This was originally a reply to the topic, “Nearly two weeks in, what do you think?” however, it got to be a bit long, but for good reasons.

My experience:  Played through all previous Mario Kart games.  SMK stands to be the best IMO, and MK64 my favorite.  MK7 status... nine days of playing, completed all Grand Prix cups with *** ranks, just short of 3,500 coins, and have played quite a bit of online.  Touched on Time Trials, haven’t gotten to the Battle Modes yet.

This game is better than Mario Kart Wii.  That’s what matters.

To start with Grand Prix, I’d say it was far too easy to grab the gold trophies, and quite demanding to get *** ranks (especially for, yet again, not unlocking anything for it).  So, I feel the difficulty is unbalanced.  The AI is noticeably smarter in this game, but they cheat way too often, and make it incredibly obvious.  It’s atrocious.  When you hit 150cc, rubber banding is on maximum.  The programming of the AI needs an indefinite overhaul, because it’s just getting old.

Time Trials is just confusing.  Why are there coins in Time Trials??  I fail to understand that.  However, it’s terrific to see the system contact online ghost data right away when you select a course.  You can even race 7 ghosts at once!  That’s neat.  But... coins!?  Honestly, what were they thinking!?

Online multiplayer is where this game shines best.  It’s obvious that there was a push to focus mainly on getting a good roster of tracks and a solid online experience on the table before launch day.  Communities are a dream come true (for Nintendo’s standards).  As Kevin Booth will back me up, there are far too many disconnects, and the price you pay from them on your VR ranking is ludicrous.

With each positive about the game, a negative comes with...

A few accomplishments:

- Communities were a must-have addition!
- This game has some of the best tracks ever.  I’m pleased and surprised.
- Nice roster of characters.  Lakitu and Metal Mario are ideas I’ve had as unlockable characters since MK64.
- Item balance is significantly improved compared to MKWii.
- Kart customization was a very nice idea; adds strategy and personality to the game.
- The graphics are stunning!  The 3D effects aren’t even needed!
- The musical score hasn’t been this great since MK64!
- Controls are similar to MKWii, but are improved upon.  Karts drive nicely 90-95% of the time.
- Flying and swimming is great; been waiting for this in MK since DKR.

A few complications:

- The single player experience is noticeably stale.  Nintendo can’t just wash and rinse GP and TT, they must make some changes, and do something new for once.
- This roster of tracks had the potential to be the best in the MK series, but didn’t quite make it.  I really don’t understand why they included MKWii tracks in the Retro section.  They’re graphically worse and obviously dumbed down compared to their originals.  This is definitely different when you look at the other Retro tracks: vastly improved, making delicious comebacks.
- Wiggler and Honey Queen were downright lame character choices.
- The Blue Shell and Fire Flower are too powerful.
- The Star, and any items you receive in the middle of the pack, are under-powered.
- The Leaf is a good item, but WHY can’t you collect other items in the process of using it!?
- New/Unlockable kart parts aren’t good enough.  We need more karts with better handling.
- The outskirts of tracks look really bad sometimes, riddled with obvious 2D rendered paper-like objects.
- Some songs on certain tracks are forgettable, especially compared to others.
- Why does my kart steer / drift in the wrong direction on occasion?  This is small, and happens probably 3-5% of my racing time.  But when it does happen, I run into a wall or end up in the grass, and it hurts.

In the end, it’s a Mario Kart game.  It’s selling really well, and stands to be a must-have if you own a 3DS, and I agree.  Fans like me will notice the things that developers overlooked.  But at the end of the day, this is a better game than we, or other critics, give it credit for.  I don’t have a final score, or comparison chart with the other MKs on it.  On it’s own, it’s a good game.  Compared to the rest of the Mario Kart series, it’s a step in the right direction.

Actually I thought it was a lot harder to get 3 stars on a cup compared to mkwi.  Nosey ur also wrong about unlocking gold tires.  You just needed minimum 1 star on every cup.

MK7 mirror mode seems much harder than MKW or MKDS mirror mode imo.

Nosey wrote on 01/02/12 at 14:57:07:


I really doubt that.  But ur probably too egotistical to see through ur opinions as potential flawed.  They certainly aren't facts.  mkw was incredibly hard to even lose a race.  MK7 its really easy to lose in 150cc mode.  AI is much tougher.

Brent Dennison wrote on 01/02/12 at 14:35:41:


I'm just gonna rip these apart if you don't mind. Well, actually, it won't matter to me if you mind or don't, I'm doing it anyway  

1) While I agree Communities were a must-have, they did a horrific job with it. There was so much more they could have done and simply chose not to. If they're gonna add a feature like this, they should at least do it right. Nintendo has always taken the term baby steps to its utmost meaning.

