I bought two racing games on the 3DS this week and the first, Mario Kart 7, was everything I was expecting it to be. I came in from the wrong angle of having played its successor Mario Kart 8 already so a lot of the new features added had been improved upon along with the better tracks from this game being recreated for the WiiU version. That's not to say I was downbeat about my time with the game, its a lot of fun and a couple of the tracks added are great, I especially like the tracks which are split into sections rather than the conventional laps. Flight (or air-gliding) being one of the features added for this iteration is used much better than its successor, I felt that short cuts and speed boosts were a lot of fun to find with this technique. The roster, which has been expanded and chopped and changed so much by this stage, is one of the weaker for my tastes. Obviously this is a minor thing, bearing in mind how most are just skin changes for your racer, I found myself sticking to the predictable Toad and Koopa Trooper throughout. On my loose scale of this series, being a rare thing that I've played and finished every one released, I'd place it somewhere between Super Circuit and Super Mario Kart, I certainly got more out of Mario Kart DS. For the record here's my uninformed Mario Kart Chart.
8. Mario Kart Wii
7. Mario Kart 64
6. Mario Kart: Super Circuit
5. Mario Kart 7
4. Super Mario Kart
3. Mario Kart 8
2. Mario Kart DS
1. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
So with that cleared up I played a lot of a game that would probably go straight to the top of my horse racing crossed with solitaire games list. Pocket Card Jockey (3DS) it's as addictive a game as I've played in a long time. Tasked with controlling a resurrected jockey, who's not great at racing horses but enjoys playing cards the game then goes on to explain the at first daunting combination of solitaire and horse racing. It goes something like this; 1) race starts and you play a bit of speed solitaire to determine how quick out of the blocks you are and where you place early on 2) you play a bit of solitaire (for a varying amount of rounds during the race) the better you do at this the more energy your horse has and more injections of pace you get at the end of the race. 3) You physically mark out where your horse goes on the track, areas which will slow down expend more energy are shown, along with areas which will retain energy 4) depending on the distance of the race you then enter the home stretch and here the game seems to weigh up how you've done for how quick your horse is but also placement of the horse and the amount of boosts you have at this point can be really important. On top of all this the game has a levelling system to your horse, which includes certain skills they learn and the temperament of the creature, oh and there's a shop which sells special one time items for races along with puzzle pieces which when complete I think they boost a horse or something? At times, especially early on I found it all rather overwhelming but quickly a seemingly complex random assortment of mechanics became clear and more importantly a lot of fun. There's a massive element of chance, on numerous occasions my ride would be undone by an AI mishap or a bad hand of cards but weirdly I don't find it frustrating. The races are short enough to always have me ready to have one more go and on top of all this its got a lovely aesthetic to the whole experience only made better by some genuinely funny characters and some awesome music. I absolutely adore this game, its everything I want from a handheld game and possibly the best thing I've played on a handheld since Tetris.
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