Matt's Top Five Favorite Mario Kart 7 Tracks

When we first started this blog, I kicked things off with my list of the ten best Mario Kart tracks in my opinion. In many ways, it was to celebrate not only my love for the series but the then upcoming 7^th installment, Mario Kart 7. Well, Mario Kart 7 came out in December and I’ve had plenty of time to play it so I figured I’d go back and list off the tracks I think are the absolute best in Mario Kart 7. 

Sure would be nice if Waluigi was in this game.

Of course, when I say “absolute best,” I mean of the new tracks. While Mario Kart 7 easily has the best selection of retro courses in any Mario Kart yet, it’s unfair to compare the likes of Waluigi Pinball and Koopa Cape, already great tracks that were on my original list, to the new tracks I want to talk about. Also, I’m only going to be listing off five. Any more than that and I’d be listening almost all the new tracks all together! One last thing, and this should go without saying, no Battle mode tracks. I know they barely count to begin with but I just feel the need to remind you that they're not going to be included. Even if Honeybee House is kind of cool.

Matt's Top Ten Favorite Mario Kart Tracks

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.

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.