YMMV / Mario Kart 7

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Though he was already making progress in moving out of the scrappy heap, Waluigi was still a somewhat contentious character when this game released. Despite that, there was much criticism for his absence here, especially given the newcomers who made it in are considered underwhelming and/or downright strange picks.
• Base-Breaking Character: Both of the following characters are seen as this for being perceived as taking Waluigi's spot.
  • Japanese fans, Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros. players love Metal Mario and regularly play as him online, while a significant amount of Western fans see him as a boring Palette Swap of Mario. The fact he's a Heavyweight racer with the smaller size of a Middleweight and little in the way of notable disadvantages hasn't helped matters, nor has his return in several subsequent games and the introduction of Pink Gold Peach as a female counterpart out of nowhere and Gold Mario appearing as an alternate costume for him, being mostly seen as Palette Swap and lacking the liked precedent Metal Mario has.
  • Some consider the Honey Queen's inclusion to be too ridiculous, due to being shrunk down to fit into a cart as well as not being important to Galaxy's story, only appearing in a small handful of missions, to warrant an inclusion. Others like the idea of a heavy-set female being playable, thinking that the Mario franchise's female characters are too idealized. Nonetheless, it's very telling that she was the only character introduced in 7 to not return in Tour and 8 (including the Booster Course Pass DLC in Deluxe).
• Best Level Ever:
  • This game's Rainbow Road is widely considered by many to be the best incarnation of the Rainbow Road tracks, due to its 3 sectioned layout (instead of the typical 3 lap layout) giving it a sense of grandiose scale unseen in past versions, on top of the added variety offered by the moon and planets, the gorgeous visuals and its beautiful music that changes depending on which section you're in. Unsurprisingly, it tends to be one of the tracks most picked by players in online and has reappeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Mario Kart Tour, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, likely due to its popularity.
  • Music Park/Melody Motorway is an insanely creative track in which you jump on drums, drift on piano keys and try to avoid giant music notes, all to an upbeat and incredibly catchy track. It returns in Mario Kart 8.
  • DK Jungle is a massive love letter to Donkey Kong Country Returns and is filled to the brim with elements from that game, including an entire section where you drive through the golden temple. It also returns in Mario Kart 8.
  • Wario Shipyard/Wario's Galleon is a slightly more subtle homage to Wario Land but just as great, its music incorporates the introduction of the main theme from Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, features a pirate theme, and Bull Wario. It returns in Mario Kart Tour.
• Contested Sequel: One of the most contested entries in the series. While the gliding, underwater driving, and kart customization, alongside small touches such as the addition of the Frontrunning first place beats to the music were all welcome well received additions, and general consensus is that the game is a worthy successor to its predecessors, the removal of fan favorites like Waluigi and Toadette in favor of characters like Honey Bee Queen and Metal Mario, as well as a lack of a single-player versus mode like in DS and Wii, are decisions fans continue to question.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Metal Mario plus B-Dasher plus Red Monster tires and Paraglider equals the fastest vehicle with the best Off-Road in the game, and is commonly seen online as well.
• Event-Obscuring Camera: On the last stretch of Rock Rock Mountain where you climb up the mountain, the camera slowly shifts to a different angle so you can see up the hill. The problem is the angle switch is done slowly to begin with, which means you can't see the oncoming boulders rolling downhill.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Rosalina, a blonde, regal woman dressed in blue, has her own ice world. This was a good two years before Elsa had her own ice kingdom.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The frontrunning beats (named Go-Go Track by the developers) that play when going in first place are especially satisfying if the player hears it after clawing their way back from last place in the space of a single lap.
• Nintendo Hard: Most players of reasonable ability will be able to breeze through the 50cc and 100cc classes and achieve three stars regardless of player/kart selections. Then there is a noticeable difficulty spike on 150cc and 150cc Mirror where the enemies become much more ruthless, have a better spread of items and track specific hazards become much harder to dodge because of the speeds involved. Achieving a three star rating on every cup takes a LOT of perseverance.
• Once Original, Now Common: The introduction of gliding, underwater, and kart customization were generally well-received and seen as some of the most innovative ideas in the entire Mario Kart franchise whose impact is still felt in the most recent entries alongside small but significant touches such as the addition of the Frontrunning first place beats to the music. However, when the Even Better Sequel Mario Kart 8 (and its Updated Re-release Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) were released afterwards, which, alongside Mario Kart Tour to a lesser extent, came around with larger rosters, more courses, and in the case of 8 and 8 Deluxe, anti-gravity alongside a more varied Battle Mode in the latter, Mario Kart 7, began to feel barebones in comparison due to just how much more content 8 added to the series. There's also the fact that the Switch has more power under the hood, so characters and courses look far better than on the 3DS. It also doesn't help that many of the courses in 7, classic remakes or otherwise, were remade in 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass, as well as a part of Tour (which even provided the basis for the pass' content).
• Replacement Scrappy: Three of the four newly-introduced characters (Honey Queen, Wiggler, and Lakitu) are typically seen as out-of-nowhere (though Lakitu has some precedent in being the referee ever since the first game and therefore some players not minding him and actually welcoming the idea of him being Promoted to Playable) additions that took spots from regulars and/or fan-favorites, such as Waluigi, Diddy Kong, Bowser Jr. and Dry Bones. The hate started to dwindle after Waluigi made it into the next game alongside Lakitu, with Bowser Jr. and Dry Bones making it into Deluxe, and Wiggler apparently being enough of a fan-favorite to make it into the Booster Course Pass, with Diddy following suit. Honey Queen, however, has yet to appear in any future Mario Kart titles.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The much debated Blue Shell returns again, and has been reverted to how it was before Double Dash!! — in addition to being able to unblockably hit whoever's in first place, it can also knock over other unfortunate characters who happen to be in the middle of the track as it speeds by to home in on its target.
  • Going through a cannon no longer protects you from items such as Lightning or Blue Shells. So if you get hit with either while gliding, you're doomed.
  • The Lucky 7 item. After you pick up this rare power-up from an Item Box, seven items start circling around the player's kart (much like Triple Shells do). The problem with this item is, because of its rareness, it's unexpected and therefore can be a liability in the middle of a heated race. You can only use the spinning item you want when it's directly lined up in front of you. Spamming all items at once is frowned upon by other players, but what other choice do you have? If another player drifts into you, they are very likely to steal away your Star, Mushroom, Blooper, or set off the Bob-omb by accident blowing you both up.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • For the first time since his introduction into the Mario Kart series, Waluigi isn't a playable character. While other removals such as Diddy Kong and Bowser Jr. also garnered negative reception, Waluigi having become a staple of the roster by this point resulted in a more noticeable outcry.
  • The traditional VS Race mode, which lets you pick and race any courses in any order, isn't available in single-player in this game. You can only do solo races outside the predetermined Cups by StreetPassing another owner of this game, and this only allows you to race on their personalized "[playername] Cup" (which contains their selection of four courses), behaving like a severely limited version of the VS mode. This is in spite of the game letting you play around with the same VS mode settings as Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii (except for Team Race) if you use DS Download Play to have another player locally join up with you.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: An odd example. Despite Waluigi not being playable within the game proper, his course from Mario Kart DS, Waluigi Pinball, does make an appearance, and he does make a cameo in the stage, which makes his exclusion all the more questionable. It was ultimately a result of poor timing, with his development and testing taking far longer than expected to the point that the rest of the game was ready to go without him, so it got shipped with him being omitted. The lack of post-release patch support besides bug fixes didn't help matters.

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