''Mario Kart 7'' is a
kart racing video game
A kart racing game, also known as cart racing game or go-kart racing game, is a subgenre of racing video games. Kart racing games have simplified driving mechanics while including unusual racetrack designs, obstacles, and vehicular combat. Though ...
developed by
Nintendo EAD
commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department (abbreviated as Nintendo R&D4), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was pr ...
in cooperation with
Retro Studios and published by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
for the
Nintendo 3DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...
in 2011.
As with the previous games in the
''Mario Kart'' series, players participate in racing on various ''
Mario''-themed
tracks, playing as one of seventeen different
''Mario'' characters. While racing, the players make use of
power-up
In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...
items
Item may refer to:
Organizations
* '' Instituto del Tercer Mundo'' (ITeM), the Third World Institute
* ITEM club, an economic forecasting group based in the United Kingdom
Newspapers
* '' The Item'', an American independent, morning newspap ...
that either assist their character or hinder opposing characters. New additions to the game include
hang-gliding attachments for karts, the ability to drive underwater, the ability to drive in first person, and the ability to fully customize the vehicles' builds.
The game supports both local and
online multiplayer for up to eight players. It was released to positive reviews with praise for the new additions, tracks and gameplay although the limited single player modes (such as the removal of the customizable ''Versus mode''), item balancing and difficulty curve received criticism. ''Mario Kart 7'' was the second 3DS game to sell over five million units, following ''
Super Mario 3D Land''.
The game was digitally released on the
Nintendo eShop
The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...
in 2012. ''Mario Kart 7'' is
the 3DS's best-selling game, with 18.97 million copies sold worldwide .
Gameplay
''Mario Kart 7'' carries on traditional ''Mario Kart'' gameplay in which players race against each other in
go-karts across a variety of themed
tracks. Most tracks are based on various locations in the
''Mario'' series, but two tracks are set on Wuhu Island, which was featured in non-''Mario'' video games ''
Wii Fit'', ''
Wii Fit Plus
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
'', and ''
Wii Sports Resort''.
Power-up items
While driving, the players may use
power-up
In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...
items, obtained from running into item boxes located at specific points on the track, that are used to hinder the progression of opponents or to help the player in the race. Some of these power-ups include the series staple items
Koopa
Koopa Troopas, known in Japan as , are fictional footsoldiers of the turtle-like Koopa race from the ''Mario'' media franchise. They are commonly referred to generically as Koopas, a race that includes Bowser, King of the Koopas, the Koopaling ...
Shells,
Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...
Peels, and
Super Mushroom
(also known as and ) is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every major Nintendo vid ...
s. The POW Block, Mega Mushroom, and Thunder Cloud from ''Mario Kart Wii'' are absent from the game, as well as the Fake Item Box from previous installments.
''Mario Kart 7'' also features three items new to the ''Mario Kart'' series (the last two of which do not return in ''
Mario Kart 8''). These items are the
Fire Flower, which allows the player to shoot up to ten fireballs, the Super Leaf, which gives the player a tail that allows them to flip over nearby players, collect nearby Coins, and deflect items, and the Lucky Seven, which bestows seven items at once.
Coins, originally introduced in ''
Super Mario Kart
''Super Mario Kart'' is a Kart racing game, kart racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The first game in the Mario Kart, ''Mario Kart'' series, it was released in Japan and North Ameri ...
'' (1992), are scattered about the tracks; collecting them increases the kart's top speed. Up to ten coins can be collected in each race, but some will be lost if the player comes into contact with hazards or goes out of bounds.
Physics
Jump actions, which were introduced in ''
Mario Kart Wii'' as tricks, lets players obtain a brief burst of speed when driving off ramps.
In addition to traditional controls, ''Mario Kart 7'' can be played using the Nintendo 3DS
gyroscope
A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...
, in which the action is viewed in
first person First person or first-person may refer to:
* First person (ethnic), indigenous peoples, usually used in the plural
* First person, a grammatical person
* First person, a gender-neutral, marital-neutral term for titles such as first lady and first ...
and the player steers the kart simply by tilting the entire game system.
Vehicles
''Mario Kart 7'' is particularly notable for sporting features unseen in previous installments.
Players are able to customize their vehicles, choosing from various
vehicle bodies which range in weight and engine power, a selection of
tires which affect a kart's handling on certain surfaces, and a choice of a new feature, retractable
hang-gliders, which allow players to glide through the air, replacing cannons from previous games.
Hang gliding may allow players to skip over parts of the track or locate new routes and shortcuts that are otherwise inaccessible.
There are seventeen kart frames, ten wheels, and seven gliders, which makes a total of 1,190 possible kart combinations for the players to use during the game.
In the previous installments, driving the kart into a body of water has been considered going out of bounds and would penalize the player by delaying them or being picked up by
Lakitu. In ''Mario Kart 7'', however, the karts are fully
submersible
A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...
thus adding fully under water track segments. While underwater, an unfolded
propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
motor appears out of the vehicle.
