Overall 8.9 Graphics 10 Sound 9 Addictive 8.5 Depth 7.5 Difficulty 6.5
9.5
Best Mario Kart Yet - Mario Kart 7 Zircron Swift
Mario Kart was one of those rare racing games that added spice and quirkiness to racing games. Where racing games primarily had just normal cards on normal stretches of road on normal every day scenery (granted, some looked nice), Mario Kart of one of the few that said "Yeah, let's do something original", and threw in sections of the Mario world we both new and didn't knew existed (which was still based on the fundamental Mario world), some crazy weapons and loveable characters, and you have a racing that that wasn't challenged until Naughty Dog's Crash Team Racing and (although really made for Nintendo consoles) Rareware's Diddy Kong Racing. Unfortunately, since Microsoft brought Rareware they have created games that were nothing to their past achievements, and Naughty Dog has moved onto bigger and (debate-ably) better things, like Uncharted and very recently "Last of Us", yet Nintendo are doing the best they can to keep this series as fresh as ever, in the hopes it can continue onwards and survive.
Being part of the Mario franchise, it isn't very hard for it to achieve this, however Nintendo being Nintendo, they seem to be releasing the same gold even after all these years (yeah, let's not include the CDi stuff : P). Mario Kart 7 is just that, the 7th installment of the Mario Kart series, although two Mario Kart games have been released onto arcades before then, and it didn't count towards this particular number count. A third arcade Mario Kart has been released only in japan as well on the date of July 2013, following traits of this particular game, but I digress. This Mario Kart game has to be, in my eyes, the best, more well crafted game, in the series. Mario Kart DS was pretty good, and Mario Kart Wii was pretty good in my eyes, but this one blows everything away from every other Mario Kart game combined. Until a better one arrives, I dare say this is the best Mario Kart game we're going to get. But why would I say that?
Okay so since there isn't really a story (unless you want to use your imagination and make a bunch of stuff up, write some fanfiction, then make some fancy art that will shed tears into the hearts of many) I can dive straight in. First off the character
selection is compact, and limited. One of the things that overwhelmed me in the Wii version was I found there were too many characters, and then I had to pick a character and there were several that I felt were unnecessary (like the baby characters and Toads girlfriend and bluh, why?), but here it's really nice. The
selection is wide spread evenly over known characters and new ones, and even the new guys are unique instead of altered versions of each other.
You also get to customize your kart. Don't get too excited, it's not all that it's cracked up to be. You get to choose your kart, your wheels and your parachute thing (which 99% of the time are all the same stats, which is disappointing, but they are all nicely designed to counteract this). These allow you to control roughly if you want more acceleration, weight, ect, for what you want, and generally experiment until you get the right mix. At first you don't get many parts to play with and use, but the more coins you collect, the more parts you unlock and can use, instead of actually having to beat circuits like you used to, which means even if you fail, you can get a new item which might turn the tables in your favour. Oh yeah, coins...
In Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart: Super Circuit, coins were spewed all over the course. Collecting these coins would make your kart run faster, and also affect your finishing grade (I think). Here, the coins have the same effect, although I can hardly see an increase in overall speed when holding the maximum number of coins. You can hold 10 coins tops, and getting hit by an enemy item or falling off will cause you to loose coins. You keep these coins after every race, but you only get a new notification on a new item after every circuit, which seems a bit dumb, but also makes sense considering that you don't get to change kart until after the said circuit.
