Review (2025 September)

Mario Kart 7 (as "MK7" afterwards) is a kart racing game exclusive on 3DS developed by Nintendo and released in 2011. Comparing to other games in the Mario Kart series:

• My first ever is Mario Kart: Super Circuit back in primary school, child's play only.

• The hardest one to me based on Singleplayer contents is Mario Kart Wii, where some challenges are really insane to take on.

• The one with most contents and my longest play time is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has its own page here.

Some good sides of MK7:

• Easy to begin with, really friendly to newbies.

• Some decent challenges in Singleplayer contents. For example, getting 3 stars in Special Cup. Although I doubt that the challenge was designed in a proper way, a challenge is a challenge and that is indeed not so easy.

• Multiplayer modes. One player with a single game card of MK7 can invite seven extra players without any game cards into real game plays, in the local mode. Race with players all around the world with different nationalities and flags, in the online mode.

• Great soundtracks, just as other games in the Mario Kart series.

Some bad sides of MK7:

• Only 32 tracks to play with. Some are pretty bland and boring, which further reduces the number of decent options when racing with others.

• Lack of effective customisation. You can change your characters, your karts, your wheels and your gliders. However, the balance among parts is pretty bad in MK7. You do have these options, but a few are so good that others do not stand a chance.

• Inadequate Singleplayer contents. Grand Prix and Time Trial, end of story.

• Low skill ceiling. Even without any racing game experience, mastering MK7 will not take too long. Soon afterwards, you will touch the skill ceiling and realise there is nothing to improve.

• Bad connection with online races. There are other reasons for sure, like the crappy system of 3DS or the crappy Wi-Fi in my room. But MK7 should have done better with this.

Racing with other players internationally on a handheld 3DS was really a fresh experience to me at that time! Thus, with the previously mentioned connection issues, sometimes it was simply not possible for me to connect to the MK7 server! Other times, it was pretty common to see a disconnection window popped out right in the middle of an online race. And guess what? In such cases, my Versus Rating (VR) would get penalised by a fair margin (more than getting the last place) as that was treated as a rage quit – not at all! That said, reaching 10000 VR under such a difficult condition deserves a praise!

Overall, I have to agree that MK7 holds a mediocre place in the whole Mario Kart series. Not many players have played MK7 because of its 3DS exclusiveness, not many really hate MK7 and not many will treat MK7 as their favourite. However, MK7 did bring me a lot of great memories during my 3DS period.