50 Fun Facts About Mario Kart 7

Which series regular was left off the Mario Kart 7 roster even though his pinball course returns?

Waluigi had raced in every main entry since his debut, yet here he turns up only as a statue built into the returning pinball table.

What does a kart in Mario Kart 7 sprout from its rear when it drives underwater?

A propeller unfolds behind the kart, and speed, handling and drifting all change below the surface. It was the first time the series let racers drive fully submerged.

Mario Kart 7's Rainbow Road crosses the cratered, low-gravity surface of what, dodging Chain Chomps?

The Moon is one stop on a course that also runs along the rings of Saturn. It was the first Rainbow Road built as a single long lap in three parts.

Which of these items is one of the seven that Mario Kart 7's Lucky Seven sets circling the kart?

Blooper joins a Banana, a Green Shell, a Red Shell, a Mushroom, a Star and a Bob-omb in the set. Only human players can draw the Lucky Seven in a normal race.

How many coins unlock the Gold Standard kart body in Mario Kart 7 without racing online?

20,000 coins buys the Gold Standard, which British versions simply call the Gold Kart. With a cap of ten coins a race, that means at least two thousand races.

With nearly 19 million copies sold, Mario Kart 7 holds which sales record?

Best-selling 3DS game is a title it earned fast: more than two million copies went in Japan alone during its first two months on sale.

Wuhu Loop and Maka Wuhu in Mario Kart 7 take place on the holiday island of which Wii game?

Wii Sports Resort lent its title theme as well: both courses play an arrangement of it. Each one is a single long run split into three sections instead of laps.

Metal Mario first races in Mario Kart 7 in which weight class, despite driving a mid-size kart?

Heavy puts him alongside Bowser and Wario at the top for speed and weight, while his mid-size kart makes him a smaller target than either of them.

In Mario Kart 7 Download Play, which driver must every guest without a game card race as?

Shy Guy fills every guest seat, each in a different colour, as he did in Mario Kart DS. This was also the first game to offer him as a regular selectable driver.

Winning Grand Prix cups in Mario Kart 7 unlocks which extra class beyond 50cc, 100cc and 150cc?

Mirror reruns the 150cc Grand Prix with every course flipped left to right, so each familiar turn and jump ends up on the opposite side.

Which Super Mario Bros. power-up first became a usable racing item in Mario Kart 7?

Fire Flower holders can throw up to ten fireballs, forwards or backwards. Players already knew it as the emblem of the Flower Cup, a job it has had in every game.

Which new item in Mario Kart 7 gives the kart a striped tail to swat rivals and deflect shells?

Super Leaf tails last ten seconds and sweep up nearby coins as they swing. The item was dropped again for Mario Kart 8.

Which feared item lost its wings in Mario Kart 7 and now skims the road toward first place?

Spiny Shell models here are larger than before and knock over anyone in their path. None can be drawn during the opening 30 seconds of a race.

Which trap, first seen in Mario Kart 64, was dropped from main entries starting with Mario Kart 7?

Fake Item Box traps, look-alikes of the real thing, had featured in four earlier games. Leftover data for one sits unused in Mario Kart 7's files.

Which Super Mario Galaxy character was shrunk to kart size for a playable debut in Mario Kart 7?

Honey Queen races as a heavyweight and arrived with a signature kart body, the Bumble V, plus a battle arena of her own, Honeybee Hive.

Which first-time driver in Mario Kart 7 turns red with anger whenever its kart spins out?

Wiggler was trimmed to three body segments to fit in a kart, and its upper pair of arms fling wide whenever it gets a speed boost.

Which newcomer to the Mario Kart 7 roster usually works as the series referee, riding a cloud?

Lakitu the driver wears a red shell, which tells him apart from the green-shelled referee who is on duty in the very same races.

Which driver is unlocked in Mario Kart 7 by finishing every Grand Prix cup in any one engine class?

Mii racers are the only unlockable drivers not tied to winning a particular 150cc cup, and both Wuhu Island courses count as their home tracks.

The Gold Standard kart in Mario Kart 7 could also be earned by hitting 10,000 in which online score?

VS Rating, or VR, started every player at 1,000 and moved with each online finish. Since official online play ended in 2024, collecting coins is the only route left.

Mario Kart 7's Gold Glider unlocks with coins or after 100 encounters through which 3DS feature?

StreetPass lets consoles that pass each other trade data without their owners lifting a finger. Together with the Gold Standard body and the Gold Tires, the glider completes the all-gold kart.

Which new course in Mario Kart 7 is raced entirely in pouring rain that reduces the karts' traction?

Neo Bowser City, called Koopa City in British versions, is a neon-lit metropolis and the first course themed on the villain that is not a version of his castle.

Which instruments work like trampolines on Music Park in Mario Kart 7, bouncing karts into the air?

Tambourines launch karts upward on a course built from instruments, where a giant piano and xylophone sound their notes as racers drive across the keys.

Which Mario Kart 7 course copies the underground levels of Super Mario Bros., blue Goombas included?

Piranha Plant Slide opens with water slides that drop underground, echoing the entrance to World 1-2. British versions call it Piranha Plant Pipeway.

Which Mario Kart Wii course returns in Mario Kart 7's Banana Cup with its Piantas removed?

Coconut Mall lost its Piantas on the 3DS, so coloured arrows were added to show which escalators go up and which go down.

Which Mario Kart 64 course returns in Mario Kart 7 with a steam train that crosses the track?

