Rainbow Road

Not to be confused with Rainbow Ride.

This article is about the race courses in the Mario Kart series. For other uses, see Rainbow Road (disambiguation).

Rainbow Road is the final course of the Special Cup in all Mario Kart games and serves as the ultimate course in terms of difficulty in each game in which it appears. Each game features its own different iteration of Rainbow Road, but the courses all share the "Rainbow Road" name. Starting in Mario Kart 7, Rainbow Road courses from previous games have reappeared as classic courses alongside the new ones. Mario Kart Tour is the only mainline game in the series to not introduce its own fully original Rainbow Road, though it does introduce two Rainbow Road remix courses and features some returning Rainbow Roads as classic courses.

As their name suggests, these courses are made of rainbow-colored surfaces, usually metallic or glass, that are either one color or change their color as racers drive on them, depending on the game. Many of these tracks are transparent. From Mario Kart: Double Dash!! to Mario Kart Tour, the surface on each Rainbow Road creates a unique metallic sound when racers drift, hop, or perform a sharp turn on it. Starting in Mario Kart 7, some of the Rainbow Road courses have sections of the race track that are not rainbow-colored. Rainbow Road typically appears to be floating in deep space or the Earth's atmosphere, although the ones in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart World and the remade N64 Rainbow Road and SNES Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 8 instead hang suspended in a starry night sky above a landscape. The course often contains few or no railings, putting racers at risk of falling off the track, and each Rainbow Road also contains its own unique hazards. Due to these obstacles, Rainbow Road is among the most difficult courses in each Mario Kart game; it is also often one of the longest.

Rainbow Road has also made some appearances in other games outside of the Mario Kart series, as well as in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

History[edit]

Mario Kart series[edit]

Rainbow Road has appeared as multiple incarnations throughout the Mario Kart series:

While Mario Kart Arcade GP and Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 do not feature any courses with the Rainbow Road name, two similar courses appear in the games' Rainbow Cup, namely Rainbow Coaster and Rainbow Downhill. Both courses feature a tiled road with rainbow colors high in the night sky, starting out at a space station with floating items and warping to a cloudy environment with beanstalks at daylight akin to GBA Sky Garden (which is instead an undersea environment in the third and fourth rounds of the Rainbow Cup, the ruins of an above-clouds sanctuary at night in the first and second rounds of the Special Rainbow Cup (although Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 has these environments swap places), or an underwater temple in the third and fourth rounds of the Special Rainbow Cup).

F-Zero X[edit]

Main section: Rainbow Road (Mario Kart 64) § F-Zero X

Rainbow Road appears as a racetrack in F-Zero X. It is based on the Rainbow Road from Mario Kart 64.

F-Zero GX also has a track similar to Rainbow Road called Phantom Road, which does not take place in a starry night sky or deep space like most Rainbow Roads, but rather in a psychedelic cybernetic void. In addition, the track has only one color that constantly shifts through the color spectrum rather than the traditional rainbow-looking appearance. Earlier builds of the track that remain in F-Zero AX retain the Rainbow Road moniker, most likely as a nod to Rainbow Road in F-Zero X.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3[edit]

Main article: Rainbow Road (Dribble Race course)

Rainbow Road is the unlockable third dribble race from the "challenges" section in Mario Hoops 3-on-3. However, this Rainbow Road floats above the clouds and around a clock tower, and not much of the course is fully seen when playing.

Super Mario Galaxy 2[edit]

In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Rainbow Road appears in both missions of the Rolling Coaster Galaxy, but it is quite different compared to its previous appearances: it is curved and appears to be made up of rainbow tiles instead of the colors simply being contiguous, more similar to the Rainbow Road from Super Mario Kart in which the track is also made up of rainbow tiles. The road is also accompanied by several platforms shaped like both mushrooms and squares with different colors. Despite taking place in space, this Rainbow Road features a cloudy sky as a background. Mario or Luigi must roll a Star Ball along this Rainbow Road, avoiding several obstacles like towers and Bob-ombs. They can earn two Power Stars for finishing the course, one for the normal mission and another for collecting 100 of the 110 Purple Coins. The music played on Rainbow Road is an arrangement of "Slider" from Super Mario 64.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS[edit]

Main article: Rainbow Road (stage)

Rainbow Road appears as a stage for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, based on its Mario Kart 7 incarnation. Like Port Town Aero Dive from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is a moving stage where players fight on a platform that flies around the course, which also occasionally lands on the course itself. While on the ground, Shy Guys can drive by and damage any fighters in its way, like in the Mario Circuit stage from the previous game.

