Bowser's Castle (Mario Kart Wii)

Bowser's Castle is a race course in Mario Kart Wii which resembles the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! castle track. It has Thwomps and the same entrance design to the castle (Bowser's face) and also has Bowser's famed laugh playing on the entry to the castle.

Course layout
The race starts out in a straight road that leads into a bridge that curves downhill and uphill, which has boost panels in it. The player may perform a trick to gain speed. After the ramp is the entrance to Bowser's Castle. On the entrance, the player hears Bowser's laugh. If the player doesn't take the ramp straight then a danger of landing on the mud off the track near Bowser's Castle entrance, causing them to reset before the ramp again. After the entry is a wavy hall, filled with pillars and item boxes. The player can perform tricks on the wavy hallway, since this sends the player in the air a little.

After the wavy hallway is a 90 degree turn left and another turn right. After the turn is a road that leads straight to the lava unless the player turns left to avoid falling into it. In this area, the player has to avoid Thwomps constantly pounding the ground, smashing any player who gets caught underneath their blows. After that is a turn left and a ramp with a boost panel in it, which leads to a room full of lava with a large straight path over the lava.

In this room, the road is very straight. However, there is a giant Bowser machine who spits out large fireballs towards an area where there are explosion marks, to show the area where the ball will explode. After the explosion mark is a mud covered area. The player must use the left and right half-pipe ramps to avoid the mud in order to keep them from slowing down. After the player gets past that, they will see another area covered in mud, but there is a ramp near the beginning of the mud, in the center. Taking that ramp is a risky maneuver, however, since the large fireballs bounce off this ramp as well. Another option is to take the half-pipe ramps again, which is safer, but adds more time. The path splits into two, left and right, in this part, but both are identical, just the directions are mirrored. Both paths lead to three spinning firebars that can burn the player on contact. After the firebars is a ramp with a boost panel in it. The player may use it to speed up and perform a trick on it. The path merges again after this part.

After the ramp is a short straight road until a large curve to the left. The player can see that the tighter area of this curve has fire geysers coming out of the road, so the player may take the path to cut time when there are no fire geysers present. If players turn too sharply, to the extreme right of the fire geysers, they will find themselves in the lava. After this area, the path is still curving and there are more Thwomps in this area. After the large curve upwards, there are three Thwomps that are hovering over the path. The left and right ones slam down at the same time while the center one will be still hovering in the area while the two slam the ground and vice versa. After the three Thwomps is a very large firebar that the player must avoid while using a ramp with a boost panel in it.

After the firebar part is the exit of the castle and a turn to the left. Here, there are lava geyers erupting from the ground, with a small hill around them for the player to perform a trick. However, the lava geysers may mess up players while they are performing a trick and slow players down by flipping them over. After this part is the starting line again, which starts the cycle and another lap again.

Tournaments
The second tournament of August 2009 took place at Bowser's Castle. It was a time trial race containing several hazards, such as Swooper swarms, more lava springs, and scattered boxes. Thwomps were also placed at different spots, preferably spots that were more likely to hinder the players. The spinning firebars also moved faster than before. The player starts out with a set of Triple Mushrooms. The tournament was later repeated as the first tournament of July 2011, the second tournament of September 2012, and the first tournament of December 2013.

Official descriptions

 * Official European website: "Only some skilful stunt driving will enable you to dodge the huge fireballs spat out by the stone statue of Bowser. Moving hallways, a river of lava, and eleven other racers gunning for first place make the task even trickier."

Trivia

 * A billboard displaying an image of Boo and Dry Bones and a word "SHOWTIME" can be seen on the outside of the track after the firebar. The artwork was first used in Mario Party 7.
 * In all the Bowser Castle courses featured in the Wii version, a Thwomp laughs whenever the player or a nearby CPU gets smashed by it.
 * The music heard in this course is actually a slowed down and more menacing version of Maple Treeway