"Mario Kart 7" Game Review

MARIO KART 7
(ON 3DS)

PLAYERS: 1-4 (SINGLE-CARD DOWNLOAD PLAY), 1-8 (MULTI-CARD PLAY), (2-8 ONLINE)

OTHER SYSTEMS: NONE

GENRE: KART RACING

PUBLISHER: NINTENDO

DEVELOPER: NINTENDO, RETRO STUDIOS

RATING: E

WARNINGS: COMIC MISCHIEF

POINTS OF INTEREST: MII PLAZA COMPATIBLE, NINTENDO WI-FI CONNECTION ONLINE CAPABLE (ONLINE MULTIPLAYER, CUSTOM COMMUNITIES), STREETPASS CAPABLE (STAT TRADING, MII SWAP, SCREENSHOT EXCHANGE), SPOTPASS CAPABLE (STAT TRADING, MII SWAP)

SAVE CAPACITY: 1 AUTOSAVE ON GAME CARD

RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 4, 2011



WHAT I LOVED:

- The same addictive brand of Mario Kart racing is back and realized better than ever on a handheld platform, with brilliant new tracks, and cool twists on old favourites!

- The online play is MUCH improved compared to Mario Kart DS, and Mario Kart 7 even comes with its own built-in Mario Kart Channel and custom community option to immensely extend the online multiplayer suite like never before!

- New implementations like being able to drive with the 3DS's gyroscope and navigate both in the air and underwater allow a neat new way to play Mario Kart!

- The return of Coins is a great idea, especially when they can be put towards new parts with which to customize your own unique kart to race!

- Some of the new unlockable characters are really cool!


WHAT I DIDN'T SO MUCH:

- Item balance is still an issue in the single-player, even if it's not nearly as bad as Mario Kart Wii.

- The roster of drivers is drastically shrunken down compared to the last few Mario Kart games at only seventeen playable racers, and some of the omissions are rather surprising (Waluigi, Toadette, Baby characters, etc..).

- Mission Mode from Mario Kart DS has been removed, hurting the long-term value of the single-player gameplay.


AND HERE'S THE FULL REVIEW:

