Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Mario Kart Tour

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/74201dad_5ff7_4b80_bec4_da7481dbf73c.png
The unchallenged king of non-realistic racing in video games is going mobile. Oh, and international!

The mobile entry in the Mario Kart series released worldwide for mobile platforms on September 25, 2019.

Theming itself on a World Tour, the game puts heavy emphasis on courses and characters from all around the Mario world. In addition to the returning courses from previous installments, Tour features original courses based off of real-world cities like New York City and Tokyo. To date, it has the highest amount of courses in any Mario Kart entry, as well as over 140 playable charactersnote.

Like many mobile games of its time, it includes a gacha mechanic in the form of Pipes, which each contain a driver, kart, glider, and special ability similar to the unique player abilities in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and uses a monetization model relying on Microtransactions in the way of Rubies, its premium currency purchased with real-life currency at the in-game Shop, which could be used for more tries on the gacha Pipes before being revamped and now can be used to directly purchase drivers/karts/gliders. Small amounts of Rubies can also be obtained as daily login bonuses, player level up bonuses, and other in-game rewards. The game also features a Gold Pass monthly subscription which grants players further and significantly more useful rewards (including Rubies), multiplayer ranks S to S+6, and other perks.

The game takes many visual and gameplay elements from Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8, primarily incorporating the gliders and aesthetics of 7 while including the 200cc mode (locked behind the Gold Pass) and mini-turbo boosts of 8.

The main form of racing is through the game's titular Tours, two-week events that are composed of a series of cups. Beating courses over a certain ranking awards Grand Stars, which are necessary to unlock the later cups in a Tour up until the Baby Rosalina Tour. Grand Stars can also be used to obtain exclusive prizes at the end of an event. Each Tour also has additional challenges to beat, which also award Grand Stars in addition to badges and other goodies.

In addition to the usual layouts, each course also has a Reverse (R) and Trick (T) variant, which respectively throw the course in reverse and add more trickable obstacles, as well as versions that combine elements of both. Remix variants (RMX) completely change the course's layout.

On September 11, 2023, Nintendo announced that the Anniversary Tour in October would be the final Tour to introduce any new content to the game and all future Tours would be recycling content from previous Tours.

    open/close all folders 

    Drivers 

    New Tracks 

    Returning Tracks 


The game features examples of these tropes:

