Galaxy Air



Galaxy Air (Often abbreviated to GXA) is an airline that appears as a sponsor in Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It runs flights to some of the courses from the game, so presumably transports the racers to these locations for the races. It appears to be run by Lumas, and is named after Galaxies from Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2. The logo consists of a simplified image of a yellow Luma alongside three stripes, two being dark blue and the other being turquoise. Beneath this is the company name in a simple dark blue font. There are many variations of the logo however. One variation puts the stripes behind the Luma and gives it an outline, and "Galaxy Air" appears on the right hand side instead. This variant has many different color schemes. The other main variant shortens the stripes and adds GXA above Galaxy Air on the right hand side, and also comes in two variations.

As well as the variations, Galaxy Air also advertises using posters which illustrate specific destinations. One of these is for Dry Dry Desert, and features an image of GCN Dry Dry Desert as the background with the Galaxy Air logo in the top left corner. In front of this is a green dune shape which says "Mysterious Sands." and "Dry Dry Desert" on it, and features Toad's Mario Party 8 artwork on it. There is also a rectangular version of it which shows a smaller section of the course and places Toad above the dune. Another one is for Sweet Sweet Canyon and is fairly similar in layout, but now has a pink ribbon with a magenta and white trim at the bottom instead of dunes. This now reads "The Sweetest Memories!" and "Sweet Sweet Canyon" instead, and features Princess Peach's New Super Mario Bros. Wii artwork behind the ribbon instead, whereas Toad is in front. The rectangular variant has the same changes as the Dry Dry Desert one. The other poster is for Water Park, and is completely different from the other two. It has the Galaxy Air logo in the top right hand corner in a yellow trapezium, which also says "Welcome to Water Park", with the "Welcome to" in orange and the rest in red. below this is an orange stripe which has "New attraction!" written on it in yellow, accompanied by another orange stripe at the bottom. in between these stripes is an image of Water Park, specifically focussed on the Sub Coaster ride, which is most likely the new attraction, and the New Super Mario Bros. artwork of Koopa Troopa.

Galaxy Air is advertised by means of posters, trackside banners, and signs, as well as appearing on planes, buses and departures boards, is mentioned by the airport intercom and appears on a varnish.

Galaxy Air is advertised using the Dry Dry Desert poster in Toad Harbor. It is directly advertised using general, Dry Dry Desert and Sweet Sweet Canyon posters, trackside banners and rotating screen displays featuring the Water Park, Sweet Sweet Canyon and Dry Dry Desert posters in Sunshine Airport, but additionally some of its planes can be seen around the airport and also appears as one of the flight providers on the departures board. The announcer on the intercom also mentions two flights provided by Galaxy Air, "Passengers departing on Galaxy Airlines, Flight 2580, bound for Dolphin Shoals, should proceed to customs and immigration at this time." and "Paging Galaxy Airlines, Flight 2218, passenger Ms. Birdo, please proceed to the information counter on Floor 2.", however the announcer does get the company's name wrong. Buses, general and Dry Dry Desert signs ae used to advertise on N64 Toad's Turnpike. The Sweet Sweet Canyon, Water Park and Dry Dry Desert posters also appear in the window of the tourist information on GCN Yoshi Circuit, while it is advertised using trackside banners and signs in Excitebike Arena, and also sponsors the commentator's towers. The general, Sweet Sweet Canyon and Dry Dry Desert posters also appear in Super Bell Subway.

Galaxy Air logos also appear on the front and sides of the green varnish for the Circuit Special, as well as on the front of the orange and yellow one. In an earlier build of the game at an E3 demo, the starting line for Toad Harbor featured a blue starting line with Galaxy Air logos, however this was replaced in the final game with a yellow and orange one with Flower Cup logos and different textures. A Galaxy Air logo also appears at the end of the credits along with some other sponsors.