Coconut Mall
- This article is about the race course from Mario Kart Wii. For its musical theme, see Coconut Mall (theme).
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| Appears in | Mario Kart Wii (2008) Mario Kart 7 (2011) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Booster Course Pass, Wave 1) (2022) Mario Kart Tour (2022) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cups | Flower Cup (Wii) Banana Cup (7) Golden Dash Cup (8 Deluxe) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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- “If you're like me and you love going to the mall, you're gonna really love racing your friends THROUGH the mall.”
- —Jordan, Play Nintendo[1]
Coconut Mall is the second course of the Flower Cup in Mario Kart Wii. It is set in a shopping center which is located on Isle Delfino.[2]
Coconut Mall also appears in Mario Kart 7 as the third course of the Banana Cup, in the Booster Course Pass DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the fourth and final course of the Golden Dash Cup, and in Mario Kart Tour, debuting in the 2022 Doctor Tour and last appearing in the Princess Tour. It is the only course to appear in four games in a row and be added to all four in the order the games released.
Mario Kart Wii[edit]
Course layout[edit]
The race starts at the entrance of a mall with a beach setting, near the parking lot. There are stairs with the first row of Item Boxes that lead up to two escalators, which go in opposite directions, and switch directions every 50 seconds. A Pianta stands between the two and points at the one moving upwards, or at both if they are about to change directions. After reaching the upper level of the mall, the player has a choice to stay on the upper floor or to descend onto a lower floor via an escalator. If the player chooses to stay on the upper level, they can go either to the left or the right of the escalator leading downstairs with the left side having two Dash Panels. If the player instead chooses to go downstairs, they will also have the opportunity to hit a Dash Panel by going to the left of the second escalator which comes down from the upper level. Afterwards, the routes meet up either via a trick from the upper level, going down another escalator that leads to the lower level, or from driving from the lower level. There is a fountain there that the player can perform tricks on and reach six floating Item Boxes. After the fountain, there are two more escalators that alternate directions, opposite of the directions the first pair is going in.
After another turn in a metal passageway, the player reaches an outdoor courtyard called Coconut Garden with more stores. There are palm trees in planters which the player can perform a trick on and another fountain with more floating Item Boxes, as well as Dash Panels on the left and right of the area. There is also a single Item Box on each Dash Panel. Tables with umbrellas, palm trees, and the mall's pillars serve as static obstacles.
Following this, there is another metal passageway that leads upward to the left into a smaller room. Here, there is a store that sells Mario items such as a Green Mushroom Burger or Star Juice and is called "Coco Burger". There are two paths the player can then take. One is to the left with a dash panel before it, leading into another metal passageway, going up and to the right into a giant, glass ramp. Two Dash Panels reside in the giant ramp and the second takes the player out of the mall and into the parking lot. The other passageway leads into a room and also turns to the right. In the room, there is another planter and a palm tree and it all leads to a lower Dash Panel ramp. Each path has Item Boxes, with the upper path having a full set in alternating heights on the Dash Panel ramp and the lower path having them float above the planter in the room along with single box on the main road on each side of the planter.
Both of these ramps lead to the parking lot, where there is a metal ramp with a single Item Box to the left. After a 90° turn right, three cars driven by the player's Miis move back and forth, often blocking three corresponding Dash Panels. After this, there is a right turn to the finish line.
Coconut Mall has a variety of brands. Among the things to buy to eat are Mushrooms (red and green), Fire Flowers, Bananas, and Super Stars. The advertisements are filled with the player's Miis. However, if the player has no Miis, default Miis appear on advertisements. On top of that, most customers in the mall are also the player's Miis. The directory signs say "toilets" and "lift", British-oriented terms for "restrooms" and "elevator". This is present in the American version as well. This is one of the few Mario Kart Wii courses that, in non-English versions of the game, had some of the in-course signs translated in the original. In multiplayer mode, Miis only appear on the advertisements.
For this course in Time Trials, the staff ghost is Daisy. She rides the Sugarscoot for the Normal Staff Ghost, while the Expert one is her in the Wild Wing.
Shortcuts[edit]
- To the right on the upper path following the beginning pair of escalators, there is an openning in the glass windows that players can access and pass through using a Dash Mushroom or other boosting item. This leads to a ramp that drops players down in the lower area with the first fountain.