A Rainbow Road also appears in Rosalina & Luma's announcement trailer, where Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Donkey Kong are all racing each other (driving karts from Mario Kart 8) only to be suddenly interrupted by Kirby on his Warp Star, followed by a Luma and Rosalina. This Rainbow Road slightly resembles the incarnation from Mario Kart DS.

Paper Mario: Color Splash[edit]

Rainbow Road appears in Paper Mario: Color Splash, leading directly to Black Bowser's Castle. The road is formed after all six Big Paint Stars are retrieved. Luigi drives Mario and Huey over to Black Bowser's Castle via his kart as the road is too slippery to walk on. Eventually, all but Huey (who elects to stay behind to ensure the black paint does not seep into the ocean when Black Bowser's Castle falls down) escape the castle and return to the road. While comforting Mario about Huey's decision, Luigi indicates that he knows Huey will probably be back as promised as the former has "fallen off Rainbow Road more times than [he] can count."

WarioWare Gold[edit]

In WarioWare Gold, the Super Mario Kart microgame takes place on sections of that game's Rainbow Road.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie[edit]

Rainbow Road^[2] appears as a location in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It consists of a long rainbow that stretches across the sky, with at least one split path and some number of inversions that require anti-gravity to traverse. While the track is durable enough to hold the weight of a large number of vehicles and the usual havoc caused by Mario Kart items, especially heavy blows cause it to break into shards that plummet out of the sky.

After Mario convinces Cranky Kong to have the Kong army aid the Mushroom Kingdom, they, Donkey Kong, Princess Peach, and Toad get on karts and bikes to take the secret passage out of the Jungle Kingdom and onto Rainbow Road, aiming to get to the Mushroom Kingdom before Bowser and his castle do. The Koopa General warns Bowser of this maneuver, so Bowser orders his troops to ambush the heroes before they succeed. As the heroes start driving on Rainbow Road, Mario and Peach have a light conversation about the differences between Earth and Peach's adopted world, with Peach's topic being about driving on rainbows. Bowser observes this conversation using binoculars from his castle and gets angry about it as he views it as the two flirting.

Soon after the conversation, Koopa Troopas with karts and bikes leap onto Rainbow Road from many different islands to attack the heroes in the aforementioned ambush, led by the Koopa General. This prompts a Mario Kart style battle between both groups. During the battle, a stray Bullet Bill breaks a large part of a floating island, causing it to fall and crash through Rainbow Road. The gap this creates causes a number of vehicles in Bowser's army to stop, but Toad does not brake in time and falls off. Peach uses her bike's Super Glider to rescue him, but not his kart. Later, after the heroes destroy the Koopa General's kart and seemingly make it through the ambush successfully, the Koopa General attacks Mario and Donkey Kong by turning into a Blue Shell and slamming into their vehicle. The Blue Shell's explosion damages Donkey Kong's kart and destroys the surrounding portion of Rainbow Road, which drops Mario, Donkey Kong, the kart, and a large number of shards of Rainbow Road into the ocean below. Cranky Kong and the remainder of the Kong army are behind Mario and Donkey Kong, and are forced to stop before the gap. This allows Bowser's army to capture Cranky Kong and the entire Kong army using Koopa Clown Cars. Peach and Toad are driving just ahead of Mario and Donkey Kong, which allows them to stay ahead of the destruction and get to the Mushroom Kingdom before Bowser.

As Mario and Donkey Kong fall, Donkey Kong throws falling debris from the Blue Shell attack at Mario out of anger. This includes pieces of Rainbow Road. Mario blocks a shard with another shard before throwing his shard at Donkey Kong. The broken shards of Rainbow Road sink into the ocean, and several are eaten by a Maw-Ray.

At one point, Mario does an Ultra Mini-Turbo to leap from one segment of the road to another segment below in order to get away from the Koopa General. This may be a reference to the Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Road shortcut. Additionally, when the characters jump off the large ramp of the secret passage and land on the road, a rendition of the Rainbow Road music from Super Mario Kart briefly plays.

Super Mario Party Jamboree[edit]

A track similar to Rainbow Road appears in Super Mario Party Jamboree in the second half of the Showdown minigame Rosalina's Radical Race.

Names in other languages[edit]

References[edit]