It took some time, but the 3DS has finally gotten off the ground, something I knew that it would do if people would just BE PATIENT! The system recently surpassed the final sales figures of the preceding DS hardware in the same period of time, and this is thanks largely to two Mario offerings that came to close out 2011 for 3DS; Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7, the latter of which I recently got a chance to play through extensively, and the former I received for Christmas recently, with a review coming sometime later when I actually get to sit down and enjoy it. Now, to date, I've really enjoyed three 3DS games so far. I very much loved The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, and Star Fox 64 3D. These are all excellent games that any serious gaming 3DS owner should pick up. Unfortunately, they have one disappointing thing in common; They're all remakes of games that I've already played and enjoyed on other systems. Thus, I knew that I wasn't going to hate them, and they were a pretty safe bet when it came to getting some early mileage out of the investment I dropped on the 3DS back on launch day. The only truly original 3DS exclusive that I've played to date is Steel Diver, and to put it nicely, it wasn't very good, as you may recall from my rather dismal review of it from back in July. For most of 2011, I had only teasing trailers of upcoming 3DS exclusives to keep giving me ammo with which to defend the revolutionary portable that I knew would eventually come into its own. Finally, that faith has been rewarded, since Mario Kart 7 is the first original 3DS-exclusive game that I've played through and really, really loved. This latest entry in one of Nintendo's most popular multiplayer-driven brands, which has always accompanied each new console since the original Super Mario Kart on SNES and each new handheld since Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the Game Boy Advance, had some big shoes to fill, since I can easily declare that Mario Kart DS, the series' last handheld offering, is by far my favourite to date. It shed the shruken-down presentation of the GBA's Mario Kart: Super Circuit and the party game goofiness of the GameCube's Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, to deliver an engaging and highly customizable kart racing experience that offered the largest package in the series to date, while also introducing online play to a flagship Nintendo brand for the very first time. This was probably the DS game that I played more than any other, taking it everywhere and maxing out every possible stat while completing every possible challenge during my late high school years. Mario Kart Wii followed it in 2008 after I graduated, and while I still enjoyed this game a lot, I much prefer playing it with friends instead of alone, as I repeatedly noted when I reviewed it, since the single-player gameplay is really tenuous, due to an erratic difficulty curve and really poor item balancing that makes each race feel like luck is involved when it comes to winning, and that's really frustrating when you're trying to unlock things especially. MK7 essentially feels like it's trying to take the best elements of MKDS and MKWii, and blend them together, while also making some added effort to take advantage of the 3DS's unique capabilities, including gyroscopic motion controls, StreetPass and SpotPass functionality, and 3D-enabled visuals. Unfortunately, the package also feels smaller than MKDS, which is a let-down, but understandable when you consider MK7's development cycle. You see, the game's development ran into a snag, since Nintendo brass wanted it on store shelves worldwide by the 2011 holiday season, to help floundering 3DS sales, and since development of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword ran into overtime, most of the staff that was to work on MK7 was pulled away to finish that up, so that the Wii would have a big holiday season offering ready after several delays pushed this game out of its original 2010 window. To make matters worse, most of the Mario crew was already unavailable, since they were trying to wrap up Super Mario 3D Land so that it could launch worldwide for the 3DS during the 2011 holiday season as well, again to help boost troubled 3DS sales (which this and MK7 thankfully did in spades). Since MK7's development team was severely understaffed and facing a serious deadline, Nintendo had to enlist the help of Retro Studios to finish the game, whom Nintendians know as a very popular developer under the Nintendo umbrella that was responsible for the immensely acclaimed Metroid Prime Trilogy and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Even if the final set of features was bound to suffer due to time constraints, MK7 was still in the best possible hands, and even though it has a few less features compared to MKDS, and noticeably less playable racers compared to MKWii, it's still a continued refinement of the series' familiar gameplay that yet again raises the bar for track design and online functionality. I think it's debatable whether this or Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition is truly the system's best multiplayer offering, especially since there's a surprising missed opportunity or two amongst the undeniable improvements to the online multiplayer package in MK7, but MK7 is still definitely one of the best multiplayer offerings that the system has yet delivered, if not THE best. Even if you're just playing by yourself though, MK7 is an engaging, addictive and fun kart racer that will continue to remind 3DS owners why Mario Kart even now remains at the top of the kart racing genre that it originally pioneered!

