 This article is about the Wii variation. For a list of articles with the same name, see Rainbow Road. |
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Rainbow Road is the last track of the Special Cup in Mario Kart Wii. This Rainbow Road iteration has a Super Mario Galaxy theme that features sharp turns, half-pipes, alternate pathways and a cannon known as the Star Shooter.
This Rainbow Road track makes a retro appearance in Mario Kart Tour as of the 2023 Space Tour. It returns yet again in the sixth and last wave of the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the fourth and last track in the Spiny Cup, making it the last track in the DLC as well as the final course in the entire 96 course-filled game.
Layout[]
Mario Kart Wii[]
This variation of Rainbow Road features a narrow and translucent track with pastel colors unlike previous Rainbow Roads, and almost no guardrails, making it easy to fall off. This course features the only mandatory half-pipe pad in the entire Mario Kart series. It also has a cannon called the Star Shooter that shoots racers up like the pipe on Mario Kart: Double Dash!!'s iteration of Rainbow Road, though it resembles more of a rainbow tunnel. This Rainbow Road is filled with Dash Panels, with most of them bearing a Star Ring within them. This iteration appears to take place just above Earth's stratosphere, showing parts of the world, most notably, Canada and Greenland.
In terms of its layout, racers start with a long straightaway that leads to a downhill slope, consisting of a wide Dash Panel and a shorter Dash Panel on each side of the track, with the one of the right side in front. The road then goes bends upwards, before a Dash Panel ramp that goes over a gap. A sharp left turn follows, as well as a short straightaway with three Dash Panels close to each other, just before a left u-turn that utilises a half-pipe. The turn leads to a wavy straightaway where racers can perform tricks on. This road features some Item Boxes and many Star Bits floating nearby. The road ends off with another Dash Panel ramp.
Upon landing, racers come across a figure-eight section follows with red ramps circling around of middle of the holes, allowing racers to jump across them with enough speed or precision. The outside bends of the figure eight section feature half-pipes that hold Item Boxes. After this section, a sharp left and a long right takes racers to the Star Shooter.
The Star Shooter takes racers high up to a short right turn, which has a upwards left turn with Dash Panels right after it that leads to a unique type of half-pipe ramp with rings within that takes racers over a gap. They then land on a wide straightaway, which happens to split into two, where each path bends to the opposite side from the start of the split. Each split path features two Dash Panels and a jumpable gap with many Dash Panels at the end, which take racers to another short straightaway. Then there is just one final turn to the Finish Line: a wide left u-turn with three Dash Panels that is surrounded by a starry tunnel. After this turn, the road narrows back to normal.
Mario Kart Tour[]
Rainbow Road as seen in Mario Kart Tour.
Rainbow Road makes its first reappearance over 14 years later in Mario Kart Tour as the premiere track of the 2023 Space Tour, being the first track from Mario Kart Wii's Special Cup to return in a future installment. It received various visual upgrades, aesthetic, and gameplay changes. Firstly, many of the star rings around the track have been redesigned, giving then a more disco-esc feel, and most of them are much bigger than previously. Additionally, the rainbow road itself has been changed to feature more darker colors, as opposed to the pastel colors it used before. A giant moon-like object can now be seen just to the right of the big drop at the beginning, and it features a rocket ship, just like the ones seen in 3DS Rainbow Road. As well as this, more celestial objects have been added around the course overall. More arrow signs have also been added, and they now are in the same style as the ones seen in SNES Rainbow Road. Alongside this, the half-pipes from the original have been retained in this version, as with all returning Wii courses in this game. The two big holes around the mid-part of the track now lack the ramps from the original, meaning racers can no longer jump across the holes. The course is also now a single lap with two sections instead of three laps, with the second section starting at the Star Shooter, which now has a glide ramp just before it.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[]
This iteration of Rainbow Road returns as the final course of the Spiny Cup in the Booster Course Pass DLC as well as the final course in the DLC and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe game overall. The course is inspired heavily from the aesthetic and design of its Tour counterpart, but has been given a major visual overhaul. The road's colors have been brightened to better resemble its original variant, but still retains the grid textures. Similarly to the remaster of 3DS Rainbow Road in this game, a bright neon border has been added to the road, though it is colored yellow instead of blue. In addition, The star ring tunnel designs have been updated once more and now feature a sort of RGB background to them. More star bits have been added compared to the Tour version, especially on the final turn.
