Mario Kart 7 Multiplayer, Streetpass

October 21, 2011

Much info has emerged about Mario Kart 7's multiplayer modes!

A lot of new information has been revealed about Mario Kart 7's multiplayer and Streetpass features. For multiplayer, up to 8 players can play together at once either locally or online, and the game is supposed to run at 60 frames per second (for those of you who don't know what that means, the game will run very smoothly). It also seems that the game will include something resembling the Mario Kart Channel for Wii.

As for Streetpass, there is a "communities" feature. Basically, someone can set up a group for Mario Kart with specific rules, and then you share the community via Streetpass. Some speculation has noted that this resembles a clan, which could be very interesting, especially for competitive-level racing. There will even be community leaderboards. Meanwhile, Streetpass is also used to exchange data with the people you pass (wins/losses, scores, etc). Also noteworthy is Spotpass, which allows you to download a ghost racer each day. You can store up to 7 at a time and can even have a full 8-person race with them.

Another tidbit of news: gyroscopic controls will be available. We've already known that you can use a first-person view of the kart, but I'm fairly certain it's new news that you can use gyroscopic controls for steering in this mode. I'll probably stick to the circle pad, but I've really enjoyed the gyroscopic controls in Ocarina of Time and Starfox, so I'm sure it will be good here, too.

Basically every bit of news we get about this game excites me, and I'm already looking forward to getting it on launch day (December 4th for North America). The graphics look awesome, and I really like the customizability of the karts, too. I don't expect too much more information to get revealed about the game, though, because they've already shown off a lot and I can't imagine what else there might be in store.