Course (Mario Kart series)
In the Mario Kart series, courses (or tracks) are locations characters drive along during a race. Courses are divided into multiple cups, usually containing four courses each, after which the player with the most points is declared the victor.
Overview[edit]
In the Mario Kart series, a course is frequently driven on for a certain number of laps (usually three), which can vary depending on how long the track is. For example, GCN Baby Park, the shortest track in the series, takes seven laps to complete. However, a track can also be so large that it is divided into multiple sections, as is the case with Mount Wario or Maka Wuhu.
All tracks feature Item Boxes in some capacity, usually spread out at regular intervals around the course. Some of those Item Boxes can only be in some shortcuts, like in DS DK Pass. They also contain various ramps, shortcuts and Dash Panels for players to take, though city-based tracks, like N64 Toad's Turnpike or Crown City, also feature various cars and traffic players need to avoid in order not to crash out.
Starting with Mario Kart DS, courses are divided into two distinct categories: courses that debut in their respective games are called new courses, and courses that return from a previous entry are called classic courses.
Additionally, each track is called by a specific prefix depending on which game the track made its first appearance in. These prefixes are as follows:
| Prefix | Game |
|---|---|
| SNES | Super Mario Kart |
| N64 | Mario Kart 64 |
| GBA | Mario Kart: Super Circuit |
| GCN | Mario Kart: Double Dash!! |
| DS | Mario Kart DS |
| Wii | Mario Kart Wii |
| 3DS | Mario Kart 7 |
| Tour | Mario Kart Tour |
Courses from Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have never returned as classic courses, so no official prefixes have been made publicly available. Internal file names for courses in these games, however, have the following prefixes applied to them:
| Prefix | Game |
|---|---|
| U | Mario Kart 8 (DLC courses included) |
| NSW | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Booster Course Pass courses included) |
Main series race courses[edit]
Below is a list of all race courses having appeared in each game.
Super Mario Kart[edit]
Unique to this game is that while the four base cups are already established, they contain five courses each instead of four.
Mario Kart 64[edit]
This game reduces the number of tracks in a cup from five to four. This would become the main standard for the following entries.
 Mushroom Cup |
 Luigi Raceway 717 m |
 Moo Moo Farm 527 m |
 Koopa Troopa Beach 691 m |
 Kalimari Desert 753 m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Flower Cup |
 Toad's Turnpike 1036 m |
 Frappe Snowland 734 m |
 Choco Mountain 687 m |
 Mario Raceway 567 m |
 Star Cup |
 Wario Stadium 1591 m |
 Sherbet Land 756 m |
 Royal Raceway 1025 m |
 Bowser's Castle 777 m |
 Special Cup |
 D.K.'s Jungle Parkway 893 m |
 Yoshi Valley 772 m |
 Banshee Boardwalk 747 m |
 Rainbow Road 2000 m |
Mario Kart: Super Circuit[edit]
Super Circuit Tracks[edit]
Extra Tracks[edit]
These courses were originally featured in Super Mario Kart, and are reused in Mario Kart: Super Circuit. The player races five laps on these tracks (similar to the first game) in Grand Prix mode. These courses lack most of their obstacles from Super Mario Kart (besides the breaking blocks in the Ghost Valley and Vanilla Lake courses and the deep water in the Koopa Beaches). Coin locations are also changed so that each track has exactly 50 coins.
Mario Kart: Double Dash!![edit]
This is the first game where courses can have irregular lap counts, as Baby Park has seven laps and Wario Colosseum only has two laps. This is also the first game where the Special Cup is represented with a crown rather than the letter "S".
Mario Kart DS[edit]
This is the first game to introduce the concept of classic courses (then referred to as "Retro"), with four new cups bringing 16 tracks from older games back into the game. These cups, which are the Shell, Banana, Leaf, and Lightning Cups, are similar in difficulty to the four base cups.
Nitro Grand Prix[edit]
Retro Grand Prix[edit]
Mario Kart Wii[edit]
This is the first game in the series to have different track names between the American and PAL versions; this applies to DK Summit/DK's Snowboard Cross, Chain Chomp Wheel/Chain Chomp Roulette, and Galaxy Colosseum/Galaxy Arena.