Bottom screen
A distinction from ''
Mario Kart DS'', the preceding portable game in the series, is that the bottom (touch) screen no longer displays obstacles and moving items and objects other than players.
These include breakable boxes (both wooden and item boxes), bare items (bananas,
Koopa
Koopa Troopas, known in Japan as , are fictional footsoldiers of the turtle-like Koopa race from the ''Mario'' media franchise. They are commonly referred to generically as Koopas, a race that includes Bowser, King of the Koopas, the Koopaling ...
Shells (including their colour), bombs, boost mushrooms, invincibility stars),
Bullet Bills (as seen in the ''Airship Fortress'' stage and the item),
snowballs (as seen in the ''
DK Pass'' stage) and moving non-player vehicles and busses (as seen in ''Shroom Ridge'' and the ''
GCN Mushroom Bridge'' retro stage).
''Mario Kart DS'' displayed these obstacles on the bottom screen when in the default map viewing mode that shows the area of the map surrounding the player and the vehicle's orientation, unlike in the alternative (full course map) view.
The course introduction, a panoramic view of the course displayed before each ''
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
'' race, only occupies the top screen, while it occupied the bottom screen as well on ''Mario Kart DS'', where ''Mario Kart 7'' shows course details (name of track, selected cup and difficulty level (as indicated in
engine displacement cubic centimetres) above the surrounding map as viewed on starting position.
Characters
The game features sixteen playable ''Mario'' characters, including Wiggler, Honey Queen,
Lakitu, and Metal Mario, who are new to the series, as well as
Mii characters saved in the Nintendo 3DS Mii Maker, bringing the total to seventeen.
Like in the previous installments, characters are divided into three different weight classes, which impact their driving styles.
Game modes
''Mario Kart 7'' features four
single-player
A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usuall ...
game modes:
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
,
Time Trial, Balloon Battle, and Coin Runners. Some modes feature
multiplayer options.
Grand Prix
In Grand Prix, the player races against seven
computer-controlled opponents in one of eight different cups, each featuring four tracks.
The player receives points based on their finishing position in each race ranging from one to ten. After all four races, there will be an
award ceremony and the player receives a trophy depending on the final standings; bronze for third place, silver for second place and gold for the winner.
Along with the trophy, players will also receive a star rank for their performance ranging from one to three stars.
A distinction from ''
Mario Kart DS'' and ''
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
'' is the removed race timer and the lap timer review in the results seen after finishing a race, as those are not fundamental like ranks to the ''Grand Prix'' game mode, in which the order of players reaching the goal matters.
Time Trial
In Time Trial, the player races alone to finish the course in the fastest time possible using a Triple Mushroom that can be used at any time during the run. The best time for each track is
saved as a
ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
, which the player can compete against in later trials.
If the player has
SpotPass enabled on their Nintendo 3DS, they will be able to download ghosts from other players and can race against up to seven other ghosts simultaneously.
Battle modes
In the Balloon Battle and Coin Runners battle games, the players drive around one of six arenas (three for this game and three from the previous installments) to collect items and attack their opponents to score points within the time limit of two minutes.
Online Multiplayer
The player can play
online via
Nintendo Network, participating in races or battles with up to seven other players. Game data can also be exchanged with other Nintendo 3DS consoles via StreetPass.
While playing through wireless communication and/or online communication, certain courses (i.e. Toad Circuit, DS Airship Fortress, etc.) are different from the single-player versions.
Tracks
''Mario Kart 7'' offers 32 different tracks, which consist of 16 new (Nitro) tracks and 16 "classic" (Retro) tracks, remakes of tracks featured in the previous six installments.
The tracks are split into eight cups, with four tracks in each cup. The cups are the Mushroom, Flower, Star, Special, Shell, Banana, Leaf, and Lightning Cups. The Shell, Banana, Leaf, and Lightning Cups form the "Retro Grand Prix" and contain classic tracks, while the Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special Cups comprise the "Nitro Grand Prix", which contain the completely new courses.
As usual in the ''Mario Kart'' series, tracks are based thematically on locations in the ''Mario'' universe, with the notable exception of the new courses Wuhu Loop (Wuhu Island Loop in PAL regions) and Maka Wuhu (Wuhu Mountain Loop in PAL regions), both based on ''
Wii Sports Resort''.
In addition, there are six
arena courses available for Battle mode, which includes three original courses and three retro courses. Each race consists of three laps around each track, with the exception of three tracks (Wuhu Loop, Maka Wuhu, and
Rainbow Road) which consist of only a single lap divided into three sections.
Development
Nintendo EAD
commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department (abbreviated as Nintendo R&D4), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was pr ...
began development on ''Mario Kart 7'' in early 2010.
The idea to have
hang gliding and
submersible
A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...
karts came during the development of the previous ''Mario Kart'' game, ''Mario Kart Wii'', and was one of the first gameplay mechanics implemented.
The ability to customize the player's kart was added in order to make gameplay more strategic and to boost the
multiplayer experience.
The game was first publicly announced at
E3 2010 under the tentative title ''Mario Kart 3DS'' and then shown again at
E3 2011, where it was announced for a late 2011 release.
