Mario Kart 8

Today’s Mario Kart 8 track is a bit of an unusual one because, unlike most courses, it doesn’t originate from the Mario universe at all. Instead, it’s a tribute to Nintendo’s classic NES motocross game Excitebike, which was released in 1984. It translates the raw, retro arcade vibe of the original game into a modern Mario Kart arena. Unlike sprawling, scenic tracks that take racers through beaches, cities, mountains, or ancient ruins, Excitebike Arena is entirely focused on sport. The course takes place inside a gigantic motocross stadium packed with floodlights, scoreboards, and roaring crowds. Everything here is designed around competition and spectacle.

This track’s main draw is its modular design. While the arena’s elongated oval-shaped layout is about as simple as it gets, the ramps, jumps, and mud spots randomly change position and height every time a race starts. According to Mario Kart 8 director Kosuke Yabuki, there are over 200 different patterns of such elements. In this regard, Excitebike Arena provides a new combination of components that alter the play experience each time, forcing players to respond on sight rather than muscle memory to unique layouts.

Due to the variations in this track’s layout, large strips of grass sometimes take up portions of what should be drivable road. It should go without saying that the grass will slow you down considerably, so be ready to swerve into a different lane should one of these patches appear on your version of the course.

As you’re zooming around the arena, you may see direct visual callbacks to the original Excitebike, such as looped 8-bit animations on some of the enormous screens or signs featuring the game’s Japanese and European box art. Meanwhile, the opening animation during the countdown to this race – the lowering of the motocross starting gates, which allows the characters to drive – is a clear reference to the start line from the NES game. Even the changing layout is a nod to the original Excitebike, which featured a track editor allowing players to design custom motocross courses. To players familiar with Nintendo history, the entire track functions as a celebration of one of the company’s earliest successes.

Excitebike Arena is actually not the Mario cast’s first rodeo with the Excitebike series. The Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom in Japan gave us a remake of the original NES game known as Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle. Mario, Luigi, Toad, Wario, Peach, Yoshi, and Koopa Troopa all got to hit the dirt tracks in this pretty obscure crossover.

Next time, we look at Dragon Driftway, a stylish track that is packed with pagodas, paper lanterns, curved bridges, and other Eastern motifs and imagery.