![]() ![]() Usually, the 10-coin speed boost can make a huge difference in racing efficiency over the course of a race. Coins are sometimes used as guidelines-such as being strung along a curve in a way that executing the optimal drifting technique will allow the player to grab them all-or put in out-of-the-way locations along the track, to give players the choice between maximizing forward momentum, or taking the time to grab some extra coins. Players can only collect up to 10 coins per race, but are given a permanent speed boost for as long as their 10-coin maximum is maintained. Players can unlock kart customization options by collecting coins during a race, a feature that has been absent from the series since Mario Kart: Super Circuit. The other characters and kart customization options must be gradually unlocked by completing certain in-game tasks some are more challenging than others. Upon starting up a fresh game of Mario Kart 7, only 3 kart options, 3 wheels options, and 1 glider option are available to the player. Players don't start out with such a plethora of options, however. This, more than anything else, is what sets Mario Kart 7 apart from every other game in the series. When setting up the cart, the top screen shows the chosen options.īetween the 17 playable characters (5 categories of weight class), 17 different kart bodies, 10 different wheel sets, and 7 different glider types, there are 20,230 possible unique outcomes to fill the 8 kart spots available for a given race. For the first time, Mario Kart is truly rewarding the process of thought, allowing players to customize karts to optimize speed, or handling, or weight, to cater to a specific track within a grand prix, or to best suit a player's racing style. That's not to say that banana peels, green shells, and bob-ombs can't be used strategically, but rather that players who just want to pick up and play, and players who want to fine-tune their racing style through the use of different kart bodies, wheels, and gliders, are given equal chance to do so. Mario Kart has often been simultaneously praised and criticized for catering to players of all experience levels and racing prowess by giving very low-powered items to the players in 1st and 2nd place, and scaling items by their usefulness (magnitude of effect on the race) back through the ranks, so that if you're lagging in 7th or 8th place, you'll be getting the most powerful items available to help you catch up and turn the tables.īut what's best about Mario Kart 7 is not what's been carried over from the previous games in the series, but what's been added to counteract and balance out the random, luck-based use of items: kart customization. The classic elements of the series-3 lap races, success-based item allocation, and risk/reward based shortcuts-are all still in full force. If you've played any of the Mario Kart games before, you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Mario Kart 7. But more importantly, it puts the series' best foot forward while stepping into the 20-year mark, making it perfectly clear that the Mario Kart series' gold-coin standard has not, yet, decreased in value, innovation, or fun. We're not saying the series has nowhere to go in terms of improvement, but Mario Kart 7 is so well crafted that we think it's a shame the game is only available on the Nintendo 3DS, and is like to be a staple of Nintendo's newest handheld for a number of years. It's natural to hope for a steady, zen-like perfection when dealing with repeated games in a series: continuously improving a formula, removing impurities, until the utmost efficiency is achieved. In our opinion, Nintendo and Retro Studios appear to have spent a good deal of time analyzing both what was right and what was wrong-in terms of gameplay and replayability-about the previous titles, and have made alterations accordingly. But as both an addition to the series and as a standalone title, Mario Kart 7 succeeds in places where the previous games have faltered (yes, even the infallible Super Mario Kart). If you've simply grown tired of Mario's new-blue overalls and incessantly cheery cries of victory over the years, there's not much that can be done-nobody's going to take the "Mario" out of Mario Kart. Mario Kart 7, like the previous games in the series, brings elements both old and new to the racing circuit. ![]() While fans and critics have routinely lambasted the series for its considerable use of content from previous games and its refusal to alter the "original formula," there appears to be good reason why Mario Kart has remained a flagship Nintendo series for 20 years now. Clearly, Nintendo and their developers-Namco, and later, Retro Studios-tapped into something irrefutably fun and accessible with Super Mario Kart's initial formula. ![]()
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