  • Absurdly Short Level:
    • Near the launch of the game, there was a bonus challenge that required the player to perform a Rocket Start... and that's it. As a result, the "race" would end immediately after it began.
    • The "Snap a Photo" challenge type is also usually a case of this.
  • Alliterative Name: Most of the city tracks go for this (Paris Promenade, London Loop, Vancouver Velocity, Los Angeles Laps, Berlin Byways, Sydney Sprint, Singapore Speedway). Averted with Tokyo Blur, New York Minute, Amsterdam Drift, Bangkok Rush, Athens Dash, Rome Avanti, and Madrid Drive.
  • Always Night:
    • SNES Ghost Valley 1, SNES Ghost Valley 2, N64 Frappe Snowland, GBA Boo Lake, DS Luigi's Mansion, Wii Moonview Highway, New York Minute, Vancouver Velocity, Merry Mountain, Ninja Hideaway, RMX Ghost Valley 1, Singapore Speedway and Rome Avanti.
    • The Night Tour from June 28, 2023 to July 12, 2023 (which Rome Avanti and Wii Moonview Highway debuted in) featured mostly courses with this trope, the exceptions being DS Twilight House and GCN Waluigi Stadium (the latter of which is during sunset in Tour, while the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe version is at night).
  • Anachronism Stew: Madrid Drive is subject to this, as its depiction of the Puerta del Sol is based on its appearance prior to renovations that began in 2022, but the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is designed after a still-in-progress renovation. Additionally, on the left Gate of Europe tower, a green logo can be seen near the top resembling that of Caja Madrid, a bank that went defunct all the way back in 2010.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • If the game crashes during the Tour Clear video before the All-Clear Pipe is used, the game acknowledges this upon restarting, and gives you what you would've pulled.
    • During Kart Pro, the main goal is to get a 3-win 1st Place streak, but scoring in 2nd or 3rd will save your streak.
    • If a computer player passes a human player who is about to be hit by a Spiny Shell, it will perform a late target switch and hit the CPU instead. This is the first game in the series where this happens, but it does not apply in multiplayer or when the human passes a targeted CPU.
  • Artistic License – Geography: In Sydney Sprint, Uluru can be seen in the background, even though Uluru is located southwest of the town of Alice Springs in real life, which is thousands of kilometers away from Sydney.
  • Ascended Meme: In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the meta for most of the game's lifespan was Waluigi on the Wild Wiggler with Roller tires. When the Wild Wiggler was announced for the game, fans noticed that Nintendo chose to use the Roller tires for it, since the wheels are unable to be freely selected this time around.
  • Athletic Arena Level:
    • A bevy of athletic tracks from past Mario Kart games are brought back in the game, including special remixes for the first SNES Mario Circuit.
    • Although no brand-new circuit based on this trope has been added four of the city courses feature stadiums as part of their designs. Singapore Speedway and Los Angeles Laps feature the Float @ Marina Bay Stadium and the Dodger stadium respectively, but they're barely impactful for gameplay, only being glided over. Vancouver Velocity and Madrid Drive on the other hand have racers go through the Rogers Arena and Santiago Bernabéu Stadium respectively.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: SNES Ghost Valley 1, SNES Ghost Valley 2, GBA Boo Lake, DS Luigi's Mansion, DS Twilight House and RMX Ghost Valley 1.
  • Big, Bulky Bomb: The new special item of King Bob-omb (among other characters) is the Giga Bob-omb, a large bomb which bounces forward on the track before making a huge explosion.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory: There are two currencies in the game - coins (freely available on the race tracks) and rubies (of which you only get a modest amount during each two-week set of courses). These currencies can be used to get new drivers, but the coin shop requires a very large amount of coins for the higher-end drivers (with Super Rare drivers costing 12,000 coins on the off-chance one appears in the shop - and the game has a limit of 300 coins per day that can be earned in races, and another 100 for idling on the matching screen for multiplayer). Plus, the pool of drivers that can appear in the coin shop is rather limited. On top of that, each race has a list of preferred drivers, karts, and gliders - and the game has a habit of almost always adding new courses where the only drivers/karts/gliders that give the best bonuses (score bonuses, additional item slots, and the entire ability to perform Frenzies) to do well in Ranked cups, where your placement in the entire cup versus 19 randomly chosen players entirely depends on how well you score on all three courses, are Super Rares that were only available from the ruby-paid currency for a two-week span. Also, as time goes on, the game introduces more and more courses where the only options for High-End drivers/karts/gliders are time-limited.
    In short, paying for the monthly Gold Pass for bonus rubies, karts, and drivers and buying extra rubies to regularly get more draws from the gacha (before it was removed) or directly buy the high end drivers/karts/gliders (after it was removed) are required to keep pace with what you need to guarantee getting the best ratings on courses as the game strongly encourages players to buy more rubies (or directly purchase the High-End drivers/karts/gliders) to stay on top of the rankings.