As with the previous two installments to the series, there are sets of circuits, one that is based off courses of the past, and one that has entirely new and unique tracks for the generation. However, the old retro tracks are not just copies and pasted onto the new game, they are redesigned to suit the quirks of this game. The said being basically flying or going under water (how they breathe is anyone's guess), which adds a nice touch to the vigor to racing and to the scenery. One thing I am very impressed with this is that going underwater causes no lag what so ever. Normally in a game you go underwater and it's frames drops all round, but here, it's a very smooth transaction, and it is surprisingly powerful. An interesting thing is that the fake question mark box is removed in this game, and I'm quite glad, because it was the one item I felt was completely useless to trained players, and even new players at that. Please, however, give a minute of silence to the deceases (Means no reading for a minute)
Ah, you will be missed. Carrying on, all the tracks are refreshing, with a great scenery and setting. There are some effects like when petals flow past the screen around you go past cheery trees, and the 3D effect makes it so much better. A lot of attention to detail went into this, which is always a pleasure to say. I was very pleased to see Waluigi's Pinball Machine making a comeback. The music was also pretty good, matching pretty much all the previous games. The retro tracks got a remastered mix, which didn't fall too far off today's standards. The music itself does a good job of matching the environment and settings to create a more cultured feel to the race. The difficulty also isn't too hard, it's much easier getting triple stars and winning cups here than it was before, but still bites back.
Finally, there's online game play, where you can list your time trail ghosts and face people online. The more points you get from winning races, the more opponents you face with that said level, upping the challenge for constant competition. A nice feature is that they set you up in a time trail chart, showing how you fair against most people around the world, and choice to face up to 7 other people just slightly better than you, in an attempt to win and improve your time. That's a really nice feature and adds either a goal or satisfaction to your agenda. Finally, what I find very impressive, on bar with Kid Icarus: Uprising, is that you can also do online battle mode. No streetpass, (which is also a feature when you can bump into someone with this game, and you exchange AI racers of you, which don't match the skill of the actual player, on well, you tried) just pure players battling out against each other in unique arenas. There are some arenas from the past also revamped, but there are some great new ones, which is nice. The best thing about this is that balloon battle keeps you in the game even after you lost them all. Litterally, all balloons are back. It was cool in the N64 version when you became a bob-omb when you lost all your balloons and had the chance to cause chaos to players still in the game, and it was a nice gesture when you turned into a ghost in the DS version and could help anyone with spontaneously appearing boxes, but here, it's now a point system, not a battle to survive. This keeps the competition constantly hot and fierce with 8 players on the field at once, all the time.
Overall, I give this game a 9.5/10?????? This all adds together to be a really interesting and fun game. With the DS and Wii version, I can see the flaws and how it overall clocks up. It's good, but there's something missing. Mario Kart 7 not only shows the past of the series how to do it, but also does a little hand stand juggling balls. It does have the odd flaw, like how Koopa City is exceptionally boring and uneventful and easy, and it's like one or the worst tracks in the Mario Kart series, yes, but compared to everything else, it is very well balanced, refined and compact, yet still has a lot of variety and fun to be playing (Plus Toad for once ISN'T that player that obnoxiously goof player that messes up you game! ....it's Metal Mario here :c (but only in online play)), even after a couple of years since its release. It's a racing game worth playing if you're into weird and wonderful set ups such as these.
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 11-21-13
Updated: 11-22-13
Review Replies: 3
9.5
Mario Kart 7 SacredShadow
Today I will be reviewing Mario Kart 7 for the 3ds! This is part of an awesome classic Nintendo franchise that has changed over the years. I will say that even if you are new to playing mario kart games, you can still jump right in and be satisfied. Nonetheless, I think this is no exception, and this game is a worthy addition to your 3ds game collection. Now on to the review!
