How To Unlock All Mario Kart 7 Characters, Vehicles & Tracks

5. How to Unlock Shy Guy

The timid, sly, masked troublemaker, Shy Guy, can be unlocked in Mario Kart 7 as a playable character by winning the Shell Cup on 150cc Difficulty.

Shy Guys are an enemy type that hail from Super Mario Bros. 2 on the NES, a game that introduced many unique enemies into the Mario universe (thanks to the fact that the game wasn’t originally a Mario game). Shy Guy made his debut as an actual playable character starting with Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64, and made his Mario Kart debut with Mario Kart DS; where Shy Guy was the default Download Play multiplayer character. Mario Kart 7 however marks the first time that Shy Guy has debuted as a main racer (albeit a secret one) in the Mario Kart series.

6. How to Unlock Honey Queen

Honey Queen, the Bee Queen of sweets, is unlockable as a playable character in Mario Kart 7 by beating the Banana Cup on 150cc Difficulty.

Honey Queen made her debut in Super Mario Galaxy as a side-character known as Queen Bee. She appeared on a couple levels as a very large NPC (Non-Player Character) whom you could climb if you were Bee Mario. In Super Mario Galaxy she ruled over the Honeyhive Galaxy, and also appeared on Bugaboom’s Planet. In Super Mario Galaxy 2 she reappeared in the Honeyhop Galaxy. Queen Bee was never considered a main Mario character and was of little significance… until now. Dubbed “Honey Queen” for her Mario Kart 7 debut, she is a playable main character in Mario Kart 7; inducted into the Mario series character roster for the first time. Some people will be disappointed with this decision, as Honey Bee appears in lieu of other Mario characters that fans would like to see. However this is because Nintendo focused on making the most recent Mario console games (Super Mario Galaxy 1 and Super Mario Galaxy 2), more relevant. Thus, two of the four all-new racers in Mario Kart 7, Honey Queen and Rosalina, hail from the Super Mario Galaxy series.

7. How to Unlock Wiggler

The multi-legged Mario enemy, Wiggler, is an unlockable character in Mario Kart 7 who is earned by winning the Leaf Cup on 150cc Difficulty.

Wiggler is a classic Mario enemy who made his first appearance in Super Mario World. This marks the first time that Wiggler has appeared in any Mario game as a playable character! Wiggler is a unique enemy in that he appears docile at first, but when Mario would stomp on him, Wiggler would turn dark red and charge toward Mario at a quick and angry pace. Wiggler’s appearance in Mario Kart 7 may also mark the turning point of this character from enemy to friend; similar to Lakitu’s transition from foe to friendly.

8. How to Unlock Lakitu

The cloud-floating, glasses-wearing Koopa Troopa known as Lakitu finally appears as a playble character in Mario Kart 7! He is unlocked by winning the Lightning Cup on 150cc Difficulty.

Lakitu is a classic Mario enemy who made his first appearance in the original Super Mario Bros., as a character who dropped spiked Spiny enemies on our heroes. With his appearance in the original Super Mario Kart, Lakitu took on a more friendly roll as the race referee and traffic light holder at the start of each race. He was promoted to a more prominent role with Super Mario 64 as that game’s camerman. In recent times Lakitu has had large roles in many off-cannon Mario adventures (RPGs in particular) and Mario Sports titles, Mario Party titles, etc. However Lakitu’s appearance as a racer in Mario Kart 7 marks the first time he has ever been playable! Welcome to the family Lakitu! It’s about time!

9. How to Unlock Mii

Your 3DS Mii Avatar can be unlocked as a playable character in Mario Kart 7 by winning each and every cup on any difficulty setting (so you can beat them on 50cc, 100cc, 150cc or any mix to unlock Mii).

Miis represent yourself in Wii and 3DS titles, and have appeared as playable characters ever since the Wii’s debut and the Nintendo Wii launch title Wii Sports. In more recent times they have made appearances that make them more of an actual character, such as this appearance in Mario Kart 7 where your Mii appears as an actual playable racer. Previously Miis became playable as an unlockable character in Mario Kart Wii.

