- [countdown tone rings] [engine revs] - Rainbow road in Mario Kart history has generally been the hardest track. They usually don't have very many railings. They're usually very difficult to navigate, have a lot of obstacles, holes in the ground. - It's like the boss battle, if you will. It's supposed to, pretty much, test all of your capabilities in terms of turns, managing your speed, managing items, and again, trying not to fall off a course without any sort of siding to protect you. You can't let your guard down at any point. It's only gotten crazier and crazier as the years have gone on. But you kinda see throughout every Mario Kart game, Rainbow Road kinda has similar features. The tracks are usually translucent. It's taking place in outer space. So in Mario Kart 8, you actually get to replay the Super Nintendo version of Rainbow Road from the original Super Mario Kart game. It's a direct remaster, so you get to see everything in HD. It's the same turns, the same obstacles, and the same intensity when you're playing it. It's a really great time to get to relive that. - I haven't played since I was in 6th, 7th grade maybe? - When I was 7, 8 years old, I was obsessed with Mario. I was obsessed with Nintendo. - Rainbow Road: hardest of the Mario Kart courses. - As soon as you start Rainbow Road, from the Super Nintendo Mario Kart, you have three super sharp turns that, you know, there's not even item blocks yet. There's not even obstacles in your way. It's almost testing the driver's own skills and you are the one who's gonna get in the way of yourself at this point. - No. [curly haired girl laughs] - Oh no, no, no. - And then from there, you start seeing the blocks that are trying to fall on you, while you're trying to turn and collect these coins to increase your speed, which is a whole 'nother element because the more coins you have, the faster you are actually able to go. - Coins increase your top speed. Having ten of them increases your top speed by a couple of weight classes. - Which is kinda a double edged sword because the faster you go on this Rainbow Road course, the harder it is to stay on the track. - After you have ten, if you pick up any additional coins, you'll get a tiny, tiny speed boost as well, but it's not as relevant. - After those three turns, you're kind of on a straightaway, finally. You think that you can let your guard down a little bit and then you have the Thwomp blocks that are starting to come at you. - Come on, no, no no... [Mario Kart game play noises] - Oh, come on. - The Thwomps on SNES Rainbow Road, they are on something called the global cycle. From the moment you start the track, they hit at the same time, every time. When you get hit by a Thwomp, you lose about two and a half to three seconds in the speed run. - But you're not only trying to dodge those, but there road kinda forks into two, and there's this giant gap you can fall through. - Aw, come on. - And then, as soon as you get past that, more sharp turns. And then, before you know it, the lap is restarting, and you're back in the action. There's really no moment to catch your breath. - I wish this was an easier level. [girl in red shirt laughs] - The Super Mario Kart game was designed to show off all that the Super Nintendo could do. And that kinda spirit has kind of lived on in every single game after. It's really fun to get to that point, to be able to say like, "wow, I made it". And it kind of feels like a big party at the end. - I have several cup world records, including the cup SNES Rainbow Road is a part of. Right away from the start, as you're lining up, you have to wait for Lakitu. Lakitu is the little guy who holds up the lights and he goes "3, 2, 1, go", and he starts the race. As soon as the second light lights up, on the two, you start holding "A". You'll probably be holding "A" throughout the entire track. Every single turn, you're going to be drifting. And there are two drifting techniques that are pretty important for speedrunners. The first one is called "slide drifting". You do a neutral input, and then slide your cart out as the drift starts. And that charges up your first mini turbo, which is the boost you get from drifting. "R" is to do an actual drift. So you press that button and that will cause you to hop up in the air. While you're in the air, your cart is facing neutral, straight ahead, because you haven't moved the control stick, and this still holding down the button because you're doing a drift. Then press the direction as you're landing. And that will cause your cart to slide out in that direction. You need to make sure that as you're timing it, as they're going down, so that when they land, then they scoot out. The second technique speedrunners use is called "soft drifting". And soft drifting is angle specific. So, normally if you're turning to the right, you just hold to the right. But if you turn your angle more to 2 o'clock than 3 o'clock, you can go in this little range of angles while still getting the fastest boost, at the fastest time. And those ranges charge your mini-turbo at the fastest possible rate. And that's shown through the sparks on your tires. The mini turbo is the first tier, and that is blue sparks. The super mini turbo is the second tier, and that is reddish orange-ish sparks. And the ultra mini turbo is pink purple sparks. Each of those boosts is a longer length of time for a boost. As you increase the mini turbo, you