Surprise! … to even myself really. As I’ve been playing through all the Mario Karts I’ve talked about how this was the only non-arcade Mario Kart I’ve never played due to not owning a 3DS, but guess what happened last month? I brought a New 3DS XL in CeX for just over £100 like new and brought this with it (plus Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for later review as I get through that series, though that’s an original DS game this has a bigger screen than my old regular DS I’ve used over the years) So before we actually end this look at the Mario Kart series with 8/8 Deluxe, let’s take a look at Mario Kart 7, my first 3DS gaming experience despite the year being 2024…
Background:
As per DS reviews, this is just the top screen as the bottom is only an overhead map.
Mario Kart 7 was released exclusively for the 3DS in December 2011 (Man, has the 3DS really been out THAT long? I know I’m a late adopter but jeez, didn’t think 13 years late…) It pretty much released worldwide, though the day varies from the 1st to the 4th, for some reason.
Character-wise the roster is mostly standard with a few oddities thrown in. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong, Wario, a Koopa and Daisy round out the regulars, then we have Rosalina and your Mii returning from Wii and new drivers in a Shy Guy, a Wiggler, a Lakitu, Metal Mario and weirdly the Honey Queen from Mario Galaxy. As for courses? Again, you have your classic regular kart track (though it’s Toad Circuit rather than Mario this time…), your grassy track, icy track, DK jungle track, ghost track, Bowser’s Castle and Rainbow Road, but you also get some really unique ones, like Melody Motorway (a favourite of mine from MK8, nice to see its debut!), the Shy Guy Bazaar (though I guess that’s your classic desert track but it does put a unique spin on it) and Koopa City, a dark, rainy almost neo noir cityscape which again I recognise from MK8 but its still a fun and challenging track. There’s also two tracks based on Wuhu island from Wii Sports, weirdly…
Oh and of course you get your now standard set of four retro cups as well. A good selection all round across all cups, even if most of the new ones I’ve already played cleaned up and on my big TV, but there you go…
Gameplay:
A new track that was actually an old one for me, thus is the ways of playing an older entry later than the newest one…
Goes without saying at this point really, but the core gameplay is kart racing! You compete in cups of four tracks and try your best to place first in all of them to get the gold trophy. During the race you can collect weapons to attack your foes with, including classics like green, red and blue shells that are fired straight, home in on opponents and home in on first place respectively, banana peels to slip opponents up (or shield against in-coming shells) and mushrooms to give you a boost, plus more. New in 7 are the Fireballs, which work like the green shells but they bounce a bit and you can fire multiple of them, the Super Leaf which gives you the ability to deflect items and hit nearby opponents and is currently MK7 exclusive, and the “Lucky 7” which gives you seven items all floating around your kart that you can use one after the other (which I guess is also 7 exclusive, but there is an 8 item version in MK8, so…) There are also coins to collect, which give you a high top speed the more you carry, and you can do powers slides and tricks off ramps and such to get a speed boost. No extreme snaking problem like its DS brother, thankfully!
Everyone’s favourite Mario character finally getting her chance to shine!
The main gameplay gimmick this time is the double whammy of being able to glide in the air after a big jump and the ability to go underwater, opening up the possibility of some pretty crazy course designs. It really rammed home why I felt Mario Kart 8 was such a leap forward from Wii, a lot of the innovations came from here… There is also a frankly weird mode where you go into first person and control the kart via the 3DS’s gyroscope, literally turning the console left and right to steer like the old Wii Wheel from the previous game. Given I felt a little sick if I played this game for too long during very twisty turny tracks I can only imagine what tilting the whole screen at the same time would’ve done to me, so it goes without saying I didn’t bother giving it a go!
Mario glides through the night in the third picture of this small section as I realise I took one too many screenshots as this review won’t have a “Thoughts Then” section like the other ones and decided to put it in anyway.
In terms of modes, you have your classic Grand Prix, the previously mentioned choose a cup of four tracks and try and get the gold; Time Trial, where you pick a course and try and get the fastest time; and the returning Battle Mode, complete with Balloon Battle where you have three balloons that act like lives, with one taken away each time you get hit, and Coin Runners, where you’re in teams and each time you get hit you drop coins and the team with the most coins at the end wins. Obviously getting the game this late I can’t really talk about Online modes, not that I would’ve played it that often anyway, but it was there and will always be in the future with a little bit of modding thanks to the dedicated Nintendo community out there.
Graphics and Sound:
Not particularly a good example of the graphics, but an example of the underwater sections at least!
As a first experience with the 3DS the graphics level was impressive, especially with the XL screen, not that iPads and smartphones haven’t already surpassed it today or anything, but it was still good looking for the time and the hardware, bright the colourful with plenty of detail. Kept my interest, even if again I had to play the game is short bursts less I make myself feel ill (other DS and 3DS games have been fine, it must have been the fast motion effects, I guess…)
Sound of course is great, when does Nintendo not make a great soundtrack, especially in Mario Kart, and the sound-effects and voice clips are of course great as well.
Thoughts Now:
The 3DS Rainbow Road really take the “in space” motif of recent tracks and dials it up to 11. Good fun though!
This is funny one really, reviewing a 2011 game for the first time in 2024, hell playing a handheld that itself was released that same year for the first time in 2024, even if it was the XL version of the updated one with the extra analogue nub. Obviously it felt like a “not quite there” version of Mario Kart 8 thanks to this late first play through but it does contain a few tracks that haven’t been ported over yet and generally is still just a really good version of Mario Kart. I imagine having this in your pocket in 2011 would’ve been pretty amazing, but in 2024 I doubt I’ll be touching it much again. I’m sure if this review had a “Thoughts Then” section like the other games it would’ve been a higher rating dropping down in retrospect, but hey-ho…
Hogan Reviews 