When it comes to video games, Mario Kart has to be the most prominent and important series in my life. Mario Kart 64 was the first Nintendo game I owned and was the whole reason I ever got into Nintendo as much as I did. It’s also the main reason I met everybody I’m great friends with today. If it wasn’t for my love for Mario Kart, I never would have joined my first internet message board, Mario Kart Central, and I never would have met the person who would lead me to meeting all the people I am currently associated with today. Mario Kart means more to me than any other video game ever could. Hell, my internet handle was Toadkarter for many years. Needless to say, I frickin’ love Mario Kart.
One of my favorite aspect of the Mario Kart series is it’s incredible track design. Nintendo has such a way with creating unique, fun and often times challenging levels and stages, so it makes sense that same creative genius would spill over into Mario Kart’s tracks. Whether avoiding boulders on Choco Choco Mountain or launching off of tree branches in Maple Treeway, the Mario Kart series simply can’t be beat when it comes to track design. So today, I’m counting down my top ten favorite Mario Kart tracks. It’s pretty difficult to narrow down over 90 tracks to just ten, but I’m going to attempt to do it the best I can.
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| Admittedly, this is still the best racing game with Pac-Man in it |
Now before I begin, I just need to get this out of the way; there are no courses on the list from the SNES or Gameboy Advance entries of the series. The tracks in those games are mostly boring and just don’t stand out very much. It’s not really Nintendo’s fault, the game consoles they were working with just weren’t powerful enough to handle any truly wacky tracks that weren’t just…flat. Sure, Super Circuit has some cool ones like Cheese Land or Ribbon Road, but those are purely aesthetic. The tracks are still flat and boring. Likewise, there’s no tracks from either of the arcade entries on the list either. Partially because I’ve only played each of those games a few times, but also because the tracks in that game are pretty boring too. Racing through Diamond City from WarioWare is pretty cool, but look at the map in that screenshot there. It’s boring and uninspired. So no Arcade games this time around. Feel free to disagree, though. Anyway, let’s start the list.
