Mario Kart 7

[Fusion]

When I first saw this game I wasn't expecting much more than, "Mario characters drive a vehicle and your blood pressure increases," and while that's not exactly far from the truth I am actually enjoying this game a lot more than the others. I first really started paying attention to it when I heard of a few of the characters being added to the game and despite being rumors they met all of my expectations based on what I had heard. That was quite possibly the worst hint I have hidden in my life.

So this time the character count is significantly lower than Mario Kart Wii's Army but this streamlining process has allowed them to put hidden characters in relatively easy to unlock situations unlike horrors such as Baby Luigi. Each one is unlocked by beating a cup in Hard/150cc/Blue Shell Land mode and the super secret, yet pretty obvious, character is unlocked by getting first in all cups in any difficulty. Instead of limiting characters to a small selection of karts, this time all characters can use all karts and you have the option of building the kart around your chosen character's weakness. Throughout Grand Prix and Coin Battle, coins are scattered around the various areas and you can pick up 10 at a time which in turn will unlock various pieces of the karts at certain intervals. Once you have these parts you can start building the aforementioned karts to make the fastest or most powerful racer you can create. I myself use a certain character who apparently lacks weight above two pounds, so I made a weird hybrid of a Koopa Clown Car, big wheels, and a bat glider to add to his acceleration, durability, and speed.

The items have mostly been whittled down and improved so I don't need to talk about them much. The Blue Shell still makes the person in first want to implode down to the size of an atom and suck everything into their new singularity at an alarmingly fast rate, but now it travels on the ground so you can kind of make it hit the jerk AI behind you so they don't take 1st place at the last possible minute. Items removed from Mario Kart Wii are: Giant Mushroom, Fake Block, and Lightning Cloud. Items added to Mario Kart 7 are: Fireflower, which is a sort of unlimited Green Shell for a short period of time, and the 7 item, which spawns a circle of the "weaker" (aka not Bullet Bill, Blue Shell, or Fireflower) items in front of you and allows you to use them as they move in front of your kart. The AI can still seemingly pull them from subspace at will during 150cc as you approach the finish line which is endless fun.

I haven't yet dabbled in multiplayer but from what I can see it's a positive step into online gaming for Nintendo what with all of these communities that don't require friend codes for each individual user. Should be fun if you guys take my advice and get it. I still have no idea how any of it works however.

Oh, and whoever decided to remake that version of that track in the final retro cup will be getting whatever disease I'm currently carrying in their coffee. If I ever found out who did it, that is.

[RED51]

I'm planning on getting this game along with starfox and sonic gen on my birthday. I've been hearing good things regarding the game.

[Fusion]

Yeah, it totally took me by surprise because Mario Kart usually ends up being that game I spend $50 on and then only play it for 2 days until I've beaten all of the courses. This one actually makes me want to keep playing.

Star Fox 64 3D is a great pick too, btw. It still has the extreme cheesiness of the original and has updated graphics that make you forget what the old game actually looked like. Not sure about Sonic Generations but I do know it's taken advantage of the 3DS having extremely better sound fonts than the DS.

[RED51]

Just got it a few hours ago. The first-person view is amazing, adds a lot of tension, especially when driving up hills on certain tracks... So far, my favorite is the Maka Wuhu track. It wasn't until I was near the end on this track that I realized it wasn't looped; just one straight(so to speak) path, which I thought was pretty cool. Also, scenery on it was gorgeous. Anyone interested in this game won't be disappointed when they get it.

[CressAlbane]

I'm hoping to get a chance to buy this during Christmas. It looks really fun; thanks for the input Fusion and RED51!