Man, Mario Kart 7 was so bad.

[Lant_War]

Today Youtube recommended me one of those evolution videos about Mario Kart. I put it as background noise, and besides DS > Wii every entry was a clear improvement all things considered. Then Mario Kart 7 appeared and it's like I legit had forgotten that game existed. Let's see:

- What the fuck was that speed. Maybe I've just got used to seeing 200cc gameplay (and playing whenever I have the chance), but Mario Kart 7 barely feels like a racing game. Mario Odyssey has a better sense of speed, even at 150cc it feels slower than Mario Kart Wii's 50cc.

- Visually, it looks great for a 3Ds game. But man does this game lack a visual identity, if you showed me upscaled footage on a Wii retro track I wouldn't be able to tell which game it's from.

- This has by far one of the weakest track pools out of any Mario Karts, maybe only above Mario Kart Wii. Horrible retros (except for Waluigi's Pinball), and the new tracks are often more of a miss than a hit, especially the Rainbow Road. The complete lack of any kind of sense of speed kills most of them too.

- What the actual fuck is that roster. No Waluigi, no Boo King either but they put the Mario Galaxy Bee here? Why?

Honestly, I feel like Nintendo didn't know if they wanted a fully featured Mario Kart for the 3Ds or something like DS with short courses and quick gameplay, which caused to give us a mix of both that doesn't work well at all and just feels bland.

 

[Deleted member 420]

It was the best in the series until Mario Kart 8 came out

 

[Finale Fireworker]

It has some great tracks, but I find that roster unforgivable.

And to be fair, going back to ANY Mario Kart after 200cc is going to feel slow as heck.

 

[Berordn]

you're mostly right, especially about the retro tracks

but i will not stand for honey queen slander

 

[Deleted member 1413]

Remember liking the rainbow road course myself, more so than the MK8 one.

It is a weird one, tho. Made unnecessary by the existence of MK8D. I liked the first person mode, tho

 

[maximumzero]

It was the best in the series until Mario Kart 8 came out

Click to shrink...

 

[Annabel]

Had the best Rainbow Road though.

 

[Cenauru]

I actually played it a ton with friends and it was the most fun I've had with Mario Kart. Still trying to get them to pick up MK8 though.

 

[Foot]

Yeah, I hated it.

 

[Lant_War]

It has some great tracks, but I find that roster unforgivable.

And to be fair, going back to ANY Mario Kart after 200cc is going to feel slow as heck.

Click to shrink...

I don't find going back to MKDS slow though, thanks to snaking and having correctly sized tracks. Hell, even MK Wii while pretty slow still has a nice flow to it.

 

[Paper Wario]

Pretty certain this is my least played mario kart. Just did not enjoy it for some reason. Nothing about it really excited me.

 

[Bitanator]

It was awesome and I actually prefer it to MK8

 

[Deleted member 5127]

I thought the tracks were pretty fun personally.

Visually, it looks great for a 3Ds game. But man does this game lack a visual identity, if you showed me upscaled footage on a Wii retro track I wouldn't be able to tell which game it's from.

Click to shrink...

Double Dash, MKWii and MK7 all had a samey art style, MK8 blew my mind when it got revealed, I didn't expect it to look so good, it has aged like wine too.

 

[Rotobit]

200cc is bad

also I think it was pretty solid outside of the roster which was a bit weird (but at least it was fun weird rather than boring weird). I vastly prefered it to MKWii, at the very least.

 

[Deleted member 42484]

It was the best in the series until Mario Kart 8 came out

Click to shrink...

Mario Kart DS and Double Dash would like a word with you...


But I really enjoyed MK7. The item balance and power-sliding was coming to maturity. They totally nailed it with MK8, but you can see the steps they took to get there - and MK7 was a good step, and I put tons of hours into it.

For 2011, it looked pretty damn good and the online worked pretty well. It was actually the first online-Nintendo game I put a lot of time into before Splatoon/MK8.

 

[Draconian]

I disagree on the whole, OP. I love that Rainbow Road and thought racing on the moon was inspired. Also, Kalimari Desert, SNES Rainbow Road, and Mario Circuit 2 are great retro tracks. The gliders and propellers led to varied track design when it comes to the new courses. I played quite a bit of it and had a blast, especially playing with my friend online. Fun game.

 

[Kitten Mittens]

Definitely my least favorite. Just such a huge bore of a game after the far superior MKDS.

 

[Cathcart]

I had a great time with it and played it more than any other game in the series until 8.

 

[Druffmaul]

I didn't get hyped about MK8 until I blew the dust off my 3ds and my copy of MK7, which was triggered by watching Wreck It Ralph for the first time, when it came out on blu-ray.