Because ''
Nintendogs + Cats'' was scheduled to be released first, ''Mario Kart 7'' was given lower priority and only eight staff members were assigned to begin work on it. When it was time to focus on the game, producer
Hideki Konno realized that there was not enough staff available due to many other titles being developed at the same time, including ''
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword'' which had its production extended into 2011. In order to finish the game in time for the 2011
Christmas season,
Nintendo consulted with
Retro Studios, which had just finished making ''
Donkey Kong Country Returns'', to co-develop the game.
Retro started work on ''Mario Kart 7'' in December 2010. The team focused on producing the classic racing courses, remakes of courses from the earlier ''Mario Kart'' titles, in order to learn both "lessons about the development process
or ''Mario Kart'' games
Or or OR may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* "O.R.", a 1974 episode of M*A*S*H
* Or (My Treasure), a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew)
Music
* ''Or'' (album), a 2002 album by Golden Boy with Miss ...
and "about what makes a good course from a
design perspective."
The game's
soundtrack was composed by both Kenta Nagata, who worked on the previous ''Mario Kart'' titles ''
Mario Kart 64'' and ''
Mario Kart: Double Dash'', and ''
Star Fox 64 3D'' composer Satomi Terui.
Technical issues
Shortly after the release of ''Mario Kart 7'', it was discovered that three of its available race tracks (Wuhu Loop/Wuhu Island Loop, Maka Wuhu/Wuhu Mountain Loop, and GBA Bowser Castle 1) had contained
glitches that allowed players to skip over a significant portion of the track, often exploited as a
cheat during online play. Although Nintendo initially reported in January 2012 that there were no plans to release a fix,
a downloadable
patch that removes the glitches during online play was released in the
Nintendo eShop
The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...
on 15 May. Players who do not download and install the patch will be unable to connect and play ''Mario Kart 7'' online.
However, the patch does not affect single-player (Grand Prix,
Time Trials, and StreetPass) and local wireless-multiplayer.
Reception
''Mario Kart 7'' has received generally favorable reviews. It holds an 85/100 rating on
Metacritic based on 60 critic reviews and an 85.17% rating on
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
based on 45 reviews.
IGN scored it a 9/10, praising "a handful of incredible innovations" and the game's multiplayer, particularly community features and customizable racing rules, but criticizing the small roster of only 17 characters, compared to that of ''
Mario Kart Wii''s 25 characters.
''
Computer and Video Games
''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
'' gave the game a 9.4/10
and
Eurogamer gave it an 8/10.
Nintendo World Report gave the game an 8.5, stating that it is more of the same and the gliding mechanics feel underutilized.
On the more negative side,
Jim Sterling of
Destructoid gave the game a 5/10, stating that "sticking to tradition has not worked in Nintendo's favor" and saying the new glider and underwater sections "exist to provide the illusion of variety rather than actually altering the core experience".
Giant Bomb scored the game a 3/5, noting "your enjoyment of ''Mario Kart 7'' will likely hinge on your continued appreciation of
he series'/nowiki> formula".
IGN awarded ''Mario Kart 7'' the IGN's Editors' Choice. ''Mario Kart 7'' was nominated for "Best 3DS Game" and "Best Driving Game" at GameTrailers
''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
' 2011 Game of the Year Awards, but lost both respectively to '' Super Mario 3D Land'' and '' Forza Motorsport 4''. Digital Spy awarded ''Mario Kart 7'' the "Best Game of 2011" for the Digital Spy readers' awards of 2011.
Edge awarded ''Mario Kart 7'' as the best portable game of 2011.
Guinness World Records awarded ''Mario Kart 7'' as the best-selling racing game on a portable console in its Gamer's Edition in 2013.
''Mario Kart 7'' sold 3.48 million units in the U.S. as of August 2014. In Japan, the game has sold over 1.5 million units as of 25 January 2012. As of 31 March 2022, the game has sold 18.97 million units globally. The game has been nominated for "Favorite Video Game" twice in the Kids Choice Awards, but lost to '' Just Dance 3'' in the 2012 edition and '' Just Dance 4'' in the 2013 edition.
CTGP-7 is a homebrew
Homebrewing mainly refers to small-scale, non-commercial manufacture of a drink, typically beer.
Homebrew or home brew may also refer to:
Computing
* Homebrew Computer Club
* Homebrew (package manager), for macOS and Linux
* Homebrew (video game ...
mod that can be used in a homebrew-enabled Nintendo 3DS. It allows players to play community-made custom tracks and custom characters, as well as game modes from previous installments of the ''Mario Kart'' series, such as Versus mode from '' Mario Kart Wii'' or Mission mode from '' Mario Kart DS''. Furthermore, it enables online play so that users can play the community-made content together.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Video games, 2010s
2011 video games
7
Mario racing games
Nintendo 3DS games
Nintendo 3DS eShop games
Nintendo 3DS-only games
Nintendo Network games
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development games
Retro Studios games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games developed in the United States
Video games set on fictional islands
Dinosaurs in video games