  • The Bus Came Back:
    • Birdo, Diddy Kong, and Funky Kong return after having last appeared in Mario Kart Wii back in 2008.
    • Donkey Kong Jr. returns as a playable character for the first time in 28 years after being playable in the very first game in the series. Albeit as a 3D version of his sprite from that game.
    • In terms of courses, Sunset Wilds and Cheep-Cheep Island from Mario Kart: Super Circuit return for the first time in nearly two decades. The Vanilla Lake courses from Super Mario Kart makes a return, last appeared in Super Circuit.
    • Certain character-specific items that only appeared in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Giant Banana, Bowser's Shell, Heart, Yoshi's Egg/Birdo's Egg) make their return.
    • The "Take them out quick!" challenge that appeared in the 2020 Winter Tour returns in the Doctor Tour.
    • Kamek appears for the first time ever in a proper Mario Kart game, with his last appearance as a playable Mario Kart character being cut out and replaced by Donkey Kong after being a part of an older demo for Mario Kart 64 over 25 years ago.
    • Petey Piranha returns to the series for the first time in 19 years, since Double Dash.
  • Cap:
    • The player's friend list is capped at 100.
    • The player can only obtain 300 coins per day (600 if the Gold Pass is active).
    • During events, only 99 event tokens can be collected in a single race.
  • Call-Back:
    • Several karts from Double Dash have been modified as a single racer design, but all still have the rider handle on the back or in the Koopa King's and Bullet Blaster's cases, also include the platform where the second rider would've stood. The sole exception being the Barrel Train, which had its rider area removed completely in 7 onwards.
    • King Boo's special item being the Lucky 7 is a reference to his and Petey Piranha's unique ability in Double Dash to use all special items.
  • Character Select Forcing:
    • Each course has all the drivers, karts, and gliders separated into Rank 1, 2, and 3. Rank 3 Drivers are the only ones that can select three items and activate Frenzies, while Rank 3 karts and gliders have increased point multipliers. In addition, only Rank 3 selectables can have boosted point totals if their levels are high. In newer courses (including Remix and R/T versions), you will need Rank 3 versions in at least 2 of the 3 options in order to get all five Grand Stars, and you'll definitely need Rank 3 in all three categories if you want to place high in the weekly rankings and move up to the next tier.
    • Played straight with the Today's Challenge, which force you to use a specific Driver for the course. If you do not have the Driver, you'll be temporarily given them for the duration of the challenge.
  • Christmas Episode: The Winter and Holiday Tours with drivers, karts and gliders themed toward Christmas.
  • Christmas Town: Merry Mountain.
  • Continuity Drift: Sky-High Sundae, Yoshi's Island, and Squeaky Clean Sprint lacks a console prefix label, despite being a "New" course for the 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass in marketing material.
  • Cruise Episode: GCN Daisy Cruiser returns in this game. As the name implies it is a cruiser in the middle of the sea turned into a racetrack.
  • Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: 3DS Neo Bowser City always has rainy weather.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Several aspects of classic courses have been tweaked to work with the touch screen controls of the game. Some, like the fact that hitting the train in Kalamari Desert now gives you points and a small speed boost, are easy to deal with. Others, like the removal of shortcuts in GCN Yoshi Circuit, will ruin the day of anyone used to the older versions.
  • Depth of Field: The Photo Mode comes with a tunable depth-of-field blur filter that allows the player to select which elements they want in sharp focus.
  • The Dinnermobile: Many of the new karts are shaped like foods and drinks, such as macharons, apples, carrots, cups of lemon tea, frankfurter sausages, a fast food meal (consists of a burger, fries and soda drink), among others.
  • Do Well, But Not Perfect: This game has this come up with race ranking in two ways. How many Grand Stars you get depends on the evaluation you get from performing various actions during the race. If you're far enough in the lead, you'll never get the chance to use items on opponents and you're way less likely to block items as well, both of which can be prime point-earning opportunities. Plus, the chances of getting a Frenzy (and the attendant Frenzy Action bonus that can be repeatedly spammed and combined with other actions for huge combos) depend in part on your current place, with first naturally having the lowest chance. In some of the later races in a given tour, pretty much every bonus possible needs to be wrung out of a race to get all five Grand Stars from it, and a runaway victory makes it very difficult to get those bonuses.
