Rainbow Road



Rainbow Road is the name of the last racecourse of the Special Cup in each of the Mario Kart games. As the name suggests, these tracks are made of multi-colored tilesets that are either one color or change their color as racers pass by them, depending on the game they appear in. They are suspended in the starry night sky in outer space, although the one in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and the remade N64 Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 8 are set above a city. Most contain few or no rails, putting racers at risk of falling, and each Rainbow Road also contains its unique hazards. Due to these obstacles, Rainbow Road is one of the hardest tracks in each Mario Kart game. Rainbow Road is also usually a long track when compared to other tracks. Outside the Mario Kart series, Rainbow Road has also made some few appearances in other games.

Mario Kart series
Rainbow Road has appeared as multiple incarnations throughout the Mario Kart series:


 * Rainbow Road (SNES) - Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart 7
 * Rainbow Road (N64) - Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart 8
 * Rainbow Road (GBA) - Mario Kart: Super Circuit
 * Rainbow Road (GCN) - Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
 * Rainbow Road (DS) - Mario Kart DS
 * Rainbow Road (Wii) - Mario Kart Wii
 * Rainbow Road (3DS) - Mario Kart 7
 * Rainbow Road (Wii U) - Mario Kart 8

Mario Hoops 3-on-3
Rainbow Road is the unlockable third dribble race from the "challenges" section in the basketball game Mario Hoops 3-on-3. However, this Rainbow Road floats above the clouds and around a clock tower, and not much of the course is fully seen when playing. Podoboos and Bombs come out of holes similar to Bowser's Castle Court.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Rainbow Road appears in the Rolling Coaster Galaxy in the mission called the "Rainbow Road Roll", and also a purple coin challenge, but it is very different than in its previous appearances. While it does retain its appearance, it's curved and appears to be made up of rainbow tiles instead of the colors simply being contiguous, much like the Rainbow Road from Super Mario Kart in which the track was also made up of rainbow tiles. Instead of just the Rainbow itself, it also has several platforms shaped both like mushrooms and squares with different colors. Despite taking place in space, this Rainbow Road features a cloudy sky as a background. Along the way, Mario or Luigi must avoid several obstacles like towers and Bob-ombs. Also, the two brothers can earn two Power Stars for finishing the course, one for the normal mission, and another for collecting 100 of the 110 Purple Coins. The music played when riding on Rainbow Road is a remix of the music played on the The Princess's Secret Slide in Super Mario 64.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Rainbow Road appears as a stage for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, taking the appearance of its Mario Kart 7 incarnation. Like Port Town Aero Dive from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is be a cruise-type stage where players will fight on a platform that flies around the course, which also occasionally lands on the course itself. While on the ground, Shy Guys can drive by and damage any fighters in its way, like in the Mario Circuit stage from the previous game.

A Rainbow Road (though it resembles the one from Mario Kart Wii, with the karts from Mario Kart 8, as Rosalina made her playable debut there and had a Luma with her) also appears in Rosalina's announcement trailer, where Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Donkey Kong are all racing each other only to be suddenly interrupted by Kirby on his Warp Star, followed by Rosalina and a Luma.

Trivia

 * Starting from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, the tiles on each Rainbow Road (including the retro ones in Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8) make a metallic "glistening" sound when the player makes a turn or drifts on them.
 * F-Zero GX also has a track similar to Rainbow Road called "Phantom Road", that doesn't take place in a starry night sky or the cosmos like most Rainbow Roads, but rather in a psychedelic cybernetic void of sorts. In addition, the track has only one color that constantly shifts through the color spectrum as opposed to having the traditional rainbow-looking appearance.
 * The SNES Rainbow Road has appeared the most times out of all the Rainbow Roads, having appeared in three games so far.
 * N64 Rainbow Road (in its original appearance) and GBA Rainbow Road are the only race tracks that are not made of square tiles.
 * Starting in Mario Kart: Double Dash and until Mario Kart 7, the square tiles of the race tracks (excluding the remade SNES Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 7) do not have black outlines, if the surface is viewed closely.

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