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Mario Kart 7 follows the same classic formula that has made the series so successful. Mario and pals compete in a series of races, mostly themed around Mario game stages. Along the courses are boxes containing items that can aid your racer or hinder competitors. For example, green Koopa shells can be thrown at other racers to knock them out. The red version homes in on your nearest leading competitor. Bananas can be thrown or dropped to make other slip. And Invincibility Starscwell thatfs pretty much self explanatory.
Some items are completely new to this incarnation of Mario Kart: The Tanooki Tail is used to knock out enemies that are rubbing your rubber; The fire flower lets you shoot fireballs at a limited distance infront of your kart to frazzle your foes; but the most suprising pick up is a long awaited return to the series which has only ever appeared in Super Mario Kart on the SNES and Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the Game Boy Advance (which was basically the SNES gamefs only real gsequelh in the series) and that is the coin. Collect these as you travel around the tracks and your kart will gain a slight speed advantage. Get hit by an enemy item or fall off the course and youfll lose some coins. They may not seem to do much but these coins can make or break a race for you.
Bruce Forsythe once mentioned that gpoints make rich people.h In Mario Kart, gaining points helps you unlock new characters and vehicles. Picking the right set or wheels or parasol can make the difference between losing badly or rolling past your competitors.
There are even more twists to Mario Kart 7 which almost make up for the motorbike announcement of Mario Kart Wii. Mario and pals can now race underwater with a kind of Scubagear for your racer. Not only that but the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom also have the ability to paraglide through the air majestically to get a little bit more of an edge in the race. Whilst these features do add a little more variety to the game, I feel this is where Mario Kart 7 shows a weakness. The course design isnft as strong as previous games in the series. Trying to add multiple routes to the courses to accomodate the gliders and the underwater features has left me feeling like the simplicity of the racing has been lost a little. The courses are still great mindcI mean, none could ever be as bad as Baby Mariofs Parkway from the GameCube game, but I just donft find them as enjoyable as when I raced through Mario Kart 64s courses, or when I powerslided my way through the haunted mansions of Super Mario Kart.
Ofcourse, like all Mario Kart games since the third game in the series, there are retro-courses to pick and play from. The majority of them wouldnft have been my personal choices but then again I havenft done research into the courses that the majority of gamers would like to playcagain. But if it were up to me, all previous courses would have a 3D version in Mario Kart 7.
Multiplayer Mario Karting is what has made the series so popular though. From a single cart, you can play 7 via multiple 3DSs. However, as the cartless gamers youfre limited to playing as Shyguy for some reason. But with a cart each, you get a kart each (see what I did there?) and get to play the game in its full sense. But if you really want to enjoy Mario Kart 7 to the fullest, connect it up to your WiFi broadband connection and play against people from all over the world! Mario Kart 7 even uses streetpass and spotpass to share time trial times and to introduce other gamerfs Miifs into your races.
Back to basics
Controls are as your expect, graphics are bright, colourful and well thought out, and the soundtrack is a wonderful collection of classic and new tunes that blend well together.
I should pretend that this is the best Mario Kart game to date. I could even pretend it is the most enjoyable game I have played on the Nintendo 3DS. But I wont be patronising. Mario Kart 7 is what it is: A competent racer that is very good fun to play and has all the charm of its predecessors. It does feel like it is trying too hard to do something new but at the same time pulls off some entertaining gaming. It does most things right but it doesnft make pole position. Therefore I find it rather fitting that I give this one a big fat 7 out of 10.
This review has been posted on my own personal blog-space and therefore may appear on search engines. However it is wholly my own work...and to be fair, I haven't even giving this game as high a score as you would normally expect for a key Nintendo title. Is it fair? I don't really care if it's fair. It's my opinion. Feel free to tell me if you're wrong...but please tell me why you think I'm wrong. Agree with me? Again feel free to say why. I enjoy chatting about the things that entertain me. Anyway, I'm blabbering on now when all I really wanted to point out is that this is on another site (though only 1 at time of posting).