Unlockable Vehicles and Parts

Earning Coins in the game will unlock all-new Vehicles for you to race as. These same Coins may also unlock a new part, either a new Wheel or new Glider. A new part in any of the three categories (Kart, Wheel or Glider) will unlock for every 50 Coins that you collect. So you’ll unlock a new Kart or Part at 50 Coins, 100 Coins, 150 Coins, 200 Coins, 250 Coins, 300 Coins, etc.

Coins are scattered throughout each and every course and can be collected by riding into them. You can collect a total of ten Coins per course, and obtaining 10 increases your top speed. However you will lose Coins if you are hit by an enemy projectile, a track hazard, or fall into a pit. You will then have to collect them again. Thus, beating each course with 10 Coins intact is no easy feat! Remember to hold items behind your Kart (by pressing and holding down the L Button) to protect your rear, this will greatly help you fend off incoming projectiles from your opponents, which will knock Coins out of you if you get hit!

Having said that, you’ll very quickly earn the required number of Coins to unlock a new part or a new Kart, and completing a Cup on any difficulty setting (50cc, 100cc or 150cc) will generally earn you 50 Coins, allowing you to unlock a new Kart or Part.

Each character in the game has specific stats (represented by bars) in the areas of: Speed, Acceleration, Weight, Handling and Off-Road. You can see these stats when you choose your character. These stats are then modified by choosing a different combo of Kart, Wheel and Glider. As such, you can choose certain combos to give a slow character great acceleration, or give a lite character more weight. Choose wisely!

Default Karts
These are the Karts you start the game with. You can unlock more by collection Coins during races.

1. Bolt Buggy
2. Bullet Duck
3. Birthday Girl (Royal Ribbon in Europe)
4. Soda Jet
5. Standard Kart
6. Streamliner

Unlockable Karts
As you might imagine, there are several cool and funky Karts that you can unlock to race in by earning Coins. These unlockable Karts offer you much better and much more varied stats than the Default set of Karts that you have when you first boot up the game. It will take a while to unlock all of the Karts, but it is definitely worth it. Unlocking Karts also gives you something to look forward to as you keep playing through the different Cups and difficulty levels, collecting Coins which will eventually unlock the following Karts. Once you have them all, you’ll have a nearly endless number of different combinations that can be created for each of the games 17 characters.

7. Blue Seven
8. Bruiser
9. Bumble V
10. Cact-X
11. Cloud 9
12. Tiny Tug
13. Zucchini
14. Barrel Train
15. B-Dasher
16. Koopa Clown
17. Pipe Frame
18. Egg 1

Default Wheels
1. Monster
2. Roller
3. Standard

Unlockable Wheels
4. Red Monster
5. Slick
6. Slim
7. Mushroom
8. Wooden
9. Sponge
10. Gold

Default Glider
1. Super Glider

Unlockable Gliders
2. Flower Glider
3. Peach Parasol
4. Swooper
5. Paraglider

How to Unlock Karts, Wheels and Gliders

The following list shows you how many Coins (or Star Rank) you need to unlock the specified Kart, Wheel or Glider. There are 22 Karts and Parts in all for you to unlock! The easiest way to unlock all of these different Karts and Parts (race cars, wheel sets and gliders) is to simply play through the Cups in the main campaign.

1. Red Monster Wheels – Unlock this Wheel by Collecting 50 Coins.
2. Barrel Train Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 100 Coins.
3. Zucchini Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 150 Coins.
4. Koopa Clown Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 200 Coins.
5. Swooper Glider – Unlock this Glider by Collecting 250 Coins.
6. Pipe Frame Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 300 Coins.
7. Tiny Tug Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 400 Coins.
8. B Dasher Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 500 Coins.
9. Cloud 9 Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 600 Coins.
10. Bumble V Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 700 Coins.
11. Peach Parasol Glider – Unlock this Glider by Collecting 800 Coins.
12. Bruiser Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 900 Coins.
13. Cact-X Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 1000 Coins.
14. Flower Glider – Unlock this Glider by Collecting Collect 1200 Coins.
15. Slick Wheels – Unlock this Wheel by Collecting 1400 Coins.
16. Slim Wheels – Unlock this Wheel by Collecting 1600 Coins.
17. Blue Seven Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 1800 Coins.
18. Sponge Wheels – Unlock this Wheel by Collecting 2000 Coins.
19. Paraglider – Unlock this Glider by Collecting 2500 Coins.
20. Egg 1 Kart – Unlock this Kart by Collecting 3000 Coins.
21. Gold Wheels – Unlock this Special Wheel by earning a minimum of 1-Star Rank in each and every Cup. That’s all of them! GOOD LUCK!
22. Golden Steering Wheel – Earn this part for playing the game online (reportedly). Play at least 100 races and use the Gyro controls 80% of the time and you can unlock this secret Gold Steering Wheel! Can anyone confirm this?