  • Egopolis: 3DS Neo Bowser City.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: The real city tracks aim to stuff as many major landmarks as they can into it, actual geography being irrelevant. To use the trope naming example, "Paris Promenade" features the Eiffel Tower to the relative south west of the Arc de Triomphe, when it's to the south east in reality. The worst offender in this regard might be the fact that Uluru can be seen far in the background in "Sydney Sprint", despite Sydney being located in New South Wales at south-eastern Australia and Uluru being located in Northern Territory at northern Australia. Notably, there are two courses that avert this trope to an extent - Singapore Speedway and Athens Dash, with the former being based around the Central Area and the latter being built around the Pantheon.
  • Enemy Mine: The Wario vs. Waluigi Tour sees multiple strange bedfellows on both sides. On the W side, we have Wario, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Mario, Dry Bowser, King Boo, Rosalina, Baby Mario, Baby Rosalina, Birdo, Diddy Kong, the Hammer Bros., King Bob-omb, Monty Mole, Dixie Kong, Funky Kong, and Donkey Kong Junior. On the Γ side, we have Waluigi, Toad, Luigi, Koopa Troopa, Peach, Yoshi, Shy Guy, Daisy, Lakitu, Dry Bones, Toadette, Bowser Jr., Baby Daisy, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, the Koopalings, Pauline, Nabbit, and Kamek.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: In the first "Peach vs. Bowser" tour, Monty Mole and Nabbit were part of Peach's team, while Yoshi, Rosalina, and Baby Rosalina were part of Bowser's team. The second one only has Rosalina on the opposing team.
  • Forest of Perpetual Autumn: Wii Maple Treeway
  • French Accordion: Three guesses on what is the main instrument of the Paris Promenade music.
  • Friendly Fireproof: During team races, Red and Spiny Shells will not target drivers on the same team unless they have no other choice.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: If there's a gold variant of a driver, kart, or glider, it will be guaranteed to be a high-end. For the drivers, most of them have special items devoted to wealth, and most of the gliders will increase the chance that item boxes have coins.
  • Grand Finale: The 2023 Anniversary Tour is the last Tour to introduce new content as the following Tour (Battle Tour) will have the game start recycling things from previous tours.
  • Jungle Japes: GCN Dino Dino Jungle.
  • Just Train Wrong: Berlin Byways features Berlin Hauptbahnhof as a landmark you can drive through; it is a composite of the present-day megastation and its much smaller predecessor in terms of appearance, with a Berlin S-Bahn station parked inside. This S-Bahn train appears to be based on the DB Class 420, a train which while historically used on many German S-Bahn systems has never been used in Berlin specifically (and wouldn't be compatible with the Berlin S-Bahn's unique technical specifications even if you wanted to).
  • Kangaroos Represent Australia: Along with a second track based off the city of Sydney, the Sydney Tour of September 2021 also gave Yoshi a Kangaroo costume. It even comes with a pair of boxing gloves.
  • Land of Tulips and Windmills: Amsterdam Drift features a few spots of grasslands outside of Amsterdam with tulips and windmills, more reminiscent of the rural parts of nearby towns like Lisse and Zaandam. Rosalina also has a Volendam costume, giving her the traditional Dutch clothing of... well, Volendam.
  • Later-Installment Weirdness:
    • This is the only Mario Kart game to lack a Grand Prix mode.
    • This is the first game since Super Mario Kart to lack a Mirror mode.
    • Unlike all previous installments, every character is unlockable.
    • The referee Lakitu doesn't appear in the race at all. He instead gives players tips in the loading screen or when announcing the week's rank results.
    • Triple red shells are absent, the first time since Super Mario Kart.
    • Stars cannot be obtained in tour races, instead functionally replaced with "FRENZY" mode. They're instead offered in multiplayer races due to the fixed options often locking the players to two item slots which cuts out the possibility of "FRENZY" altogether.
    • Golden Mushroom is absent for the first time since Mario Kart: Super Circuit, with the Mushroom "FRENZY" mode also being its equivalent.
    • Unlike previous Mario Kart games where almost every track has 3 laps as the minimum, almost every course in Mario Kart Tour has 2 laps as the minimum. The only exceptions are GCN Baby Park, which has 5 laps on the normal, R and R/T variants and 3 laps in the T variant, 3DS Rainbow Road, which is split up into 3 sections just like in Mario Kart 7, and N64 Kalimari Desert 2, Tokyo Blur 4, New York Minute 4, Wii Rainbow Road and GBA Bowser's Castle 4, which are all split up into 2 sections.
    • The selection of tracks that can be raced on changes every two weeks, as do the cups they're housed in. It is entirely possible to have certain tracks repeated as well.
    • Each cup now houses only three regular races, and one Challenge (reminiscent of the Missions on Mario Kart DS or the Competitions in Mario Kart Wii).
    • Every track now has an R variation (which has the race track be altered to go in reverse), a T variation (which includes extra Dash Panels and ramps to Trick on, allowing for continuous combos), and an R/T variation (which combines the reverse track with the trick ramps).
    • The game lacks the "frontrunning beats" added to the music when the player is in 1st place introduced in Mario Kart 7 onwards.
    • It is the first game since Mario Kart: Super Circuit to feature numbered tracks.