Mario Kart 7 follows the same classic formula that has made the series so successful. Mario and pals compete in a series of races, mostly themed around Mario game stages. Along the courses are boxes containing items that can aid your racer or hinder competitors. For example, green Koopa shells can be thrown at other racers to knock them out. The red version homes in on your nearest leading competitor. Bananas can be thrown or dropped to make other slip. And Invincibility Starscwell thatfs pretty much self explanatory.
Some items are completely new to this incarnation of Mario Kart: The Tanooki Tail is used to knock out enemies that are rubbing your rubber; The fire flower lets you shoot fireballs at a limited distance infront of your kart to frazzle your foes; but the most suprising pick up is a long awaited return to the series which has only ever appeared in Super Mario Kart on the SNES and Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the Game Boy Advance (which was basically the SNES gamefs only real gsequelh in the series) and that is the coin. Collect these as you travel around the tracks and your kart will gain a slight speed advantage. Get hit by an enemy item or fall off the course and youfll lose some coins. They may not seem to do much but these coins can make or break a race for you.
Bruce Forsythe once mentioned that gpoints make rich people.h In Mario Kart, gaining points helps you unlock new characters and vehicles. Picking the right set or wheels or parasol can make the difference between losing badly or rolling past your competitors.
There are even more twists to Mario Kart 7 which almost make up for the motorbike announcement of Mario Kart Wii. Mario and pals can now race underwater with a kind of Scubagear for your racer. Not only that but the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom also have the ability to paraglide through the air majestically to get a little bit more of an edge in the race. Whilst these features do add a little more variety to the game, I feel this is where Mario Kart 7 shows a weakness. The course design isnft as strong as previous games in the series. Trying to add multiple routes to the courses to accomodate the gliders and the underwater features has left me feeling like the simplicity of the racing has been lost a little. The courses are still great mindcI mean, none could ever be as bad as Baby Mariofs Parkway from the GameCube game, but I just donft find them as enjoyable as when I raced through Mario Kart 64s courses, or when I powerslided my way through the haunted mansions of Super Mario Kart.
Ofcourse, like all Mario Kart games since the third game in the series, there are retro-courses to pick and play from. The majority of them wouldnft have been my personal choices but then again I havenft done research into the courses that the majority of gamers would like to playcagain. But if it were up to me, all previous courses would have a 3D version in Mario Kart 7.
Multiplayer Mario Karting is what has made the series so popular though. From a single cart, you can play 7 via multiple 3DSs. However, as the cartless gamers youfre limited to playing as Shyguy for some reason. But with a cart each, you get a kart each (see what I did there?) and get to play the game in its full sense. But if you really want to enjoy Mario Kart 7 to the fullest, connect it up to your WiFi broadband connection and play against people from all over the world! Mario Kart 7 even uses streetpass and spotpass to share time trial times and to introduce other gamerfs Miifs into your races.
Back to basics
Controls are as your expect, graphics are bright, colourful and well thought out, and the soundtrack is a wonderful collection of classic and new tunes that blend well together.
I should pretend that this is the best Mario Kart game to date. I could even pretend it is the most enjoyable game I have played on the Nintendo 3DS. But I wont be patronising. Mario Kart 7 is what it is: A competent racer that is very good fun to play and has all the charm of its predecessors. It does feel like it is trying too hard to do something new but at the same time pulls off some entertaining gaming. It does most things right but it doesnft make pole position. Therefore I find it rather fitting that I give this one a big fat 7 out of 10.
This review has been posted on my own personal blog-space and therefore may appear on search engines. However it is wholly my own work...and to be fair, I haven't even giving this game as high a score as you would normally expect for a key Nintendo title. Is it fair? I don't really care if it's fair. It's my opinion. Feel free to tell me if you're wrong...but please tell me why you think I'm wrong. Agree with me? Again feel free to say why. I enjoy chatting about the things that entertain me. Anyway, I'm blabbering on now when all I really wanted to point out is that this is on another site (though only 1 at time of posting).