I'm back ladies and gents after an unintenional haiatus (frickinkinderstilts...) and FINALLY I can get around to making that Darn Mariokart 7 Review, so I'm not beating around the bush any longer, lets get to it!!

Story: Story!? STORY!!?? WHAT STORY IS THERE TO IT IN MARIOKART!!!??? You just run in circles till you win or suck, it isn't like Crash (Tag is optional) Team Racing or Need for Speed Most Wanted which did have a choersive plot.
long story short: MarioKart has no Story and most likely Never Will!!

Gameplay: It's as it should be expected for a racing game that it has tight and decent controling of the karts, the inclusion of the Gliders and the Propellers give a nice, new sense of depth in the tracks, and Drifting is nicely tweeked out again so there will be none of those Snaking B*st*rds ruining the fun, however when it comes to racing in the 150cc races it feels like I'm only going at the pace of a 100 or prolly even 50cc powered kart, now it could just be me being a sh*t player but that does make things a little unfair when not even your best Drifting skills can let you keep up with them.
Speaking of Unfair; The Items!! all the usual suspects have returned: Shells, Bananas, 'shrooms, Stars, Lightning, the good-against-AI,-useless-IRL Blooper, that Nightmare Inducing Blue Shell (and still no Boo... ._.) and now a Few new contenders like the Tanooki Tail; a good multi-purpose close range weapon, the Fire Flower; which allows rapid fire flame shots, and the Lucky Seven-(IseewhatyoudidthereShigeru)-which grants you seven items for your choosing. But i say unfair because it may just be me, but there seems to be a ridiculously higher drop rate of Lightning bolts than compared to the previous games and when you consider that coins are the lifeblood of the unlock system (which I'll get to later) this will really piss you off real fast. And of course the Blue Shell has been made more Asshole-ish than ever, now it can bash aside anyone in it's way towards first place so now the only safe place is gonna be behind the shell thrower... and even THEN you woun't be safe from the lightning that goes off every bloody lap!!!

Audio/Visual: The track roster this time is pretty interesting, there is the inclusion of new Rally Tracks which a 1-lap track split into three segments. Toad has the honour of holding the new Character Circuit which gives him good recognition,the obligatory Bowser's Castle is arguably the best designed Castle of the MKart series (seriously, only bowser can keep lava hot in WATER!) and as for Rainbow Road... ah... =u= so beautiful... so grandeuresque...
special mentions on the new roster go out to Melody Motorway and Koopa City for their tunes and design and Mario Circuit for its' best possible use for the 3d function-(which, by the way is damn negligable for this game... don't bother turning it on...)
Also, the Retro Roster couldn't be any more better: there is loads of gems including Coconut mall, Daisy Cruiser, Koopa Cape, Waluigi Pinball (my all-time favorite.) and even the First, Ever, Rainbow Road!! infact the only hiccup in the entire roster is Kalamari Desert, which was freaking, Boring!

Any Extras: The coin unlock system for racing parts is by far one of MKarts best niches of all time which provides a good "Persistence-pays-off" sort of replay value; provided that you don't get struck by Lighning/Red Shell/Blue Shell combos (it happens more common than you think), however this comes at a cost; this practically makes all the characters you race as MOOT!!! if they only provided a stat change to the vehichles (except for the Mii which would be default) then it would provide a more tactical edge to the races.
but it's a good thing the characters don't matter, because not only is the entire character sheet, including the unlockables, utter rubbish; but the way to unlock them is totally and ridiculously STUPID!!!! Because except for the Mii which can be unlocked after completing any cc, all the unlockable characters are only unlocked in the Freaking 150cc tourneys!! WHICH IS IDIOTIC!!! why? because there is no sense of spreading out at all to it! which is thus why it's a good bloody thing the characters don't matter.

So! In conclusion, if you have a good 'net connection or a good ring of friends to play with, or if you are a REALLY big fan of MarioStuff then i can easily recommend this to you. but don't be too hyped at the character roster and also don't get your hopes up that you get your favorite Kart Peices first... seriously, I've compared data and some of us have stuff the other doesn't...
so just-...just enjoy the music of Melody Motorway and Rainbow Road pleeeeeeeease?!

All Regards:
El-Vanguarde-san.