Not to be confused withRainbow Ride.

This article is about the race courses in theMario Kart series. For other uses, seeRainbow Road (disambiguation).

Rainbow Road in its appearance inMario Kart World

Rainbow Road is the finalcourse of theSpecial Cup in allMario Kart games and serves as the ultimate course in terms of difficulty in each game in which it appears. Each game features its own different iteration of Rainbow Road, but the courses all share the "Rainbow Road" name. Starting inMario Kart 7, Rainbow Road courses from previous games have reappeared as classic courses alongside the new ones.Mario Kart Tour is the only mainline game in the series to not introduce its own fully original Rainbow Road, though it does introduce two Rainbow Roadremix courses and features some returning Rainbow Roads as classic courses.

As their name suggests, these courses are made of rainbow-colored surfaces, usually metallic or glass, that are either one color or change their color as racers drive on them, depending on the game. Many of these tracks are transparent. FromMario Kart: Double Dash!! toMario Kart Tour, the surface on each Rainbow Road creates a unique metallic sound when racersdrift,hop, or perform a sharp turn on it. Starting inMario Kart 7, some of the Rainbow Road courses have sections of the race track that are not rainbow-colored. Rainbow Road typically appears to be floating in deep space or theEarth's atmosphere, although the ones inMario Kart: Double Dash!! andMario Kart World and the remadeN64 Rainbow Road andSNES Rainbow Road inMario Kart 8 instead hang suspended in a starry night sky above a landscape. The course often contains few or no railings, putting racers at risk of falling off the track, and each Rainbow Road also contains its own unique hazards. Due to these obstacles, Rainbow Road is among the most difficult courses in eachMario Kart game; it is also often one of the longest.

Rainbow Road has also made some appearances in other games outside of theMario Kart series, as well as inThe Super Mario Bros. Movie.

History[edit]

Mario Kart series[edit]

Rainbow Road has appeared as multiple incarnations throughout theMario Kart series:

Course	Games	Description
Rainbow Road	Super Mario Kart Mario Kart: Super Circuit Mario Kart 7 Mario Kart 8(The Legend of Zelda ×Mario Kart 8) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Mario Kart Tour	A simplistic, yet challenging course that debuted inSuper Mario Kart with narrow paths and tight curves. The road is made of tiles in all colors of the rainbow (although red was replaced by pink inMario Kart 7), arranged in horizontal bars, while the environment appears to be in the starry depths of space (or a starry night sky inMario Kart: Super Circuit,Mario Kart 8, andMario Kart 8 Deluxe).Star Thwomps appear as the course's primary obstacles, which can spin out racers by touch unlike regularThwomps, and as ofMario Kart 7, their stomps causes the course to wave, allowing drivers totrick on them.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart 64 Mario Kart 8 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	The longest course inMario Kart 64, taking at least two minutes per lap to race on; inMario Kart 8 andMario Kart 8 Deluxe, the course instead has a single lap split into three segments. This iteration's road is translucent and arranges its colors in bars, but features no tiles (this is changed inMario Kart 8 andMario Kart 8 Deluxe, where the course is tiled similarly toSNES Rainbow Road but the colors are arranged diagonally). The course also features guard rails shaped like stars, and the environment takes place in outer space with a smiling star and neon sign images of the character (inMario Kart 8 andMario Kart 8 Deluxe, the course takes place above a city in the night sky, and the neon signs are replaced with fireworks).Chain Chomps will occasionally run into the drivers, although inMario Kart 8 andMario Kart 8 Deluxe, they instead bounce on certain wavy pathways.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart: Super Circuit	Similar toMario Kart 64, the Rainbow Road introduced inMario Kart: Super Circuit is translucent and has its colors arranged horizontally. The course takes place in outer space, withBowser's Castle fromPaper Mario clearly visible in the background. The course's guard rails are bouncy ramps, allowing drivers to make large shortcuts at certain parts with well-timedMushroom boosts. Obstacles range from falling stars that hurt the racers, to thunder clouds that make them shrink.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart: Double Dash!!	A long course with many elevations and turns, this iteration fromMario Kart: Double Dash!! takes place above a city which resemblesMushroom City, in the night sky. Its road features its colors in gradients, and is tiled and reflective. It features a vertical tube that shoots drivers high upwards, not unlikecannons. Occasionally, collectibleStars will scatter on the road, granting racers invincibility.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart DS	The Rainbow Road fromMario Kart DS is the first Rainbow Road to arrange its colors in a vertical fashion, and also features long, vertical tiles. Like previous incarnations, this version takes place in outer space. Uniquely, this course features two loops, prior to the introduction ofanti-gravity inMario Kart 8 andMario Kart 8 Deluxe: a vertical loop, and a corkscrew loop. Both loops are laced withDash Panel boosts to prevent drivers from falling.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart Wii Mario Kart Tour Mario Kart 8 Deluxe(Booster Course Pass)	The iteration fromMario Kart Wii features many twists and curves, as well as many opportunities to trick. InMario Kart 8 Deluxe, the course is also set entirely in anti-gravity. Like previous versions, it also takes place in outer space, withEarth visible below the course; falling off the track will cause drivers to burn up in the atmosphere beforeLakitu picks them up. The course also featuresStar Bits and aLaunch Star fromSuper Mario Galaxy. It is also the first iteration to featureStar Rings.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart 7 Mario Kart Tour Mario Kart 8 Deluxe(Booster Course Pass)	Mario Kart 7's incarnation is a long, three-sectioned course that takes place in outer space like previous incarnations, this time including portions on a planet ring and even on themoon, making it the first Rainbow Road to feature parts that are not rainbow-colored. InMario Kart 7, the part on the moon functions similarly to anunderwater section, while inMario Kart 8 Deluxe, it is an anti-gravity section. The course also features several opportunities forgliding.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart 8 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	The iteration fromMario Kart 8 takes place on a space station in outer space, above another planet's atmosphere. This iteration of Rainbow Road appears more artificial compared to previous versions, and features several satellites floating around, as well as another space station withconveyor belts, which then leads to a split path. As with most courses inMario Kart 8, it features several anti-gravity segments.
RMX Rainbow Road 1	Mario Kart Tour	Aremix course based onSNES Rainbow Road, thus featuring the same tiled road design and the same environment as the course normally has inMario Kart Tour. Its layout is shaped similarly to a squared-off figure eight, but the middle paths that would normally cross each other are instead glider sections with floating meteors.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit	Due to the nature ofMario Kart Live: Home Circuit using a remote-controlled car and augmented reality, the course layout design for this incarnation of Rainbow Road depends on what the player has set up. Aside from that, this course features Star Rings for the racers to drive through, as well as a magnet obstacle at the fourth gate. This version of Rainbow Road reuses the music fromN64 Rainbow Road, as it appears inMario Kart 8.
RMX Rainbow Road 2	Mario Kart Tour	A second remix course based onSNES Rainbow Road. This Rainbow Road features a bunch ofMushroom Trampolines, and some elevation.
Rainbow Road	Mario Kart World	TheMario Kart World incarnation of Rainbow Road is set in the clouds above the bay in the south of the game's map. It is a long, four-sectioned course that additionally features a floating river for its second section and a space station for its third. It is unlocked by completing all of the previous cups.[1]

