Mario Kart 8

Welcome to Dragon Driftway, one of my favourite racetracks in Mario Kart 8. This is a stunning, stylish course, which blends a lot of Eastern theming and motifs: mountains, pagodas, paper lanterns, curved bridges, and a red-and-gold colour palette that is common in Imperial Chinese imagery. The starting line is a paifang, a type of decorative gate widely found in Chinese culture, with two golden Cheep Cheeps on top of it.

The most iconic visual feature of Dragon Driftway is, of course, the gigantic, segmented, ornately designed stone dragon whose body forms the bridges, roads, loops, and spirals of the track itself, making this course practically slither like a serpent. This Chinese-style dragon is loosely based on Gobblegut, a massive magma serpent boss from Super Mario Galaxy 2. At the beginning of the track, racers drive into Gobblegut’s mouth and zoom down a winding hall, which is modelled after Chinese temples. Interestingly, you never reach the ‘tail’ of the dragon structure, as it loops back to the start and into Gobblegut’s mouth again. This may be a reference to the ancient cultural symbol of the ouroboros, which depicts a snake eating its own tail.

Almost the entirety of Dragon Driftway is played in anti-gravity and is, in fact, an essential element of the track’s identity. The whole track conveys the feeling of misdirected gravity, giving you a constant sense of not knowing which way is really up, especially when you see the seemingly inverted waterfalls or the way the track twists above you as you approach the finish line.

Throughout the course, particularly inside the ‘dragon’, images from the original Super Mario Bros. can be seen. One notable mural depicts the cloud-riding Lakitu striking various martial-arts poses and carrying a staff. According to the Super Mario Wiki, three Chinese characters (朱盖木), which can be found on lanterns above the starting line, reference Lakitu’s name in simplified Chinese. I couldn’t find any reason why Lakitu should be given such prominence on this course, but it may simply be that, because divine beings, immortals, and supernatural creatures are frequently depicted riding clouds in East Asian mythology, Lakitu is an easy fit for a fantasy Chinese-inspired temple setting. The course designers have certainly leaned into that, effectively creating a ‘Kung-Fu Lakitu’ character theme. In-universe, perhaps Lakitu is the ‘guardian’ of Dragon Driftway.

Lakitu is one of Mario’s most distinctive enemies: a small Koopa-like creature riding a smiling cloud, usually hovering out of reach while dropping danger from above. He first appeared in Super Mario Bros., where he floats across the top of the screen, throwing Spiny Eggs that hatch into Spinies upon hitting the ground. These spike-covered members of the Koopa tribe then wander backwards and forwards, impeding the player’s progress.

A fun twist to this concept is that Lakitu’s cloud often becomes useful once he is defeated. In several games, Mario can steal or ride Lakitu’s Cloud, allowing the player to float over gaps, enemies, and hazards – although usually only temporarily.

Lakitu, however, is much more than just a standard Mario enemy – he is also often a referee, cameraman, race official, and neutral helper. In the Mario Kart series, he waves the starting lights, signals laps, rescues racers who fall off the track, and tells players when they are going the wrong way. Super Mario 64, meanwhile, frames its camera as being controlled by the Lakitu Bros. They float behind Mario with a camera, filming his adventure. This was a clever in-universe explanation for the third-person camera in Mario’s first 3D game. Instead of the camera just existing, Nintendo made it a character: a Lakitu is literally following Mario around and broadcasting the action.

Next time, we’re leaving the Mushroom Kingdom and travelling to F-Zero’s Mute City to race in between its towering skyscrapers at blistering speed.