Mushroom Bridge
- This article is about the race course from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! For its musical theme, see Mushroom Bridge (theme).
- Not to be confused with Shroom Ridge or Mushroom Ridge.
| Mushroom Bridge | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||
| Information | |||||||||||
| Appears in | Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (2003) Mario Kart DS (2005) Mario Kart Tour (2023) | ||||||||||
| Cups | Flower Cup (Double Dash!!) Leaf Cup (DS) | ||||||||||
| Tours | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Mushroom Bridge is the first course of the Flower Cup in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. It takes place at daylight on a one-way highway near the coast, and the racers have to share the track with slower vehicles that almost always damage the player when struck. The highway runs over the Mushroom Bridge that gives the course its name. Mushroom City and Peach's Castle from Mario Circuit can be seen in the background near the beginning of the course. Additionally, Mushroom Bridge can be seen lit up in the background of Mushroom City due to it taking place at night. The two courses share the same music.
Mushroom Bridge reappears in Mario Kart DS as the fourth and final race of the Leaf Cup, and in Mario Kart Tour, appearing in the 2023 Mii Tour and the Vacation Tour.
Mario Kart: Double Dash!![edit]
Course layout[edit]
The track starts out just before the first left-hand curve. Players can take a path leading off of the main course to the right shortly after the starting line, which goes down a slope to a Warp Pipe leading to a Double Item Box as it blasts the players back onto the track. The course then heads into a curving tunnel lit up with green lights. The players catch up to the cars they share the track with in the tunnel, and after clearing the curve, they encounter three Item Boxes.
After leaving the tunnel, the track curves between the coast and some hills topped with mushroom-like huts. A path leads over the hill, but if the players do not have a speed-boosting Mushroom or Star, their kart is slowed down substantially by the dirt. Another alternate route exists in this section of track: there is a sidewalk on the left hand side of the track, and while much of it is blocked off by fencing, there are open sections granting the players access. There are Item Boxes on the sidewalks, and the fence protects players from projectiles thrown by the other racers, such as Red Shells; they can also avoid the traffic on the main road using this route.
After curving past the hills, there is a short straightaway; the sidewalk empties back into the road, and the racers all pass through a row of three Item Boxes before entering the second tunnel of the track. The tunnel curves around to the left, opening up on a straightaway leading to the bridge that gives the course its name. Halfway along the bridge are three more Item Boxes. There are two more Item Boxes on the tops of the bridge's beams, which are also inlaid with Dash Panels, meaning players who attempt to cross the bridge that way run the risk of losing control and falling off (either onto the track below, which wastes time, or into the water, which means they need to be rescued by Lakitu, which takes even longer). While riding on the top of the arches of the bridge, it is impossible to get hit by Spiny Shells. After the bridge is the finish line and the start of the next lap. The track has almost the same shape as Mario Circuit 1 from Super Mario Kart.
The course also features vehicles which only appear on the main roads, and do not take any of the shortcuts. The course features regular cars, buses and cargo trucks, as well as Mushroom cars which drop Mushrooms when hit and Bob-omb Cars which explode upon impact. Moving Item Boxes also appear throughout the course.
There are subtle differences in the speed of the vehicles. It takes about two minutes for a vehicle to complete one lap around the track and each vehicle has a moving speed of approximately 15 miles per hour, as the vehicles move faster than a player's kart's backing-up speed, which is 14 miles per hour. When players follow them either by trailing them or leading them, the vehicles slightly move closer or get further from other vehicles they are behind, depending on the vehicle. The Wiggler Wagon (both the five- and ten-body segment versions) is the slowest, followed by trucks, buses, regular cars, Mushroom cars, moving Item Boxes, and Bob-omb Cars. If the game is left unpaused for more than an hour while the player still follows the vehicles, all the vehicles on the right lane will have eventually caught up to the Wiggler Wagon and all the vehicles on the left lane behind a truck will have caught up to the truck. One of the Express trucks in single-screen mode behind the Star Travel bus in the left lane has the equivalent speed of a bus, mainly because it drives in a near-straight line, as opposed to the rest, which wobble. The vehicles will make sudden subtle stops occasionally when behind a slower vehicle. Additionally, several vehicles in the game are programmed to yield to the moving Item Boxes and Bob-omb Cars coming out of the pipe shortcut. Others do not yield for them. If a player lines up all the cars using Stars on the left lane, only the Peach Beach bus on the left lane in single-screen mode (a Star Travel bus in split-screen mode) will stop for the Bob-omb Car on the left lane. If said vehicle passes the Finish line, the Bob-omb Car on the left lane is forced to wait until there are no more vehicles before it can enter the left lane.
