The answer is: 32. Nintendo say that Mario Kart 7 will have 16 new tracks and 16 classic tracks. Following last night’s Nintendo 3DS presentation by company president, Satoru Iwata, they’ve also shed some light on the game’s various community features.
The “Community” feature will allow players to create groups with other Mario Kart 7 players. Here’s how communities work: When you create a community, you get a 14-digit community code that you can share with other people over the Internet on message boards and the like. Once someone has your community code, they’ll be able to join your community and play with you.
The inspiration for this feature came from watching Mario Kart Wii players exchange their Friend Codes online. Community codes are meant to make that process faster, since they’re for entire communities and not individual players. After setting up a community, you can set up specific rules for customized races, and these can also be shared with other 3DS owners you meet in real life, using StreetPass.
As previously reported, players you encounter via StreetPass are also registered in the game, and you can play with them if they happen to be online at the same time.
StreetPass has another purpose in Mario Kart 7. If you cross paths with someone else with a 3DS, their Mii and respective kart of choice will be stored in your 3DS. After that, you’ll be able to race against an AI version of them, with similar habits and play styles. This is also one of the ways to unlock the different parts you can customize your kart with. If you beat a Mii, you win some of the parts they’re using.
If you connect your 3DS to the Internet, you’ll also be able to download regular ghost data to race against. Nintendo say that you can download up to seven ghosts at a time, and go up against them in an 8-player race. You’ll be able to download up to 20 ghosts a day if you want to. These ghosts are generated via the game’s Time Trial mode and automatically uploaded to Nintendo’s servers when you connect your 3DS to the net.
Similar to Mario Kart Wii, a separate channel for keeping track of StreetPass and SpotPass data can be stored on the main 3DS menu. Community leaderboards in the game will also show information from recent races.