2) I agree that some of the tracks are pretty creative. Some are plain boring though.

3) The character roster blows. Most will agree with this as I saw a lot of hatred to the roster before the game was released.

4) Not at all. I think the item balance is actually WORSE than MKW. You can get shrooms in 2nd through 8th. This literally means that you can't ever catch up if you don't have the power items. Whose idea was that?   Bullet looks stupidly slow this time. It's like having a mushroom. Yay   FIB is gone, and you can now effectively protect 1st place with every item you can get. Only shocks and blues will stop you. Speaking of Blues, they appear much more than they did in MKW. You can get Lucky 7 in 4th (possibly in 3rd in 7 player rooms?), making it stupidly broke. Fire Flower is STUPIDLY BROKEN. Triple Shells don't protect you anymore. The only plus is the Thundercloud is gone. But 1 + compared to 1947129364 -'s equates to failure.

5) All they did was add 2 new categories to MKDS's system. There's still hidden stats, which is bullshit.

6) I dunno about the graphics so I won't comment on them. I didn't think they were that amazing, but eh.

7) The only course I liked (that wasn't retro) was PPS.

8) Absolutely not. I think they drive fucking horrifically. It's why I couldn't TT seriously. I felt like they were complete garbage. They aren't similar to MKW's at all (minus MT timed boost). I think this one has the worst handling I have ever played of the MKs.

9) Except for the fact that having Tanooki Tail gives you a superb advantage in both. It's been found that spamming the tail in air/water is faster than normal driving. Let's give 1st place even more help b/c not being able to red shell them at all unless they suck wasn't enough.




To other point in the topic:
Easier to 3 star? Harder to 3 star? It was only harder to 3 star b/c you don't have access to the best stuff right away like you did in MKW. You have to pray to the RNG gods for some ungodly reason.

TellTale wrote on 01/02/12 at 16:12:09:

I can post wherever the fuck I want. This game is fucking shit. Trying to defend it is pointless. They moved forward in like 2 aspects of the game and dropped the ball big time everywhere else. You can't possibly say a game that has much more cons than pros to it is a good game.

Lmao I think MKW is a bad game but MK7 is ten times worse. The interactivity of MKW is what gave it staying power and the simple lack of friend rooms is a joke. Going from 12 to 8 players online is again backwards and the items, both in terms of how the ywork and how they're scaled, are HORRENDOUS. This game is trash, who knows when I'll pick it up again.


Edit: MK7 has given me a genuine distaste for Nintendo. A kind of nail in the coffin if you will... Unless some groundbreaking title comes out this year or the WiiU isn't another gimmick, I certainly won't be funding any more of their shit.

Edit2: Even Skyward Sword looks crap.

Edit3: This game is definitely not a step in the right direction. Two steps forward ten steps back.

Timothy wrote on 01/02/12 at 18:58:58:


I'm still confused to why you feel this way.  What is it exactly that makes MK7 a nail in the coffin of Nintendo's greatness?

For the bolded:

- How exactly is MK7 ten times worse than MKWii?
- How do you expect them to pull off 12 players on the track at once, on a device that is less powerful than the Wii, without having dropped frames (even MKWii had a lot of dropped frames), or disconnects?
- The items are horrendous how?  I have sufficient skill and can hold a lead.  If I run a little behind, I can catch up quickly if I get the right item.
- Are you still a kart fan?  How come MK7 is as bad as you say?

inviso87 wrote on 01/02/12 at 19:59:34:


My view on this is there probably wasn't enough space on the cart.  Or, it's a step forward for the handheld side of the series.  Think of it as 12 to 17, not 26 to 17.  I couldn't imagine having more than 26 characters for a little portable kart game like this, at least not yet.  Some reviewers complained about the downsized roster too.  I think 17 is a good fit... it's just a few characters are strange picks.

inviso87 wrote on 01/02/12 at 19:59:34:


Oh man, Thundercloud stands to be the worst item ever to make it into a MK, IMO, no matter how much you hate the Blue Shell.  Item balance is really hard to map out and make perfect, I've even tried it on a little spreadsheet.  Balance should land somewhere inbetween SMK and MK64, somehow including new items.  I believe they've made at least a little of an attempt, which is enough to say.  Especially since there will obviously be another kart game in 2-3 years anyway, so hopefully they find new ways to improve things.

TellTale wrote on 01/02/12 at 21:22:04:


Flashback!  This had me reflect on how we only had 8 characters back in the first three games.  Good ole simple days!

TellTale wrote on 01/02/12 at 21:22:04:


Boom.  Dead on.  

TellTale wrote on 01/02/12 at 21:22:04:


Great points.  I like how you put things so bluntly.