#15. MAKA WUHU

Set in and around an active volcano, Maka Wuhu is one of the most dynamic and visually diverse tracks in Mario Kart 7. From beautiful scenery and plenty of drifting opportunities to avoiding giant falling rocks and jumping off a cliff’s edge and paragliding through the air, Maka Wuhu keeps throwing interesting new elements at the player from beginning to end.

Possibly the most iconic Nintendo console, at least in terms of how it looked, was the Nintendo GameCube. A large part of this had to do with the console’s eponymous cube-like shape, coupled with its friendly handle that just invited users to take it along with them as they went to their friends’ homes. But another big reason was the shocking purple color Nintendo decided to sell the thing in- the same purple color that was also the default for the original Gameboy Advance.

Now, we’re going to be getting a blast from the past, when the New Nintendo 2DS XL purple and silver model launches on September 27. The model will come bundled with Mario Kart 7, for the standard retail price of $150.

Nintendo has also announced that going forward from that day, all 2DS XL models in all colors will come included with a copy of Mario Kart 7, for no additional cost. So that’s good. Take a look below.

Starting 9/28, New Nintendo #2DS XL systems will come with #MarioKart 7 pre-installed! Including the newest purple + silver color! https://t.co/q3piLR3aPS pic.twitter.com/4wywX4IW3d

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 28, 2018

Some of the other sales figures of note include Super Mario 3D Land selling 8.29 million units, Mario Kart 7 selling 8.08 million units, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D selling 2.95 million units and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon selling 1.22 million units. Overall, not a bad run of sales (but seriously, less than 3 million for Ocarina of Time? Sacrilege!)

Let’s not forget Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which is currently only available in Japan but is on its way to selling 4 (!) million units. The title will be making its way to North America and Europe soon, so we expect larger sales in the coming months.

Britain’s Fastest Family is a real-life Leaf Cup competition, with two family members, with at least a 10 year age gap and one participant being over 18, compete in regional heats to win a chance at racing in the Grand Final.

The winning pair will get themselves a Honda Jazz 1.4 Si and a limited edition Mario Kart 7 Winner’s trophy, with each regional winner grabbing a year’s worth of Nintendo 3DS first-party games.

For more information about Britain’s Fastest Family, visit the Nintendo website.

So what’s folder support? – Nothing much, really. You can customize the home screen and each folder contains support for 60 items and can organize them all.

Nintendo has also added support to update 3DS software as mentioned above, and the first game to take advantage of this marvelous feature is Mario Kart 7. If you remember, Mario Kart 7 had this glitch which couldn’t be fixed earlier because of Nintendo’s non-existent network, but now that won’t be a problem as it will be fixed soon.

There’s also a new recommendation system and a re-designed interface for the eShop.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Nintendo World Report.

The Media Create sales for the week January 16- January 22 are out, and the 3DS has topped the hardware charts as usual, selling nearly 81,000 units. Mario Kart 7 topped the software charts, selling a little over 35,000 units.

It’s surprising to see, however, that the Vita has plummeted even lower after its abysmal sales last week, selling only a little over 15K units this time around, below the PS3 and PSP.

Here’re the full charts:

SOFTWARE (sales/lifetime sales):

01./02. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 – 35.105 / 1.404.728 (-33%)
02./00. [3DS] Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure – 31.598 / NEW 
03./03. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3G # – 31.369 / 1.159.866 (-30%)
04./04. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land – 26.051 / 1.265.491 (-35%)
05./00. [360] Onechanbara Z: Kagura – 22.013 / NEW 
06./00. [PSP] Heroes Phantasia # – 15.163 / NEW 
07./05. [3DS] Inazuma Eleven Go: Shine / Dark – 14.190 / 360.325 (-32%)
08./00. [3DS] Beyond the Labyrinth – 14.176 / NEW 
09./01. [PSP] Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin II – Revelation of Evil God # – 11.598 / 93.494 (-86%)
10./06. [PS3] Warriors Orochi 3 # – 10.690 / 347.614 (-48%)
11./08. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII-2 # – 8.706 / 762.674 (-40%)
12./10. [WII] Just Dance Wii – 8.315 / 511.363 (-33%)
13./13. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (PSP the Best) – 8.126 / 171.906 (-13%)
14./12. [WII] Wii Party # – 7.133 / 2.273.318 (-24%)
15./11. [WII] Wii Sports Resort with Remote Plus # – 6.594 / 850.426 (-35%)
16./16. [WII] Kirby’s Return to Dream Land – 6.162 / 585.260 (-31%)
17./15. [WII] Mario Kart Wii – 6.137 / 3.489.774 (-32%)
18./19. [PS3] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Dubbed Edition – 5.945 / 96.391 (-24%)
19./18. [3DS] Nintendogs + Cats: French Bulldog / Shiba / Toy Poodle & New Friends – 5.932 / 481.804 (-25%)
20./17. [WII] Go Vacation – 5.460 / 221.639 (-33%)