Like the man said, MK7 was the best until MK8.

 

[Aleh]

Visually boring, content starved, and track selection ok at best. Good Rainbow Road though.
A big disappointment coming from MKDS

 

[Het_Nkik]

I liked everything about it aside from the amount of Blue Shells in online races. I think the record for most I've seen in one race is 5!? And 2 per race seemed to be the average. I legit started making sure to stay in second place in every race so I could win more races since the person in the lead would inevitably get hit.

 

[Anarki]

It was awesome and I actually prefer it to MK8

Click to shrink...

Finally a voice of reason

 

[NuclearCake]

What the hell? It wasn't as good as DS or MK8 but still way better than the trashfire that was Mario Kart Wii. MK64 sucked also, and Double Dash was mediocre.

MK7 wasn't the best and it's obsolete now that MK8D exists but it 's far from the worst entry in the series. The lacluster roster is the only major negative against it but it had introduced all the major things that people like about MK8 and the track design was solid. Maybe the best in the series up untill that point and it still has the best Rainbow Road track.

This game was pretty good.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Step down from Mario Kart DS and lack of vs. mode sucked and was a serious misstep. It does have the worst battle mode, well second worse after 8 vanilla.

I'll take it over Wii tho. So I'll call it an improvement.

 

[MrWindUpBird]

"Bad."

It wasn't though? It was never going to be on the same level as Mario Kart Wii (in regards to decent tracks and what not) or Double Dash, but it's most certainly not a bad game. It was great for the handheld it released on it's still a fun game to play today, even with MK8's 200cc mode being the best form of a kart racer out there.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Today Youtube recommended me one of those evolution videos about Mario Kart. I put it as background noise, and besides DS > Wii every entry was a clear improvement all things considered. Then Mario Kart 7 appeared and it's like I legit had forgotten that game existed. Let's see:

- What the fuck was that speed. Maybe I've just got used to seeing 200cc gameplay (and playing whenever I have the chance), but Mario Kart 7 barely feels like a racing game. Mario Odyssey has a better sense of speed, even at 150cc it feels slower than Mario Kart Wii's 50cc.

- Visually, it looks great for a 3Ds game. But man does this game lack a visual identity, if you showed me upscaled footage on a Wii retro track I wouldn't be able to tell which game it's from.

- This has by far one of the weakest track pools out of any Mario Karts, maybe only above Mario Kart Wii. Horrible retros (except for Waluigi's Pinball), and the new tracks are often more of a miss than a hit, especially the Rainbow Road. The complete lack of any kind of sense of speed kills most of them too.

- What the actual fuck is that roster. No Waluigi, no Boo King either but they put the Mario Galaxy Bee here? Why?

Honestly, I feel like Nintendo didn't know if they wanted a fully featured Mario Kart for the 3Ds or something like DS with short courses and quick gameplay, which caused to give us a mix of both that doesn't work well at all and just feels bland.

Click to shrink...

I disagree with nearly everything here. DS is the weakest MK other than the GBA game. Also, MK7 Rainbow Road may be the best in the series.

 

[Phil32]

I really loved it, despite its obvious flaws. The retro selection is still my favorite to this day. :)

EDIT: Yes, yes! Best Rainbow Road as well. Felt like you were going on an epic space adventure across the galaxy!

 

[TheChungusAmongUs]

God damn.

I came into this thread thinking "Mario Kart Wii" wasn't that bad

I didn't even know there was one on 3DS

 

[PotionBleue]

Well Mario Kart 7 was seemingly rushed because the 3DS wasn't selling really well in 2011. Thank God they didn't do the same thing with Mario Kart 8.

 

[Bitanator]

Finally a voice of reason

Click to shrink...

Click to shrink...

I liked everything about it aside from the amount of Blue Shells in online races. I think the record for most I've seen in one race is 5!? And 2 per race seemed to be the average. I legit started making sure to stay in second place in every race so I could win more races since the person in the lead would inevitably get hit.

Click to shrink...

They are so easy to doge in MK7 that is not even an issue, red shells too can easily be manipulated to not hit you.

 

[Xita]

It was the best in the series until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out

Click to shrink...

Pretty much this. Loved it.

 

[Symphony]

The only Mario Kart game I've sold on, and I bought a 3DS to play it. At this point I remember four things about it - Rosalina's track having nothing to do with her or SMG, that Wuhu track everyone spam voted online because there was a glitch to let you win, the roster was somehow worse than base Mario Kart 8, and Shy Guy Bazaar was the only track I really liked.

 

[Ketkat]

How can you hate this character? She's a bee!

 

[NotWithstanding]

Not having a vs. mode made me drop is pretty quickly.

