Mario Kart is now on the 3DS, adding to the growing pile of games that actually justify buying the system. Mario Kart 7 is exactly what you’d expect in a new Mario Kart game. That’s its biggest strength, and that’s it’s biggest weakness. It’s the same Mario Kart you’ve been playing for years, and whether that means it’s a fun romp through new and old tracks or a stale retread of a formula that’s been unchanged for almost two decades is a matter of opinion.

That said, let’s at least try to review this thing.

Mario Kart 7 uses the same formula as Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii. There are four four-track circuits with new tracks, and another four with classic tracks from older Mario Kart games. The new tracks range from the uninspired to the surprisingly fresh, with stand-outs including the Wii Music-themed Melody Motorway (yes, someone actually remembered the Wii Music flop) and the re-imagined Rainbow Road. The classic tracks run the entire Mario Kart series, but I found myself enjoying the oldest entries (SNES Rainbow Road and GBA Bowser’s Castle) and newest ones (DS Airship Fortress, DS Luigi’s Mansion) more than the N64 and GameCube tracks, probably because the DS and Wii games already took the good tracks from those games.

Gameplay is identical to the past Mario Karts, with only a few small tweaks. The emphasis is still on power sliding and using items to get to the front, and rubber banding is as brutal and frustrating as ever. If you’re in front, you will be hit by a blue shell. You can count on it. The new gameplay elements come from gliding and underwater segments, where your kart springs a glider or propeller. Unfortunately, they’re only superficial changes. The gliding amounts to long, controlled jumps that you can steer for short times and get to different paths, and the underwater driving amounts to a slightly slower drive; if you expected dogfighting or submarine action, you’re going to be disappointed. At most, they feel like a way to add new elements to the tracks, instead of changing gameplay in any significant way. There are also a few new items: the Tanuku leaf, the Fire Flower, and the 7 power-up. The Tanuki leaf gives your kart a tail that lets you spin to crash nearby racers or bat away red and green shells, and the Fire Flower lets you throw fireballs forward or backward for a short time, acting like shorter range green shells. A special 7 pickup gives you 7 different Mario Kart powerups floating around you, letting you go through-them at your leisure and giving opponents chances to steal them. They’re small changes that don’t add much to the established series.

You can customize your karts now with a slot machine view that lets you change the body, wheels, and glider of your kart. You start with a handful of parts, but as you collect coins at up to 10 per race you unlock other parts. The parts you unlock are randomized, and you won’t unlock all of them until you collect at least 5,500 coins, so there’s no strategy to building the kart you want. A store would have been nicer, since you’re already dealing with coins, but Nintendo clearly wanted to make the customization aspect as simple as possible.

The graphics are up there with Mario Kart Wii, but since it’s Mario Kart that isn’t saying much. It looks great and the 3D really pops out, keeping the cartoony Mario look the series has had since the beginning. The re-imagined Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance tracks are surprisingly fun to play on the 3DS, with the completely flat tracks and tiled patterns translating into an enjoyable, retro racing experience. The newer, more complicated tracks have their own visual appeal, with Rainbow Road’s fluctuating track and the surprise race on the surface of the moon showing what the 3DS can do.

Battle Mode is back, and it’s as chaotic and nonsensical as ever. There are only six battle mode tracks, but they’re varied enough to provide plenty of fun if you can get three other 3DS users in the area. They’re party game modes for a party kart racer, and if you want balanced or deep competitive action you need to find another game.

This is the same Mario Kart we’ve learned to love, and it’s still plenty of fun to play. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit stale, with only a few token changes adding little to the decade-old formula. If you still love Mario Kart, get this game. If you still like Mario Kart but don’t want to spend $40 on the same game, get (or keep) Mario Kart DS. If you want something new, why are you looking at a Mario Kart game?