WhileMario Kart Arcade GP andMario Kart Arcade GP 2 do not feature any courses with the Rainbow Road name, two similar courses appear in the games'Rainbow Cup, namelyRainbow Coaster andRainbow Downhill. Both courses feature a tiled road with rainbow colors high in the night sky, starting out at a space station with floating items and warping to a cloudy environment with beanstalks at daylight akin toGBA Sky Garden (which is instead an undersea environment in the third and fourth rounds of the Rainbow Cup, the ruins of an above-clouds sanctuary at night in the first and second rounds of the Special Rainbow Cup (althoughMario Kart Arcade GP 2 has these environments swap places), or an underwater temple in the third and fourth rounds of the Special Rainbow Cup).

F-Zero X[edit]

Rainbow Road inF-Zero X

Main section:Rainbow Road (Mario Kart 64) § F-Zero X

Rainbow Road appears as a racetrack inF-Zero X. It is based on the Rainbow Road fromMario Kart 64.

F-Zero GX also has a track similar to Rainbow Road calledPhantom Road, which does not take place in a starry night sky or deep space like most Rainbow Roads, but rather in a psychedelic cybernetic void. In addition, the track has only one color that constantly shifts through the color spectrum rather than the traditional rainbow-looking appearance. Earlier builds of the track that remain inF-Zero AX retain the Rainbow Road moniker, most likely as a nod to Rainbow Road inF-Zero X.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3[edit]

Towers floating over the clouds, where Rainbow Road takes place, inMario Hoops 3-on-3

Main article:Rainbow Road (Dribble Race course)

Rainbow Road is the unlockable third dribble race from the "challenges" section inMario Hoops 3-on-3. However, this Rainbow Road floats above the clouds and around a clock tower, and not much of the course is fully seen when playing.

Super Mario Galaxy 2[edit]

Rainbow Road inSuper Mario Galaxy 2

InSuper Mario Galaxy 2, Rainbow Road appears in both missions of theRolling Coaster Galaxy, but it is quite different compared to its previous appearances: it is curved and appears to be made up of rainbow tiles instead of the colors simply being contiguous, more similar to the Rainbow Road fromSuper Mario Kart in which the track is also made up of rainbow tiles. The road is also accompanied by several platforms shaped like both mushrooms and squares with different colors. Despite taking place in space, this Rainbow Road features a cloudy sky as a background.Mario orLuigi must roll aStar Ball along this Rainbow Road, avoiding several obstacles like towers andBob-ombs. They can earn twoPower Stars for finishing the course, one for the normal mission and another for collecting 100 of the 110Purple Coins. The music played on Rainbow Road is an arrangement of "Slider" fromSuper Mario 64.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS[edit]

Main article:Rainbow Road (stage)

The Rainbow Road stage inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Rainbow Road appears as a stage forSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, based on itsMario Kart 7incarnation. LikePort Town Aero Dive fromSuper Smash Bros. Brawl, it is a moving stage where players fight on a platform that flies around the course, which also occasionally lands on the course itself. While on the ground,Shy Guys can drive by and damage any fighters in its way, like in theMario Circuit stage from the previous game.