 

[Richietto]

I liked it a lot but the roster was just nonsense. Also it being on the 3DS was terrible. I couldn't play 1 race before my hands were cramped.

 

[Xenoboy]

Imagine complaining about the roster when MK8 exists...

 

[Deleted member 4034]

I disagree with nearly everything here. DS is the weakest MK other than the GBA game.

Click to shrink...

Reported.

DS is literally the best Mario Kart.

 

[King Dodongo]

The only horrible MK was MK64. Good thing I didn't buy that. Also MK Wii was going in the wrong direction. The others, however, are very enjoyable games.

 

[Deleted member 864]

Eh, I personally disagree. I really enjoyed MK7 overall and thought it was a fine entry for the series. Most of the courses were fun, the character roster wasn't bad, and I really enjoyed the online which I ended up getting a lot of hours out of. It also probably has the best Rainbow Road.

I'd put it in my top 5 for the series.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Reported.

DS is literally the best Mario Kart.

Click to shrink...

Track design is the most important aspect of MK to me, and the only interesting track in MKDS is Airship Fortress.

 

[RM8]

It feels slow and it's just a big downgrade from DS, but I'd say it's still fun and it has plenty of memorable tracks. And it's still very active online!

 

[Vivian-Pogo]

I don't remember any of the tracks in 7 besides the ones in 8 and the glitchy Wuhu levels. So bland and slow Waluigi didn't want to show up. Worst Mario Kart.

 

[Bitanator]

It feels slow and it's just a big downgrade from DS, but I'd say it's still fun and it has plenty of memorable tracks. And it's still very active online!

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately ruined by hackers, unless you have private rooms, playing just regular matches is horrible the past few years, people spam bombs and lightning and make the frame rate dive, or have neo bowser city spammed as that glitch was never patched.

 

[NotLiquid]

Had the best Rainbow Road though.

Click to shrink...

Damn straight

 

[Nocturnowl]

I bring this up a fair bit when talking Mario Kart, but number 7 is one of my least favourite entries, not for being bad but for being completely vanilla.
It has no real tricks up its sleeve, no bombast to its design, a limit on its options (no single race?!) and the main hooks while perfectly fine (kart customisation, gliding) are very surface level gimmicks that didn't change things all that much.
It was Mario Kart by the numbers, running off the success of DS' formula but not adding, in some cases detracting.

The tracks are the real make or break factor here, and MK7 has good ideas that don't seem to go anywhere, if I were to describe Rock Rock Mountain/Alpine Pass it would probably sound a lot more thrilling than the actual reality of playing the track. You get ones like Rosalina's Ice World where the name could indicate some kind of cosmic twist on the ice theme, but nope, it's just a name that kinda outs its bland reality, see it's Rosalina's ice world because character name plus ice track equals Mario Kart 7, whoopee (a common MK trope for sure, but as a special cup track its blandness really bugs me.
A track based around DKCR that lacks the spectacle and set pieces associated with Retro's game, Wario's shipyard reeks of missed opportunity to do something truly cool with a sunken ship track theme and don't even get me started on Bowser's Castle here lacking the kind of Mario series platforming obstacles that make it a fitting castle gauntlet, you get a lava room filled with water in an aesthetic mess I guess?

Not to say it's all bad, the point to point tracks offered something new and can get by on visual variety, a track like music park completes its concept with some fun use of bouncing drums, beat related tricks and drifting across keys for a a fun audio element.
It set up Neo Bowser City to reach its true potential in MK8 and while it still leaves me wanting a bit more Shy Guy Bazaar is still pretty cool and just needed to push further with the bazaar part splitting paths and adding upper and lower routes.

I'll add that the Tanooki Tail/super leaf might be my least favourite MK item for how it locks you out of picking anything else up or disposing of it, the idea is sound but it's probably the most frequent "I have no use for this right now but HAVE to use it" item in the series, like I'll even take Wii's thunder cloud over it.

 

[Skyebaron]

I would say that to the other handheld one, Mario Kart Advance.

 

[Billy Palmer]

It definitely felt slow at the time, even before 200cc was a thing. Mostly agree with the criticisms here.

 

[Deleted member 48897]

Track design is the most important aspect of MK to me, and the only interesting track in MKDS is Airship Fortress.

Click to shrink...

I don't entirely agree but there was definitely an odd aspect to the designs probably meant to facilitate some of the mission mode stuff, like the pinball table or the big clock or the maze in peach gardens. In standard race mode those were unusual ideas that didn't really matter much overall.

For me the big MKDS criticism remains that snaking hurts my hands.

 

[mute]

Was more of the same to me, for better or worse.

 

[Deleted member 48897]

It had Koopa Cape, you guys!! How could you not love Koopa Cape?!

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