When there’s a new Mario Kart title on the horizon, it’s pretty much expected that a new racing peripheral will also be in the pipeline. With Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS though, Nintendo is trying to hedge their bets on gamers being more focused on a tactile experience than the eye-popping visuals.

Created by Hori, and only identified as coming to Japanese markets, this racing wheel will make great use of the 3DS’ gyroscope and accelerometer to give players the same racing controls games have been delivering for quite some time now.

As you can see from the images above, this Mario Kart 7 racing wheel borrows quite a bit from the Wii version that was released, and now dominates teh sales charts. Simply snap your 3DS handheld into the cradle and then turn the “wheel” to control your kart — it’s simple stuff, expect there’s only one problem.

Since motion control and 3D don’t mix too well on the 3DS, players will have to pick whether or not they want to use the wheel, and reap all the motion controlled excitement from mimicking driving, or if they want to race in 3D. Of course players might be able to find a nice balance with the 3D slider, one that will accommodate some 3D whilst turning, but Star Fox 64 3D showed us it’s pretty difficult.

It’s one or the other with the 3DS, 3D or motion control, and very rarely can it be both. And since the 3DS began to slip, and Nintendo swooped in with a sales-boosting price drop, Nintendo appears to be more focused on covering all of their bases rather than relying solely on the 3D visuals carrying the handheld.

Currently the racing wheel peripheral, which does bare the official Nintendo seal of approval, is only releasing in Japan, but it seems entirely feasible that the peripheral would make its way to North America. The game releases in a little over a month, giving Hori or another company plenty of time to make a reasonable facsimile.

Do you have a hard time keeping 3D on and using the gyroscope and accelerometer? Would you be interested in picking up this Mario Kart 7 racing peripheral if it meant keeping 3D off all the time?

Mario Kart 7 releases December 4 for the Nintendo 3DS.

Source: Andria Sang