Mario Kart 7 is the 3DS version of the Mario Kart series. As a kart racer, you vie for first place with the help of items to attack other racers. It's one of the best arcade fun ever and can get very competitive. Most of the items you pick up are familiar such as mushroom speed boosts, squid spraying ink to cover your screen and of course, the dreaded blue shells. Three new items are added, being the fire flower, Tanooki leaf and "7", which gives you seven power up at once.
It's luck of the draw with what items you get though. On the tougher courses, the supposedly "awesome" items can be fatal (like speed boosts on courses with tight turns and no walls, since using these boosts will make it easier to fall to your death). There is extreme rubberbanding of the AI so if you ever get first place before Lap 3, you are near guaranteed to lose it from a blue shell. It can feel cheap at times and very frustrating.
There are 32 courses comprised of 16 new courses and 16 reimagined courses from previous games. The vast majority of tracks are based off locations from the Mario games. The gimmick in this version is the addition of underwater and gliding sections which adds visual variety. The graphics are fantastic too, coupled with neat 3D effects and catchy music. The single player mode has four modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Balloon Battle and Coin Battle. Unfortunately, you cannot select a specific course against AI and are forced to play a set of four courses instead.
Nevertheless, in Grand Prix mode, there are eight cups, each consisting of four tracks. During these races, you gain points depending on your position and the one with the most points at the end of the four tracks wins the cup. There are three difficulties: 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. 50cc is extremely easy and 100cc is considered "Normal". While the earlier cups are easy to win, the later ones feature tougher courses and more aggressive AI. Naturally, you feel as if you are always targeted and being hit one way or another. Some of the tracks feel like your kart doesn't have enough grip making turns much wider and takes you a while to adjust.
The handling of the karts is great and the game is easy to pick up and play. There are a few tricks during racing to give you an advantage. Drifting around corners long enough will give you a boost to your speed when you release. Similarly, hopping right when you jump off the ramp will give you a speed boost when you land. There are a total of 17 characters to pick from and you're able to customize the body, wheel and glider components of your kart. These affect the stats of the kart.
In Balloon Battle, you are placed in an arena along with seven other players. You have three balloons attached to your kart and you pick up items in order to use them to burst other player's baloons. Unlike the DS version, once you lose all three of your balloons, you just respawn. You can steal other player's balloons though but the aim is just to pop as many balloons as possible for points. You're able to play against AI but it's nowhere near as fun. When playing alone, you can select the difficulty, the stages, certain categories of items and whether you are playing as a team of course or if it is all for one. There are six arenas to choose from, three are remakes of ones from previous games and three are brand new.
Lastly, there's Coin Battle. It is similar to Balloon Battle but instead, your aim is to collect as many coins as you can each round that are scattered across the arena. If you get hit by another player, you lose a bunch of coins. You play four rounds, each round you can clock in a maximum of 10 coins when the scores are calculated. It's slightly different to Balloon Battle yet still very similar. If there was a finite amount of coins in each arena instead of an infinitely respawning amount, then it would be a lot more intense and fun. In addition to single player, there is Online Play and Local Play (which includes the Download Play option). Playing with other players, particularly friends in the same room, is always the highlight of the Mario Kart series and it is no exception here.
If you are only play through the tracks and try out the other modes only once or twice, then yes, Mario Kart 7 is very short. You're able to see all the tracks in around three hours. However, the draw is winning all the tracks and getting familiar with them in order to then check out online to race against other players. Unlocking everything including the Mirror Mode would also take some time and a lot of luck. Overall, Mario Kart 7 is a fun kart racer, as you would expect from the series. The visuals, the music and the track designs are great. Everything else feels so intuitive and the game doesn't fluff around. While it doesn't add too many new things or reinvents anything, it is a lot of fun to pick up and play.
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