Mario Kart 7: the glider, underwater racing and the 3DS

GameMario Kart 7Nintendo 3DS

The entry that gave the tracks a sky and a seabed. Released in December 2011 on Nintendo 3DS, the seventh main instalment adds the glider, underwater driving and a kart that is built piece by piece. This profile looks back at its making with Retro Studios, its four brand-new pilots and the marks it left on the series.

Mario Kart 7 holds a singular place in the history of the series : it slots in between Mario Kart Wii, released in 2008, and Mario Kart 8, due in 2014. It is the first entry in stereoscopic 3D, and the last of the main line before the HD era.

Where the previous instalments drew a ribbon laid on the ground, this one stacks three layers of track : a sky to glide through, tarmac to drift on, a seabed where you carry on driving.

Contents

• December 2011: the seventh instalment and its makers
• The glider and the propeller: the track becomes a volume
• A kart that comes apart piece by piece
• Four pilots born on the 3DS
• Items, cups and legacy
• Fact file
• FAQ

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December 2011: the seventh instalment and its makers

The game came out in December 2011 : on the 1st in Japan, the 2nd in Europe, the 4th in North America. The number in the title numbers the entry itself, the seventh main instalment, whereas the “64” in Mario Kart 64 referred to the console.

At the helm, Hideki Konno, producer of this entry “with its underwater karts and its delta wing” and, at the same time, producer of the Nintendo 3DS hardware. The man in charge of the game and the man in charge of the console are one and the same, which explains the ease with which the title makes use of the machine: stereoscopic depth, gyroscope, StreetPass and SpotPass.

Direction went to Kosuke Yabuki, the future director of Mario Kart 8. Development, for its part, moved beyond Japan alone: Nintendo EAD teamed up with Retro Studios, the Austin studio behind Metroid Prime, which contributed to the design of the tracks. This is the first Mario Kart co-developed with a Western studio.

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The glider and the propeller: the track becomes a volume

Three major additions sum up the entry: gliders, underwater driving and kart customisation. The first two change the very nature of the layout.

• On passing over a blue ramp, the glider deploys on its own, and the kart is steered in the air until it comes back down.
• On entering the water, a propeller emerges from the chassis : instead of falling in or being teleported as before, you carry on driving along the bottom.
• The stretch of water stops being a penalty and becomes a section of track in its own right.

The Cheep Cheep Lagoon introduces this underwater racing to the series: the track dedicated to Cheep Cheep serves as a showcase for the new feature.

Above it, the Rainbow Road takes its first major turn: the race unfolds around the Moon, over a single lap split into three sections, punctuated by gliding. The layout would later serve as the basis for an arena in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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A kart that comes apart piece by piece

Customisation, the third new feature, applies piece by piece : chassis, wheels and glider combine freely, and each assembly alters the vehicle's stats.

• The coins return after a long absence: collecting up to ten raises top speed.
• The running total gradually unlocks the parts, turning collection into progression.
• A first-person view, from inside the kart, is steered with the console's gyroscope.

The entry also stands by a removal: the bikes introduced with Mario Kart Wii disappear, and the series returns to karts alone.

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Four pilots born on the 3DS

The line-up numbers seventeen pilots, including the player's Mii, and four of them make their debut behind the wheel here.

• Lakitu, long confined to the role of stage manager and referee, moves to the other side of the starting line : this is the first game in which he is playable.
• Wiggler becomes a fully playable character, a status he would regain in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
• Metal Mario, born in 1996 as a temporary transformation in Super Mario 64, becomes, fifteen years on, a competitor in his own right, rated heavyweight: the first power-up promoted to the rank of pilot.
• The Honey Queen from Super Mario Galaxy completes this quartet.

Shy Guy, until then merely a pilot in the local multiplayer of Mario Kart DS, becomes for his part an unlockable competitor, earned with the gold trophy in the Shell Cup at 150 cc. Rosalina is on this grid too.

The downside of this tightened line-up is a list of absentees: Waluigi, Birdo, Bowser Jr. and Diddy Kong are missing from the roll call, a cut that got people talking.

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Items, cups and legacy

The game lines up 32 tracks, sixteen new and sixteen retro, spread across eight cups — Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special for the new layouts, Shell, Banana, Leaf and Lightning for the returning ones — run at 50, 100 and 150 cc, plus a Mirror mode.

Two tracks take place on Wuhu Island, a setting borrowed from Wii Sports Resort, and adopt, like Rainbow Road, a single lap in three sections. Airship Fortress, born on Mario Kart DS, also returns in this entry: Banzai Bills replace the Bullet Bills there and sweep the passage in a continuous stream.

The arsenal, for its part, undergoes some lasting rebalancing.

• The Lucky 7 spins seven items in orbit around the kart, set off one after another; it would come back as the Crazy 8 in Mario Kart 8.
• The blue spiked shell here loses its wings : it skims the ground and now targets only the pilot in the lead. Kosuke Yabuki told Eurogamer in 2017 that Nintendo had tried removing it, but that “something was missing then”.
• The Fire Flower becomes an item in its own right, firing off a volley of fireballs; the Super Leaf appears as a tail that sweeps everything around it.
• TheLightning Bolt is picked up mostly around 7th and 8th place, and the Golden Mushroom rounds out the comeback kit.

Online, races host up to eight players and the entry introduces communities, persistent rooms created by players with their own rules. These services closed on 8 April 2024, along with the whole of the 3DS's online offering.

With nearly 19 million copies, Mario Kart 7 remains the best-selling game on the Nintendo 3DS, a record often wrongly credited to Super Mario 3D Land, which tops out at around 12.9 million.

Four of its tracks — Music Park, Piranha Plant Slide, DK Jungle and Neo Bowser City — were reused in Mario Kart 8, and others would come back through the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. One title stays with it for good: it is the last Mario Kart designed for a dedicated handheld console.

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Mario Kart 7 at a glance

Type	Racing game
Publisher	Nintendo
Development	Nintendo EAD with Retro Studios
Console	Nintendo 3DS
Release	1 December 2011 (Japan), 2 December (Europe)
Tracks	32 (16 new + 16 retro), in 8 cups
Pilots	17, including the player's Mii
Sales	Nearly 19 million, a 3DS record

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FAQ

• What does Mario Kart 7 bring compared with the previous entries?
  Three new features: the glider, which deploys on the blue ramps, underwater driving, where you keep driving along the bottom, and kart customisation piece by piece.
• On which console and on what date was Mario Kart 7 released?
  On Nintendo 3DS, in December 2011: on the 1st in Japan, the 2nd in Europe and the 4th in North America. It is the first entry in the series in stereoscopic 3D.
• How many tracks does Mario Kart 7 have?
  Thirty-two tracks, sixteen new and sixteen retro, spread across eight cups and run at 50, 100 and 150 cc, plus a Mirror mode.
• Which characters make their debut as pilots in Mario Kart 7?
  Four newcomers take the wheel: Metal Mario, Lakitu, Wiggler and Honey Queen from Super Mario Galaxy. Shy Guy, for his part, becomes an unlockable pilot, on a line-up of seventeen competitors.
• Can you still play Mario Kart 7 online?
  No: the Nintendo 3DS's online services, Mario Kart 7 included, closed on 8 April 2024. Local multiplayer and the single-player modes remain accessible.

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