Haha, I've picked Rainbow Road every time. I want to see how crazy it gets. No luck yet. :(
Overall impressions thus far: Diggin' it. It seems kind of like MKWii, but tweaked in the right ways. Less players, less slop, better balance, better handling and sliding...
I love the Glider. I wish the courses offered a bit more risk/reward for using it skillfully, but it's always a rush when it pops out. I thought I'd hate the water stuff, but it isn't too bad! Kind of unnecessary, but it doesn't hurt things. These two elements should make Time Trials interesting.
I also love the way the old courses have been retrofitted. And god DAMN, is Rainbow Road slick. And devious. I'm halfway through the new tracks. Some cool tracks, some plain ones. Time will tell how they hold up. The online is very fun. Very smooth, like MKWii, but not as controller-shattering-inducing.
The coins feel really good. It's something else to do, even when you're in the lead, and capitalizing on the misfortune of others is always fun (that should be Mario Kart's motto). As for the new items, the tail is pretty wicked in close quarters. It's almost a melee weapon, like a club, or something. The Lucky 7, I've only gotten once. Seems enjoyably crazy. I tried to hit someone, and got him with a mushroom, rocketing him ahead of me. That was amusing. The fireball is kind of devious. It's pretty thrilling to dodge the projectiles using the bottom screen. The Blue Shell still kind of pisses me off. I'm okay with it, except when I get shelled at the end of the race. And lightning can really fuck you up in this game, as in MK64.
Question: Can you disable gyro controls in first-person mode? Please say yes... The 3D is surprisingly subtle in Mario Kart 7. Kind of way more subtle than it should be. Nintendogs has ten times the depth of MK7. Not in terms of gameplay, but visually.
Speaking of depth, though, MK7 seems pretty barebones in some aspects. Some missing features from previous Karts, barring a ton of unlocks. You can tell it was rushed, a bit. That said, the core is still here and very fun. I like it a lot better than stupid MKWii so far.
Haven't tried Battle Mode yet, though. And I feel that they should have instituted an item-dragging 'toggle' option. This game could potentially be hand-destroying.
None of you guys were in the rooms when I checked!
@TriforceBunSeriously, what is up with that mamphlet? For shame, Nintendo. Oh, well. At least it's still color. And I suppose that Nintendo games certainly don't need a manual, at this point.