Gameplay: 9/10- When you first rev up MK7, you get a default roster of eight racers to utilize in several familiar modes, which are expected faces; Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Koopa Troopa and Toad. You can race in the Grand Prix, which is yet again divided into eight Cups (four for all-new tracks, and four for returning retro tracks, marking sixteen of both old and new locations to race in for a grand total of thirty-two tracks), try to top your best speeds and create Ghost Data to share with other players in Time Trial mode, attack other players or race for valuable Coins in Battle Mode, or lastly, you could hop on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and race both players on your 3DS Friends List and strangers from around the globe in a neverending battle for online supremacy! If you've played MKDS, you may have noticed that I didn't mention that game's Mission Mode. Well, I'm afraid that it's not present in MK7, an unfortunate casualty of the game's constrained development cycle. Even if Mission Mode was beneath the quality of MKDS's other gameplay modes, it was still a great way to extend the appeal of just playing the game by yourself, a luxury that is more limited on the more multiplayer-focused 3DS follow-up. If you're a skilled Mario Kart player like myself, it will take you no time at all to get a Gold Trophy and a one-to-three Star rating in all of the Grand Prix challenges, thus unlocking all nine hidden characters, and the Mirror Mode that lets you race on every track backwards. I don't want to spoil the game's all-new hidden characters, since several of them are pretty surprising and cool, but a couple of them are Mario Kart mainstays that I'm surprised weren't just available from the get-go, specifically, Wario and Daisy, who are pretty old hat to Mario Kart fans at this point, making me question why you have to unlock such familiar racers. Some of the omitted characters are pretty surprising too, especially considering the generous roster of racers available in MKWii. Familiar series mainstays like Waluigi, Toadette, the various Baby characters and Bowser Jr. are nowhere to be found, which is a bit odd and disappointing. To compensate though, you are once again allowed to race with your Mii once you fulfill certain conditions, and as with MKWii, other Miis that are saved in your Mii Plaza may show up in the background on various tracks, or sometimes appear as Grand Prix opponents too! Still, when you see some of the neat new characters that you're able to race with, any character omissions are a bit easier to swallow, especially since you get the same incredible level of kart customization in MK7 that was present in MKDS. You'll have to work for it a little more now though, since you must collect Coins during races to unlock new Kart Parts. Oh yes, remember Coins from WAY back in Super Mario Kart from the early 90's? Well, they're finally back in MK7, and they serve mostly the same function as they did in this series' original SNES entry. Coins are littered around each of the game's tracks, and you can collect up to ten of them per race. When you have ten Coins, your kart's speed will increase slightly. Coins you collect are accumulated, unlocking new Kart Parts after you finish play modes with them, which will allow you to create blends of bodies, wheels and gliders (more on these in a bit), to produce an original combination of racers and vehicles, giving you an incredible amount of customization over the kind of rig you want to speed and drift along the game's awesome track designs with. Be advised though that you'll get Coins taken away from you if you fall off the track and must be rescued by Lakitu, or if you get nailed by a powerup item, which, as usual, are collectible after driving through ? boxes scattered around the tracks. If you got frustrated by the incredibly rampant spamming of items by the CPU when playing the single-player modes of MKWii, which virtually sucked any element of skill out of each Grand Prix race, as I did, allow me to offer you some good news; The item balancing is improved somewhat in MK7. The CPU racers during Grand Prix challenges are far less likely to continually nail you with a flurry of Lightning Bolts, Spiny Shells and Bloopers, and there's also less rubber-banding than MKWii especially to boot, allowing races to be better dictated by skill over luck, as they should be during the single-player challenges. The chaotic, ever-changing nature that the powerups create when playing locally with your friends allows people to laugh, joke around and have a great time, as well as not feeling like they're so easily out of the game after flubbing a turn and spinning out, or getting nailed by the wrong obstacle. Unfortunately, when you're playing by yourself, the random chaos of the powerups is much more of a pain in the ass, especially when you're trying to ace the toughest 150cc Grand Prix races to unlock characters and such. Again, it's not as bad as the series' previous offering on the Wii, but even with the item balancing improvements in MK7, you'll still need to deal with instances where you'll race a perfect run, holding 1st place throughout an entire track, only to get nailed by a Spiny Shell, a Lightning Bolt and an Invincibility Star all at once right at the end, making you finish in sixth just because you're unlucky. These kinds of instances may tempt you to chuck your 3DS out an open window in a fit of rage if you're not a good-humoured player, but at least you'll have to put up with them less this time around, even if those damn Spiny Shells that home in on racers in 1st place can still really try your patience if you're a skilled player. You do get three new items in MK7 to turn against your competitors too, and all of them are pretty fun to use. These three new additions include the Fire Flower, which lets you mash L or X to continually launch fireballs forward or backward from your kart, which bounce off walls like Green Shells and make racers that they hit spin out, the Tanooki Tail, which lets you again mash L or X to swing it around your kart, knocking away both projectiles and other racers that get too close to you, and finally the Lucky Seven, which gives you seven random items to use at your leisure, though you'll drop all of them if you fall off the track, or get hit by a projectile. While you must still avoid falling into bottomless pits and lava pools, you don't have to worry as much about Lakitu continually bailing you out of certain doom at the cost of some Coins, since MK7 adds two new ways to travel around each track. During certain segments. The first of which is, you can now drive off a launch pad (noted as a blue strip with arrows scrolling on it) to open a hang glider atop your kart, allowing you to steer through the air, sailing over obstacles, or perhaps diving down quickly onto the ground to get at items, or perhaps get some added speed over heavier racers that don't move as well in mid-air. The gliders are a really cool new addition, and they add some increased strategy over customizing both the weight of your kart, and choosing a racer that isn't too heavy either, since lighter racers obviously move easier in the air, though they're also knocked around quite simply too. The second new method of navigation in MK7 is being able to drive underwater, since falling into the briney deep will now simply cause a submarine turbine to extend from the rear of