User:YoYo/Berlin Byways

Berlin Byways is a race course in Mario Kart Tour. It is based on Berlin, the capital city of. Like Vancouver Velocity, Sydney Sprint, Singapore Speedway and Amsterdam Drift, it currently has two routes, named Berlin Byways and Berlin Byways 2, the former made its debut in the Metropolitan Tour as one of two new city courses, alongside Amsterdam Drift 2, while the latter debuted in the Berlin Tour. Despite being labeled as the second layout, Berlin Byways 2 actually debuted a year before Berlin Byways 1 did. The course visits various landmarks of the city it is based on, including a section featuring the Berlin Wall with Whomps filling the gaps as obstacles, and the streets of the city leading into the train station.

The first route of this course course is a favorite of Chargin' Chuck, Rosalina (Chef), Pink Shy Guy (Ninja), Birdo (White), and Dr. Bowser, while the second is a favorite of King Bob-omb, Peach (Halloween), Luigi (Lederhosen), Penguin Toad, Peach (Happi), Mario (Samurai), Dr. Luigi, Shy Guy (Pastry Chef), King Bob-omb (Gold), Pink Shy Guy (Ninja), and the Wario Mii Racing Suit.

Berlin Byways
Racers start besides the, facing away from the. After a slight right turn, players pass the and drive along the Berlin Wall, avoiding Whomps as they navigate the bendy road. After passing the wall, racers can drive either besides or under the in a long straight-away, which then turns to the right before reaching the. Racers can chose to go either left or right around the monument, however both meet up very shortly after. After driving down a short, narrow staircase, players navigate along a small dirt path in the before driving on the long road behind the. After driving through the large gate, and taking a slight left, racers drive to the finish line.

At the start of the section after the first curve, there is a path with slightly darker grass with a lower relief to the right that can only be taken with the use of a Dash Mushroom. Once taken, it leaves racers to the street leading to the.

The course also appears as Berlin Byways R (reverse) and Berlin Byways T (with ramps).

Berlin Byways 2
In the standard layout, the racers start the course in a street next to the, with the and a few Glide Pads up ahead on the right. After driving or gliding through the gate, players go down the, which is littered with cars (which act as ramps) that lead through the (formally referred to as "Großer Tiergarten" in Germany) to  where the  resides. After players make a sharp turn right around the Victory Column, they must make an S-curve into a train station; the exterior is based on, while the interior takes inspiration from its predecessor station, Lehrter Stadtbahnhof. Inside, they can either drive down the tracks, on the island platform, or take a small shortcut through a stationary trainset (this train is not directly based on a specific model, but it most closely resembles the  with some inspiration from the ) that leads them through another winding S-curve behind the Berlin Cathedral. Half of the S-curve is sunken into the ground, allowing for tricks to be performed at the beginning and ending of the dip, though only the raised portion has coins. Here, the Berlin Television Tower is visible in the background. Afterwards, taking a right turn brings the players to the street where the finish line awaits them.

The course also appears as Berlin Byways 2R (reverse), Berlin Byways 2T (with ramps), and Berlin Byways 2R/T (reverse and with ramps).

On the R/T variant of this course, the first red glider ramp redirects players onto the green train track leading out of the Bahnhof, before continuing on like normal. Thwomps also appear at the Brandenburg Gate.

When configured for Coin Rush, cars and fences will block off a lane in the highway and redirect Gold Mario through the train car, making the collection of coins easier.

Berlin Byways 3
Berlin Byways 3, unlike the other two routes, begins in the, specifically on the , facing away from the and towards the. Racers drive towards the Berlin Victory Column and turn left on the roundabout, before taking a right turn as they approach the. Racers drive by numerous buildings, such as the and the. After a wide U-turn, players will pass the before driving on to the road previously seen in Berlin Byways 2 briefly. Shortly after passing the roundabout again, racers turn right to a road that goes beneath the ground, with the on their right, and another building on the left, before driving up to the Brandenburg Gate, taking one last right turn, and driving along the Straße des 17. Juni again until reaching the finish line.

Throughout the course, alongside moving coins and Item Boxes, moving cars and trucks appear as obstacles. In the course's regular and T variants, trucks have surfboards on the back that the players can perform Jump Boosts off of, similarly to the ones in and  in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; exclusively in the regular variant, one truck has a Piranha Plant in tow.

The course also appears as Berlin Byways 3R (reverse) and Berlin Byways 3T (with ramps).

Appearances
For this course's tour appearances, see List of Berlin Byways tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour.

Other appearances
A prefetch for the arrangement of Berlin Byways' music is present within the files for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as of the 2.1.0 update. The prefetch only contains the first second of the course's music, and the filename for the prefetch, Cnsw_35, implies the course will be the fifth course in the third wave, or the first course in the Moon Cup.

Profiles

 * Mario Kart Tour Twitter: The Cat Tour is wrapping up in blue. Next up is the Metropolitan Tour! Race through a variety of city courses, including Berlin Byways!
 * Mario Kart Tour Twitter: It's time for the Berlin Tour in blue! Some heated races are about to ensue on Berlin Byways 2, the first city course of 2021!

Trivia

 * Berlin Byways is one of three city courses that did not have an R/T variant in the course's debut tour. The other two are Tokyo Blur 3 (whose R/T variant would later debut in the Mario vs. Peach Tour after the course's debut in the Summer Festival Tour) and Amsterdam Drift 2.
 * The second route for this course is the first new course in the game to have its R/T variant only appear once during its debut tour.
 * Despite not being accessible in the course's normal variant, a patch of road from the T version is shown on the Berlin Byways 2's map.