Hello readers of the Shroom. New Super Mario here, writing for the Review Corner section. Lots of 3DS games have been released lately, so I thought I would review one of my personal favorites, Mario Kart 7.
Gameplay
- The gameplay for Mario Kart 7 isn’t perfect, but there are a lot of great features that make the game lots of fun. In Single Player Mode, you can race in Grand Prixs, Time Trials, or Battles. It is kind of a bummer that there is no single player versus, cause if you hate half of the courses in a cup but love the other two, you will be forced to do the whole thing, instead of just select the ones you want. I’ve had this frustration in the Star Cup, where I love Piranha Plant Slide, but hate Wario Shipyard and Neo Bowser City. However, even though this is a downfall, the racing style is perfected.
- The customizing kart feature lets you take your own unique style, whether it’s high speed, or high off-road, you’ll find the right combination for you. Paragliding and underwater driving have been added in for even more thrill. I feel Paragliding was perfected, and it’s so fun to fly over Shy Guy Bazaar or Maka Wuhu to name a few. It adds additional strategy and skill to the game. I fell Underwater was…. OK. I don’t know, I just think they could have made it better, and feel it’s not very different from racing.
- The tracks in this game were great! Shy Guy Bazaar, Music Park, Piranha Plant Slide, and DK Jungle are some of my favorite new ones. However, not all can be as great as these, such as Wuhu Loop and Neo Bowser City. With new tracks comes the retuning tracks, and I think they couldn’t have chosen a better selection. All of the retro courses are perfect, and I wouldn’t change the selection one bit.
- This is great fun, but the real action is in Local Multiplayer or Online Play. After playing Local with my sister and brother, I love it! I like that each player can suggest a course, instead of the host picking all the time, like in MKDS. In Local you can do V.S this time, which makes it another reason to get a friend to play along with you. As for Online Play, it is very fun. It is similar to MKWii’s online but now with new communities. I fell these are a great feature. They allow you to set up a community with different rules. I set up one so my cousin and I can play when we aren’t with each other for local play.
- Starting from the original Super Mario Kart, Battle returns in this game. Coin Battle, I find ok, but I never cared for it, but it hasn’t changed much from MKWii. Balloon Battle in this game I think is the best Balloon Battle in any of the games. I like how you aren’t on a team and are solo, unlike Mario Kart Wii. I could play Balloon Battle for hours on MK7, unlike MKWii where I would get bored within the first couple.
- The last thing I want to talk about are the Characters. I feel that MK7’s roster is good, but I don’t care for any of the newcomers except Wiggler. I am glad that Shy Guy and Rosalina returned, and all the other classic characters are good. But one thing that bugs me is that there are so many other great newcomer choices and yet they choose Queen Bee and Metal Mario. These are the two I REALLY hate. Queen Bee I thought wouldn’t be that bad, but she is so annoying in the game and talks as if she’s about to shake to death. Metal Mario is just uncreative and feels like a copy of Mario. Queen Bee could have been replaced with a better large character choice, such as Lubba, and Metal Mario could have been replaced with someone like Dixie Kong. Plenty of other choices to name. Lakitu I like, I just don’t like him enough to ever be him. Wiggler is one of my favorites, and I think he’s fun to be. Also Mii, I think could’ve been left out for a spot for an actual Mario character, like Waluigi, Diddy, Toadette, Petey, or King Boo.
- To conclude, MK7 is overall a great game.
Good Features: Balloon Battle’s improvement, Online and Local play, Paragliding, and Kart Customization.
Bad Features: No Single Player V.S, Character newcomer choices.
NSM’s Rating: 9/10
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