Rainbow Road is the last track of the Special Cup in Mario Kart Wii. Unlike other versions, this track contains multiple twists and sharp turns, as well as a steep drop after the starting line. The middle of the track features a Super Mario Galaxy-style launch cannon that blasts racers through a light tunnel to the final part which consist of two twisting paths before the finish line.
The track's background is an atmosphere and features the Earth. It also has other unreachable objects in its background, such as the Moon, the Sun, Saturn (which is depicted in this course as being much closer than in reality), and a spiral galaxy (which is depicted as being bigger, brighter, and/or closer in it than reality).
Description[]
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 boost 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 boost panel is on the left, (depending on the mode of the race). After the slope is a ramp with a boost panel in 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, plunging into the Atlantic Ocean.
After the first curve are three more boost panels that stretch across the road and a half-pipe ramp on the very right, plus a turn left. The half-pipe contains floating item boxes for the player to use. 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. After the wavy part is a ramp with a boost 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. These holes will cause the player to fall. 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 contains small ramps. Both holes contain half-pipe ramps, but the latter one doesn't 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 the launch cannon which will lead the player at very high speeds through a light tunnel that follows after it. When the player gets out of the launch, 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 boost pads in different locations. Both will lead to a ramp with two boost panels on it, with floating item boxes. Past the ramp is where the road merges again. This part has more boost panels with a sharp curve to the left and to the right. The boost 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. This course is the game's longest Nitro Course, and the second largest track overall in the game.
In Later Mario Kart games[]
Mario Kart Tour[]
This Rainbow Road makes its retro course debut in Mario Kart Tour, where it is first featured in the Space Tour of 2023. Its appearance here makes it the first Special Cup course from Mario Kart Wii to appear. Its layout remains mostly the same, but has some alterations. The wavy section before the second jump no longer gets wavier, and the Launch Star cannon now has a Glide Ramp. The course's lap count has also been reduced to a single lap, with a section gate appearing at the Launch Star Cannon. The Item Box sets have also had their positions changed: the first set is now before the downhill drop and another set has been added before the wavy section. The guardrails have also been made more frequent, with their original locations being unchanged and new ones being added at the first portion of the dash panel ramp and the three subsequent dash panels (both sides), the slight right turn after the Launch Star cannon (again, both sides), the area just before the split path (ditto), the right path at the split (left side), and the slight right turn at the end (both sides). Additionally, the course's scale is larger.
As for the course's aesthetics, the starting line is given a goal gate with technicolour ring designs, which also appear in various other course elements, and the road's texture is now animated, with pinpricks of light following the course's path. Its background has also received several changes, such as the Earth being moved closer to the track and Saturn's position being changed to right after the cannon. The Moon now has its own model, is much closer to the track, and has a rocket ship just like it did in 3DS Rainbow Road (although as it is still in the course's background rather than making up part of its layout, the Moon is smaller). The floating arrows that appear at the figure-8 segment now take their designs from the ones that appear in SNES Rainbow Road. The track's wavy portion matches its static portions in texture, and the road texture no longer highlights arcs for the subsequent half-pipes. The Launch Star that serves as the track's cannon and the false Launch Star that marks the end now have an altered design: they are now big stars and have a ring encompassing their inner corners, and the tunnel that connects them now cycles through colours. The false Launch Star briefly spins when racers pass through it, though they will not be launched. Additionally, in the event where they fall off the course, the racers are now considered to be out-of-bounds long before their vehicle plunges into the Atlantic Ocean with the camera performing an iris-out on them followed by the game cutting to the character being dropped back onto the track.
Mario Kart 8[]
While the course is absent from the Wii U version of Mario Kart 8, due to that version not having the Booster Course Pass, it does make a reappearance in the Nintendo Switch port, serving as the final course of the Spiny Cup and the Booster Course Pass as a whole. Like the other courses in the Spiny Cup as well as all of the courses in the Acorn Cup, it is introduced as part of Wave 6. The track has its lap count reverted to 3 and its layout and proportions reverted back to that of its Mario Kart Wii incarnation this time, but the background elements take their designs and placements from Mario Kart Tour and. Much of the course has been converted to Anti-gravity, à la Dragon Driftway. Two pillars used for Spin Boosts have been added to the track, their designs being similar to the pillars at Sunshine Airport and the Electrodrome; both pillars inhabit the area at the south end of the track between the figure-8 and the Launch Star tunnel. Even more guardrails are present, making the track easier. Unlike in Mario Kart Wii, when the racers fall off the track, they burst into flames (possibly to copy a meteor) and are catapulted in the direction they were facing at less of an angle to the "horizontal" of track than in Mario Kart Wii where they plunged at a more vertical angle into the Atlantic Ocean, although this means the Rescue Lakitu has to spend around 4 seconds to save doomed racers despite his quickness in Mario Kart 8 compared to past games.
The course's appearance is paler in colour compared to its Mario Kart Tour design, making it more closely resemble its original incarnation, and its tiles are smaller compared to their appearance in Mario Kart Tour, making the road's texture similar to that of its Wii U counterpart. Its Launch Star Rainbow Tunnel retains the colours stretching from one end to the other from its Mario Kart Wii incarnation, and the other two tunnels have their designs modified to look like the Mario Kart Wii design of the tunnel at the U-turn near the end with said tunnel also having lights and the rainbow moving backwards once again. The course's wavy portion, cannon, and rainbow tunnel at its final U-turn get their sound effects back from its Mario Kart Wii incarnation.
The course's music is used for the course overview trailer for Wave 6, and now features a futuristic aesthetic, and its map has been rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise, with "north" pointing left. It is one of two courses from Mario Kart Wii to return in Wave 6, the other being Daisy Circuit.
