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The first update to Mario Kart 7 in almost a decade

• Jacob Chambers
• December 20th, 2022

Update (December 20, 2022, 03:45 GMT): The Mario Kart 7 update from last week has been clarified by dataminer OatmealDome. It seems that the game’s netcode has undergone some modifications, and there has also been an upgrade to prevent Version 1.1 from being utilized with Version 1.2.

[Mario Kart 7]

Here’s some information on the version 1.2 update from the @CTGP7 project lead.

It seems the primary changes were made to the netcode, but they “cannot give more details”.

The other changes are just safeguards to prevent version 1.1 from playing with 1.2. https://t.co/UEdE01otDi

— SantamealDome 🎁 (@OatmealDome) December 19, 2022

PabloMK7, a Mario Kart 7 modder and 3DS homebrew developer, provides a more thorough description (via Twitter):

Here are all of the differences in the new Mario Kart 7 v1.2 version that I have determined: of the game’s more than 20,000 features: – Changes have been made to 27 functions. – There are now 2 new functions available. – A minor compiler error vanished.

The majority of the adjustments and new features relate to netcode, particularly the management of the players’ communication protocol. None of the modifications introduce new capabilities or gameplay elements (I cannot give more details, you will have to wait).

As already signed in players wouldn’t be required to update until they reenter online mode, some of the adjustments are linked to parameters supplied to the server so that players running v1.1 don’t matchmake players running v1.2.

The game’s version number was increased for the in-game updater launch as a last tweak. Unless the game updates again, this adjustment won’t likely ever be used since this number is only used to begin the update and not at all for checking for updates.

Regarding the compiler error, a particle-related function had a “-1” next to it that has since been removed. The “-1″‘s inclusion in the code was probably the result of a compiler error, and both its addition and removal were probably inadvertent.

Original article (published December 14, 2022, 03:05 GMT) Unexpectedly, Mario Kart 7, a fantastic 3DS game, has just received its second update. Yes, despite the game’s 2011 release, Nintendo has inexplicably updated it with a new patch, bringing it to Version 1.2.

The official patch notes state that a number of problems have been fixed to enhance the overall experience. This upgrade comes after Version 1.1, which was released in May 2012. Here is the whole list of patch notes for this game, which includes patches spaced ten years apart:

Ver. 1.2 (Released December 13, 2022) (Released December 13, 2022)

General
To enhance the gameplay, a number of problems have been fixed.

Ver. 1.1 (Released May 15, 2012) (Released May 15, 2012)
The tracks Wuhu Loop, Maka Wuhu, and Bowser Castle 1 have been updated to prevent shortcut exploits from working in the Online Multiplayer Mode.
The online multiplayer modes of the game must be updated in order to be played. The tracks in the Local Multiplayer and Single-Player modes won’t be impacted by this upgrade, though. Without getting the update, users can still play in these modes.
This patch, according to dataminer OatmealDome, may address some security flaws. Nintendo recently released similar fixes for a number of vintage Switch games.

There is even a possibility that this patch fixes the same security bugs as the other games, since Mario Kart 7 is a first-party Nintendo game and could use a lot of the same common netcode that was found to be vulnerable.

— SantamealDome 🎁 (@OatmealDome) December 14, 2022

In slightly related news, Nintendo last week included Wave 3 DLC to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Eight additional courses and two additional cups are added to the game. Our most current coverage of Nintendo Life has more information on it.