Rainbow Road (Mario Kart: Double Dash!!)

Rainbow Road is the final race course of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, both in the Special Cup and the All-Cup Tour. Like Luigi Circuit is the first, Rainbow Road is automatically the last course in the All-Cup Tour. The GCN rendition is the second Rainbow Road to include Dash Panels, the first being the Mario Kart: Super Circuit rendition. This version of Rainbow Road also has rails in parts of the course. It features a helix and a large pipe that launch drivers to the highest point of the track after reaching the very bottom (a possible precursor to the Launch Star featured in later Rainbow Roads). It also contains giant rainbow floating sculptures of items, and rains stars that racers can pick up. Depending if the mode is in split-screen or not, Rainbow Road will take place either over a city or in deep space. The city located below the course could be Mushroom City, according to the design of some of the buildings. When playing in split screen mode, the city and the item sculptures are removed. In the All-Cup Tour, it is always the final race to compete in. Its staff ghost is Mario and Peach in the Red Fire. Although there are no visible clouds in the sky, their reflections can be seen on the track surface.

Course layout

A time trial gets prepared.

The track begins just before a ramp with a boost panel on it, which sends the player flying into a somewhat straight, downhill section of a track. This part of the track tends to be very bumpy and causes Shells and Eggs to bounce around, which hinders their homing skills. After a slight curve to the right and a straight road, there is a sharp U-turn to the left that leads to a short and straight section, then a U-turn to the right and another straight road, that soon leads into a boost ramp that sends the player flying. The ramp actually leads to a road lower than the previous, both with lengthy boost panels on a straight road that leads the player into a helix with boost panels on it.

The helix spirals upwards to the left. Boost Panels and Item Boxes are present in this helix. The boost panels can help the player speed up, or help the player plummet to their doom until Lakitu saves them. Past the long helix is a bump road that is straight, but then waves near the end of the long straight road. The road is also very bumpy here and shooting stars hit here and become Stars for the player to play around with and mess up the other racer's progress by knocking them over the cliff. Past the wavy road is a curve to the left and a pipe. Any item thrown in the pipe gets destroyed and players are invincible when blasted up the pipe.

At the end of the pipe, the player falls down and hits another boost. The boost sends the player into a long road, also with a lot of small boosts that can help or hinder the player. Stars can also spawn here. After this straight road is a ramp with boost panels on it, and it leads the player to a downwards helix. The downwards helix is sharper and shorter than the previous one, and it leads the player into the finish line again, which starts the cycle again and another lap.

Official description

• Official website: “The longest, and most treacherous, course in Mario Kart, Rainbow Road is a wild ride unlike any other. Its hypnotic curves and stomach-turning drops are enough to shake even the steadiest racers.”

Gallery

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  The track logo.

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  The track icon.

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  One of the first sharp u-turns.

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  A straight pathway.

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  A circular road with dash panels.

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  A swirly path, with a tunnel coming up.

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  The wind tunnel.

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  The long circular turn, leading to the finish line.

Trivia

• Rainbow Road and Baby Park are the only courses in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! to have no obstacles, excluding the Roller Coaster in Baby Park itself, which does not appear often enough to count as an obstacle.
• The official website claims that Rainbow Road is the longest course in the game; this is false, as Wario Colosseum is longer.
  • However, Rainbow Road is a 3-lap track, so it does take longer to finish than Wario Colosseum, which is a 2-lap track.
• There is a misplaced heart outside the sky box of Rainbow Road. It has the texture for the Red Shell on the front, and a yellow texture on the back.
• This is the first Rainbow Road to have a "glistening" noise when drifting on it. This has become a standard feature in later games.
• The final part of the theme music played in the course is a remix of part of the Rainbow Road theme from Mario Kart 64, and reappears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as an alternative music theme for the Mario Circuit battle stage.