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Bowser's Castle features lava pouring right through the water potions of the track. Piranha Plant Slide piles on the nostalgia and is like driving through the original Super Mario Bros., but in 3D. One notable track, Neo Bowser City, is an interesting fusion of the city levels and Bowser levels of previous games. There are a number of daring shortcuts scattered throughout the new designs. I also had a chance to check out the remainder of new race courses. Specific groups and ghosts will also be highlighted over SpotPass.
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StreetPassed Miis will appear in Grand Prix mode, and the AI will attempt to mimic their driving style. StreetPassing will also exchange records such as win/loss ratio and the number of coins collected. Mario Kart 7 makes heavy use of StreetPass and SpotPass features, and race ghosts are exchanged in this manner. Outside of communities, players are automatically matched based on skill level. Chat is limited to predefined phrases, much like in Mario Kart Wii. There are no moderators - once you're in, you're in. The rules for these rooms are made permanent upon setup. Room options include the type of race or battle, and which items, racers, and kart parts are available. Players can setup and join rooms by exchanging group codes, kind of like friend codes, but just for races. Online communities are the major welcome addition to Mario Kart's online infrastructure despite being somewhat limited. Since they're so fun, the biggest disappointment is simply the limited number of courses (three new and three returning). While the lack of survival mode may disappoint some, Mario Kart 7's battle modes are the best battle mode since the original two games. Also, the Bob-ombs now walk around after being tossed. The addition of the Leaf and Fire Flower powers are especially nice in battle matches since you can go crazy with a barrage of fireballs or tail swipes. The biggest difference between Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart Wii's battle modes is that players are no longer forced onto teams, so it's up to eight players for themselves. The other mode, Coin Runners where players try to collect as many coins as they can while still avoiding attacks, is a bit more strategic. Losing all your balloons leads to losing two points.
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The old battle maps play a bit differently thanks to the new kart abilities - you can hover over the lava in Big Donut using your glider, for instance.īalloon battle is time limited and point based. Wuhu Town is a sprawling map with multiple levels. It's the best course for in-your-face craziness and massive numbers of bouncing shells.
#Mario kart 7 rainbow road full
Sherbet Rink is an ice-covered wide-open battlefield full of bumpers. The hive was my least favorite battle course since the design means you can't drive around that freely, and you can't really hide out in a room due to the map on the bottom screen giving away your location.
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Honey Bee Hive, based on the hive from Mario Galaxy, is made up of interconnected hexagonal rooms. The three new battle mode courses are quite different from each other. The short version? Both modes see welcome improvements over the Wii iteration. Following my previous run with Mario Kart 7, I had the chance to check out the battle and online modes of Mario Kart 7 at Nintendo's offices.