View of the downward slope in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
As for gameplay, the entire course is now Anti-gravity, making it the fifth track in the game to do so. Other than that, not much has changed besides the addition of Anti-gravity and some Spin Boost Pillars, as well as the addition and elimination of some railings. Furthermore, the jump ramps around the two big holes removed in Tour have been restored. The positions of the Dash Panels with star rings on the final turn of the course have noticeably been inverted. The atmosphere reentry effect from the original version of the course has been retained, along with the course once again being three laps unlike the Tour iteration. The mini-map has also been rotated 90 degrees compared to previous versions. Finally, the music also no longer skips the intro of the song on the third lap and instead plays it from the beginning like most other tracks.
Shortcuts[]
- At the beginning of a lap, shroom and then press the jump button at the right time, this will make you fly in the air and end up at the ramp.✱ for MKWii
- When you reach the part of the track with two holes, use a mushroom or a Star and jump over the holes. It's required to do a trick; otherwise, it won't work.
- After clearing the area with two holes, use a Mushroom, Star, or wheelie (either if you have done the second shortcut, or by using the half-pipe), and skip the first turn by going into space to the left of it.
- Once you reach the half-pipe jump section after the Star Shooter, cutting inside the uphill turn will allow you to completely skip the prolonged half-pipe jump. If done correctly, this can save a moderate amount of time.✱ for MK8
Staff Ghosts[]
Mario Kart Wii[]
| Character | Recorder | Time | Vehicle | Wii Wheel? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Normal | |||
| Nin★Konno | 03:05.895 | 
|
| |
| Expert | ||||
| Nin★Syun1 | 02:44.734 | 
|
| |
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[]
| Character | Recorder | Time | Vehicle Combination | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Body | Tires | Glider | |||
| 150cc | |||||
|
Nin★Leonel | 2:49.574 | 
|
|
|
| 200cc | |||||
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Nin★Yuya | 2:06.146 | 
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|
|
Gallery[]
Mario Kart Wii[]
Mario Kart Tour[]
_main_image.webp "Space Tour (2023) main image.webp (120 KB)")
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[]
.png "Wii Rainbow Road Icon (8 Deluxe).png (176 KB)"){kind=icon}
Trivia![]
- This track is considered to be one of the hardest tracks in Mario Kart Wii and in the entire Mario Kart series due to having many sharp and unstable turns, and almost all of the track has no guardrails, making it very common for players to fall off the track.
- This is the longest track out of all the Wii Cups, completing a lap in almost a minute if players don’t fall off the track.
- This is also the longest three-lap DLC track of the Booster Course Pass and the longest course overall in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
- This was the second Rainbow Road course to have Earth in the background; the GBA iteration was the first.
- When drifting on this track with manual drift on, a different sound is heard rather than the tires squeaking. This trait has been kept for later games in their Rainbow Roads.
- This is the first Rainbow Road (and first course in general) to have a unique falling out animation, with the character burning up upon entering Earth's atmosphere.
- This effect was removed in Mario Kart Tour, but was restored in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Previous track:
Bowser's Castle |
Current track:
Rainbow Road |
Next track:
GCN Peach Beach |
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Previous track:
GBA Snow Land |
1st reappearance:
Mario Kart Tour |
Next track:
Singapore Speedway 3 |
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Previous track:
SNES Bowser Castle 3 |
2nd reappearance:
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe |
Next track:
None |
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