A new Nintendo platform can only mean one thing - a new version of Mario Kart is inevitably on the way. So far that's proven a good thing, as the series that pioneered the kart-racing genre has continued to dominate it. Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS marks the newest entry in this longstanding franchise. With a handful of incredible innovations added to the formula, especially in the online department, MK7 easily earns its place alongside its predecessors.

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For those new to the series, you choose a character from a roster of Mushroom Kingdom personalities, then race across a variety of tracks to claim victory. You start with eight choices (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi and so on), and you unlock eight more by earning first place in all of the cups in 150cc, the most difficult mode.Getting first in 150cc can prove a daunting task at times, and I liked that the game actually made me work to unlock the secret characters. Still, I was disappointed at the size of the final roster. The last entry, Mario Kart Wii, boasted 25 playable characters. I expected the same-to-more from MK7, but had to settle for only 17 this time around. Gone are Waluigi, Funky Kong and the babies, as well as many others. Though the game does add a few new faces (check out the video review for a peek at the full roster), it's too bad these came at the expense of losing past racers.Most of the play options should look familiar to Mario Kart fans. Grand Prix tasks you with racing through the eight different cups, four new ones and four made up of retro courses from past games. The new courses are well-designed and quite memorable. Music Park, presumably a nod to Wii Music, has you zooming across keyboards and dodging giant music notes on your way to the finish line. DK Jungle, designed by Retro Studios, harkens back to Donkey Kong Country Returns. And the new Rainbow Road certainly lives up to its namesake - providing a long, turbulent trip full of giant moons and gyrating tracks to work around.The inclusion of gliders and underwater segments - a first for the series - vary the standard racing fare and add new twists to the retro tracks. The glider, if handled just right, can float you ahead of other players to gain a lead, and some hidden underwater sections provide key places to stock up on coins and items. Speaking of coins, these bad boys are finally back, a great throwback to the original Super Mario Kart for SNES that adds an extra layer of strategy. You can grab up to 10 of them during a race, increasing your max speed and giving your racer a brief boost. Collecting coins also unlocks new kart parts. Soda Jet with Standard wheels and a Flower Glider? Earn enough coins and this cool creation can be yours to slide across the finish line with.But these additions aren't limited to the new tracks alone. The retro courses have a new spin as well, which should come as a welcome surprise for longtime fans of the series. You can now go underwater in Koopa Beach from Mario Kart 64 or glide through certain segments of Maple Treeway from Mario Kart Wii. It's cool seeing these familiar places given a fresh coat of paint and some new tricks. The return of the unlockable Mirror Mode - which lets you race on a flipped version of any track - further helps shake things up and extends the life of Grand Prix mode.The most surprisingly well-executed innovation comes from pairing the system's gyroscope controls with a first person perspective. You can switch to this mode at any time by pressing up on the D-Pad, pressing down to return to traditional controls. Doing so throws you into your racer's perspective and allows you to control your kart by tilting the system side-to-side. It's shocking how well it works. Though I doubt I'd ever exclusively use this method, it's an absolute blast to switch into on occasion - upping the excitement and forcing you to view and consider each track in a brand new way. You can even elect to use the circle pad instead of the gyro controls, so you can enjoy the shifted perspective without sacrificing traditional controls. This feature never much appealed to me in theory, but in practice I find it one of the most impressive additions Mario Kart 7 A few new items have also been added to the mix. The Fire Flower lets you throw fire balls at your opponents, causing them to briefly spin out. The Tanooki Tail lets you whack items and nearby players - you have to get pretty close, but it's insanely rewarding when you actually pull it off and put the smackdown on a racer trying to catch up to you. The Lucky 7 gives you a set of seven items to use as you see fit - a Blooper, a Green Shell, a Red Shell, etc. One slip on a banana or bump from a daring opponent and they're all gone though, making it more balanced than you would think.These new items fit in nicely, and make for some amusing situations on the road. Of course, the inherent Mario Kart problem of item balance persists. I've held first for an entire race only to lose it at the end thanks to a Blue Shell followed by another Blue Shell, then capped off with a Blooper. No joke. If you play long enough, these occurrences are inevitable, not to mention terribly frustrating. Still, it's this randomness that allows for the daring comebacks and feverish dashes back to first that make Mario Kart such a thrill to play. The occasional unfair loss is just something MK players must deal with as part of the price of admission to this otherwise masterful racing experience.Racing isn't the only option on the table, of course. Balloon Battle returns as well, but with some key differences. Instead of racing to take out all three of your opponent's balloons before they get yours, you must simply take out as many balloons as possible before the timer runs out. Though I enjoyed this mode, I honestly prefer the traditional set-up, which feels more immediate since you only have three balloons to go on and are in a race for survival. Coin Runners, first introduced in Mario Kart Wii, also makes a comeback. It's similar to Balloon Battle, though it puts you in a timed race to nab as many coins as you can instead. It's a welcome inclusion, and makes up for the somewhat disappointing changes to Balloon Battle.Single player certainly pulls its weight - though the loss of Mario Kart DS's Mission Mode is criminal - but by far the strongest part of Mario Kart 7 has to be the multiplayer. As usual, you have the option to challenge friends locally or via Wi-Fi. The game also supports Download Play if your buddies don't have their own copy on hand. But it's the online that proves truly impressive. Each player is assigned a VR rating based on how they've fared in past races. This score allows the game to match them with players of a similar skill level. This should help bridge the gap between karting newcomers and veterans, allowing everyone to improve their game without having to incur too much shame along the way. The ability to immediately reface strangers you just raced against, or to quickly and easily jump in with past rivals or buddies from your 3DS friends list, further makes racing online a smoother and more straightforward process than ever before.And then there are the communities, where things get really exciting. You can now create custom groups and share them with friends and strangers. You can choose to have a Mushroom-only Grand Prix Mirror race or a Shell-only Coin Runner - whatever your karting heart desires. I had a great time coming up with tons of communities and challenging others to play by my rules. The only downside to this otherwise incredible innovation is that the customization could have been taken even further to allow you to specifically turn on or off any item (a la the Super Smash Bros. series). As it is, though, it's still tons of fun to toy with, and the options on offer really complement the Mario Kart experience. As a whole, MK7 represents the best example of online in any Nintendo game to date, and I can't wait to see how the communities unfold and evolve once the game releases to the general public.Connectivity between other Mario Kart racers is further strengthened by MK7's StreetPass functionality. This allows you to view the profile, stats and VR rating of any fellow karter you pass on the streets. You can even acquire ghost data from them and try to destroy their best times. It's a charming addition, and I greatly enjoyed trying to collect more coins than my opponents and reading their profile message and "title," which the game assigns based on your play style. My boyfriend, for instance, is apparently a Shell Shark. You think you know a guy.As for the visuals, the 32 courses each provide plenty of eye candy for karters to gape at as they zoom from race to race. The character models are well-done, with smooth animations bringing these iconic Mushroom Kingdom personalities to life. The game provides one of the better examples of 3DS graphics, though perhaps not quite up to par with the recently released Super Mario 3D Land. The 3D effect is subtler as well, perfectly lending itself to the genre. It achieves added depth without putting so much emphasis on the 3D that it gets in the way during a heated race.