Mario Kart 3DS Discussion Thread

[Hyruleansoldier]

Read the hands on article.

Also: MK 7 gets released in Europea & the Americas in December, before the Christmas holidays.  Meh, I had hoped it would have been BEFORE Skyward Sword.  Now I won't be so eager to pick it up (unless I've completely beaten SS).

[hisak]

Metal Mario and Lakitu are playable. This changes everything.

EDIT: Here's a trailer released after the conference. I don't see MM or Lakitu anywhere, but it does show off a new gyro-controlled first-person mode.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUXuT7RyyaE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUXuT7RyyaE</a>

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

So, how many people caught the leaf briefly flash past in the item box in hisak's trailer above? I know I didn't until I watched it again (top left corner, around the 10 second mark. Blink and miss it). And ONM have the first screens of a Tanooki-power-upped kart.



The tanooki tail will basically do what you've been doing for the last decade, providing a useful rear bumper (a la shells or bananas) but also batter opponents with its merry swishing action.

I'm still more psyched for the fire flower, but this is nice too.

[hisak]

I love the look of it, but is it more than just a less-powerful Star item?

Everything about this screenshot is fantastic:

[hisak]

Some new information revealed in the past week.

You can now set up online "communities" with custom rules. There are 12 returning characters (I'm not sure if Shy Guy is included in this tally). Four modes in the game: Grand Prix, Time Attack, Balloon Battle, and Coin Battle. Sadly it looks like Mission Mode won't be coming back. Blue shells travel along the ground like they did in Mario Kart 64, but when they approach the first-place driver they fly up and explode from above like in other Mario Kart games.

Here's a new trailer, which might be our first look at Lakitu as a driver:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHbbGJN6KFY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHbbGJN6KFY</a>

[Hyruleansoldier]

Sweet. I like the look of the new tracks.  And some of the retro ones - MK DS had some of the most imaginative ones.  And it had missions

Shy Guy and Lakitu, great.  I actually own small figurines of them

[hisak]

Two more new characters have been revealed, which I assume are the last characters in the roster (so let's keep them behind spoiler tags).

(click to show/hide)

Wiggler and Honey Queen (the queen bee from the Mario Galaxy games).

They're really odd choices.

[Rew]

I like that Nintendo is going with odd, quirky, and unusual characters, though. It gets boring if it's the same roster every game.

Now those are all the starter characters, right? The unlockables haven't been revealed yet, I hope?

[hisak]

Everybody we've seen makes sixteen characters (not including Miis). I assume that includes unlockables as well as initial characters.

But if that's the case it means Waluigi isn't in the game, which is strange.

[Hyruleansoldier]

Waluigi needs his own game to boost his popularity.  He was actually a fairy good racer in MK Wii.

I like the new (unlockable) characters.  Will be interesting ^^

I hope there'll at least be online missions, like with the MK Wii Channel.  Those were fun.

[Uber_Challenger]

I like that Nintendo is going with odd, quirky, and unusual characters, though. It gets boring if it's the same roster every game.

Now those are all the starter characters, right? The unlockables haven't been revealed yet, I hope?

I know anybody can edit this, but according to it, Nintendo still has a few characters to reveal: http://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Kart_%28Nintendo_3DS%29

I sure hope King Boo is in there, lol. It's awesome that Wiggler is in it, though! Chain Chomp would also be cool, me thinks!

[hisak]

More unrevealed characters means that less than half of all playable characters will be on the track at any time, which has never been the case in Mario Kart. Unfortunately it looks like you'll need to wait for Mario Kart Wii U to see King Boo's return.

The game is out in less than a month, though it'll be a while longer before I get my hands on it. I've brought this up in other threads but hadn't mentioned it here: Would anyone be up for a tournament of sorts? It sounds like the game will support individual communities, so we can set one up once enough people own it.

[hisak]

CVG: 9.4

Mario Kart 7 is the best in the series so far, and it carries itself like it is too.

Those of you who came into this review via the SNES and GBA roads stand up and applaud, because this one's the meanest, most spirited Mario Kart in quite some time.

Eurogamer: 8

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.

Sounds like Retro Studios was also a lot more involved than Miyamoto let on: they were responsible for retrofitting (ha) the old tracks to utilize the game's new features.

[Hyruleansoldier]

MK7's stages are quite sublime.   There's 3 (or 4) stages where you don't do 3 laps, but rather 3 sections (basically you pass 3 checkpoints and then cross the finish line - so you never revisit a part of that course).  This is new, and it works quite well.  Said stages are really neat, too.

I don't know what's up with the the two Wu Hu  courses - is that a name from a specific game?

The Tanuki tail hasn't been helping me out that much.  It does help against projectiles and bananas, but it doesn't stay on you that long.  Fun to smack another racer around though.

Apparently there's also a Hammer item, but I haven't seen it myself.  I've usually been in 1st place, so I can't discuss items that much yet.

MK7 has the best Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road yet!  There's winks to previous incarnations, without things becoming stale.

The Classic courses are all nicely rendered, they added some jump and boost pads here and there, and let you use the glider a couple of times too.  And of course you can trick off heights like in MKWii.

Koopa Cape (Wii) now has 3 different music themes depending on where you are in the stage.

Unfortunately you lose 3 coins when you fall off, get hit by a blue shell, or other items (I think most things make you end up losing coins).  Fortunately you can usually recover at least one of them (they surround you).  And all coins return in the other 2 laps so you can stock up.  Keeping 10 is not as easy!

The Staff Credits are particularly nice since you get to see various characters drive in all sorts of unlockable vehicles, in the 16 3DS courses. (I didn't count them but I'm pretty sure there's footage of all of them, don't remember about the classic courses).

I like some of the new vehicles.  The Wii vehicles were a bit too realistic/ traditional.  Seems like they took the best of both worlds and mixed the more crazy vehicles à la MK DS with some more realistic looking cars.  And of course there's plenty of tyres to chose from as well.

I've only tackled 50CC thusfar, but I expect some serious challenge being thrown at me in on 150CC.

[hisak]

Played through the four "regular" cups and one retro cup on 50cc. I was skeptical at first, but some of the new tracks are fantastic. Rainbow Road might be my favorite Mario Kart track ever, and the rest of Star Cup and Special Cup are golden as well. I need to get my 3DS's internet connection fixed, but as soon as I do I'll make sure to get some races in with people here. Is HS the only other member who has the game?

[JordAnime]

I got it, haven't played WiFi yet.  I'm actually really pleased with this game.  It's the first Mario Kart game since Mario Kart DS that I've actually really enjoyed.  I'm still trying to get my last Gold Trophy for 150cc Special Cup, Rainbow Road always messes me up X_X