HARDWARE:

3DS – 80,960
PS3 – 21,155
PSP – 17,181
Vita – 15,219
Wii – 10,173
Xbox 360 – 1,588
DSi LL – 1,200
PS2 – 903
DSi – 822

The structure of the game is similar to previous entries in the series. Grand Prix races, divided in 8 cups, each having 4 tracks, are available off the bat when you begin the game in three difficulty levels- 50cc (easy), 100cc (medium) and 150cc(hard). You can also play mirror tracks. The game boasts of 32 tracks, with 16 of them returning from previous games with adjustments and additions made to their design to incorporate the new features of Mario Kart 7, and 16 are all new tracks.

You choose from 8 characters, and as you progress, you unlock more. The full character roster includes 17 characters, including basics like Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi, Donkey Kong and others, while unlockable characters include Lakitu, Metal Mario, Wriggler, Honey Queen etc. While all these characters are great (though some of them look really goofy while driving a kart), the size of the roster is a little disappointing. Mario Kart Wii featured a total of 25 playable characters. To see so many baffling exclusions is a little disheartening.

Racing is still as fun as ever. The mechanics are awesome and work really well, and the circle pad works rather well, though it’s disappointing to know that there’s no option to use the direction pad to steer your kart. The chaotic, kiddish giddiness you got when you played Mario Kart games in the past is still here. What makes the racing even better is the excellent track design. Old timers like Rainbow Road and Maple Treeway are back, with adjustments made to their structure, and we also get to see some brilliantly designed new tracks, like Music Park and DK Jungle. Traps and obstacles are cleverly placed, and the tracks look visually stunning too.

The items in Mario Kart 7 are also much better than what you will see in other games of the series. Not only are they cleverly built (a few like the tanooki tail and Lucky 7 come to mind), but they’re also highly rebalanced this time, focusing on both, offense and defense. Gone are the times when you would be miles ahead of all opposition, and just as you’re about to win the race, you would get knocked out by thunderheads piercing the sky or other ridiculous happenings that would make you scream profanities at the world. The items are much more balanced now, and a semblance of fairness has returned to the racing. The blue shell is still here, though, and it’s frustrating as hell. I once got hit by three blue shells in a matter of five seconds while playing online. The fact that the rest of the items are so balanced makes this even more annoying.

However, enemy AI has been perfectly improved. Previously in Mario Kart games, you could win races without much difficulty. This time around, the enemy AI actually gives you formidable competition, and it’s almost as much fun the play the game offline as it is online. The rubber band effect has also been removed, adding more balance to the gameplay.

Probably the most innovating additions to Mario Kart 7, however, are the hang gliding and underwater driving sections. They actually lend strategy to the experience, and it’s fun to see how well they’re implemented. These should absolutely become staples for Mario Kart games from now on.

Coins, last seen in Super Mario Kart, are also back. In a race, you can collect 10 coins. The more cons you collect, the higher your top speed becomes, and the more items you unlock with which you can customize your kart. These also add a unique twist to the racing- do you go out of your way to collect them, or do you carry on normally and not reap the rewards?

Ah, that reminds me of kart customization, a great new addition. As you play the game, you unlock many goodies to use on your kart and make it optimal for your use. You can shape your karts the way you want them, placing all sorts of bizarre accessories on them that don’t just affect them visually, but also performance-wise. It lends depth and replay value to the game, as you want to keep unlocking more stuff to play around with on your kart. You also unlock several characters and tracks as you progress through the game, and that definitely adds to the replay value of the game as well.

Cockpit driving is another addition to the formula. Any time during a race, you can hit up on the d-pad to switch to cockpit view, or hit down to switch to normal, third person view. In cockpit view, you use the 3DS’ gyroscopic controls, tilting it from side to side to steer your kart (though you can use normal, traditional controls). I was surprised at how fun this was and how well it was implemented. The motion controls weren’t at all clunky, and felt very comfortable and smooth. They did not give as good a view of the surroundings as I’d like, but it’s still a neat addition.

The replay value of the game is sky-high, making it that much more worth the money. Unlocking items, tracks and characters is a ton of fun, not to mention the fact that the game is just so enjoyable even without those things. You also have a few extra single player modes to toy with, and the online adds so much more replay value to the game. It was a bummer that there’s no Mission Mode included- it did give us a lot of fun times in the past, and we’ll surely miss it, but it didn’t affect the experience much.