your kart, whereas in previous games, Lakitu would have had to pull your waterlogged keister out of trouble. Underwater driving adds another cool new dimension to the game, since driving underwater can sometimes lead to valuable shortcuts and hidden ? blocks and Coins that may turn the tide of a race in your favour. The exaggerated Mario Kart physics are again given new dimensions of strategy, since heavier racers now have much more underwater control, as trying to steer around in the deep will cause your kart to turn on two wheels, also extending the time you remain suspended after driving off a jump. The new addition of gliding in the air and being able to drive underwater adds new dimensions and paths to some of MK7's returning retro tracks as well, making them feel refreshing to re-experience again with a few added secrets. You may have to modify your strategy when racing on Daisy Cruiser from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for example, now that the open floor panels will simply allow you to continue down flooded corridors, and you will have to pay more mind to the winds of Maple Treeway from Mario Kart Wii, now that several sections allow you to utilize your kart's glider to drift through the air. The old tracks are made fun to drive on again with subtle tweaks like this, but MK7's best tracks remain its all-new ones. Timing your presses of the R button for speed boosts while contributing to the beats of the background tunes in Music Park is nothing short of dazzling for example, and it can be easy to miss all sorts of nifty hidden paths when you get lost in the moonlit beauty of Shy Guy Bazaar. Expected all-new versions of series mainstays like Mario Circuit, Bowser's Castle and a newly multi-sectioned version of each Mario Kart's traditional ultimate challenge track, Rainbow Road are also on offer in MK7, and they're a huge amount of fun! MKWii was a tough act to follow in terms of excellent track design, but somehow, MK7 yet again raises the bar, outdoing its predecessor to deliver the finest new tracks in the series to date, made all the better by the game's incredible visual prowess and subtle, effective use of the 3D effect, but more on that when I talk about the graphics. Again, it won't take you long to ace all of the Grand Prix challenges and unlock all of the hidden characters if you're good at Mario Kart, but these Grand Prix races are still great fun while they last, and from there, you can continue to challenge yourself mainly with the Time Trial mode and the online play. The Battle Mode can still be enjoyable with the right crowd, and you can play with either Balloon Battle or Coin Runners, either attacking other players to eliminate their balloons with items, or trying to collect as many Coins as possible in an enclosed area, but it still lacks appeal compared to the main racing component. The Battle Mode is a bit better than it was in MKDS and MKWii, but you'll still rarely play it compared to the main racing, especially since the survival element of Balloon Battle has been removed, with players now just attacking each other under a time limit to see who can eliminate the most balloons, rather than trying to be the last racer with balloons still on your Kart. Battle Mode still feels like a weak link, but Time Trial and online play are made all the better when they're paired with the 3DS's StreetPass and SpotPass functionality. Thanks to StreetPass, you can now put your 3DS in sleep mode and carry it around with you on your daily business, trading Ghost Data with other 3DS owners that have played MK7, and allowing you to race them via the Mario Kart Channel. You can even mkae yourself a little profile and share your online wins and losses via StreetPass as well. While StreetPass may be the best way to do it, you can also collect Ghost Data and community mods via SpotPass as well, should you pass by the appropriate wireless hot spot. The mods are pretty simple, and they don't allow you to freely switch items on and off like they do in, say, Super Smash Bros., but they do let you create for example, a Grand Prix for other players where every powerup is a Mushroom, or perhaps a Special Cup roster where you can only defend yourself with Green Shells. These communities can be created and swapped freely via the in-game Mario Kart Channel, which is always offering new player creations and data to keep further wringing value out of the game, and it really is excellent! Just the ability to exchange Ghost Data is an ingenious use of StreetPass that will constantly motivate players to take their 3DS's everywhere with them, but when you throw in the game's own Mario Kart Channel, it really hammers home how much the online component has improved in MK7. You can now race with up to eight players online over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, less than the twelve player cap that MKWii allowed, but more than the four player cap that MKDS forced you to work with, and as long as you all have your own copy of MK7, you can race with up to seven other players via local wi-fi as well. You can set up a race with up to three other players using just one copy of MK7 via Download Play, but your buddies will need to bring their own MK7 copies if you want to play with more players than that locally. Also, as with MKDS, if your 3DS doesn't have a copy of the game, and you're using Download Play, you can only race as a generic Shy Guy, and you won't be able to customize your kart, but you'll still get every track and Battle Mode arena available to you, something that wasn't doable with the weaker Download Play functionality in MKDS (which only let you race in the Mushroom Cup or Shell Cup), a definite plus. The local multiplayer works much the same as MKDS and MKWii, with one player hosting by creating a room, and other players joining while the host sets everything up, and when you play online, you can now easily set up matches with anyone who happens to be online on your 3DS Friends List as well, a HUGE improvement over MKDS that makes playing with your friends online MUCH easier now! MK7 also easily lets you re-challenge players that you've just raced with, something that you couldn't do in MKDS either. The online play is vastly improved in MK7, yes, though it's still not perfect by any means either. There's still shortcomings in the community mods, you still can't add players to your Friends List that you meet online thanks to those confounded Friend Codes' limitations, and there's STILL no voice chat or any real easy way to communicate with your buddies while setting up online matches, and that in particular is something that I hope this series' inevitable Wii U offering to come fixes, because Mario Kart is really behind the times in lacking voice chat functionality now. Still, Nintendo has really outdone themselves with the online features that ARE on offer in MK7, especially when you consider that this is a handheld game! You may lose Mission Mode, you may have to put up with some unfair powerup use that ruins otherwise perfect races for you, and you'll find things to pick at in the online play, but even if MK7 feels like a less fully-featured package than its DS and Wii predecessors, it still offers the most polished and refined gameplay elements that the series has yet seen to date, in both its console and handheld entries, while offering one of the most enticing multiplayer suites that the 3DS has delivered to date as well!

