easy matches or more specific races with friends around the world.
The two most notable additions to Mario Kart’s racing formula are hang gliding and underwater racing. Massive jumps and ramps are familiar features for the franchise, but now blue ramps allow you to glide through the air–perfect for cutting corners or simply flying over the heads of competitors. Furthermore, you can drive straight through water-logged areas and race along the sea bed where the physics feel a little different and require a more careful approach. Both new ways to race manage to fit right in with Mario Kart’s over-the-top and sometimes insane way of racing while giving you not only new racing forms to master but new choices on how best to finish a course. And in a touch of both brilliance and attention to detail, the developers have updated the retro tracks to take advantage of these new ways of racing. At their core the courses are the same, but new or bigger ramps open up new shortcuts and strategies. The underwater portions are a little less thorough–after all, water used to be a hazard in previous games–but it’s still a lot of fun to see how the stages have been altered and to relearn the best paths.
Even the skies are not without hazards; avoid obstacles and fly past the competition.
Another key new feature in Mario Kart 7 is the ability to customize your kart. The past few games have had plenty of variations in karts, some favoring top speed while others excel at acceleration, but now you can choose the body, wheels, and glider on your cart to truly craft your ideal racer. Everyone plays differently so this is a great way to ensure everyone can perfect their own kart designs. The gameplay is more open to experimentation but also more detailed for highly competitive alterations. The characters themselves are still in different weight classes so there is some variation in abilities from one character to another–even when you create your perfect kart you can still experiment with different characters for new set-ups. Plus it’s hilarious to see Bowser or Donkey Kong squeezed into a tiny kart with tiny wheels.
Not everything is strictly new here, though. Coins are back from the original Super Mario Kart, but here they serve a double purpose. Collecting coins adds to your top speed during a race–you can only have a maximum of ten, though–providing another layer of strategy to the game and giving you something to think about while you’re racing, especially if you are far away from other racers and don’t have many hazards on your mind. Additionally, the coins allow you to unlock new kart pieces. Every time you hit a milestone for total coins collected (fifty, one hundred, etc.) a new kart body, wheel, or glider will be available. What piece you get is completely random, so there’s no guarantee when you’ll find that perfect kart piece–the best you can do is keep collecting coins! It may seem a little annoying to have no control over what kart piece you unlock next, but in the end it’s not the kart that wins races, it’s your skill–and maybe a bit of luck as well.
The bottom screen shows a small map, the current race placement, and what items characters are holding.
Like the past few games in the series, Mario Kart 7 includes an online mode where you can race against other players worldwide. Whether it’s with random racers, friends, or a specific community, the connection process is very simple, quick, and there’s no noticeable lag when racing–good news for green shell experts. Unlike many other Nintendo online games, Mario Kart 7 makes playing with friends easy; you can see when someone on your friend’s list is racing and immediately join them, assuming there’s room in the race of course. Furthermore, you can create communities where dozens of players can join and race one another with specific parameters, such as 150cc with only banana peels. Unfortunately you can’t change these settings once the community is made which seems somewhat discouraging for more wacky settings, but you can always create a new community for a change of pace. Overall the online interface is quite streamlined and convenient whether you’re hopping online for a quick game or settling down for a tournament with friends.
The circle pad works great for the kind of careful touch racing necessary in Mario Kart, and the rest of the controls are perfectly simple to learn and master. In a first for the series, Mario Kart 7 gives you the illusion of actually being behind the wheel with a first-person perspective mode. The change is actually rather drastic and adds a whole new level of challenge to the game. Most likely you won’t gravitate toward this mode for serious races, but it’s a fun option nonetheless–taking on Rainbow Road in first-person is as thrilling as it is challenging. While in first-person you can also use the gyroscopic sensor in the 3DS for motion-based control. Tilting the system left and right makes you turn and truly gives you the feeling of being in the game. However, the motion controls are also quite difficult to use effectively. Not only do they make the 3D effect difficult to see clearly, tilting the system simply lacks the accuracy and precision of the circle pad. Too often you’ll end up making wide turns or graze against hazards you were trying to avoid. You can use the circle pad in tandem with motion control, but there’s very little reason to use the latter when the former works so well.
Get up close and personal with a first-person perspective.
The graphics in Mario Kart games have always had a quality that sneaks up on you and surprises you with beautifully detailed tracks just as you are settling down into the nuances of the gameplay. Mario Kart 7 is no different; the first few tracks are always a little generic, but soon enough elaborate stages pour out of the woodwork with a wonderful range of styles, each more gorgeous than the last. A few stand out for their unique designs such as Neo Bowser City, and of course Rainbow Road always aims to please. The stereoscopic 3D is very subtle here, but effective. The result is an extremely smooth, natural appearance that keeps ghosting to a minimum. Seeing the track realistically recede into the distance makes the already sleek visuals pop. It may not add a lot of practical value to the gameplay, but the visual effect is a treat to see. The soundtrack is a fantastic match to the graphics; from bubbly, airy tunes to intense, blood-pumping songs, the soundtrack fits right in with Mario Kart and adds to the varied ambiance of the numerous unique race tracks. For old-school fans, hearing the retro songs again is a nice trip down memory lane but with enough minor updates to still feel exciting.
Mario Kart 7, like its predecessors, is founded on long-lasting replay value. With thirty-two tracks and four different racing classes, there’s already a good amount of content for singe-player races, but the local and online multi-player add nigh infinite potential for fresh and gripping races. Furthermore, you can receive ghost data via SpotPass or via StreetPass to give you even more small goals and challenges. Whether you favor grand prix, time trials, or multi-player matches, Mario Kart 7 is a hard game to put down.
The basics may be the same, but Mario Kart has always been a wild, wacky, and above all entertaining racing game, and this latest installment is no different. Mario Kart 7 retains what makes the gameplay so varied and exciting while adding new features that, though not world-changing, add interesting and fun new ways to play. The tracks are great, customizing karts is useful, and playing online is a blast–Mario Kart 7 has everything you could want from a portable Mario Kart game.
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