    • When the player is hit an "Ouch!" notification with the icon of the opponent's character will appear, similarly, when the player hits someone a "Hit!" notification with the icon of the opponent's driver will appear.
    • It is the only Mario Kart game with a point scoring system and combo system.
    • This is the only Mario Kart game to not have a Nitro Mario Circuit, Bowser's Castle, or Rainbow Road note . However, the game does have RMX (remix) versions of the SNES version of Mario Circuit and Rainbow Road, which are the closest things to nitro versions of these tracks that the game has.
  • Lethal Lava Land: GBA Bowser's Castle 1, 2, 3 and 4, 3DS Bowser's Castle, and RMX Bowser's Castle 1. DS Airship Fortress also takes place over a sea of lava, instead of the sky in DS and 7.
  • Level in Reverse: This game introduces "R" variants of courses, which have you race from what's usually the finish line back to the "start". Ramps are sometimes added to make reverse courses possible.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: Played with. When the final lap starts, the music goes up two whole steps from the first lap variant, and rather than restart from the beginning, resumes playing from where you left off, except on 3DS Rainbow Road.
  • Magikarp Power: The Normal grade characters/equipment. While some of them have useful effects, they are rather basic and their max point total is lower than the Super or High-End versions. However, since they are always in the Daily Selects shop, along with getting a lot of Super Level-boost Tickets as rewards, plus being common fodder in the Pipes, they are easy to get up to Level 6, meaning any course where they are Rank 3 will give you a major point bonus at the end.
  • Major World Cities: New York City (New York Minute), Tokyo (Tokyo Blur), Paris (Paris Promenade), London (London Loop), Vancouver (Vancouver Velocity), Los Angeles (Los Angeles Laps), Berlin (Berlin Byways), Sydney (Sydney Sprint), Singapore (Singapore Speedway), Amsterdam (Amsterdam Drift), Bangkok (Bangkok Rush), Athens (Athens Dash), Rome (Rome Avanti), and Madrid (Madrid Drive).
  • Metropolis Level: The new tracks in this game are directly inspired by real-life cities — New York Minute, Tokyo Blur, Paris Promenade, London Loop, Vancouver Velocity, Los Angeles Laps, Berlin Byways, Sydney Sprint, Singapore Speedway, Amsterdam Drift, Bangkok Rush, Athens Dash, Rome Avanti, and Madrid Drive — and have you race through routes that follow real-life streets through the city centers, passing multiple notable landmarks on the way.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Kamek's special item being the Coin Box may be a reference to Super Mario RPG, where a Magikoopa heavily implied to be Kamek creates a special box which creates infinite coins when struck in the endgame.
    • The R/T variant of Wii Mushroom Gorge brings back the two red mushrooms originally to the left after the starting area, after they didn't appear in any other version of the course in Tour.
  • Nerf: Some items were nerfed from previous games.
    • Hearts return from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! as the special item of Peach and Daisy (joined by a few others in Tour), but only protect against items rather than letting the target get the item for their own use. Additionally, they disappear after some time passes whereas in Double Dash!! they stayed with the user until they collided with an item.
    • Unlike in Mario Kart Wii, Mega Mushrooms do not make drivers invincible; they revert to normal size when hit with an item. They also do not get a speed and off-road boost without a Frenzy.
  • New Neo City: 3DS Neo Bowser City
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: Many of the available courses during the game's launch period were lifted from Mario Kart 7 and the retro tracks featured within. The music for online play is lifted directly from that game, while the character animations are largely lifted from Mario Kart 8.
  • New York Is Only Manhattan: "New York Minute" only has the characters driving through locations native to Manhattan: Central Park, Times Square/Broadway, and the Plaza Hotel parking garage.
  • Oktoberfest: For the Berlin Tour, Luigi gets a Lederhosen variant, complete with traditional Bavarian clothing and a grilled sausage on a fork. The same tour also introduces a kart shaped like a sausage on a grill, the Fast Frank. The highlighted new track, Berlin Byways, averts this, though.
  • Palmtree Panic: N64 Koopa Troopa Beach, 3DS Cheep Cheep Lagoon, Los Angeles Laps, and GBA Cheep Cheep Island are all set on islands, beaches and other tropical environments that feature palm trees.
  • Photo Mode: When doing a cup, you are able to select an "Auto" option, that lets the CPU drive, while the player is able to take pictures of their character at any point from any perspective, including selecting other players. There are several filter options too, such as Depth of Field blur and animation and sepia color filters. Interestingly, some cups have a race where the entire goal is to take a photo of the computer racing while certain objects or players are in view.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Rosalina's Aurora variant wears a gown based on Aurora Borealis. Said variant pairs it with matching High-Class Gloves.
  • Play Every Day: "Today's Challenge". The player is rewarded with a pipe that gives a random item for simply finishing a race with a specific setup every day. It's impossible to fail.