Innovation: 8/10- MK7 still plays pretty similarly to previous Mario Kart games, especially the last couple on the DS and Wii. Again, some disappointing high points from those games are removed, like the Mission Mode from MKDS and the ability to race with motorbikes from MKWii, but MK7 still offers plenty of new ideas on top of its expertly refined track designs and kart customization. This latest game offers plenty of new ways to race, since you can now glide through the air, chug along underwater and even move into first-person view and steer your kart with the 3DS's gyroscope via a simple tap of Up on the Control Pad! The various new ways to race add more thrills in discovering shortcuts and planning out which path will best allow you to race past your opponents, and the refinements to the online play result in one of Nintendo's most polished online multiplayer offerings that they've ever delivered on a handheld system! StreetPass and SpotPass are well used to continue adding long-term value and challenges to the game, and the all-new addition of Mario Kart communities gives you some added control over changing the rules to create more new ways to take on friends and strangers online via the game's built-in Mario Kart Channel! MK7 still doesn't change the core fundamentals of what makes this series what it is, but it also understands that it doesn't need to fix what's not broken. The Mario Kart formula has endured very well over the years because it's so approachable and so enjoyable, and why mess with that when so many core gamers and casual gamers alike still enjoy it so much?

Controls: 10/10- The extremely tight controls are better than ever in MK7, and those who (somewhat unfairly) griped about the high sensitivity of the Wii Wheel in MKWii may be happy to know that the 3DS's gyroscope has had its sensitivity turned down a bit, though not by a huge amount, so it still reads even slight movements pretty well. You may be surprised to know that utilizing the system's motion controls is actually pretty effective in MK7, much more than you'd expect! To date, I would say that this game offers the most responsive and intuitive motion controls of any 3DS game thus far, even better than the gyroscopic piloting in Star Fox 64 3D! When you press Up on the Control Pad, you shift the viewpoint to first-person, allowing you to tilt the 3DS left and right to steer your kart. You can even use the gyroscope in conjunction with holding the R button to drift along each track, building up blue and orange flames under your kart's wheels for speed boosts, and it's more thrilling than ever to be able to pull this off! It's true that you'll probably have an easier time racing against the CPU using just the Circle Pad and face buttons, but when you feel like experimenting or want to enjoy yourself with your friends, I think that the gyroscopic controls are actually highly immersive and surprisingly fun to use, especially since they really suck you into the experience in a way that previous handheld racers could never hope to achieve! You may want to dismiss the motion controls as a gimmick if you're the jaded type, but trust me, the gyroscopic controls are MUCH better than you'd think! Still, should you wish to, you can just navigate the awesome racetracks in MK7 the old-fashioned way by steering with the Circle Pad, though it can still be used in conjuction with the 3DS's gyroscope for the best of both worlds of control too. You can use either A or Y to accelerate, either L or X to use a powerup item, with B serving as your handbrake to round things out. It's all very responsive and very easy to use, even for someone who has never played a Mario Kart game before, and even if you've played every Mario Kart game to date, you'll be able to adapt to these controls very quickly, whether you're steering with the Circle Pad or the gyroscope in the end.

