3, 2, 1, Go!!! The Mario Kart for the new handheld is here. Supports no glasses 3D, 8-player online races, 16 new tracks, and 3 brand new items. Coin collecting from the SNES title is back and better than ever. The number of racers are back to eight, but customizable karts are in. Eight cups with three difficulties are still here. New features using the 3DS Street Pass and Spot Pass functions are here as well. Nice package for such a new system.

Like most Mario Karts, there are eight cups. Four support nothing but new tracks with air and water sections. Some of the new tracks aren’t your classic 3 lap races. Instead, they are marathon races. Check points in the track signify how close you are to the finish. The other four cups are nothing but old tracks from the rich history of Mario Kart games, with added elements. The old water hazards are gone because you can race underwater, offering new ways to race on classic maps.

Coins play a big part in Mario Kart 7. Some veterans of the Mario Kart series might remember how, in the original, you could collect coins to go faster. It doesn’t work like that anymore. Now the coins you collect help unlock new parts for your customizable karts. You don’t get to buy them or even know how much you need to save up in order to unlock them, but it happens. On the easier difficulties, it was easy to finish every race with max coins. On 150cc, I’m having trouble holding onto even five coins.

The difficulty has really gone up. The AI is more aggressive and I don’t remember that many blue shells being in a single race before. The items are relentless, get hit by one and end up in the back of the pack. Lucky Number 7 is the biggest addition to the items. Basically, it gives you a mix of 7 different items to use. If racing AI isn’t what you are into, then try out the online side. In Mario Kart DS, you had to do four races with four people to raise your rank. In Mario Kart 7, your rank is affected after every race and races can be up to eight players. It helps for when you don’t have much time and just want a quick race.

Mario Kart 7 is fun. Mixes the best of all past Mario Karts to make this the best experience so far. That being said, it doesn’t change the game. There are new and old tracks within eight different cups just like all other Mario Kart games. Still supports 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and Mirror for difficulties. Only 3 new items add very little to the gameplay. The air and underwater elements are fun but aren’t enough to make it feel new. It is just a more perfected version of Mario Kart DS. With the slim picking of 3DS content, Mario Kart 7 will keep you busy until Kid Icarus or Luigi’s Mansion 2 comes out.

This is the time of year where real MEN come out to enjoy the hard sounds of engines revving and tires screeching! The burning smell of exhaust and new-car fuels the muscles of a total road warrior! Oh yeah. It’s that time of year. Where people like us charge right into the L.A. Convention Center, walk past all those men, and drool at the Nintendo booth! Yaaaay (throws confetti)! Nintendo made a very unusual appearance at the Auto Show this year to unveil a project they’ve been working on with West Coast Customs. Not too many details were given, but we arrived at the show seeing two vehicles covered with a sheet. Oh yeah. Let’s see them.

Reggie Fils-Aime (President and COO of Nintendo of America) took the stage and started to talk briefly about the Mario Kart franchise. Mario Kart has sold over 80 million copies around the world and plans to launch its latest installment on December 4^th with Mario Kart 7. To promote the new game, Reggie said Nintendo had an idea for a couple custom vehicles and approached West Coast Customs to see if they could help make their idea a reality. They took the sheets off the mystery vehicles and BAM! They exploded. Nah, wishful thinking. I enjoy epicness. Close though! The two cars were fully functional life sized versions of Mario’s Standard Kart and Luigi’s Bumble V Kart! Oh yeah. They looked mighty hot.

The CEO of West Coast Customs (Ryan Friedlinghaus) was then invited on stage to explain the cars and talk about how they’re totally race-able! He found out when one of his employees totally PWND him the night before the presentation. The presentation was short but we didn’t mind. It was time to get a closer look at the cars and get some sweet hands on time with Mario Kart 7!

Nintendo was doing the same thing they’ve done with the last few conventions where the 3DS was present. The consoles are chained to a crew of Nintendo gals whose job it is to let you play, tell you about the game, and distract you enough so you don’t steal it. My crew and I started a game with a few of the Nintendo girls and got in some 8 player action (the ‘giggity’ is way too obvious here and I’ll have no part of it)! Mario Kart 7 allows you to customize everything. You can choose what kind of glider you want, tires, kart, etc. Every choice obviously has a give and take as you watch the kart’s statistics fall in certain categories as you’re deciding what parts to use. This gives the series a bit more of a “hardcore” approach, but for many of us who love Mario Kart, this is a good thing.

The gameplay is just as solid as ever with a ton of new tracks and a few new power ups. The new powerups Nintendo was really boasting at the event were the Super Leaf, Fire Flower, and Lucky 7. The Super Leaf gives your cart a Tanooki Tail (possible cross advertising for Super Mario 3D land?). This allows you to swat away hazards on the road. The Fire Flower gives you the same power here as every other Mario game it’s featured in, but this time you can throw fire at other racers instead of Goomba AIs. The Lucky 7 is the most intense one. This will spawn 7 items around your kart just waiting to PWN someone on your command.

The game will also feature Nintendo Wi-Fi play and take advantage of the 3DS StreetPass functionality. If you walk past someone else who’s carrying a 3DS, the systems will automatically trade scores and win/loss records.

Overall, the show was short but plenty fun. We got to see the karts for real! After many years of racing these puppies digitally, we finally got to stand right next to one. The game itself is shaping up to be the best Mario Kart so far. Our very own Landon Dastrup commented, “It takes everything they did right with Mario Kart DS and improves it.” Make sure to check out all the pictures from the event by clicking on our new “Event Pics” section on the sidebar. Don’t forget to come back in a few weeks for our full review on Mario Kart 7.