I’ve read a lot of articles about what Mario Kart 7 supposedly doesn’t do - lists of empirical deductions about what the game lacks, used to justify unnecessarily low scores.

Oh, by the way, I really hate grades and scores, you know?

But let’s stop and think about what Mario Kart 7 actually delivers, for a moment.
Let’s forget the outrage of missing characters such as Waluigi or Bowser Jr. Or the absence of single race and mission modes or custom cup options.

The game has some faults, that’s for sure. It’s certainly not perfect, especially if you take into account its presentation, how its content is arranged.

But this, ladies and gentlemen, is not what Mario Kart 7 is about. And what Mario Kart 7 is about is nothing but having fun while racing with friends.

And swearing at blue shells. That’s also a very important part of the experience, yes.

What games of this kind need to provide to pay back players for the money they invested is a selection of well designed tracks and a good driving feeling.

Innovation is not really required in the equation of this genre’s success, and although the Mario Kart formula’s core has hardly been altered in the last decade, one can argue the series didn’t really need any change at all in the first place.

On the other hand, Nintendo has constantly refined it from iteration to iteration - although occasionally staining its pedigree with the dirt of a few missteps.



What we get on 3DS, though, is the apex of this evolutionary process.

The game physics are great, the controls responsive - even the gyro controls feel great, and it’s nice to experiment with them.

There are 36 courses in the game. People might complain that 36 has become a standard number since Mario Kart DS. Mario Kart 7 should have done more. Heck, even Super Circuit has 40 different courses, and that was on GBA!

Who cares about quality, after all?

The game quickly shakes off the “bland sequel feel” that afflicted the Wii episode with the introduction of brand new mechanics (oh, wow, innovations!) Karts can now be overhauled to enhance their performance, and in some specific parts of each course it’s possible to dive underwater or fly brief distances, giving each race a dynamic and unpredictable feel.

Mario Kart Wii’s drift, boost and jump mechanics also make a welcome comeback, along with power up Coins scattered throughout the tracks.

Each one of the tracks selected from previous episodes - a stunning selection of top-notch courses - has been tweaked to accommodate these additions, which perfectly integrate with every environment and even give veterans a good reason to practice all over again on familiar fields.

Course after course, the karts will caress some of the best designed bends of hot asphalt to ever grace the series, and at the generous speed of 60 frames per second.
Airborne and underwater sections conceal tons of alternate routes and shortcuts, that will without a doubt drive players obsessed with perfect ghost data crazy.

Providing an otherwise predictable package with a dose of welcome variety, some cups are spiced up by the presence of a handful of very peculiar tracks that abandon the 3-lap formula to guide the pack of wheeled warriors through a slightly longer journey across broader environments - divided instead into three different sections.

A particularly brilliant Rainbow Road is one of these, so beware.

If you wanna be a d-bag, there’s plenty of stuff you can complain about in Mario Kart 7. But odds are if you just sit down and play it, you’ll realize it’s still Mario Kart, it’s still fun, it’s still endless with friends.

And with a robust (although not very user-friendly) online component, there’s never a shortage of friends to play with.

Communities are an interesting little gimmick that allow multiple player to race in customizable environments with exclusive leaderboards.

And don’t worry, there’s online coin and balloon battles this time around!

Pic courtesy of the awesome and fluffy Super Tuler