Nintendo spills more Mario Kart 7 3DS beans: 32 tracks, new characters, and power-ups, online multiplayer, and more

Nintendo has revealed several new details of its upcoming arcade racer Mario Kart 7, which will speed onto European 3DSs on December 4th.

The game's biggest feature is seemingly its online multiplayer, which allows you to create groups with other racers, set specific rules to level the playing field, and race against your buddies over both broadband and local connections. Community leaderboards will display info from recent races.

The 3DS's StreetPass and SpotPass features will also be supported, with both services allowing you to exchange racing scores, win/loss records, ghost data - up to seven at once - and more with other Mario Kart 7 players.

This, of course, wouldn't be a new Mario Kart title if it didn't include a bunch of new characters and power-ups. This time around, you can jump behind the wheel as Metal Mario, Lakitu, or your very own Mii, and utilise Fire Flower and Super Leaf boosts. The former allows you to hurl fireballs at your colourful foes, with the latter adding a Tanooki Tail to your kart.

Finally, there will be a total of 32 courses - 16 new and 16 classic - which you can speed around using the 3DS's Circle Pad or gyroscope. You already know about the dedicated online channel.