Dragon Driftway
Template:Racecourse Dragon Driftway is a racecourse included with The Legend of Zelda × Mario Kart 8 downloadable content in Mario Kart 8. It is the third course in the Egg Cup. The stage is themed around ancient China, taking place in and on a giant dragon structure that resembles Gobblegut. Throughout the course, various statues and murals of Lakitu appear. The dragon structure in this race course never actually ends with its tail, as it loops back to the start. This may be a reference to the cultural symbol of a snake eating its tail.
Much like Mario Circuit, almost the entirety of the track is played in anti-gravity, with only the beginning and end segments near the start/finish line having standard gravity.
Course layout
At the beginning of the race, racers drive into the mouth of the dragon and go down a winding hall, modeled after Chinese temples. Throughout the tunnels, images from the original Super Mario Bros. can be seen at the top of the walls. After a set of zigzagging turns, players exit the dragon, although continue to drive on its exterior. The spin boosters found here are similar in appearance to hyōtan gourds. After several winding turns, players will loop back and drive towards the finish line. Here several bumps work as ramps, giving racers an opportunity to perform tricks.
Gallery
- MK8-DLC-Course-icon-DragonDriftway.png
The track's icon.
An anti-gravity section of the track with hanging lanterns.
Baby Luigi on a portion of the track.
Baby Luigi about to drop a banana before the anti-gravity spinners.
Baby Luigi performing a trick above the start/finish line.
Baby Luigi performing a trick before crossing the finish line.
Baby Luigi about to enter the structure's mouth.
A Lakitu in a Kung Fu pose in the background.
A Lakitu mural in the background.
The stamp for this course.
Names in other languages
Trivia
- The starting line is a paifang, a type of gate widely found in Chinese culture, with two golden Cheep Cheeps on top of it. This is a possible reference to Hands-On Hall from Super Mario 3D World.
- One of the Lakitu images in the tunnel depicts one holding a staff and riding a cloud. This is similar to Sun Wukong, a character who rides a cloud and uses a staff in the Chinese novel Journey to the West.
- Three Chinese characters ("朱盖木 - Zhūgàimù") can be found on the lanterns above the starting line or on the murals. It is Lakitu's name in Simplified Chinese.
- Before the spin booster section, there are six unique lanterns with the design of the Lakitu Card from the Club Nintendo Hanafuda Cards reward.[1]
- The various poses of Lakitu on this course match that of a "Kung Fu Lakitu" poster on the wall of the bedroom in GBA Ribbon Road, a reference to the "Kung Fu Panda" movie series.
- The Gobblegut-inspired tunnel is shown to have legs, but Gobblegut in Super Mario Galaxy 2 does not have any.
