Wii Moonview Highway

Moonview Highway is the second course of the Special Cup in Mario Kart Wii. The course takes place in and around a lit up city at night with a full moon overhead. The course seems to combine elements of previous traffic-based courses in the series, namely Toad's Turnpike from Mario Kart 64, Mushroom Bridge and Mushroom City from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and Shroom Ridge from Mario Kart DS, including the course taking place in a city at night like Toad's Turnpike and Mushroom City, the beginning portion taking place along a cliff like Shroom Ridge, an arched bridge and a tunnel like Mushroom Bridge, and the inclusion of the Bob-omb Cars present in both GCN courses.

Moonview Highway reappears as a classic course in Mario Kart Tour, debuting in the Night Tour. It also returns in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the third course of the Feather Cup in the Booster Course Pass.

Course layout
The course takes place in a city at night and begins in an area with cliffs and trees. The player first goes through the road of a highway with bends, cars, trucks, and Bob-omb Cars. The player can also go to some nearby cliffs, one of which has a Dash Panel ramp and Item Boxes. After a wide curve past the ramp, the paths join up near a bridge resembling Mushroom Bridge that leads into a toll booth controlled by the player's Miis. After passing the toll booth, the player can enter the city, which features some right bends. The city also has two paths with item Boxes, Dash Panels, and car obstacles.

After leaving the city area, there is a tunnel with four lanes and more Dash Panels and cars. The path in the tunnel is mostly straight, and the only obstacles are pillars that rest in the middle and cars. The cars will also move faster and will switch lanes to avoid running over a Dash Panel. After exiting the tunnel, there are some Dash Panels and another toll booth, leading to the finish line.

Like in Shroom Ridge, the traffic follows the Japanese system of driving, in which vehicles drive on the left side of the road. In Mirror Mode, the cars go on the right side of the road. If the player is playing as a Mii, the face on Mario (in the moon) and Peach's face on the "The Mushroom Moon" billboard, as well as the Fire Flower on the Green Fuel billboard will have Mii faces from the player's console. At certain points in the race, if the player drives next to the wall, it will show a pattern of Shy Guy and Bowser Jr. faces.

Tournaments
April 2010's 2nd tournament required players to race through Moonview Highway, with all the vehicles going the opposing direction. Players started the race with a set of Triple Mushrooms. The tournament was later repeated as the first tournament of November 2011, the second tournament of January 2013, and the first tournament of April 2014.

Mario Kart Tour
Moonview Highway makes its classic course debut in Mario Kart Tour, starting from the Night Tour. Visually, the buildings in the city portion of the course resemble the ones in New York Minute. Rather than having windows lit with different colors with an emphasis on yellow as in the original, building windows are colored in a variety of different shades, but are no longer multicolored on an individual basis. Spotlights aimed at the sky are now visible in the city portion of the course. The Mushroom Moon and Green Fuel sponsors have been recreated with 2D artwork, although Petey Piranha's cameo appearance in The Mushroom Moon has been replaced with Bowser. The course now uses the vehicles from Berlin Byways 3. The Bob-omb Cars return and use their design from GCN Mushroom Bridge. The Miis in the tollbooths are now replaced with Yoshis and Shy Guys. The LED signs are now static images. The sirens heard in the city portion have been removed. The tunnel section now has fans attached to the ceiling. The course has been slightly condensed vertically, which is most noticeable with the reduced distances between the tunnel and second toll booth, and said booth and the starting line. Many Dash Panels have been rearranged somewhat, though many of the original placements are retained. The chunk of offroad in the opening section of the course is now level with the main road, instead of being raised. The cars move slower and no longer speed up when they enter the city. The toll booth bars now use the same sound effect heard in Wii DK Summit. The rabbit icon marking the exits of the city has been replaced with a yellow version of the heart icon used in Wii.

The course also appears as Moonview Highway R (reversed), Moonview Highway T (with ramps), and Moonview Highway R/T (reversed with ramps). In the R variant, Mushroom cars from appear on the course, some trucks have Dash Panels on them, and a Glide Ramp is added at the entrance of the city. In the R/T variant, the Mushroom cars from the R variant are retained, and it has racers driving on top of the tunnel with the aid of a Glide Ramp.

Appearances
For this course's tour appearances, see List of Wii Moonview Highway tour appearances in Mario Kart Tour.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Moonview Highway returns in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of Wave 5 of the Booster Course Pass. It appears as the third course of the Feather Cup. The course is based on its appearance from Mario Kart Tour, with significant visual upgrades. Most of the changes from Tour appear to have been left intact, including the reduced traffic, cars in the city no longer speeding up, a new banister in the opening section, the Bob-omb Cars returning with their Tour designs, and the static LED signs. The course now uses the vehicles from. Unlike, the traffic maintains its original behavior, driving on the left side of the road in opposite directions. The minimap now displays the raised sections found at the start of the track. The spotlights in the city now move, and the lights on the bridge no longer alternate on and off. The sound effect when passing through the toll booth has reverted to the one used in Mario Kart Wii. The yellow arrow signs in the city are now green. Surfboard trucks now appear as part of the traffic. A new ramp has been added to the left raised section at the start of the track. The Item Boxes that move through the city now go through the toll booths and turn around instead of disappearing at the toll booths. The Dash Panel arrangement in the city now randomizes between plays.

Moonview Highway is one of two courses originating from Mario Kart Wii to appear in Wave 5, with it appearing alongside.

Internally, the course is referred to as "Cnsw_63", implying it may have originally been intended to be the third course of the Acorn Cup. This slot previously had no prefix attached to it, and the reason for its change is unknown.

Profiles

 * European website bio: "Don't be distracted by the beauty of the full moon reflecting in the lake. Those on-coming headlights mean the road is chock-full of traffic that isn't going to move aside for you!"
 * Trading card bio: "Obstacles are one thing, but moving obstacles provide an entirely new level of danger and challenge. And there are plenty obstacles to be found along the "Moonview Highway". But the race is on and you've got to get out there and battle the traffic as you try to be the first to the finish line!"

Mario Kart Wii

 * Bullet Oil (Signs)
 * Coconut Fruit (Cargo trucks)
 * Factory (Cargo trucks)
 * Gallery (Posters)
 * Gold Star Bank (Signs)
 * Green Fuel (Signs, posters)
 * Moo Moo Dairy (Cargo trucks)
 * Moon Bank (Posters)
 * Mushroom Mart (Signs)
 * The Mushroom Moon (Posters)
 * Tropical Mart (Signs, cargo trucks)