Mario Kart 7 Review for DS
The Mario Kart franchise is a lot like the regular Mario franchise - it's not a question of if the game will be good, but rather how good it will be. Though Mario Kart 7 doesn't do for the 3DS like Super Mario 3D Land did, it's still a fun game even if there's really nothing revolutionary added to the gameplay.
The Mario Kart formula remains untouched for volume seven as the basics of the game are the same in nearly every aspect. The Grand Prix mode is the heart of the game and features a total of eight cups (four courses per cup) that can be played across three difficulties: 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. If you want to further complete the game 100%, you can shoot for first place and three gold stars in every cup, plus do all the mirror courses as well. If the game wasbrake racing solely the Grand Prix mode you'd still be getting a heck of a lot of content in terms of gameplay time.
Mario Kart 7's controls aren't hard to grasp, but there are nuances that can be tough to master. At its most fundamental, you can use the A/Y buttons to accelerate, the B-button to brake, the X or L-buttons to use items, and the R-button to perform a hop. Personally speaking, if you have to hit the brake you're not doing that great at the game, and mapping everything to the four face buttons isn't ideal. I liked to play with my left thumb on the thumbstick to steer, my left index finger resting on the L-button, my right thumb holding down the A-button, and my right index finger holding down the R-button. I think this is the ideal way to play, but my hands would tell you otherwise; the stress of holding down the gas and doing so much hopping and drifting has left me with a strain between those two fingers (if you can believe it).
As you can see from my last sentence, Mario Kart 7 features drifting, and it is here where the mastery aspect of the game comes in. In order to do a drift, you must hop and press in the opposite direction of the way you want to drift. For instance, if you're going to be making a right turn, you'd want to hop and press right so that your kart will actually skid and drift around and to the left. Depending on how long you hold the drift and how sharply you do it, you'll first see blue sparks coming from your tires and then red; releasing the drift will give you a short speed burst depending on which colored drift you had going. You can even get tricky and really speed things up by going from drift to drift, but due to the increased speed it can make the card unyielding. You can also get temporary speed boosts by hopping right at the top of a jump and hitting various red and blue speed pads or by getting behind another racer and drafting past them by getting into their slipstream.
If you want to delve even further into the controls you can press the directional pad up in order to change your view to a first-person perspective, which is where the 3D shines the brightest (more on this in a little). While you're in first-person mode, it will look like you're actually sitting in your kart's seat, and the screen will only switch to a third-person mode whenever you're hit either by an item from an Item Box or an environmental object. There are two ways to play the game while in first-person mode: you can either control your kart like usual using the thumbstick or you can use the system's gyroscope and tilt your system left and right to make it turn. The system tilting control scheme is more gimmicky than it is useful, because the precision needed for turns and drifts isn't there, plus you can't see what you're doing as tilting always takes you out of the sweet spot you need for the system's 3D effects. The first-person mode works quite well when using the thumbstick, though you have to keep the system absolutely still while playing or else you'll not only have to fight turns but your own shaking hands.
New to the game is underwater driving, which behaves like normal driving though you move a tad slower and controls aren't as tight in order to simulate water affecting the steering of your vehicle, and you can also now glide whenever you hit a large ramp thanks to a glider that's automatically deployed. While gliding you can tilt your kart down and then up to try and get an updraft of air, steer it around or through obstacles, and reach shortcuts and different paths you couldn't otherwise. Neither the underwater driving nor gliding affect the game as a whole or change the formula up that much, but they are nice additions nonetheless.
As you're driving around you'll come across two primary items: Coins and Item Boxes. Coins act as speed boost increasers, as you could take the exact same car and driver, and yet the player with two coins over the player without any would still move faster because they have coins. The player can have a maximum of ten coins in order to increase their speed, but anytime you get squashed, fall off the track, or are hit with one of the game's items you'll lose some coins from your total. You'll also want to earn as many coins as you can anyways even if you are topped at ten, because the bulk of the game's unlocks come from the accumulation of coins throughout your racing career.