Before I dive right into the review itself, I figured we should just cover the rather simple gameplay that this game offers, let’s get to it shall we? This game is similar to Mario kart in many ways, with the modes, from the actual gameplay itself, as far as drifting goes it is exactly the same, but instead of using a wii wheel, you use the 3ds and press and hold either the L or R button depending on the direction you are drifting to get a blue, or orange spark, and no unfortunately there is no automatic option like before, rather it will automatically drift for you, if there is a large turn, but you won’t receive the blue or orange sparks this way. Once you get used to it though, it is pretty easy to handle and get the hang of, it just takes a little practice. And as for actual modes, this game has basically the same grand prix, time trial, and balloon/coin battle options, with a few minor tweaks and changes here and there, but nonetheless, it is mostly the same, except you can race other player’s ghost data via streetpass, and you can also race against other players either worldwide, with friends, or you can even join a community, and race against other people there after you connect to the internet. So for the most part, the mechanics are very similar to Mario kart wii, with the exception of a few minor changes here and there. But you’ll get used to it the more you play it. Graphically this game is amazing, and each track has its own distinct environment, from a twisty city road setting, to the jungle or an icy tundra, each track is unique and graphically superb in its own way. There are a total of 32 awesome tracks that you can enjoy, some of which appear from mario kart wii, and also other prior mario kart games. Aside from that, you can also enjoy the 3d feature provided by the 3ds which looks really good, but I don't use it a whole lot because after a while it just gives me a headache and hurts my eyes. Despite that, the graphics of this game are quite amazing and they really push the limits of the Nintendo 3ds which is why I scored them a 10. As far as sound goes, the sounds in this game are pretty good, whenever you throw an item, like a blue shell for example, you hear a whizzing/whooshing sound, as well as sounds from other particular items. Whenever you bump into something or crash into another racer, it sounds realistic and lifelike. The sounds that each character makes is pretty accurate as well, even though they really don't say a lot unless they get hit or fall off the track, the audio for each character is pretty spot on. Music wise, this game is great, and all of the music for this game only enhances it and makes it better in my opinion, the music for each track is just amazing, and the quality is great as well, when racing in DK's jungle for example, the music is quite familiar and catchy and it makes the game that much more fun to play. Overall the sound and music of the game are very good, and they will definitely add on to the game's experience, thus I scored it a 9. This game is quite addictive mainly because of how much it offers, and also the amount of quality put into everything it offers. This is one of those games you'll be playing for a long time, there are plenty of courses and characters and also vehicle accessories from wheels, to karts,and gliders and other parts for your kart for you to unlock and keep you busy. You can also race against ghosts which is really fun, you can play online which runs quite smoothly, or you can join a community and race with other people in that community. As far as addictiveness goes, this game is pretty fun and you can play it over and over again and it doesn’t get boring because of all the stuff you can do and unlock, thus I scored it a 9. As far as a story goes, this game doesn't have a story and I think it is best left that way because it is a racing game, and if there was a story involved, it would make the game weird and complicated and it would just get in the way and the game wouldn't be the same if there was one, therefore I can't score this category. Depth: 8
This game does offer a good amount of depth and there is quite a bit to do actually, you can unlock new courses and also new characters by racing and also collecting coins that are in the courses as well, you can also get accessories for your cart, like different tires and gliders, as well as different kart designs that will vary in speed, acceleration, off road, and weight, etc and you can mix and match them up to your liking until you get a kart that best suits you, or has a balance of all the stats. You can also unlock new parts just by collecting coins while racing in the game, which I think is cool because you don’t always have to come in 1st place or get a star ranking to unlock karts like you used to for Mario kart wii. This game also offers a few different modes to play in as well, from your basic grand prix in which you race 4 different tracks and depending on the amount of points you earn, you will get either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place, or you may not even get a trophy at all. There is also a time trial mode in which you can race ghost data and get a faster time, and you can also enjoy the online and multiplayer mode which both run pretty smoothly and they are similar to Mario kart wii, except you don’t get disconnected all the time for no reason, and you can enjoy playing against other ghosts thanks to receiving their spotpass data. Overall, the game does provide a fair amount of challenge and depth to it and there are a variety of modes that you can enjoy and play to your heart’s content, therefore, it gets an 8 for depth. Difficulty: 5
To be quite honest, this game really isn’t all that difficult, if you are a Mario kart wii player and you are used to holding the wii wheel, this might take some time to get used to playing on the 3ds, but aside from that, you still drift the same way that you would in Mario kart wii. Sometimes it will feel weird and you might completely drift in the wrong direction or crash into a wall or something, if that is the case, the I would recommend that you switch up your vehicle a bit, and get one with better handling or off-road and see if that helps, otherwise, you should probably check the sensitivity of your 3ds. For the most part, you don’t have to be a Mario kart expert with years of experience to pick up this game, anyone can pick it up and play it, and if you are a beginner, then I would probably race 50cc and then work up to 100cc, 150cc and so on, but you don’t have to. Overall, this game isn’t that difficult and anyone can play it and enjoy it, which is why I scored it a 5.
