Kanaami Road

A Kanaami Road is a type of platform that appears in several installments in the Mario Kart series. They are usually colored red, though they can appear in other colors as well. Their main use is to fill out gaps in courses. They are usually uncommon and only appear in a few courses, but in Mario Kart Tour, they are used in many course variants of the game.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Kanaami Roads first appear in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, where they are used to build many parts of the road in Wario Colosseum, with several sections only featuring these platforms as part of the road. Other than that, they serve no other purpose.

Mario Kart DS
Yellow Kanaami Roads are used as the road in Tick-Tock Clock.

Mario Kart Wii
Kanaami Roads later appear in the Mario Kart Wii courses Toad's Factory and Koopa Cape. Starting from this game, Kanaami Roads can be paired with ramps.

Mario Kart 7
Kanaami Roads return in Mario Kart 7, where they are used more frequently. They appear in Toad Circuit, Mario Circuit, Rock Rock Mountain, Bowser's Castle,, , and. Orange and yellow versions also appear in Piranha Plant Slide and Wario Shipyard, respectively. In this game, they can also be paired with Dash Panels and Glide Ramps, with Piranha Plant Slide utilizing this mechanic in its underwater section. In the same course, they are used to act as a higher part of the course, which can only be reached via current.

Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
In Mario Kart 8, Kanaami Roads appear on Sunshine Airport,, and Super Bell Subway. The first three courses feature the new black variation, though the red variation returns in Wario Stadium and Piranha Plant Slide. A new blue variation also appears in Super Bell Subway. Like in Piranha Plant Slide, it is used to act as a higher section of the course. also uses special variations that have a different appearance compared to the other variations.

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, red Kanaami Roads appear in, , , and the second lap of. The latter course has it curved to the left and pairs it with a ramp, which references the usage of these platforms in Mario Kart Tour. This ramp is used to enter the route used for N64 Kalimari Desert 2 in lap 2 for the aforementioned game. Due to this, the ramp only appears for the player if they have reached the second lap. Otherwise, the ramp will be missing, and players already in lap 2 will be seen driving on an invisible road instead by lap 1 players.

Mario Kart Tour
Compared to other games in the series, Kanaami Roads are extremely common in Mario Kart Tour, appearing in the game's R, T, and R/T course variants. In R variants of courses, their use is to assist the player in going upwards on courses where the player normally goes downwards, like 3DS Rock Rock Mountain. They are also used to create roads at the end of gliding sections, like in DS Airship Fortress R, where they can prevent the player from falling due to a lack of space to land on.

In T variants, their main use is to instead provide more Jump Boosts and Dash Panels for the player, which in turn provides more actions for the game's combo and point-earning system. They can be found in different shapes, with them usually curved. This also allows the player to go to a different route compared to the original variant. In courses like SNES Donut Plains 1R/T, there are no ramps located on the platforms; instead, the platform is curved in a way that allows the player to perform more Mini-Turbos. Dropping from a Kanaami Road that does not feature a ramp also allows the player to perform a Jump Boost.

Other than ramps and Dash Panels, Kanaami Roads can also be paired with conveyor belts and air currents. Brown versions of these platforms are found in most of the underwater sections of some courses such as Amsterdam Drift's second and third routes and GBA Boo Lake's R/T variant, while yellow versions return in 3DS Wario Shipyard. Kanaami Roads are also added at the start and end of most Glider Challenges.