Kalimari Desert gained ramps that let karts glide right over the rails, while the railway tunnel that players once sneaked into was put out of bounds.

Which Mario Kart DS course returns in Mario Kart 7 with Banzai Bills in place of its Bullet Bills?

Airship Fortress fires its Banzai Bills at faster intervals than the original's Bullet Bills did, and its cannon still shoots racers into the fortress tower.

Which earlier game supplied only one classic course to Mario Kart 7, fewer than any other?

Super Circuit is represented only by Bowser Castle 1, rebuilt in 3D with stone pillars rising from the lava and a glide ramp that appears partway through the race.

DK Jungle in Mario Kart 7, home to Tiki Goons and Screaming Pillars, is based on which platformer?

Donkey Kong Country Returns also supplied DK's Tree House and the Frogoons, and the course was built by that game's own developers.

Which opening course of Mario Kart 7 appears on the cover art and hosts the award ceremony?

Toad Circuit has giant inflatables of its namesake floating above the track, and it plays the same music as the game's Mario Circuit.

Which Mushroom Cup course gives Mario Kart 7 players their first taste of underwater racing?

Cheep Cheep Lagoon drops racers off a bridge into the water, where clam-like Clampys open to reveal coins and item boxes.

Which Texas studio, best known for Metroid Prime, was brought in to help finish Mario Kart 7?

Retro Studios joined in December 2010 and took on course design, which made this the first Mario Kart built by more than one developer.

Mario Kart 7 was short of staff partly because which Zelda game had overrun into 2011?

Skyward Sword and other projects tied up so many developers that Nintendo turned to outside help to get the racer done for Christmas.

Mario Kart 7 began with a team of just eight because which 3DS launch game was due out first?

Nintendogs + Cats took priority, so the racer began small and later had to be rushed out for Christmas 2011 because the 3DS was selling slowly.

Which Mario Kart 7 producer compared the game's new kart customization screen to a slot machine?

Hideki Konno added customization to make races more strategic, while keeping the game simple enough that newcomers could start playing straight away.

Which Mario Kart 7 mode gives each driver three targets to protect during a two-minute match?

Balloon Battle no longer knocks anyone out here: a driver who loses all three balloons gives up half their points and comes back with a fresh set.

Which Mario Kart 64 battle arena, built around a pool of lava, returns as a stage in Mario Kart 7?

Big Donut gained four glide ramps around its central hole on the 3DS, so drivers can now fly straight over the lava.

In Mario Kart 7 Time Trials, what can players download through SpotPass and race several of at once?

Ghosts are recordings of other players' best runs, and enough of them can share the track to turn a solo time trial into a full eight-kart race.

Which camera option, new in Mario Kart 7, lets players steer by tilting the 3DS itself?

First-person view puts the camera in the driver's seat while the 3DS gyroscope turns the whole console into the controls. It works in battles as well as races.

What does each coin collected, up to a limit of ten, raise for a kart during a Mario Kart 7 race?

Top speed creeps up with every coin, but hitting a hazard or falling off the track scatters part of the haul.

Which vehicle type, introduced in the previous home-console game, was left out of Mario Kart 7?

Motorbikes sat this one out, though the mid-air tricks that arrived alongside them survived under a new name, jump actions.

What is the lightest of the five weight classes in Mario Kart 7, the one Koopa Troopa races in?

Feather drivers trade speed and weight for the best acceleration and handling. They are also the only ones who ride the smallest of the three kart sizes.

Mario Kart 7's Rainbow Road reappears as a stage in the 3DS entry of which other Nintendo series?

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS sets its fights on a platform that hovers around the course, and karts speeding past can damage any fighter they hit.

Mario Kart 7 lost its online races for good in April 2024 when which service was shut down?

Nintendo Network features had made an early appearance in this game: its online communities, which let players race together without swapping friend codes, debuted here.

Mario Kart 7 became the first 3DS game to be patched, in May 2012, to remove what from online races?

Shortcut exploits on Wuhu Loop, Maka Wuhu and Bowser Castle 1 let cheats skip long stretches of track. The fix applied only online, so offline they were left in.

Which unlockable kart body in Mario Kart 7 revives the simple karts everyone drove in Mario Kart 64?

Pipe Frame changes colour to suit its driver, as the Standard kart body and the Super Glider do. It had been missing from the series since Super Circuit.

Which kart body in Mario Kart 7 is based on the flying vehicle that Bowser pilots in other games?

Koopa Clown ties with the Birthday Girl and Cloud 9 for the best handling of any kart body. It skipped Mario Kart 8 but came back in the Deluxe version.

Which kart body in Mario Kart 7 is styled on a mid-1960s Formula One car?

Zucchini, renamed the Gherkin in British versions, ties for the highest speed of any kart body, at the cost of acceleration and handling.

Mario Kart 7's Gold Tires unlock with enough coins or by earning what in every cup of every class?

A star rank or better is needed right across the Grand Prix. British versions call the prize the Gold Wheels, and no other tires give a bigger speed boost.

What does Mario Kart 7 award to players who use gyro controls in at least 80 percent of 100 races?

A gold steering wheel replaces the black one seen from the driver's seat, which stays black even on the Gold Standard kart until the reward is earned.

Which Mario Kart 7 kart body first appeared in Double Dash as the signature ride of Diddy Kong?

Barrel Train blends a steam engine with a barrel and sounds a train whistle for its horn. It also carries one of the strongest mini-turbo boosts in the game.