A Rainbow Road also appears inRosalina &Luma's announcement trailer, where Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Donkey Kong are all racing each other (drivingkarts fromMario Kart 8) only to be suddenly interrupted byKirby on hisWarp Star, followed by a Luma and Rosalina. This Rainbow Road slightly resembles theincarnation fromMario Kart DS.

Paper Mario: Color Splash[edit]

Rainbow Road inPaper Mario: Color Splash

Rainbow Road appears inPaper Mario: Color Splash, leading directly toBlack Bowser's Castle. The road is formed after all sixBig Paint Stars are retrieved.Luigi drivesMario andHuey over to Black Bowser's Castle via hiskart as the road is too slippery to walk on. Eventually, all but Huey (who elects to stay behind to ensure the black paint does not seep into the ocean when Black Bowser's Castle falls down) escape the castle and return to the road. While comforting Mario about Huey's decision, Luigi indicates that he knows Huey will probably be back as promised as the former has "fallen off Rainbow Road more times than [he] can count."

WarioWare Gold[edit]

InWarioWare Gold, theSuper Mario Kartmicrogame takes place on sections of that game's Rainbow Road.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie[edit]

Rainbow Road inThe Super Mario Bros. Movie

Rainbow Road^[2] appears as a location inThe Super Mario Bros. Movie. It consists of a long rainbow that stretches across the sky, with at least one split path and some number of inversions that requireanti-gravity to traverse. While the track is durable enough to hold the weight of a large number of vehicles and the usual havoc caused byMario Kart items, especially heavy blows cause it to break into shards that plummet out of the sky.

AfterMario convincesCranky Kong to have theKong army aid the Mushroom Kingdom, they,Donkey Kong,Princess Peach, andToad get onkarts andbikes to take thesecret passage out of theJungle Kingdom and onto Rainbow Road, aiming to get to theMushroom Kingdom beforeBowser andhis castle do. TheKoopa General warns Bowser of this maneuver, so Bowser orders his troops to ambush the heroes before they succeed. As the heroes start driving on Rainbow Road, Mario and Peach have a light conversation about the differences betweenEarth and Peach's adopted world, with Peach's topic being about driving on rainbows. Bowser observes this conversation using binoculars from his castle and gets angry about it as he views it as the two flirting.

Soon after the conversation,Koopa Troopas with karts and bikes leap onto Rainbow Road from many different islands to attack the heroes in the aforementioned ambush, led by the Koopa General. This prompts aMario Kart style battle between both groups. During the battle, a strayBullet Bill breaks a large part of a floating island, causing it to fall and crash through Rainbow Road. The gap this creates causes a number of vehicles in Bowser's army to stop, but Toad does not brake in time and falls off. Peach uses her bike'sSuper Glider to rescue him, but not his kart. Later, after the heroes destroy the Koopa General's kart and seemingly make it through the ambush successfully, the Koopa General attacks Mario and Donkey Kong by turning into aBlue Shell and slamming into their vehicle. The Blue Shell's explosion damages Donkey Kong's kart and destroys the surrounding portion of Rainbow Road, which drops Mario, Donkey Kong, the kart, and a large number of shards of Rainbow Road into the ocean below. Cranky Kong and the remainder of the Kong army are behind Mario and Donkey Kong, and are forced to stop before the gap. This allows Bowser's army to capture Cranky Kong and the entire Kong army usingKoopa Clown Cars. Peach and Toad are driving just ahead of Mario and Donkey Kong, which allows them to stay ahead of the destruction and get to the Mushroom Kingdom before Bowser.

As Mario and Donkey Kong fall, Donkey Kong throws falling debris from the Blue Shell attack at Mario out of anger. This includes pieces of Rainbow Road. Mario blocks a shard with another shard before throwing his shard at Donkey Kong. The broken shards of Rainbow Road sink into the ocean, and several are eaten by aMaw-Ray.

At one point, Mario does anUltra Mini-Turbo to leap from one segment of the road to another segment below in order to get away from the Koopa General. This may be a reference to theMario Kart 64Rainbow Road shortcut. Additionally, when the characters jump off the large ramp of the secret passage and land on the road, a rendition of theRainbow Road music fromSuper Mario Kart briefly plays.

Super Mario Party Jamboree[edit]

A track similar to Rainbow Road appears inSuper Mario Party Jamboree in the second half of the ShowdownminigameRosalina's Radical Race.

Names in other languages[edit]

References[edit]

Wikipedia has an article onRainbow Road.

• Cosmic areas
• Sky areas
• Race courses
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie locations

• Articles with unsourced foreign names