Graphics: 9/10- MK7 is definitely one of the better-looking 3DS games that's arrived on the system so far, in some respects even coming off as visually superior to MKWii, which is very impressive! In fact, considering how well the tracks from MK7's Wii predecessor are replicated on the 3DS, with a handful of added details no less, is a real testament to what the system can really do! It's not QUITE up to the 3DS's top lookers so far, like Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition or Super Mario 3D Land, or if you want to dig into the upcoming lineup, there's plenty of real stunners to come that have proven to do much more with the 3DS's visual capability from the trailers. That being said though, MK7 is very flashy, colourful and eye-catching, and the new tracks especially just look phenomenal, making it easily one of the best-looking 3DS titles of 2011! The dazzling new version of Rainbow Road is truly captivating in all its deadliness for example, while the rain-slick environments of Neo Bowser City are impossible not to marvel at as you drift through their neon-drenched corridors. The 3D effect is also well-utilized when it comes to adding immersion to the various tracks, with sunlight appearing to beam out of your 3DS as the camera pans around during track introductions, while bubbles appear to drench the screen as you leap out of an underwater path. Retro tracks are given some enhancement with the 3D effect, such as leaves appearing to blow slightly out of the screen in Maple Treeway, or flashy objects now whirring and flipping around with an added sense of depth in Waluigi Pinball (an ironic choice of retro track, since Waluigi isn't even in the game). In fact, while use of the 3D effect is subtle, the increased depth makes it remarkably easier to judge distance and location in three-dimensional space when you're drifting around curvy pathways and gliding through the air, and along with Star Fox 64 3D and Super Mario 3D Land, this is the other really effective case for a 3D presentation effectively enhancing the way one can play a video game! There's a few more noticeable 3D tricks, with the most obvious one being Bloopers, which appear to spit ink directly out of the screen and into your face when the 3D Slider is cranked up, a very fun and kooky use of the system's 3D capability to be sure, but most of the time, it sits in the background and adds subtle enhancement more than anything else. When you shift the view to first-person, that's the best time to appreciate how much the 3D sucks you into the game, since tracks appear to stretch out in front of you as you race through them, expertly crafting the illusion of actually being there in the game. I think this more subtle use of the 3D is best, since obnoxious 3D would have just gotten in the way during heated races anyway. MK7 is neither the system's top graphical showcase or 3D showcase even now, but it's still one of the best ones to date on both counts.

