The seventh entry in Nintendo's venerable, system selling kart racer series is a week away from release, and the reviews have started to trickle in. The impressions are expectedly positive, but you might be surprised at some things the reviews said...
Famitsu: 37/40 (10, 9, 9, 9)
CVG: 9.4/10
Eurogamer: 8/10
The Guardian: 4/5
Official Nintendo Magazine: 9.3/10
3DJuegos: 9.4/10
XGN: 9/10
IGN: 9/10
Destructoid: 5/10
Metro Game Central
1Up
More reviews will be added as they come in.
Famitsu: 37/40 (10, 9, 9, 9)
said:The game's made so you're always able to stage a comeback, making it approachable and enjoyable for anyone. Competing for time [in the time trial mode] is also exciting, and there's more than enough room for hardcore play here. The Community feature makes netplay a lot more accessible than before, and finding opponents via Street Pass is also impressive. It's really exciting to think how the community's going to unfold.
There are a lot of changes here, but play it and it's definitely still Mario Kart. That goes to show how complete a game it's become. It's accessible enough that even new players can enjoy it, and when you get into it, you really get into it.
CVG: 9.4/10
said:This time, Nintendo's mechanics managed to balance everything perfectly. Let us introduce you to Mario Kart 7, your new favourite Mario Kart.
Mario Kart 7 is the best in the series so far, and it carries itself like it is too. Throughout, there is a sense of triumphant, exhilarating culmination that rings out loud like the doom-siren of an incoming red shell. It's no longer enough for Mario Circuit to skirt round the edges of Peach's castle - now, the drawbridge is lowered and the track leads directly onto the royal red carpet, leading you through the main hallway before spitting you out high above the Mushroom Kingdom. Conversely Bowser's Castle opens its portcullis outwards, so you can screech around the hideous smelting factory that passes for a moat in the King Koopa's neighbourhood.
There's one other major difference that distances Mario Kart 7 from Mario Kart Wii - the items themselves. Almost all the goodies introduced by MK Wii have been discarded - so its farewell to the Raincloud, Mega Mushroom, POW Block and other gimmicky items which although fun, were introduced primarily to keep everyone at level pegging. In their place, a range of tactical options which Nintendo won't be able to dispose of so easily. These are the best additions to the arsenal since the original cast of bananas and mushrooms were formed.
[Mario Kart 7 is] as complete a racing game as you could hope to play. All that's good about the previous Karts, distilled and mixed with a trillion ideas of its own. Excellent.
Eurogamer: 8/10
said:The 3D is a treat, benefiting from the technology's more comfortable application in games that travel into the screen rather than across it. Likewise, Mario Kart 7 is a handheld technical marvel, going toe-to-toe with the Wii title for graphical vibrancy, texture and detail.
Above all, there's a constant focus on the series' fundamental strengths: narrower courses and a lower number of on-track competitors place renewed importance on precision racing. Meanwhile, the glider, rebalanced power-ups and exuberant new tracks filled with short cuts and secrets ensure that the light-hearted side to the series is maintained. The additions that are here may look significant, but in reality they are sympathetic, while the subtractions from recent games move the game back to its glory days.
"The core of Mario Kart is pretty solid at this point and I think it's safe to have it evolve in a pretty staid and traditional manner," Miyamoto said recently. Mario Kart 7 reflects that, in its title and in its design: it's robust, but it lacks some creative effort on Nintendo's part. Newcomers will love it, while series stalwarts will find its novelties welcome, if largely inconsequential. But it's nevertheless one of the stronger entries in the series, balancing the orthodox precision of the original with the playful silliness of the more recent iterations more successfully than ever.
The Guardian: 4/5
said:Mario Kart 7 is MK at its charming, maddening, friendship-destroying best. It gets the balance of competition and cuteness just right: after the slightly soft racing of the Wii version, this is very close to the still-insanely-playable Mario Kart 64.
Everything you want from Mario Kart is here, from Lakitu's chequered flag to the victory parade, plus a few smart additions.
Multiplayer matches (both online and local) can be customised to exclude certain weapons – brilliant for when you get tired of the hateful blue shell bringing a last-second upset, or if you need protecting from your own haphazard use of greens.
And if you can't get anybody to buddy up with you, it's good to know that the rubberbanding AI is properly gone. No more will Bowser mysteriously sweep up on your inside after you dumped him in a canyon two laps back.
Official Nintendo Magazine: 9.3/10
said:Mario Kart 7 is more than a video game with sky-high production values, a finely tuned gameplay engine and superior track design. It is the platform upon which Nintendo's flagship racer will be enjoyed for the foreseeable future.
And it's never been better. Miyamoto himself has suggested that the Mario Kart formula is so beautifully executed that this seventh game needn't be a huge reinvention. And it isn't.
Cynics might say that the sensible additions like Kart customisation, glider sections and enhanced online options mingle with just as many less successful extras (The underwater sections and the first person view can't really be considered series high points) to make this a little too familiar. We'd beg to differ.