The course icon features the vehicles going the opposite direction. This error is shared with DS Shroom Ridge in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Game mode differences[edit]
The vehicles that appear on the stage in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! vary based on the mode the player selects.
- If the player selects Time Trial mode, there will be 18 vehicles. The left lane will have a Star Travel bus, a Peach Beach bus, two P. Express trucks, two Moo Moo Farm trucks, a yellow car, and three red cars. The right lane will have a Wiggler Wagon with ten body segments, two Star Travel buses, a Peach Beach bus, and four red cars. No Mushroom cars or Bob-omb Cars are present in Time Trials.
- If the player selects Grand Prix mode for a single screen (single player or co-op play), there will be 23 vehicles. The left lane will have a Star Travel bus, a Peach Beach bus, two P. Express trucks, two Super Chocolate trucks, two blue cars, two red cars, two Mushroom cars, a Bob-omb Car, and two Item Boxes. The right lane will have a Wiggler Wagon with ten body segments, a Star Travel bus, two Peach Beach buses, a blue car, a yellow car, two red cars, two Bob-omb Cars, and two Item Boxes.
- If the player selects a split-screen mode and items are also played, there will be 13 vehicles. The left lane will have two Star Travel buses, a Moo Moo Farm truck, a Super Chocolate truck, two red cars, a Mushroom car, a Bob-omb Car, and an Item Box. The right lane will have a Wiggler Wagon with five body segments, two Star Travel buses, a blue car, a Bob-omb Car, and an Item Box.
- If the player selects a split-screen mode and items are not played, there will be 13 vehicles. The left lane will have a Star Travel bus, a Peach Beach bus, a P. Express truck, a Super Chocolate truck, two red cars, a Mushroom car, and a Bob-omb Car. The right lane will have a Wiggler Wagon with five body segments, two Star Travel buses, a blue car, and a Bob-omb Car.
Mario Kart DS[edit]
Mushroom Bridge makes its classic course debut in Mario Kart DS as the fourth and last course of the Leaf Cup. The course underwent considerable changes. It is simpler, shorter, and does not have as many obstacles as in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Most of the alternate paths were removed, excluding the shortcut over the hills. The bridge's beams are not accessible in this iteration. This version of Mushroom Bridge now features buses, trucks, and cars from Shroom Ridge, and notably lacks the Wiggler Wagon. Due to the DS's limited 3D graphics capability, vehicles cannot be seen from a far distance as they can disappear when far enough from the player. Unlike in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mushroom City and Princess Peach's Castle (from Mario Circuit) were removed from the background. Both of the tunnels are now lit green on the left side and lit red on the right side, compared to the original version where the first tunnel is lit green and the second tunnel is lit red. It was one of the courses that could not be played over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, being the only Mario Kart: Double Dash course to receive this distinction.
In the course icon, the Cheep Cheep reads "Flesh" instead of "Fresh", an error also seen in the game's kiosk demo. Additionally, there are three "Flesh" trucks in the demo, and only one in the final version.
Course traffic patterns[edit]
During normal gameplay, this version of the course has 11 vehicles. Vehicles on the left lane travel slightly faster than those on the right lane.
- Left lane: Bus, yellow car, bus, truck, blue car
- Right lane: Truck, blue car, truck, yellow car, bus, red car
During mission 5-5, this version of the course has 10 vehicles.
- Left lane: Red car, blue car, bus, yellow car, truck
- Right lane: Bus, truck, yellow car, bus, blue car
During mission 7-Boss, this version of the course has 10 vehicles.