Speaking of online, Mario Kart 7 has to have the best online in the entire series. It’s a given that it’s more fun when played online than off, but there’s just so much Nintendo has done with the MP component this time around. Local multiplayer is definitely better than online multiplayer, but both are awesome. Going head to head against human players is a ton of fun, and new features like the community features and Street Pass functionality lend a great deal of depth to the online experience.  It isn’t without faults, and the online infrastructure could have been much better built and more user friendly, but that doesn’t make the online component of the game any less good.

The visuals of Mario Kart 7 are, of course, great. The tracks, as I already mentioned, are very well designed, and the art style is amazing. Every single track and character in this game is a piece of eye candy, and the fluid animations make the visual experience that much better. The soundtrack is also awesome. Not only do you get a great kick out of hearing the characters’ reactions to the goings on, but some of the themes are very well composed.

Mario Kart 7 is a great game. It’s fun as hell, it’s addictive, it has loads of replay value and it has a great online component. It does have a few faults, but when you look back at the experience you had with the game, you do not remember the somewhat iffy online structure or the disappointing character roster. You remember the insanely fun races, the awesome new innovations and the addictive online. If you own a 3DS, by all means, get this game. If you don’t you should buy it and Mario Kart 7 anyway. That’s how good this game is.

This game was reviewed on the 3DS.

There’s a glitch in Mario Kart 7, as many of you might know (those who don’t should have a look at the video below) that allows players to drive off the course at a point in the track and reswpawn at a checkpoint much, much ahead of where they actually were, allowing them to practically skip a huge portion of the track. This has, obviously, caused fans to speak up and ask Nintendo to remove this glitch. Nintendo, however, has decided not to take action.

Saying it would be unfair to the players who bought Mario Kart 7 early on, Nintendo says they will not be fixing the bug.

They have sent out the following e-mail:

‘Thanks for your patience in waiting for a response during this busy time of year. We are aware that it is possible to navigate a certain part of the track in Wuhu Island in a way that allows a large part of the course to be bypassed. There are no plans to update the game to remove this shortcut as doing so would create an unfair advantage for the users of the original release of the game. Rest assured your comments have been added to our records for Mario Kart 7.

Sincerely,

Buddy Roemer
Nintendo of America Inc.’

Not only does this mean that Nintendo will not be releasing a patch or a fix, but also that they will not be fixing the game’s code in the new batch of retail copies. This is a pretty disheartening reply by Nintendo, to say the least.

Let’s hope Nintendo finally gives in to the players’ demands soon, because right now, this track is practically unplayable online.

[Stick Twiddlers]

The figures released by Enterbrain/Famitsu show that Mario Kart 7 was the highest selling game in Japan for all of December, outselling the likes of Final Fantasy XIII-2, Super Mario 3D Land and Monster Hunter Tri G. In its very first month the 3DS iteration of Nintendo’s long running kart racing series sold 1,072,391 units.

Other newcomers like Monster Hunter Tri G (sold 809,322 units) and Final Fantasy XIII-2 (697,146) also did well, although FFXIII-2’s sales are disappointing when compared to previous games in the series.

Here’s the top ten:

01. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 – 1,072,391 / NEW
02. [3DS] Monster Hunter Tri G – 809,322 / NEW
03. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII-2 – 697,146 / NEW
04. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land – 499,669 / 1,042,511
05. [PS3] Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. – 432,391 / NEW
06. [Wii] Kirby’s Return to Dream Land – 250,497 / 498,428
07. [3DS] Inazuma Eleven GO – 232,052 / NEW
08. [PS3] Musou Orochi 2 – 210,553 / NEW
09. [Wii] Just Dance – 201,996 / 427,874
10. [Wii] Wii Party – 156,780 / 2,123,773

Stay tuned for more updates.

Nintendo has taken over the holidays in Japan, like the do usually. Most of the software in the top 10 list belongs to Nintendo as you can see in the list below.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 has bombed hard and it seems like it did less than 100k here and is the worst performing Final Fantasy game ever. By comparison FFX-2 sold 1.5 million units in Japan, and it looks like this game may struggle to reach even 1 million.

Check out the entire list below.

1. [3DS] Mario Kart 7
2. [PS3] Musou Orochi 2
3. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land
4. [3DS] Monster Hunter Tri G
5. [Wii] Kirby’s Return to Dream Land
6. [Wii] Just Dance
7. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII-2
8. [3DS] Inazuma Eleven Go
9. [3DS] SD Gundam G Generation 3D
10. [Wii] Inazuma Eleven Strikers 2012 Xtreme