Wii Grand Prix[edit]
Retro Grand Prix[edit]
Mario Kart 7[edit]
A new feature of Mario Kart 7 is that certain courses are split into three sections, with each section counting as one lap; this applies to Wuhu Loop, Maka Wuhu, and Rainbow Road. The following charts show the American English names of the tracks, with the British English names in italics. This is also the first game in the series to represent the Leaf Cup with a Super Leaf.
New courses[edit]
 Mushroom Cup |
 Toad Circuit |
 Daisy Hills |
 Cheep Cheep Lagoon Cheep Cheep Cape |
 Shy Guy Bazaar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Flower Cup |
 Wuhu Loop Wuhu Island Loop |
 Mario Circuit |
 Music Park Melody Motorway |
 Rock Rock Mountain Alpine Pass |
 Star Cup |
 Piranha Plant Slide Piranha Plant Pipeway |
 Wario Shipyard Wario's Galleon |
 Neo Bowser City Koopa City |
 Maka Wuhu Wuhu Mountain Loop |
 Special Cup |
 DK Jungle |
 Rosalina's Ice World |
 Bowser's Castle |
 Rainbow Road |
Retro courses[edit]
Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[edit]
Sectioned courses return from Mario Kart 7; however, both of the new sectioned courses, Mount Wario and Big Blue, do not loop around back to the original starting line.
New courses[edit]
Classic courses[edit]
Downloadable courses[edit]
All downloadable courses from 8 are present in the base game in 8 Deluxe.
The Legend of Zelda × Mario Kart 8[edit]
| Cup | Course | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Egg Cup |
 GCN Yoshi Circuit |
 Excitebike Arena |
 Dragon Driftway |
 Mute City |
 Triforce Cup |
 Wii Wario's Gold Mine |
 SNES Rainbow Road |
 Ice Ice Outpost |
 Hyrule Circuit |
Animal Crossing × Mario Kart 8[edit]
| Cup | Course | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Crossing Cup |
 GCN Baby Park |
 GBA Cheese Land |
 Wild Woods |
 Animal Crossing |
 Bell Cup |
 3DS Neo Bowser City[note 5] |
 GBA Ribbon Road |
 Super Bell Subway |
 Big Blue |
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass[edit]
All of the Booster Course Pass courses are either very similar to their appearances from Mario Kart Tour or were added to Tour soon after being added to the Booster Course Pass. The tracks from Tour that had multiple variations are merged into one track split into sections; however, most of them have their sections overlap at certain points, and in many cases they use the same starting line for all three sections.
- Footnotes
- ^ Titled "Toad Harbour" in the British English version.
- ^ Titled "Bone Dry Dunes" in the British English version.
- ^ Titled "3DS Melody Motorway" in the British English version, as in Mario Kart 7.
- ^ Titled "3DS Piranha Plant Pipeway" in the British English version, as in Mario Kart 7.
- ^ Titled "3DS Koopa City" in the British English version, as in Mario Kart 7.
- ^ Titled "3DS Alpine Pass" in the British English version, as in Mario Kart 7.
- ^ Titled "Wii DK's Snowboard Cross" in the British English version, as in Mario Kart Wii.