- Left lane: Blue car, truck, bus, yellow car, bus, truck
- Right lane: Truck, red car, yellow car, bus
Missions[edit]
There are two missions that take place on Mushroom Bridge, both of which Mario is used:
- Mission 5-5: The player must finish one lap within 55 seconds while going in the opposite direction. During this mission, barriers block off most of the road along the bridge and next to the shortcut over the hills, forcing all vehicles into a narrow space. Each Item Box contains a Mushroom.
- Mission 7-Boss: The player must beat Wiggler in a three-lap race. During this mission, the direction of traffic is reversed, similar to Toad's Turnpike in the Extra mode of Mario Kart 64, meaning the player is once again going against it. However, there are Item Boxes on the main road which contain Stars and Item Boxes underneath trucks which contain Mushrooms.
Mario Kart Tour[edit]
Mushroom Bridge returns in Mario Kart Tour starting with the 2023 Mii Tour. This makes it the first course from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! to return in Mario Kart Tour since GCN DK Mountain in the Animal Tour thirteen tours prior. The course has received a noticeable visual overhaul, with the road along the titular bridge now being made of brick and now being decorated with Mushroom statues, the arches now being fully open, and Peach's Castle being replaced by a different mushroom-themed castle and Mushroom City's cameo being reinterpreted as a handful of background islands with tall mushroom stalks. Most elements of the track removed in Mario Kart DS have been restored, like the Mushroom-shaped cars, Bob-omb Cars, Wiggler Wagons, and the ability to drive on both the sidewalk and the rails of the bridge, though the Warp Pipe remains inaccessible. In addition, the course now uses the cars, trucks, and buses from Berlin Byways 3, except the pick-up trucks. The tunnels are also reverted to be similar to their colorations from Double Dash!!, though they now feature static mushroom-shaped lights instead of star-shaped ones that have light streak across them. Coins have been added to the sidewalk. The whirlpools beneath the bridge are also restored. The starting banner now sports a redesigned look while still having the classic Mario Kart logo. However, the starting line area has been reduced in width and moved up closer to the start of the first turn. More openings have been added to break up the wall to the right of the sidewalk. The shortcut is noticeably more curved. The course's minimap has also been rotated 90° clockwise.
The course also appears as Mushroom Bridge R (reversed), Mushroom Bridge T (with ramps), and Mushroom Bridge R/T (reversed with ramps). In the R variant, only about a third of the course still has moving traffic, consisting of cars and Mushroom cars. In the T variant, only special vehicle types (Mushroom cars, Bob-omb Cars, and Wiggler Wagons) remain on the road, and all traffic gets launched off of a dash panel ramp at the end of the track. In the R/T variant, moving traffic is removed altogether.
Uniquely, when the player finished a race on any variant, the course's music continued until the fanfare played. This was patched since the Vacation Tour.
Course traffic patterns[edit]
This version of the course, in its default variant, has 21 vehicles.
- Left lane: Blue car, Mushroom car, Toad City Sightseeing bus, blue car, PTT truck, red car, PTT truck, Mushroom car, Toad City Sightseeing bus, PTT truck, Wiggler Wagon, Bob-omb Car
- Right lane: Galaxy Air bus, red car, white car, Wiggler Wagon, Bob-omb Car, Bob-omb Car, Mushroom car, Moo Moo Meadows Milk truck, Mushroom car
On the R variant, there are 15 vehicles, seven that move and eight that are static along various parts of the course.
- Moving: Green car, white car, Mushroom car, green car, blue car, red car, Mushroom car
- Static: Burning DK truck, Galaxy Air bus, blue car, green car, white car, Moo Moo Meadows Milk truck, PTT truck, Galaxy Air bus
Appearances[edit]
For this course's tour appearances, see List of GCN Mushroom Bridge tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour.
Top-tier and middle-tier items[edit]
Select "show" to reveal the drivers, karts, and gliders for which GCN Mushroom Bridge 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 GCN Mushroom Bridge tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour.