- Instead of taking the ramp, players can instead stay on the upper level to the right as they exit the shortcut. This will lead players to the turn before the courtyard. A minimum of three Dash Mushrooms are required to take this path combined with the previous shortcut. Alternatively, players may also use a Super Star or a Golden Dash Mushroom.
- There is a lap count glitch on this course. It is accessed by hitting the intersection point of two rails near the first fountain, which can be done multiple ways. Hitting this point knocks the player out of the course's boundaries without Lakitu rescuing them. While the out-of-bounds area that can be explored is large, it can be used as a shortcut by driving through the parking lot to the right of the finish line. By hitting an invisible wall when entering the parking lot in a way that knocks them to left and driving through the car at the far end of the parking lot and returning to the finish line, laps will count.
Tournaments[edit]
July 2008's first tournament required players to collect 50 coins scattered throughout part of the mall. Immediately after starting, players are able to hit a lone Item Box which will contain Triple Mushrooms. This tournament was later repeated as the first tournament of July 2010, the second tournament of December 2011, and the first tournament of March 2013.
Mario Kart 7[edit]
Coconut Mall makes its classic course debut in Mario Kart 7 as the third course of the Banana Cup. The course is considerably shorter in length than that of the original Wii version. There are many changes that have been made to the course, mostly due to technical limitations of the Nintendo 3DS. Because all of the Piantas were removed, colored arrows were added to the escalators, with blue arrows on the ones going up, and red arrows on the ones going down. It is also now possible to perform a trick at the apex of the escalators. The part under the glass floor is flooded. The first shortcut is no longer an off-road portion, meaning it can be cleared without the use of a Dash Mushroom. The tables on the left side of the courtyard were removed. At the two jumps exiting the mall, the Dash Panels were replaced by Glide Ramps. In the parking lot, one of the Mii-driven cars was removed, and the remaining cars drive back and forth the whole width of the track; this is unlike Mario Kart Wii where two of the cars drove half the width. The cars also perform a wheelie to telegraph their movement. Additionally, there are no longer Miis on the inaccessible platforms, advertisements containing pictures of the player's Miis were removed, and all of the advertisements and signs are in English regardless of the language the game is being played.
This is one of the few classic courses in Mario Kart 7 to display advertisements in the same places as the original course. Other examples include GCN Dino Dino Jungle and N64 Luigi Raceway.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[edit]
Coconut Mall reappears in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, as part of the first wave of the Booster Course Pass. It appears as the fourth and final race of the Golden Dash Cup. Coconut Mall is the only Booster Course Pass classic course not originally from Mario Kart Tour to be the final course of a cup without serving as such in a prior game, as DS Waluigi Pinball, Wii Maple Treeway, and 3DS Rainbow Road are the final courses of Mario Kart 7's Banana Cup, Leaf Cup, and Special Cup respectively, while Wii Rainbow Road is the final course of Mario Kart Wii's Special Cup.
This time, the course is completely redesigned, retaining its shortened length from Mario Kart 7. The archway starting line has been stylized to instead resemble two palm trees curving into one another with a pair of shopping bags and some palm tree leaves occupying the space between the top, and now uses the modern Mario Kart logo. Like with Mario Kart 7, there are no longer posters containing Miis, instead, they are replaced with simple adverts. The arrows on the escalators when they are going up were changed from blue to green. Among advertisements and brands in the course, signs that make references to the Vanilla Lake courses from Super Mario Kart and Dino Dino Jungle from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! are present, most notably at the starting line and just before the second U-turn. The escalators have now been replaced with flat conveyor belts, with arrows that are similar to the ones in the Mario Kart 7 version, but much brighter. The floors are now orange instead of white. The top path exiting the mall is a Glide Ramp like in Mario Kart 7, while the bottom path exiting the mall is a Dash Panel ramp similar to Mario Kart Wii. The arches after the ramps and before the parking lot have been removed. Some other changes and additions include MKTV vans parked outside the mall, and a cruiser ship and sailboats appearing in the harbor outside of the mall. This is the only course in the Booster Course Pass to feature Nokis, due to the mall being heavily influenced by Super Mario Sunshine in its original appearance, as well as the only course in the game to feature Nokis and Piantas together.