Mario Kart Tour[edit]
New[edit]
City courses[edit]
Other courses[edit]
| Course | Debut tour R/T debut tour |
Normal version | R variation | T variation | R/T variation |
| Merry Mountain | Winter Tour (2020) Holiday Tour (2021) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ninja Hideaway | Ninja Tour (2021) Mario vs. Peach Tour |
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| Sky-High Sundae | Sundae Tour (2022) |  |
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| Piranha Plant Cove | Exploration Tour (2023) |  |
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| Piranha Plant Cove 2 | Exploration Tour (2023) |  |
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| Piranha Plant Cove 3 | Mii Tour (2023) |  |
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| Yoshi's Island | Yoshi Tour (2023) |  |
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| Piranha Plant Pipeline | Pipe Tour |  |
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| Squeaky Clean Sprint | Vacation Tour |  |
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Remix[edit]
Classic[edit]
Super Mario Kart (SNES)[edit]
Mario Kart 64 (N64)[edit]
Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA)[edit]
| Course | Debut tour R/T debut tour |
Normal version | R variation | T variation | R/T variation |
| Peach Circuit | Princess Tour |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverside Park | Animal Tour |  |
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| Bowser's Castle 1 | New York Tour London Tour |
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| Boo Lake | Halloween Tour (2022) |  |
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| Bowser's Castle 2 | Hammer Bro Tour Trick Tour (2020) |
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| Luigi Circuit | Mario vs. Luigi Tour (2023) |  |
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| Sky Garden | Sky Tour New Year's Tour (2023) |
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| Cheep-Cheep Island | Summer Tour (2021) New Year's Tour (2023) |
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| Sunset Wilds | Sunset Tour Mario vs. Luigi Tour (2020) |
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| Snow Land | Holiday Tour (2022) |  |
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| Yoshi Desert | Yoshi Tour (2023) |  |
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| Bowser's Castle 3 | Bowser Tour (2022) New Year's Tour (2023) |
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| Lakeside Park | Sunshine Tour |  |
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| Bowser's Castle 4 | Bowser Tour (2023) (N and R variants) N/A (T variant) N/A |
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N/A | N/A |
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GCN)[edit]
| Course | Debut tour R/T debut tour |
Normal version | R variation | T variation | R/T variation |
| Baby Park | Cat Tour (2022) New Year's Tour (2023) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mushroom Bridge | Mii Tour (2023) |  |
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| Daisy Cruiser | Ocean Tour Sunshine Tour |
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| Waluigi Stadium | Mario vs. Luigi Tour (2023) |  |
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| Yoshi Circuit | New York Tour London Tour |
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| DK Mountain | Animal Tour |  |
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| Dino Dino Jungle | New York Tour Valentine's Tour |
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Mario Kart DS (DS)[edit]
| Course | Debut tour R/T debut tour |
Normal version | R variation | T variation | R/T variation |
| Luigi's Mansion | Halloween Tour (2019) London Tour |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waluigi Pinball | Halloween Tour (2019) Valentine's Tour |
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| Shroom Ridge | Doctor Tour (2023) |  |
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| DK Pass | Winter Tour (2019) Ice Tour |
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| Mario Circuit | Mario Tour (2023) |  |
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| Airship Fortress | Pirate Tour Trick Tour (2021) |
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| Peach Gardens | Peach vs. Bowser Tour (November–December 2022) |  |
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Mario Kart Wii (Wii)[edit]
| Course | Debut tour R/T debut tour |
Normal version | R variation | T variation | R/T variation |
| Mushroom Gorge | Mii Tour (2022) Mii Tour (2023) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coconut Mall | Doctor Tour (2022) Doctor Tour (2023) |
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| DK Summit | Snow Tour Holiday Tour (2022) |
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| Daisy Circuit | Princess Tour |  |
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| Koopa Cape | Peach vs. Bowser Tour (May 2022) New Year's Tour (2023) |
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| Maple Treeway | Halloween Tour (2020) Autumn Tour (2021) |
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| Dry Dry Ruins | Ninja Tour (2023) |  |
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| Moonview Highway | Night Tour |  |
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| Rainbow Road | Space Tour (2023) |  |
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Mario Kart 7 (3DS)[edit]
Mario Kart World[edit]
Main courses[edit]
This is the first game where certain courses are used multiple times in Grand Prix without numbered identifiers. This is also the first game where certain courses have additional layouts that are completely unavailable in the Grand Prix. Due to the game's open-world, courses inside each cup are not sorted by difficulty, but by their proximities to each other on the map. Additionally, prefixes for classic courses were removed.
Routes[edit]
- Main article: Route
In addition to the 30 courses, there are 202 routes connecting them all. Routes cause a track to function similarly to sectioned courses, driving two to four sections to the track before playing one lap of the destination course.
Knockout Tour rallies[edit]
Many, though not all, rallies used in Knockout Tour are similar to the routes used in VS Race, though there are several exceptions where the Knockout Tour route is completely different from the VS Race route.
Tributes[edit]
Seven more tracks from Super Mario Kart appear on the world map and are at least partially driven through for several routes, though the only way to fully race on them are certain missions titled "Race around a tribute to [track]!"