I would definitely recommend getting this game if you are a Mario kart fan, or you enjoy racing because this game is a worthy addition to your collection of 3ds games and it really lives up to the Mario kart standards, and it really pushed the limits of the 3ds! This game is a lot of fun and it has a lot to offer and I enjoy every minute of playing it, and I hope you do as well, this is definitely worth buying! So what did you think of my review, all comments and constructive feedback are greatly appreciated to help me become a better reviewer, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Graphics 10 Sound 9 Addictive 9 Depth 8 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 04-25-14
Updated: 04-25-14
Review Replies: 2
8.7
Mario Kart 777777777 Lexatom
Mario Kart 7 was released for the Nintendo 3DS on December 4, 2011. Right around the time the 3DS itself was released. The last Mario Kart game to come out was Mario Kart Wii for the...do I really need to say what system it's for? Many people regarded this Mario Kart as the best in the series until Mario Kart 8 was released. Sadly, I have never played Mario Kart 8, so Mario Kart 7 is still my favorite in the series. Why? Read and find out, it's a review after all.
Graphics - 10/10
The graphics in this game are honestly some of the best graphics I've seen on the 3DS. Other than the detailed tracks and background, you can drive in first person mode and use the built in gyroscope to drive, kind of like Mario Kart Wii with the Wii Remote. I don't really use it that much, but it is fun to feel like you're in the driver's seat sometimes. The 3D affect didn't really do that much for me, but that can be excused. With the addition of driving underwater and soaring through the sky, graphics in those sections of the game get a huge upgrade as well.
Sound - 9/10
I mean, it's a Mario Kart game. It's not really known for it's music, but it still gets the job done. Mario Kart 7 adds new music for the new tracks in the game, but it also brings back tracks from past games, which means there are plenty of awesome remixes included. The actual sounds of the game are just as good as the past Mario Kart games, if not better. I don't know, there's just something about the sounds in this Mario Kart title that I like more than the other ones.
Addictiveness - 8/10
If you're like me, you may have played a lot already. I mean, it's Mario Kart. It's going to be addicting. If you're also like me, you know that this game can really tick you off. Like, a lot. And because it ticks me off, I sometimes tend to stay away from the game for a certain amount of time before I come back to it. I actually do this with a lot of games, but Mario Kart especially.
Story - N/A
It's a Mario Kart game, silly. There is no story.
Depth - 7
This may just be me, but I kind of feel like Mario Kart DS had more depth to it than this title did. With the addition of missions to Mario Kart DS, it made it much more enjoyable for me. I have no idea why they took them out in Mario Kart Wii, but whatever. But hey, at least the online play is really good this time around. Mario Kart Wii's online play was kind of..uh...slow. I haven't had any problems with the online play with Mario Kart 7, but you can only get so much of it until you get tired of playing. There's not really anything else to do once you unlock all the characters, kart customization options, and tracks. It doesn't really take that long to do, either.
Difficulty - 8/10
When you look at the rating for the Difficulty section, you may be thinking, "What? A Mario Kart game is difficult?" But I assure you, it can be very difficult depending on the mode you choose. I cannot tell you how many times I was in the lead in 150cc, before a stupid blue shell knocks me back to 5th place. It almost seems unfair, and to be honest, I think it kind of is. That could just be the way I see it, I don't know. But I know I'm not alone when I say blue shells are very annoying.
Overall - 8.7/10
Don't get me wrong, Mario Kart 7 is still a fun game, but it could have been so much better if they didn't take out a lot of the things that made past Mario Kart games amazing. They took out a BUNCH of characters from Mario Kart Wii, they still don't have anything like they did with the Missions in Mario Kart DS. But, a lot of this stuff can be excused for the stuff that they added. This stuff includes kart customization, driving underwater, soaring through the sky. I still think Mario Kart 7 could have been a much better game than what it was. Make sure to tell me how you all feel about Mario Kart 7. Thanks for reading this review!
Graphics 10 Sound 9 Addictive 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 07-04-16
Review Replies: 2
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