Inside the mall, the first shortcut is once again a shortcut that requires a Dash Mushroom to utilize, though its extension is no longer off-road and does not require any further boosts to execute. At the turn after the second pair of conveyor belts, there is a large mural of a landscape resembling an above-ground level from Super Mario Bros., featuring ? Blocks, Brick Blocks, Empty Blocks, and Warp Pipes. The Coco Burger restaurant before the turn into the Glide Ramp now features a sign reading "Food Park" above it. On the glide ramp, the "Have a nice day!" sign has been removed.
The section at the end with the moving cars also has a few changes. Like the Mario Kart 7 version, there are only two cars, but this time they are occupied by two Shy Guys instead of Miis. When the track was initially released, instead of moving around, the cars simply sat in one position while facing diagonally towards the racers, rather than sideways. They also no longer spun out anyone that hit them, instead simply acting as a wall that could be bumped into,[3] unless hit with a Super Horn, Super Star, or Bullet Bill, in which case the cars would fly into the air. While it is unknown why the cars were changed to behave like this initially, it was changed in the version 2.1.0 update; they are still positioned diagonally, but now move forwards and backwards slightly, in addition to occasionally performing a donut maneuver, which will spin out racers who come in contact with them like in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7. However, this does not apply to Time Trials, as the cars will remain still in that mode, likely to avoid interfering with staff ghosts and records from before the update.
When the course was revealed, the mall's exterior was a bright, pale peachy color, but in the time between its reveal and release, it was updated to be a more vibrant orange. A video released by Nintendo on the Nintendo Switch's news feed, advertising the pass after the first wave's release, shows footage of the older Coconut Mall, showing that the entire course originally had paler colors.[4] The reflections on the windows had also been changed during this time. The results screen following a Grand Prix or a VS match uses an image of the old design.
As with all other courses from Wave 1, this course's icon and lighting were adjusted slightly in the 2.1.0 update.
Mario Kart Tour[edit]
Coconut Mall returns in Mario Kart Tour starting with the 2022 Doctor Tour. The course has several differences compared to its appearance in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The side passage following the shortcut has been completely blocked off, with the player only being able to go off a ramp back onto the main route. Additional ramps were also added to the sides of the conveyor belt when entering the space with the first fountain, instead of the drop-off being trickable. The handrails of the conveyor belts can no longer be tricked or driven on and the conveyor belts themselves move much slower. The top route and bottom routes when the player exits the mall have had their ramps flipped compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the normal variant of the course - the top route is now a normal ramp instead of a glide ramp, like in the original Mario Kart Wii version, and the bottom route has a glide ramp like in Mario Kart 7. The courtyard has gray stone tiles instead of orange tiles. The ramp on the left side of the road upon exiting the mall has been made much wider. In addition, the cars have returned to their original size and behavior of moving forwards and backwards along the track. They are still occupied by Shy Guys, but can be ran over with the aid of a Mega Mushroom, a Star or a Frenzy. Coconut Mall is the first course in Mario Kart Tour that did not have all of its variants debut together, but had them debut in tours with the same name.
The course also appears as Coconut Mall R (reversed), Coconut Mall T (with ramps), and Coconut Mall R/T (reversed with ramps). The former two debuted alongside the regular version in the 2022 Doctor Tour, while the latter debuted in the 2023 Doctor Tour. In all three variants, some conveyor belts either have their direction changed or are deactivated altogether. In the R variant, the cars retain all the properties seen in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe version prior to version 2.1.0, including their larger size and stationary behavior. In the T variant, the Glide Ramp and the Dash Panel have their positions switched, and racers briefly drive along the beach. In the R/T variant, the cars are gone and there is instead a dash panel ramp truck. Additionally, there is a water geyser in both fountains.
Appearances[edit]
For this course's tour appearances, see List of Wii Coconut Mall tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour.
Top-tier and middle-tier items[edit]
Select "show" to reveal the drivers, karts, and gliders for which Wii Coconut Mall and its variants are always favored or favorite courses. For instances in which additional drivers, karts, and gliders temporarily had this course and its variants as favored or favorite courses, see List of Wii Coconut Mall tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour.