UPDATE
Apparently the Karts and Parts are randomized, so you will not unlock exactly what it shown here for the same amount of Coins. But eventually what you earn will match this list, it’s just the order that is randomized. Thanks to sammy g. for pointing this out!

One of the best ways to unlock all of the above Karts and Parts is to start playing the single-player Grand Prix mode on 50cc, and then go through each of the difficulty settings, from 50cc to 100cc and finally to 150cc. Each time you finish a new Cup and its four courses, you will most likely unlock a new Kart, new Wheel or new Glider. This has the added bonus of unlocking a new character as well once you reach the 150cc Difficulty level, where you’ll unlock a new character each time you finish a Cup.

Unlockable Cups and Tracks

All-new Cups that contain new tracks can be unlocked by clearing the previous Cup on the same difficulty setting. This means that beating the Mushroom Cup on 50cc will unlock the Flower Cup on 50cc. But won’t unlock the Flower Cup for the 100cc class or greater. So if you consider yourself a master Mario Kart player, you may want to start the game playing o 150cc, which will immediately give you a new character each time you beat a Cup.

Here is a list of all the Cups and Tracks in the game. The Mushroom Cup and onward, feature all-new tracks, while the Shell Cup and onward feature classic Mario Kart tracks from past games from all systems.

Mushroom Cup
1. Toad Circuit
2. Daisy Hills
3. Cheep Cheep Lagoon (Called Cheep Cheep Cape in Europe)
4. Shy Guy Bazaar

Flower Cup
5. Wuhu Loop (Called Wuhu Island Loop in Europe)
6. Mario Circuit
7. Music Park (Called Melody Motorway in Europe)
8. Rock Rock Mountain (Called Alpine Pass in Europe)

Star Cup
9. Piranha Plant Slide (Called Piranha Plant Pipeway in Europe)
10. Wario Shipyard (Called Wario’s Galleon in Europe)
11. Neo Bowser City (Called Koopa City internationally)
12. Maka Wuhu (Called Wuhu Mountain Loop in Europe)

Special Cup
13. DK Jungle
14. Rosalina’s Ice World
15. Bowser’s Castle
16. Rainbow Road

Shell Cup
17. N64 Luigi Raceway
18. GBA Bowser Castle 1
19. Wii Mushroom Gorge
20. DS Luigi’s Mansion

Banana Cup
21. N64 Koopa Troopa Beach
22. SNES Mario Circuit 2
23. Wii Coconut Mall
24. DS Waluigi Pinball

Leaf Cup
25. N64 Kalimari Desert
26. DS DK Pass
27. GCN Daisy Cruiser
28. Wii Maple Treeway

Lightning Cup
29. Wii Koopa Cape
30. GCN Dino Dino Jungle
31. DS Airship Fortress
32. SNES Rainbow Road

In addition to the above new and classic courses, the game also features 6 Battle Courses for play in the online or offline multiplayer modes. There are three all-new Battle Courses and three retro Battle Courses taken from past Mario Kart games from all systems. You will only see these tracks if you are playing the game in multiplayer.

New Battle Courses
33. Honeybee Hive (Called Honeybee House in Europe)
34. Sherbet Rink
35. Wuhu Town

Retro Battle Courses
36. N64 Big Donut
37. GBA Battle Course 1
38. DS Palm Shore

Thanks for visiting! Please comment if you need more help or just to let us know if we helped you out. 😀