Presentation: 9/10- MK7's menus feel less stylish than those in MKWii, though I do like how your select screen is incorporated into a garage that leads into the kart customization, done in a simple and intuitive slot machine format that shouldn't be difficult to grasp even for a non-gamer. The presentation of the tracks, especially how the sunlight beams out of the screen via the 3D effect during track flyovers is great, and the incredible amount of detail in the tracks themselves, especially the all-new ones, is highly impressive. You can sometimes tell where corners were cut here and there due to time constraints when it comes to putting MK7 in a polished package, but it's still another example of how Nintendo makes their games so eye-catching that they're just as much fun to watch as they are to play!

Sound: 9/10- The music that accompanies each track is scored pretty faithfully from their original tunes in the retro tracks, and all the all-new music is quite a lot of fun too, generally catchier and with more energy than the music that accompanied MKWii, which sometimes felt a bit too low-key for a kart racing game. The music is much catchier and more lively in MK7, and it's definitely worth plugging in some headphones to really take in as well! The sound effects are typical Mario Kart fare, from the tiny whirring of each kart's engine to the familiar crunching of shells, sliding of wheels and the various cartoony ambience that comes with the obstacles dotting each racetrack. None of the sound effects feel like a huge leap over MKDS, though they do sound with some added clarity due to the 3DS's increased sound memory compared to its last-gen predecessor. The voice clips are also generally the same stuff that you hear in every Mario Kart game, with every character exclaiming wildly as they zip around each track, and crying out in shock after they've been hit with an item. Each character has a few cute lines that accompany wins and losses, but it's the same minimal selection of voice clips that often accompanies most of Nintendo's first-party efforts.

Story: N/A- As usual, there's absolutely no story in MK7. No context is given as to why the various denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom (and Donkey Kong) decided to go kart racing together, but it hasn't been given before, so why would Nintendo start now?

Difficulty: 5/10- The challenge level is generally pretty fine-tuned in MK7, since while the 50cc Grand Prix challenges are generally not too difficult, effectively easing you into each new track design while allowing you to get reacquainted with old favourites in the retro tracks if it's been a while, you'll need to drive extremely well and effectively utilize shortcuts on tracks to come out on top in the 150cc races! The game will make you work for its unlockable characters, but Mario Kart veterans should find the game engaging without being too punishing, even if the item balance is still sometimes a bit suspect. The real challenge comes from dominating opponents online over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but since you gain and lose VR points according to how well you place in online races, you'll usually be matched up with opponents that are around your same skill level, so you won't grow bored of the online play, but you won't sustain too much humiliation either.

Replay Value: 10/10- As with any Mario Kart game, MK7 is designed to be extremely replayable, and this game yet again offers loads of reasons to come back. Even with less playable racers and Mission Mode getting the axe, you still have an excellent online multiplayer suite that will allow you to continually challenge players worldwide, as well as continual community efforts and Ghost Data to collect and race against via StreetPass and SpotPass. There are always new challenges to discover and new races to conquer thanks to all of these features, so MK7 will never stop finding reasons to keep you glued to your 3DS!

Extras: 9/10- While a couple of the unlockable characters aren't that exciting (all that trouble just to get Wario and Daisy... Whoop dee doo), most of them are awesome, and again, I won't spoil them, because many of them will be quite unexpected! As I've repeatedly mentioned, the lack of Mission Mode hurts the package, but the StreetPass and online functionality keeps on giving in its stead, so you'll always find an excuse to keep racing, especially thanks to the continued support of the in-game Mario Kart Channel!