  • Port Town: Wii's Daisy Circuit, which features a dock, several boats and cruisers, and a lighthouse.
  • Power-Up Letdown: Believe it or not, Frenzy can be this. Sure, Frenzy gives you a boost of speed, invincibility, allows you to spam your item for tons of points and a large combo, and it can produce a ton of projectiles to hit foes. However, the downside is that you don't get to choose when to activate it; it goes off automatically when the item reel reveals that you got three of the same item. If you're in the lead, it's quite possible to run out of Frenzy before you can get a new item, leaving you defenseless against a foe that saved a red shell (or worse) for when the Frenzy ended. Getting a Mushroom Frenzy can really help you pull ahead, but it might run out before a shortcut that would have saved a bunch of time that requires a speed boost is reached (GCN Yoshi Circuit R is noted to have a shortcut shortly after the tunnel section that is just past where your Frenzy will run out). Not to mention, each Frenzy has different desirability depending on your place. A Banana Frenzy is only going to help so much if you're not in first or second, and a Red Shell Frenzy when you're already in the lead is of limited usefulness (while they can be fired backwards, they won't bounce around as long as a green shell).
  • Prehistoria: GCN Dino Dino Jungle. N64 Koopa Troopa Beach also has a Noshi on it in some variants.
  • Real-World Episode: The new courses made for the game don't take place in Mario's world like the other games do, but rather, they take place in stylized versions of real world locations such as New York, Vancouver, Paris and Tokyo, amongst others.
  • Promoted to Playable: This game introduces Pauline, Monty Mole, Dixie Kong, Nabbit, Hammer Bro, Ice Bro, Fire Bro, Boomerang Bro, Kamek, King Bob-omb, Chargin' Chuck, and Poochy to the Mario Kart series' playable roster for the first time.
  • Remixed Level:
    • Besides their original versions, the game also features remixed versions of the retro courses, which change up the retro courses by changing the track design and adding new gimmicks that didn’t exist in their original forms. (For example, bouncy mushrooms and giant Piranha Plants in SNES Rainbow Road)
    • 3DS Rock Rock Mountain and 3DS Rainbow Road bear the distinction of having the start/finish line relocated in their Trick variants. Rock Rock Mountain T has the start-finish line located in the forest between the two glide ramps rather than on the cliffside, while Rainbow Road's T and R/T variants puts the start-finish line at the spinning tunnel, Singapore Speedway R/T locates the start-finish line on the Marina Bay Sands towers and Athens Dash R/T locates the start-finish line by the Hadrian's Arch.
  • Retraux The drivers Mario (SNES) and Donkey Kong Jr. (SNES) use their sprites from Super Mario Kart instead of 3D models like all other characters. Playing as them even changes the countdown, item roulette sounds, and finish music to their Super Mario Kart versions. The 8-Bit Pipe Frame is a voxel version of the kart from Super Mario Kart, and multiple gliders are based on sprites from the original Super Mario Bros..
  • Rewarding Vandalism: Bumping to various objects like crates or cones (whether via firing shells or just crashing into them) gives bonus points as well as extends combos. Hitting small Jack-o-Lanterns on the track or big ones with projectiles during the Halloween events will give you the "Trick or Treat!" bonus along with a Special Token.
  • Shout-Out: The Yellow Taxi's Jump Boost attribute may altogether remind players of another game which has taxis that tend to jump a lot.
  • Shown Their Work: The trains crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney Sprint, although obviously adapted to fit the look of Mario, are faithful recreations of the real-world T sets. It especially counts as attention to detail as the developers could've picked any of Sydney Trains' in-service rolling stock to depict, but the T sets specifically are often assigned to the T1 and T9 lines in reality, who do indeed cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: SNES Vanilla Lake 1 and 2, N64 Frappe Snowland, DS DK Pass, 3DS Rosalina's Ice World, Merry Mountain, Wii DK Summit, RMX Vanilla Lake 1 and 2, and GBA Snow Land.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: Mario (SNES) and Donkey Kong Jr. (SNES) are explicitly using modified sprites from Super Mario Kart rather than 3D models, with their appearance changing depending on their camera angle.
  • Truck Driver's Gear Change: Unlike previous games, the final lap music goes up two full steps along with the tempo change. The only track on which this doesn't happen is 3DS Rainbow Road, which still only goes up a half-step.
  • Wintry Auroral Sky: Vancouver Velocity features the aurora borealis in the sky, despite Vancouver only experiencing it a few times per year.
  • Wutai: Ninja Hideaway features many Japanese elements, such as a red wooden bridge leading to a Big Fancy Castle, Shy Guys riding on kites, and copious cherry blossoms. Notably, the game's actual Japan-based track (Tokyo Blur) is portrayed more realistically, but that's likely part of the joke.
  • World Tour: The city tracks are designed around this concept, with the featured countries being the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Thailand, Greece, Italy and Spain.

Top