Because as of now, it seems you haven’t had any e-mails about the game, and I guess I’d like to comment now I’ve beaten the game about 100%. So, here are my thoughts on the game, mainly how they relate to your criticisms of it.
Gliding/Underwater Sections
They technically work fine, and are mostly optional outside the few tracks based around the gimmicks. There’s nothing particularly stupid about them, and aside from a few courses (such as Shy Guy Bazaar, Wuhu Mountain Loop and Rainbow Road for the glider, Wario’s Galleon/Cheep Cheep Cape/Bowser’s Castle for the underwater mechanics), there’s absolutely nothing forcing you to use them.
Not that flying is particularly new in kart racing games, Diddy Kong Racing had it play a far bigger role back in the Nintendo 64 days, and Banjo Pilot was (sort of unfortunately, considering it was a mediocre GBA game using mode 7) based entirely around flight.
However, if there’s any one flaw with these mechanics, it’s that they really don’t work too well with the items in the game. Red Shells especially, since they can, depending on what angle you’re gliding at still hit you even if you’re holding an item.
Options
As mediocre as you think they are unfortunately. Yes you can make communities with limited item sets, but no, you can’t disable specific items. Worse still, there’s also a complete lack of any single player vs or quick race mode, no leaderboards and neither a mission mode nor tournaments. This means anyone who wants to play this game without going online or playing vs with friends has practically nothing to hold their interest.
Still, it’s good in many respects (you can choose to race against other people you know online, even if they’re playing world wide), and the fact communities exist at all is an improvement.
Content
It’s better than Mario Kart Double Dash and Wii content wise, and on par with the DS game. You’ll at least be happy to know the tracks in this game are indeed enough like the Mario platformers and spinoffs to be not be overly generic, and that they arguably do expand the Mario series universe. Shy Guy Bazaar seems to be a homage to Super Mario Bros 2/Doki Doki Panic, with some hints of Wario Land 4’s Arabian Night, Piranha Plant Pipeway is part Super Mario Bros 1 reference, part Super Mario 3D Land reference, and many other tracks are similar. Wario Galleon apparently remixes Wario Land 1 music, DK Jungle is Donkey Kong Country Returns themed down to being designed by Retro Studios and the returning tracks include Airship Fortress, Luigi’s Mansion, Waluigi Pinball, Maple Treeway and SNES Rainbow Road.
The tracks themselves are also by and large interesting to race on, not being as boxed in by invisible walls as the terrible designs from Double Dash, nor as ridiculously long as some of those from Mario Kart 64.
There are a few problems (two Wuhu Island themed tracks for no particular reason, DK Pass returns and battle mode’s arenas are terrible), but generally the content of the game is decent and the tracks themselves are fun to play.
Other
Items are better (the Tanooki Tail and Fire Flower are fairly decent items, and do arguably fit the Mario Kart series quite well), although the Blue Shell is worse than it’s ever been (now going along the ground, then exploding when it reaches first place) and less common due to only having 8 players. However, it seems item balance itself doesn’t seem to be held in high regard at Nintendo, I’ve seen cases of people getting triple red shells in second or third place, leaving the unfortunate players in front with only a very slim chance of being able to actually do anything to stop themselves being hit.
The online system and VR is improved, you don’t lose as many points for coming last or in a bad position at the end of the race, hence you can’t lose half your points in a day or two due to random friends and strangers deciding to play online on the same console.
Nintendo stupidly locks away two interesting things and makes you only able to use them with StreetPass, namely custom Grand Prixs and the Golden Glider. This is even worse for the latter seeing as it requires you to StreetPass with over a hundred people who own Mario Kart 7, which is likely just about impossible in many parts of the world. And the former only being available to people you StreetPass with is pretty stupid too, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be allowed to just race on a custom GP you made yourself, or be able to share it with people on your 3DS friends list or something.
Kart customisation isn’t too bad, it’s pretty much the same as choosing a kart in Mario Kart Double Dash/DS/Wii, and in fact there are probably less designs in Mario Kart 7 despite it.
There’s a really, really broken glitch on Wuhu Mountain Loop which lets you skip a third of the track and gets used near constantly online, yet Nintendo says they won’t fix it in case it ‘disadvantages people who could use the glitch beforehand in time trials/whatever’. In their own words:
‘We are aware that it is possible to navigate a certain part of the track in Wuhu Island in a way that allows a large part of the course to be bypassed. There are no plans to update the game to remove this shortcut as doing so would create an unfair advantage for the users of the original release of the game. ‘
GP mode is actually a lot better in some regards, you can now only get star ranks and getting three stars is much easier. Nice for those who felt getting bad ranks due to the AI getting good items was ridiculous.
So yes, those are my thoughts on Mario Kart 7, coming from someone who’s beaten it near enough completely.
Excluding PC gaming, I’ve become a Non-Gamer. Unless one of the major console companies change their current ways, the Wii will be my last video game console.
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