Mario Kart 7 Gets Its First Update In Over A Decade, Here’s What’s Included

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Mario Kart 7
Image: Nintendo

In surprise news, the excellent 3DS title Mario Kart 7 has today been updated for the second time ever. Yes, despite being released in 2011, Nintendo has randomly issued a new patch for the game bumping it up to Version 1.2.

According to the official patch notes, several issues have been addressed to improve the overall experience. This follows a previous update (Version 1.1) in May 2012. Here’s the full patch note history for this game, featuring updates a decade apart:

Ver. 1.2 (Released December 13, 2022)

General

Several issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience.

Ver. 1.1 (Released May 15, 2012)

  • An update has been made available to eliminate shortcut exploits in the Wuhu Loop, Maka Wuhu, and Bowser Castle 1 tracks when they are played in the Online Multiplayer Mode.
  • The update is required to play the game’s Online Multiplayer Modes. However, the tracks in Single-Player and Local Multiplayer Modes will not be affected by this update. Players can continue to play in these modes without installing the update.

In typical fashion, Nintendo doesn’t actually reveal what’s going on behind the scenes with this update, but it could easily have something to do with the online services or 3DS eShop closure – with the shutdown taking place on 27th March 2023. Dataminer OatmealDome has suggested this patch may fix certain security exploits:

In somewhat related news, Nintendo last week updated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with the Wave 3 DLC. It adds another two cups and eight more courses to the game. You can learn more about it in our recent Nintendo Life coverage.