Review: Mario Kart 7
By: Jeff Rivera
There's an odd misconception each time a Mario Kart game is released that it's simply the same game with a new coating of paint, but fans of the series will tell you that each game has a unique control style, karts that control differently, different ways of handling power slides, and other tweaks. The formula generally stays the same from game to game, but Mario Kart is rarely the same game with each release. In Mario Kart 7, Nintendo has pulled the best parts from past titles, introduced a handful of new elements, and improved the online play. The result is a Mario Kart experience that brings the series to newer heights.
Since the SNES, every Nintendo console has seen a release of Mario Kart, and the game has been released on the GBA, DS, and now 3DS. With each go around these days, Nintendo packs in a new set of tracks to compliment some old favorites. In Mario Kart 7, the new tracks are fantastic. There are both three lap variations as well as single lap races that are divided into three segments. The paths are far more intricate than we've seen in previous Mario Kart titles, which has been made possible by the inclusion of underwater racing and air gliding. If you fully submerge your kart in water, a propeller pops out the back to keep you moving forward. Larger jumps and falls (at pre-designed areas) cause a glider to spring forth and allow you to control your glide back to the track.
The changes introduced by the underwater and gliding segments aren't major on first glance, but properly using each ability is key to winning races. The tracks are now much more vertical than they have ever been, and knowing just the right angle to go into the water or when to come out of your glide can make big differences in the long run. It's a fantastic addition to the game that doesn't change the gameplay up in too radical of a way.
And in what has become the norm, the game also has classic tracks drawn from the SNES, N64, GBA, GCN, and Wii versions of Mario Kart. They've been altered slightly to allow for the underwater driving and gliding, but they're otherwise the same as you remember them being. Even the 2D tracks of the older games translate quite well in 3D.
Speaking of 3D, the 3D effects are great in Mario Kart 7. And while serious competition will probably call for you to turn the 3D down or completely off, for casual playing it's a nice visual perk to have such great looking 3D effects. Big drop offs look great with the depth provided by the 3D and the effects pair quite well with such a clean and colorful looking game. The overall graphics won't wow many, but for Mario Kart, things generally look quite nice.
There's no real surprises as far as game modes go if you're familiar Mario Kart, but the online mode is what really impressed me most. It's a pretty seamless experience to play online, whether with friends or random gamers. Like all 3DS games, to play with friends you only need to have swapped friend codes, but Nintendo has also created support of communities. Basically you can create a community with your preferred settings (speed class, item preferences) and it can be a kept as an available place for people to drop in and out of. Once the community is set up, a community code (like a friend code) is generated, and people can access it and save it to their favorites list after entering it once. This is a great feature for online communities to play together without having to all enter each others' friend codes if they don't want to do so.
As far as performance goes, Mario Kart 7 is great online. In a single match the other night I played with a player from the UK, one from Spain, three from Japan, and the rest were from different parts of the United States. There wasn't a hint of lag and everybody seemed to compete well. All my matches have been this way so far, and unless they just haven't figured it out yet, it seems as if snaking (an exploit in Mario Kart DS) has been eliminated from the game, even with the classic N64-style power sliding in the game.
Mario Kart 7 is a culmination of nearly twenty years of refinement and experimentation. Nintendo walks a fine line with the Mario Kart franchise. They need to keep it from changing too much with each release to hang onto their core audience, but they also have to keep it fresh to keep the series from stagnating. And while some efforts have proven to be more successful than others, Mario Kart 7, in my opinion, is Nintendo's best effort is Nintendo's finest balancing act to date. Fans should be quite pleased with what Nintendo has done with Mario Kart this time around, and newcomers have never had a better time to jump in and get on board with gaming's finest kart racing franchise.
5 Stars out of 5
