Wii Rainbow Road

Rainbow Road is the fourth and final course of the Special Cup in Mario Kart Wii. The course takes place within the Earth's atmosphere and appears to be located over the eastern parts of North America, as well as some parts of Europe, Africa, and South America. If the player happens to fall off the course, they will burn up in the atmosphere, no matter if there is a section of the course below them, before getting picked up by Lakitu.

This course has a Super Mario Galaxy theme to it, including floating Star Bits, a Launch Star, and a part of the Good Egg Galaxy theme in its music. A large galaxy can be seen on the background, plus sunlight on the Earth's surface. Both of the course's staff ghosts are also Rosalina.

The course's music uses the opening portion of Rainbow Road's music from Mario Kart DS. Later, it uses the Good Egg Galaxy theme as a countermelody underneath its own main melody. Also, a remix of this course's music appears as one of the selectable songs in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Course layout
The course begins on a near 90 degree slope, located after the starting line. Light drivers are easy to push off in this area, since there are no walls that can help the player from falling off. Three Dash Panels are present in this slope. One stretches across the road while the other two are spread apart from each other, such as one being on the right while the other Dash Panel is on the left, (depending on the mode of the race). After the slope is a ramp with a Dash Panel on it and a sharp turn left. Any vehicle that performs a trick has a risk of falling off on the right end; the worse the drift/handling rating, the more likely the player will fall off.

After the first curve are three more Dash Panels that stretch across the road and a Half-pipe on the very right, plus a turn left. The half-pipe contains floating Item Boxes for the racers to grab. After the left turn is a slightly wavy road, which the player may perform tricks on. Each lap, the road gets wavier, allowing for more tricks to be performed. At the end of the wavy part is a ramp with a Dash Panel on it, for the player to speed up and perform a trick. The player will then see two giant holes that make a shape of the number eight. Falling down these holes will lead to Lakitu having to pick the player up. Half-pipe ramps are located to the left and right of these holes, and the player may perform a trick on the edges of these holes, since the edges of these holes contain small ramps. Both holes contain half-pipe ramps, but the latter one does not have any item boxes on top of it.

After this area is a turn left, then a curve right that has item boxes lying across the road. After the item boxes is a Launch Star, which leads the player at very high speeds to the other part of the course. When the player gets out of the Launch Star, there is a very minor twist in the road and a half-pipe ramp that leads into another section of the track, making a broad turn right for the player. After this particular ramp are two roads, which split and then merge later on in the track. Both will make the player end up in the same area, but one to the right is more elevated than the other and has Dash Panels in different locations. Both will lead to a ramp with two Dash Panels on it, with floating item boxes. Past the ramp is where the road merges again. This part has more Dash Panels with a sharp curve to the left and to the right. The Dash Panels may give the player an edge or throw the player off course and off the track. Past this area is the finish line, which starts the track over for another lap. It is the longest Nitro Course, and the second longest course in the game.

Shortcuts
At the beginning, racers can use a mushroom or slipstream in conjunction with a jump to fly over the beginning ramp and land just before the ramp. With a drift-type vehicle they can cut off the first turn.

Players can jump over the two giant holes, either entirely or partially, with the aid of mushrooms, trick boosts, or nothing at all. They can also hop over the curve following the giant holes with no items (although the boost from the 2nd right half-pipe ramp or 2nd hole can help).

On the half-pipe ramp following the Launch Star, racers (particularly those with bikes) can drift to the left on the ramp to spend less time in the air and land much sooner.

Tournaments
The November 2009 second tournament took place at Rainbow Road. Players had to race three laps, while avoiding the Chain Chomps and Incoming Chomps. The players started the race with a set of Triple Mushrooms. The official description stated, "Anticipating their movements and avoiding them is the key to a good score." This could be a reference to the Mario Kart 64 course, as Chomps were present there. The tournament was restricted to karts only.

This tournament was repeated as the first tournament of December 2010, but without restrictions. It was later repeated as the second tournament of August 2011, and the first tournament of November 2012, with the karts only restriction intact for the August 2011 tournament.

Mario Kart Wii

 * European website bio: "Don't get caught stargazing as you power round the multicoloured Rainbow Road. The multiple speed boosts could hurry you along to the finish line or over the edge to your demise. Remember; don't look down!"
 * Trading card bio: "The layout of Rainbow Road has changed over the years as it has appeared in a variety of incarnations; the challenge factor has always been high. It's a long track with plenty of opportunities to fall off into space. In Mario Kart Wii, at least one of those opportunities can become a shortcut if you play it right."

Trivia

 * Both the normal and expert staff ghost of this course make appearances as staff ghosts in Mario Kart 7. The normal ghost, Nin★Konno, appears as the normal staff ghost for DS Luigi's Mansion, while the expert staff ghost, Nin★Syun1, appears as the expert staff ghost for Wario Shipyard.

Regenbogen-Boulevard Pista Arcobaleno (Wii)