The second things you'll come across are Item Boxes, which lead to a lot of fun when it comes to the Mario Kart franchise, but a lot of frustration and anger as well. A lot of the franchise's past items are back including Bananas (slip on them for temporary spinouts), Green Shells (throw and watch it bounce around), Red Shells (targets the closest kart in front of you), Spiny Shells (zooms through competition to explode on lead kart), Bob-ombs (explode when thrown or dropped), Mushrooms (speed burst), Golden Mushroom (unlimited speed bursts for a short time), Bullet Bills (turn into a Bullet Bill and propel yourself through the competition), Bloopers (ink the screen to mess with visibility), Lightning (spins opponents out and shrinks them), and Super Stars (invincibility and increased speed for a short time). Mario Kart 7 also includes three new items: Fire Flowers (spit fireballs at other karts), Super Leafs (swing to deflect items or hit opponents), and Lucky Seven (get seven items you can use at will).
The use of items has always been one of the reasons why the Mario Kart series has always been so fun, but the game definitely ups the difficult not by so much improving how well the AI races, but rather what items they are given to use more frequently. If you're in the lead, for example, you're never going to get Spiny Shells or Bullet Bills, but if you're near dead last you'll receive these more often. It's frustrating to race a clean and fast race only to lose it literally at the last minute when you get smacked by a Spiny Shell/Lightning combo and suddenly four or five racers pass you. The game seems to know when it'll screw you up the most, as Lightning and Spiny Shells always seem to come when trying to go over a gap or around a corner, so you'll end up not only getting stunned but falling off the edge of a course as well.
The game has a total of 32 tracks (not counting mirrors) which are split into 16 original tracks and 16 remastered tracks that are pulled from every installment of the Mario Kart franchise to date. The new tracks are a lot of fun and many of the classics are indeed the best or most remembered of the past games, but what I commend the developers on is taking the old levels and changing them up so that the new underwater driving and gliding mechanics play a factor now. For example, in one level you used to go underwater, but it was a pipe underwater and so it controlled normally, but now since there is underwater driving that segment of course is now actually underwater. So the old tracks look and play like they once did long ago, but at the same time have been updated to capitalize on everything Mario Kart 7 has added.
Besides racing there are two Battle Modes too: Balloon Battle and Coin Runners. In Balloon Battle the idea is to run into your opponents and pop as many of their balloons as you can, while in Coin Runners it's racing around and trying to grab as many coins as you can; each mode is fun and nice for a change of pace, but they pale in comparison for me when it comes to the normal races.
The real staying power of Mario Kart 7 is going to be its multiplayer, as you can play the game's three modes through Local Multiplayer using Local Wireless or Download Play options so that not everyone has to have a copy of the game in order to play, or you can go online by using Wi-Fi access and get together with friends, random strangers, or even communities. Communities is a very unique setting that allows you to create or join a community that are only interested in doing the kind of races that you like to do and only using the items you like to use. For instance, create a community where all you do is race and the only item available are the Mushrooms. The game's StreetPass functionality is pretty nice too, as you can not only see the stats, profile, and rating of someone you pass, but also download their ghost data and race against them to see if you have what it takes to beat their best.
Mario Kart 7 is a bright and cheerful game with some lovely graphics and nicely designed tracks. The sound effects are also solid, such as the squeals of joy and the utterances of defeat when hit by an item, or when you're doing a drift on what amounts to a giant piano and each note is played as you roll across the keys, and the game's soundtrack is infectious and a joy to listen to as well. While the game doesn't push the game's 3D capabilities to the max or use them to the fullest, they've been incorporated in such a way that there are nice moments where the effect is quite a spectacle to see, but it's never too in your face or affect the actual racing mechanics of the game (except if you have 3D on and go into first-person mode). The 3D is mostly used to give depth to the racing course, but when in first-person you'll get to see some items blow in front of you and almost come directly at the screen.
Mario Kart 7 is easily one of the best titles on the Nintendo 3DS and one anyone with the console should have in their library. It doesn't do a whole lot in terms of revolutionizing the gameplay or series, but the few additions here and there have helped refine it and improve it in almost every conceivable way. Plus, as long as you have Wi-Fi access, there are a seemingly endless number of people to play and face-off against for probably months and years to come. |