This is no re-hash, more an exhilarating re-affirmation of what makes this series great. The beautifully intuitive racing and sense of fun infused into every pixel and polygon of Mario Kart 7's 32 tracks is pure Nintendo magic, and it's a game that will resonate across all gaming generations.
It's not just craggy old Mario Kart veterans like us who will find something to love here, it's everyone. A best-ever entry to the series and the third must-own title to be released in as many weeks.
3DJuegos: 9.4/10
said:Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a video game so fun portable, virtually unlimited, which is this time not only sponsored by the talented hands of the Kyoto internal studies (in particular, the Software Development Group No.1, directed by Hideki Konno) but also by Retro Studios , who are responsible for having designing much of the game.
Mario Kart 7 is the "7" that Nintendo 3DS deserves, and the one it needs, with extreme replayable value and the funniest and craziest races that will keep you hooked for days at end. If you wanted a game that justifies your 3DS purchase, this is the one you were looking for. Just like Mario Kart DS before it, this is truly a timeless game that we would recommend.
XGN: 9/10
said:The number 7 brings true happiness. Mario Kart 7 is a great improvement on Mario Kart Wii and may in fact even be the best game in the series so far. True to the series' tradition, it plays like a dream again, and is perhaps the best 3DS game to date. That even the addition of the paragliders, propellers and the extensive online mode, which might in any other game seemed like a haphazard half hearted collection of disparate features, all worked out surprisingly well and came together in such a cohesive whole, is a testament to anything but rushed product. Despite the slightly disappointing character selection, Mario Kart 7 offers top-notch fun. The best Mario Kart game ever made seems to have been saved for the 3DS.
IGN: 9/10
said:Mario Kart 7 marks yet another return to Nintendo’s kart-racing franchise. Though the character roster should have been larger, and a cheap blue shell can still screw up an otherwise perfect race, MK7 still offers enough innovation to keep this old formula feeling fresh. With memorable new tracks, well implemented gyro controls, the triumphant return of coins and a handful of new modes, Mario Kart 7 is full of win. The game also marks a huge leap forward for Nintendo’s approach to online multiplayer, providing an experience that surpasses any of the company’s other games to date. Overall it’s a well-polished experience that fans of the kart-racing genre - or of the Mushroom Kingdom - should not hesitate to pick up.
Destructoid: 5/10
said:At this point, it's customary with a Nintendo game to mention how that's not a bad thing, to highlight how nothing was broken and didn't need fixing. In Mario Kart 7, however, I don't think that's appropriate. For once, sticking to tradition has not worked in Nintendo's favor.
Mario Kart 7 is as derivative as a game can get, and while we pour scorn on so many other games for rehashing themselves, something tells me this will get a free pass from many critics and gamers. That strikes me as ironic since Mario Kart 7 is the one game I'd hold up as the least deserving of any kind of leniency. It being an unadventurous and predictable retread, however, is only half of Mario Kart 7's problem. The other half is the fact that it's a lethargic and mundane game, easily outpaced by games that could be considered knock-offs of the formula Nintendo itself perfected.
Mario Kart is in need of a severe shake up. This stagnant, crawling, and indolent effort is not it.
Metro Game Central
said:But this is as radical a shake-up as the series has ever seen, with the ability to customise your kart with different parts and drive underwater or fly with an automatically deploying hang-glider. At first the James Bond-inspired gadgets seem like mere gimmicks but their real worth is in exploiting each course's many hidden shortcuts.
In short, this is probably the best Mario Kart ever seen, with a careful balance of the new and familiar and the most complete online service ever from Nintendo.
1Up
said:To date, every Mario Kart game has offered something to call its own, whether that's polygonal racetracks (Mario Kart 64), cooperative play (Double Dash!!), or online multiplayer (Mario Kart DS). MK7 has very little that's genuinely new, and certainly nothing that'll show up in future titles. As a back-to-the-basics sequel, it's passable... but honestly, I can play Mario Kart DS on my 3DS, and it's just as good (if not quite as pretty). Actually, MKDS has fewer of the really annoying power-ups, so it's arguably better.
Mario Kart 7 isn't as good as I had hoped, but it's better than I had feared. That's no bad thing at all. Still, I look to Nintendo for "great," not merely "not bad."
... Like its unoriginal title (MK7?!), this iteration on Mario Kart is paying tribute to the series in name only and doesn't go much farther than that. Sure, it a better-looking sequel, but I expect more from Mario Kart and Nintendo...
... As I think more and more about the decent stuff balanced by the odd subtractions, I find myself feeling the same way with MK7 as I do with Assassin's Creed Revelations. To go along with Jeremy's comment earlier: Each installment introduced substantial changes. This time, the changes are a scattering of smaller ones. Track layout tweaks, customization quirks, 3D effects, first-person karting, and a power-up that adds to the general level of kart chaos by letting one player unleash seven items. MK7 isn't a kart game with a defining voice -- it's just a solid little kart game with a bunch of little tweaks.
More reviews will be added as they come in.