 Vanilla Lake |
 Koopa Beach 1 |
 Choco Island 1 |
 Choco Island 2 |
 Ghost Valley 1 |
 Ghost Valley 2 |
 Ghost Valley 3 |
Battle courses[edit]
Super Mario Kart[edit]
Mario Kart 64[edit]
Mario Kart: Super Circuit[edit]
Mario Kart: Double Dash!![edit]
- Default
- Unlockable
Mario Kart DS[edit]
- Nitro courses
- Retro courses
Mario Kart Wii[edit]
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Tournament arena[edit]
This course, structured similar to the battle courses, was only available in certain online tournaments. It is no longer available due to the discontinuation of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
Mario Kart 7[edit]
| New Stages |  Honeybee Hive Honeybee House |
 Sherbet Rink |
 Wuhu Town |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retro Stages |  GBA Battle Course 1 |
 N64 Big Donut |
 DS Palm Shore |
Mario Kart 8[edit]
Unlike other games, all of the Battle courses in this game are repurposed race courses. The only course that received any changes for Battle Mode was Yoshi Valley reducing ramp heights so racers can go both directions; the others are exactly the same as their racing counterparts.
 Wii Moo Moo Meadows |
 GCN Dry Dry Desert |
 SNES Donut Plains 3 |
 N64 Toad's Turnpike |
 Mario Circuit |
 Toad Harbor Toad Harbour |
 GCN Sherbet Land |
 N64 Yoshi Valley |
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[edit]
The repurposed race courses were removed between 8 and 8 Deluxe.
 Battle Stadium |
 Sweet Sweet Kingdom |
 Dragon Palace |
 Lunar Colony |
 3DS Wuhu Town |
 GCN Luigi's Mansion |
 SNES Battle Course 1 |
 Urchin Underpass |
Mario Kart Tour[edit]
| New | Classic | ||||
| Course | Debut tour | Image | Course | Debut tour | Image |
| New York Minute B | Autumn Tour (2022) | 
|
GBA Battle Course 1 | Battle Tour | 
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris Promenade B | Spring Tour | 
|
GCN Cookie Land | Battle Tour | 
|
| DS Twilight House | Halloween Tour (2022) | 
| |||
Mario Kart World[edit]
The top row of Battle courses take place directly on race courses, but unlike 8 and similarly to Tour, additional pathways are opened up in the track. The bottom four Battle courses take place on various routes near race courses, including two that have the same names but completely different layouts from their racing counterparts and two fully unique Battle courses.
 Mario Bros. Circuit |
 Moo Moo Meadows |
 Peach Stadium |
 Salty Salty Speedway |
 Chain Chomp Desert |
 Dino Dino Jungle |
 Big Donut (N64) |
 DK Pass |
Spin-off race courses[edit]
Mario Kart Arcade GP / Mario Kart Arcade GP 2[edit]
All courses from Arcade GP return in the sequel. Courses and cups that are new in Arcade GP 2 are in bold italics.
Mario Kart Arcade GP DX[edit]
| Default cups | ||
|---|---|---|
| Toad Cup |  Peach Castle Difficulty: Easy |
 Kingdom Way Difficulty: Easy / Normal (2024-onward) |
| Mario Cup |  Splash Circuit Difficulty: Normal |
 Tropical Coast Difficulty: Normal |
| Don-chan Cup |  Bon Dance Street Difficulty: Normal |
 Omatsuri Circuit Difficulty: Normal |
| Bowser Jr. Cup |  Aerial Road Difficulty: Hard |
 Sky Arena Difficulty: Hard |
| Bowser Cup |  Bowser's Factory Difficulty: Hard / Very hard (2024-onward) |
 Bowser's Castle Difficulty: Hard / Very hard (2024-onward) |
| Update cups | ||
| PAC-MAN Cup June 6, 2017 (J) |
 PAC-MAN Stadium Difficulty: Normal / Hard (2024-onward) |
 NAMCO Circuit Difficulty: Normal / Hard (2024-onward) |
| Donkey Kong Cup December 18, 2018 (J) |
 Bananan Labyrinth Difficulty: Normal / Hard (2024-onward) |
 DK Jungle Difficulty: Normal / Hard (2024-onward) |
