Mario Kart 7 Review: Continuing The Fun On The 3DS

Mario Kart 7 Review

We now have Mario Kart for the first time on the Nintendo 3DS, and it certainly meets expectations!

Mario Kart 7 on the Nintendo 3DS brings that same fun we’ve known for years to the 3DS system, but this time it brings some new changes that really add to the fun gameplay that we’ve come to know and love. For most people, the only thing I probably need to say is that this is a great game in the Mario Kart series. That is certainly how I feel as it continues the fun in new ways for us all to enjoy. Now some of you who are on the edge about getting it, this is what I have to say for you….

First off, the obvious is that the game is in 3D and it looks wonderful. All of the new tracks look excellent and are certainly fun to race your way through. There are 8 different cups to participate in with each cup having a total of 4 tracks each. That’s 32 tracks for you to start with. 16 of those tracks are new, while the other 16 are previous tracks that are remade for this title. That includes tracks from the SNES, N64, DS, GBA, Gamecube and Wii versions of Mario Kart. You have your 3 basic difficulty levels, 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and you will try to earn all 3 stars on each difficulty per each cup by winning and playing near perfectly through each track in each cup. So there will be plenty to keep you busy with single player. Especially when trying to perfect 150cc difficulty level as the computer will certainly give you one heck of a challenge.

The gameplay is still a blast to play especially on the new tracks and with the new features such as your glider, that will come out on bigger jumps. You can control it slightly by giving yourself more lift to carry you further or by aiming yourself back to the ground to get you back on your wheels sooner. It’s certainly a nice feature that I absolutely love, and I only wish there were more and more of it and additional ways of using it. I like to fly a lot, so that is also why I mention these things. The other feature is the underwater racing that occurs from time to time in certain areas of certain tracks. The items you get are still a lot of the same and are a blast to use except for how much they suck for when you are in first place. Of course, you usually can still get away with victory on 50cc, but on the higher difficulties the opponent will really give you a challenge and make things very difficult for you. You’ll certainly have to give yourself a good strategy to try and counter some of the items the others will throw at you.

The other great feature in Mario Kart 7 is being able to play it online and in created communities that you can make for you and a group of your friends. They work really well and have a points system that it works by. On the main community page you’ll see the community leaders with how many points they have in comparison to your points. The online play runs really smoothly with no issues at all in the gameplay. I’ve had a couple matches get disconnected but none of the matches where hard or bad to play due to lag or anything else.

As for your kart in Mario Kart 7 you will be able to unlock additional parts for it. Each part will affect your speed, acceleration, handling, weight and off road ability. The parts that you will be able to change up is your kart’s body, wheels and the glider in which you will use.

Other game modes in Mario Kart 7 include time trials which are fun, but unfortunately they don’t have any kind of online leaderboard, which in my opinion would have made the time trails a lot more fun to play and participate in. You also have your balloon battle mode and coin runners mode which are two additional modes to keep things fun for you to play.

Overall this easily is another must get title for your 3DS system as it continues the fun we all know from the Mario Kart series with new fun features that add to the amount of entertainment you will have. The tracks are great to race in and look beautiful though the music really isn’t anything special for you to race to. Still, single player will keep you busy for awhile and playing online will keep you busy for a lot longer. Definitely pick this up as soon as possible!

Score: 4/5