How Rainbow Road is Once Again the Showstopper for Mario Kart World

Spoilers for Mario Kart World‘s Rainbow Road ahead.

The era of the Switch 2 has begun with Mario Kart World also marking a new beginning for Nintendo’s racing franchise. After 11 years of Mario Kart 8 being one of the headlining racing experiences for two console generations in a row, the world is now the player’s oyster as the Mushroom Kingdom has become an open-world experience to drive and race through at their leisure. Mario Kart World even holds a surprise behind its Grand Prix cups with the Special Cup and Rainbow Road making a grand return at the finish line.

Mario Kart World is arguably the most friendly, and the most expansive, in terms of its unlockables. Players have plenty of costumes, stickers, and vehicles to obtain across the game’s modes, and unlocking the featured character in each cup doesn’t require players to come in first. Players can unlock the Special Cup by playing through all the other Grand Prix cups at least once. Once this is done, a cutscene will play to mark the return of Rainbow Road which deserves the fanfare it gets as it sets up the course’s importance.

The Unwritten Rules of Mario Kart World Explained

Before starting their engines in Mario Kart World, players should take note of a few unwritten rules about what they should be prioritizing.

Mario Kart World’s Rainbow Road Uses Environmental Storytelling to Tug at Players’ Heartstrings

As part of its emphasis on the fact that Mario Kart World players can drive practically anywhere they want, the Grand Prix cups dare to do something different. The first track featured has a standard three-lap race, but each track after that includes an interlude to get to the next location on Mario Kart World‘s map, finishing off with one or two laps of the course once the racers arrive. The Special Cup makes the journey between all the courses much more meaningful and, true to its name, special. Players might not think of the course list much when they see it, or while going through the unassuming Acorn Heights first, but every course after that is a journey through Mario Kart history.

Mario Kart World’s Special Cup is a Trip Down Memory Lane

Through the line straight down across the in-game map, players will make their way to Mario Circuit, the very first Mario Kart course from Super Mario Kart itself. The SNES version is the MK World version’s main inspiration, but pieces from other iterations can be spotted in the track’s layout as well. After that, players will head to Peach Stadium, which represents the box-art Mario Circuit track from Mario Kart 8 complete with spiraling zero-gravity road and Warp Pipe obstacles in the middle of the course. Peach Stadium links Mario Kart to the latest entry, with World‘s Rainbow Road serving as a powerful thesis about what the series can accomplish now in its latest era.

Moving to Rainbow Road is rather simple as players leave Peach Stadium and head towards the ocean where a gigantic star gate opens and guides the racers to the next course. It makes players feel like they’re watching Rainbow Road form and come alive right in front of them, turning into what might be one of the most beautiful Mario Kart tracks of all time. The new Rainbow Road even takes them through a satellite that’s strikingly similar to Nintendo’s old Game & Watch systems, really focusing on the celebration the entire track wants to represent.

At the end of the Special Cup, players will see a newspaper article with news that Rainbow Road has returned after a “long absence.” With the few cutscenes in Mario Kart World, it tells a story that the racing the player has done up to this point was enough to finally bring the prominent course back. This, along with the environmental story as well, makes Mario Kart World‘s Rainbow Road one emotional experience that befits the legacy of the course and series at large. It shows the latest Mario Kart at its best, and it makes this iconic course the icing on the cake of the full experience.