also get a larger amount of boosts. All of the drifting lines on this track are the same each lap. The first drift that you'll do is a super mini turbo. The second drift that you'll do is a ultra mini turbo. And on this ultra mini turbo, you're going to want to collect somewhere between three and six coins from the coins along that line. After that ultra mini turbo, there are a series of ramps. And you want to be to the right of the farthest ramp, the middle ramp. Going to the right lets you take the next turn a little bit wider and that's actually faster because you get to charge another ultra mini turbo around the hairpin turn. If you took a sharper angle, you would only be able to get a super mini turbo. And you get a faster boost going wider. The Thwomp on this straightaway is really, really difficult to avoid, especially in lap one, because of the global cycles. In laps two and three it's a little bit easier. After that, it's an ultra mini turbo around the next hairpin turn, collecting a couple more coins. And another super mini turbo at the end of the track. After the third ultra mini turbo, in lap two, you should have ten coins. Every lap, it is a super mini turbo, and then three ultra mini turbos, and then a super mini turbo. - When you see somebody speedrun Rainbow Road, they're usually going to take the turns very strategically. They're gonna try to start wide and as they get closer, they'll kinda dive into the sharp corners. And then they'll start to actually use the drifting mechanism of the game to slide into it. You'll see them immediately go from a drift to the left, into a drift to the right. They're not driving straight during this course, nearly as much as they're actually drifting from side to side. - If you do that strat. and you don't get hit by anything, if you're not using any mushrooms on 200 cc, which is the method of time trials that I do, shroom-less time trials, anything under 1:07 is a really good time. [Mario Kart game noises] Damn, that's a really good time. I missed, two drifts were one bit lower than they were supposed to be. But that was really good. - Obviously with a game like Mario Kart, the intention was to make something very accessible for everybody. - This is one of the most annoying roads I've ever, ever played on Mario Kart. The Rainbow Road. [girl laughs] [electronic music] [digital beeping] - Mario Kart, being a cart racer, was supposed to be able to be picked up and played by anybody who wanted to try it out. - Oh, it's this one. - Oh, this is my favorite road. [Mario Kart game music and noises] - Oh my gosh, this is... - You guys give me the most difficult road. - The faster you are hitting to accelerate when that light turns, is going to give you a really great start to be able to kick off your race. [buttons tapping] - Oh yeah, you get a little boost. [Mario Kart game music and noises] - Gotta remember which - there we go. - Ah. - Love Rainbow Road, except when you have to turn. - You really have to use drifting, which is something more novice players aren't necessarily gonna be super comfortable with. - So look at that. - Ah, there we go. Drifting, I remember that. - Ah. - If you don't know how to drift on this course, you're gonna have a really hard time keeping up with everybody and staying in on track. [guy with glasses groans] - No. - No, wait I don't know how to... - Oh. Video games are best played between 10 pm and 2 am. And right it's like 9:30 in the morning. So, I just want to put that out there. [guy in blue shirt laughs] [Mario Kart game music and noises] - The Thwomps that come down are obviously obstacles and you don't want to hit them. - Oh. - Ah. [Mario Kart game music and noises] - Nope. - This is where breaking comes in handy. - Rainbow Road, from the beginning is this beautiful course that you don't get to enjoy while you're playing it because you're just trying to stay on the track. - Oh really? - All sorts of things, that just, can mess you up because it's a really hard track. - You make one little mistake, you can end up falling pretty far behind your competitors. - Did points ever really matter on this? - What are these coins for in Mario Kart? Why am I collecting those? - I think a lot of novice players are going to see coins as really not impacting the race, but you want to have as many coins on you as possible to get to your maximum speed. [Mario Kart game music and noises] - You can actually go into jump and hit "Z + R" and you'll do a little move depending on your character. And that's gonna give you a speed boost as you come back in contact with the ground. [Mario Kart game music and noises] - And doing tricks. [buttons tapping] - You only want to do those tricks if you can squeeze them in-between the drifts because they use the same button. - Squeaked out at number one, right there at the end. [guy cheers] - He's got it - Oh come on, no, no, no, no... Oh god. Oh my... [guy with glasses sighs] - I have a lot of friends who don't enjoy playing video games. Who, anytime they hear someone playing Mario Kart, they want in. Nothing really beats getting some friends together in the same room to play Mario Kart. And anytime I play Rainbow Road, I kinda think back to those moments I had with friends or family. - All right, I'm gonna go for the jump. Oh wait. Okay. Oh. That, I... [guy in blue shirt laughs] I've never seen that before. That may have been the luckiest I've ever gotten in Mario Kart.