Piranha Plant Cove
- This article is about the race course from Mario Kart Tour. For its musical theme, see Piranha Plant Cove (theme).
- Not to be confused with Piranha Creeper Cove, Piranha Plant Slide, or Piranha Plant Pipeline.
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| Appears in | Mario Kart Tour (2023) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Booster Course Pass, Wave 6) (2023) | ||||||||||
| Cup | Acorn Cup | ||||||||||
| Tours |
Piranha Plant Cove:
Exploration Tour (2023) Pipe Tour Piranha Plant Cove 2: Exploration Tour (2023) Pipe Tour Piranha Plant Cove 3: Mii Tour (2023) Summer Tour (2023) | ||||||||||
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Piranha Plant Cove is a race course from Mario Kart Tour. It debuted in the 2023 Exploration Tour as its featured course. It is set on an archipelago containing underwater ruins with a Piranha Plant motif. Along the course are various hieroglyphs depicting 8-bit Piranha Plant sprites from Super Mario Bros., and various engravings on Falling Pillars are seen glowing bright turquoise. Thwomps, Maw-Rays, Clampys, Cheep Cheeps, Jellybeams, and Bulbers are featured as course and background elements. The underwater ruins of this course bear similarities to the Temple of the Feathered Serpent of Teotihuacan, while also seemingly being based on Atlantis.
It has three routes: Piranha Plant Cove, Piranha Plant Cove 2, and Piranha Plant Cove 3, making it the second course in Mario Kart Tour to have numbered re-routes without being a city course, after N64 Kalimari Desert; it is also the only new course with this distinction. The first two routes debuted together in the 2023 Exploration Tour, while the third route debuted later in the 2023 Mii Tour. All three routes are vastly different regarding the environments racers drive through; the first route focuses on the ruins, the second route takes racers on a nearby island, and the third route takes racers into a cave, passing shipwrecks. It is the third new course in Mario Kart Tour to have a re-route with a different starting line placement, after Los Angeles Laps and Berlin Byways, although unlike said courses, the starting line has a completely different appearance between variants. Piranha Plant Cove 3 is the first course in the Mario Kart series to take place entirely underwater. The first two routes make their final appearance in the Pipe Tour, while Piranha Plant Cove 3 makes its final appearance in the 2023 Summer Tour.
Piranha Plant Cove reappears in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass as the fourth and last course of the Acorn Cup.
Mario Kart Tour[edit]
Piranha Plant Cove[edit]
Similar to Dolphin Shoals from Mario Kart 8, this course's starting line is located underwater. When the race begins, racers are immediately met with a brief fork in the road; here, there are pillars that, throughout the race, may fall on to the road, similar to Dry Dry Ruins from Mario Kart Wii and GCN Dry Dry Desert in Mario Kart 8. When the two branches are connected again, racers drive up a large staircase with currents, decorated with stone Petey Piranha heads, that takes them up to the surface. Afterwards, racers drive along the ruins, beneath stone arches with the option to drive on top of one of them, taking 90-degree bends before diving back into the water, and driving down a straightaway and into a cavern featuring Thwomps to be avoided, with dash panels placed in front of them. This section has raised portions of the road with slanted sides, allowing for multiple tricks to be performed depending on the lines being taken. Racers take a few more turns before reaching the finishing line.
The course also appears as Piranha Plant Cove R (reversed), Piranha Plant Cove T (with ramps), and Piranha Plant Cove R/T (reversed with ramps). In the R variant, the first Thwomp is gone. In the T and R/T variants, racers drive on Kanaami Road outside of the ruins for a while, with both Thwomps having been moved to this section; in the T variant, racers use a glide ramp to return to the ruins.
This route is the first instance of a course starting completely underwater in Mario Kart Tour, and the second course in the Mario Kart series overall after Mario Kart 8's Dolphin Shoals.
Appearances[edit]
For this course's tour appearances, see List of Piranha Plant Cove tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour § Piranha Plant Cove.
Top-tier and middle-tier items[edit]
Select "show" to reveal the drivers, karts, and gliders for which Piranha Plant Cove 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 Piranha Plant Cove tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour.