Conclusion- MK7 falls just short of being as grand and impressive a package as MKDS was back in 2005, but it still expertly refines the familiar gameplay and makes it better than ever, once again keeping the Mario Kart franchise on top of the kart racing genre! The new tracks are loads of fun, the returning favourites are made better than ever, and the unique capabilities of the 3DS are all very effectively utilized, from the gyroscope to StreetPass to the improved online functionality. It's difficult to argue that MK7 offers one of the best multiplayer offerings on the 3DS to date, and this is a game that will continually reward you for seeking out new challenges on it, whether via the online play or via StreetPass. The 3D effect is given just the right touch, and while the reduced roster of racers compared to MKWii is a bummer, you still get loads of opportunities to customize your kart and tear up the track however you wish. I would have added a bit more to the package, but considering what's on offer here, it's still impossible to argue that MK7 represents the most polished and engaging package that the series has yet delivered! Like I said, this is the first original new game built from the ground up for the 3DS that I really enjoyed, and the game that finally gave me an added taste of what the system can really do beyond enhancing games that I've already played on other platforms. I still sometimes cursed like a sailor after being nailed by an unavoidable Lightning Bolt that caused me to tumble into a bottomless pit mid-glide, or an equally unavoidable Spiny Shell that narrowly cost me an otherwise perfect run for 1st place on a 150cc race, but these are small issues that one must put up with to really dive into the Mario Kart experience, and thankfully, these powerups ruining the game experience are much less common than they were on the Wii's offering. The series will inevitably continue on the Wii U once Nintendo launches it, and I'm sure that a new Mario Kart game will be able to do even more with the formula that's unattainable on the 3DS, which will probably stand mainly on the 3D effect and StreetPass functionality once said Wii U Mario Kart arrives. Still, for now, MK7 represents much of the best that this series has to offer, even if its quest to blend the best of the DS and Wii games has resulted in a few sacrifices from the feature set of both. There's no Mission Mode, no motorbikes and several regular Mario Kart characters are surprisingly sitting this circuit out, which was all the more annoying to me when I recall that Waluigi was my best racer in MKDS, and he's inexplicably absent here, but the new racers are even more unexpected and just as much fun, so it could be worse. Just the fact that you can race as your Mii should likely compensate for any disappointing character omissions anyway. When you try to recall how effectively a game like MK7 just keeps on giving though, it's difficult to really dwell on its flaws and disappointments all that much, especially since they're so tiny compared to what the game does right when it comes to refining the gameplay. Avid Mario Kart fans like myself will find things to pick at, but it's difficult to care when you continually have incentive to get mileage out of your 3DS with this game, dominating the online races, scouting for unexpected new thrills on the Mario Kart Channel, and continually collecting Ghost Data with StreetPass. Again, I'm pretty excited to see where the series will go from here on the Wii U, but for now, any 3DS owner, be they a casual or hardcore gamer, or somewhere in between, must definitely give MK7 a try. Whether conquering the rankings by yourself, or entertaining rivalries with your buddies that also sprung for a 3DS, MK7 never stops giving you reasons to take to the racetrack, and even after it's helped tide you over as you wait for the many bigger and more ambitious 3DS releases on the way in 2012 and beyond, you still won't want to put it down. 3DS owners, your addiction has arrived!



FINAL SCORE: 91% "AWESOME!"

FINAL VERDICT: "Some downscaling to make Mario Kart 7's ambitious holiday 2011 deadline is evident here and there, with missing regular racers and an inexplicable omission of Mario Kart DS's Mission Mode. Still, it's difficult to care when the gameplay is so excellently refined, the new and returning tracks are as fun to race on as they are, and both the built-in Mario Kart Channel and StreetPass functionality never stop giving. Super Mario 3D Land may be considered the 3DS's killer app, but Mario Kart 7 is the first game that 3DS owners will never, ever want to put down!"