Moonview Highway is the second track of the Special Cup in Mario Kart Wii. It reappears as a retro track in Mario Kart Tour as of the Night Tour, and shortly after in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of Wave 5 of the Booster Course Pass DLC, as the third track of the Feather Cup.
As its name implies, it takes place on a highway between a city and its outskirts, taking place at night. This track is filled with oncoming Traffic, including very explosive Bob-omb Cars.
Layout[]
Mario Kart Wii[]
Moonview Highway as it appears in Mario Kart Wii.
As the second track of the Special Cup in Mario Kart Wii, Moonview Highway takes place on a Traffic-bound highway surrounded by a section of a city, with mobile Item Boxes throughout. Barriers are predominant in this track, and there is hardly any off-road either.
Racers start with a wide toll booth behind them, and begin racing through the outskirts of the city starting with a sharp right turn and a sharp left; both turns have an optional cliff route beside them, while the latter's bears a Dash Panel ramp at the end for performing Tricks. Both cliff sections end with an Item Box. Along the outskirts is a short set of chicanes, where a bright view of a large-sized moon can be seen in the sky, as well as a forest full of pine trees and a huge lake. Next is a wide right turn followed by a short left, with a metal sidewalk on the left side, which isn't guardrailed, so racers need to be careful or else they will fall off the track. This leads to a short red bridge that goes over a river between a waterfall, marking the end of the outskirts. Further along the track, the road widens, with a toll booth nearby which has a sign on top bearing the track's name that has Miis working there - luckily, there are no fees, so there are no worries to drive past one.
After the toll booth is the vibrant sight of the city section, where the music switches to fast jazz with piano and saxophone sounds. This section has many Dash Panels on the road, as well as being filled with buildings that hold gigantic signs, such as the one with Princess Peach and Mario (replaced with Miis if you're a Mii). This section is a long straight that goes upwards until a short right turn, with another straight before a two-way tunnel. There is an inaccessible overpass above the track in this section. Racers then drive through the aforementioned tunnel, which starts off with a right turn, followed by a long straight that is also filled with Dash Panels. Racers keep driving straight to exit the tunnel, leading to the toll booth (which also has Miis working in there) behind the Finish Line and the road narrows back to normal.
There is oncoming traffic travelling on the road; like previous games, they still travel on the left side like Japan, Australia and UK (the right on Mirror Mode like the other countries), and racers that get hit by traffic are flipped and left Item-less. Exclusive to this track in this game, traffic significantly speeds up when they approach the city section, and they will suddenly change lanes so they don't go over any Dash Panels, so racers really need to pay attention to the road... Watch out, 'cause there's also the very dangerous Bob-omb Cars roaming the track, which explode much like a Bob-omb, temporarily vanishing when hit by a racer or projectile, flipping racers in its blast radius high in the air and leaving them Item-less.
Mario Kart Tour[]
After a 15-year hiatus, Moonview Highway finally makes a reappearance as a retro track, appearing in Mario Kart Tour as of the Night Tour. It has a redesigned look, though the track layout has received little changes. Additions include scattered Coins throughout the track and Mushroom Cars from GCN Mushroom Bridge. The posters on the buildings in the highway section and throughout Moonview Highway have been redesigned, while the poster of Mario and Princess Peach has been kept, though it will now stay as is even if you're using a Mii character. The sign on both toll booths is now an LED sign with the shape of a heart before the track's name, and colored Yoshis and Shy Guys replace the Miis that originally worked inside the toll booth. The city section is now slightly shorter.
In this game, Collisions with traffic will push the kart aside instead of flipping them over and dropping their item (apart from Bob-omb Cars, of course). Also, traffic travels slower, and now they no longer speed up at the city section, nor do they switch lanes after going over a Dash Panel, which won't affect their speed, making this track much easier to safer to traverse. As for sound effects, the sirens heard in the background in the city can no longer be heard, and the toll gates now reuse the airhorn sound effect seen in tracks such as Wii DK Summit, instead of having its own unique sound.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[]
Moonview Highway's exiting toll booth as it appears in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Moonview Highway returns once again as the third track of the Feather Cup in Wave 5 of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC. It is reminiscent to the Mario Kart Tour version, albeit with visual upgrades, with fog being added to the lake. Unlike DS Shroom Ridge and Tour Berlin Byways, the traffic here travels in both directions, as a callback to the original behavior.
There have been some changes to the track, where the first cliff section now has a standard ramp at the end for performing tricks, while the cliff ends can now be tricked off of. Also, Bob-omb Cars reappear for the first time in a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with this track, retaining its explosive behavior, except that their explosions can no longer leave racers item-less. The Mushroom Cars added in the Tour version have since been removed. As with most traffic courses added to 8 and 8 Deluxe, there are now Surfboard Trucks present for performing tricks, and Coins now trail behind traffic as well. The sound the toll gates make when they open have been reverted to the ones used in it's original iteration.
Shortcuts[]
- At the twisty road section, there is a grass patch on the right. Use a Mushroom) or Star to go through it.✱ for all games
- At the start of the track, there is an accessible cliff on the left (right if in Mirror Mode). In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there is a ramp at the end for tricking.
- By the second turn, there is another accessible cliff, which is on the right (left if in Mirror Mode). This cliff is much longer than the one on the left, and it has a Dash Panel ramp at the end for performing tricks.✱ for all games
Staff Ghosts[]
Mario Kart Wii[]
| Character | Recorder | Time | Vehicle | Wii Wheel? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Normal | |||
| Nin★KOZ★ | 02:16.802 | 
|
Yes | |
| Expert | ||||
| Nin★Koh | 02:04.163 | 
|
Yes | |
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[]
| Character | Recorder | Time | Vehicle Combination | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Body | Tires | Glider | |||
| 150cc | |||||
 |
Nin★Yuya | 1:54.655 |  |
 |
 |
| 200cc | |||||
 |
Nin★Sophia | 1:19.973 |  |
|
 |
Trivia![]
- This track is considered to be one of the hardest tracks in Mario Kart Wii due to the inevitable behavior of traffic on this track, and that they will drop your items if you hit one of them in this game.
- For some strange reason, racers that land on the roof of a vehicle will flatten in the Wii version of Moonview Highway.
- The cars and trucks in the Wii version bear a license plate that contains references to elements of the Mario series (e.g. 1UP, POW, and W1-1)
- This is the only track in Mario Kart Wii's Special Cup to lack Half-pipes.
- This is the only Wii track to feature traffic.
- This course was originally supposed to come in Wave 6 of the Booster Course Pass as the third course of the Acorn Cup (as evidenced by it being labeled in the files as "Cnsw_63"), but it got pushed up to Wave 5 for as of yet unknown reasons.
- Bob-omb Cars are absent in the track in Time Trials in Mario Kart Wii.
Gallery[]
Mario Kart Wii[]
.png "Yoshi (Super Mini-Turbo).png (273 KB)")
Mario Kart Tour[]
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[]
.png "Moonview Highway Icon (8 Deluxe).png (174 KB)"){kind=icon}
Video[]
Previous track:
Dry Dry Ruins |
Current track:
Moonview Highway |
Next track:
Bowser's Castle |
|---|
Previous track:
GCN Waluigi Stadium |
1st reappearance:
Mario Kart Tour |
Next track:
Rome Avanti 1 & 2 |
|---|
Previous track:
GCN Daisy Cruiser |
2nd reappearance:
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe |
Next track:
Squeaky Clean Sprint |
|---|