The crown is unforgiving: the (first) technicolor finale of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe guide are the tracks and tracks of the Special Trophy
With this fourth episode of ours guideall the previously unpublished contents are concluded (between piste e traced) from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. In other words, therefore, in the Special Trophy we will find some of the most difficult circuits of the game, although in the next episode we will retrace the difficulty curve from the beginning. Our four protagonists today will be the Nuvolante Vessel, the Tartosso Desert, Bowser’s Castle and the Rainbow Trail. The latter is only the first of three, and this only affects the base game! Concluding this championship will take you straight to the end credits, so warm up your engines …
Cloud Vessel
And off we go: to open tracks and tracks in our guide today to the Special Trophy, we also have one of the brightest pearls of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The Cloud Vessel somehow put in the same cauldron the sailing ships of Flying Fortress from Mario Kart DS, the celestial scenarios of the main Mario series and the music of the Giardin Ventoso Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy. Poetry!
- Layout: Between the first turns, you will find two diving boards. The second will buy you an iota of time, while exposing you to the risk of falling. The dangers on the ship from which the track takes its name are few; the real challenge is to survive in the stormy clouds. This phase of the circuit in fact alternates “safe” phases for the turbo platforms with others in which the latter are instead targeted by sporadic thunder. You will have to do some zigzagging if you want to avoid being electrocuted. The next glide leads to the last corner, which you can cut if you have a mushroom. Be careful not to fall!
- Assessment: Another of our favorite locations. The level design is just as ambitious as the most skilled players, if they can dominate this track. To play and replay! 9.5 / 10.
Tartosso Desert – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe tracks and tracks guide
For the second championship in a row, we again have a weak link as the second race. The Tartosso desert he hates you and will try to remind you of it practically at every turn.
- Layout: After the first few curves, a large fork awaits you, and with a mushroom you can cut in the direction of the ramp in the center. Continuing, after a curve to the left you will find yourself in the realm of Skeletal Piranha Plants: be careful, as being in their proximity is a matter of a moment. The next fork will let you choose between an anti-gravity section and a more traditional one. In the higher difficulty cups, you will not have time to choose: calculate in advance the path to take. Both roads culminate in a glide, which with a mushroom can take you to an elevated section. The last curves await you in the cave… and the last Tartossi before the finish line.
- Assessment: Desert settings usually tend to be tough, but this one manages to be unpleasant too. You will need a lot of practice, and a lot more patience, to master this almost completely harmless circuit. 5.5 / 10.
Bowser’s Castle – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe track and track guide
With the exception of the episodes of the series that make use of Mode-7 (Super Mario Kart on Super Nintendo and Super Circuit on Game Boy Advance, in case), the Bowser Castle there is always only one and it is the last obstacle before the Rainbow Trail. Once again you will have a difficult track in your hands, but much less troublesome than the Tartosso Desert from which you have (hopefully) come out whole.
- Layout: After the first few hairpin bends (with the occasional laser gaze from Bowser’s statues), a parabolic curve will make you climb until you reach a rotating triple fire bar, followed by a swinging spiked ball, double hairpin and another triple bar. At this point, the giant statue of the Koopa King emerging from the lava will punch a different path: you choose which one, but pay attention to the sharp bend that follows. A glide will then take you to the last corner before the finish line, where you will have to avoid several rolling boulders.
- Assessment: There are perhaps Bowser castles that are better at expressing a sense of purpose, but for gameplay purposes this experience remains one of the most solid offered by the tough, spiked-shell boss. 8/10.
Rainbow track
It had to happen, sooner or later: the cosmic ending of the Nitro tracks (“Nitro” and “Retro”, official nomenclature from Mario Kart DS) chose to exchange the Crash Bandicoot imitation with a space station. A very little “Mariesque” solution if we want, but the Rainbow track native of Mario Kart 8 remains a feast for the eyes.
- Layout: The first few corners already make it clear how small your margin of error is on this track. The glide that follows will lead you to two concentric rings, which in turn alternate the smoothness of their surface. After the curve, a fork will take you to two different ramps, while the turbo platforms will alternate according to the lane they are on. Each ramp will take you on a glide to two different trails, both of which have no guardrails like the rest of the track. You can fall from one path to another, but it will take a lot of practice to do it on purpose (by making shortcuts). Beware of the last left corner before the finish line: the outside is full of turbo, but it is more risky for this!
- Assessment: A Rainbow Runway perhaps unconventional in its aesthetics, but brutally traditional in its composition. However, the presence of two other previous incarnations of this iconic circuit prevents the newcomer from getting out of tune as he would have done otherwise. 8.5 / 10.
Now it’s up to you to tell us yours: does our guide help you? Let us know below, and as always don’t forget to stay on TechGameWorld.com for all the most important news for gamers and more. For your purely gaming needs, you can instead find the best discounts in digital format on Instant Gaming.