Mario Kart 8

Mute City

Mario Kart may be Nintendo’s most famous racing franchise, but it isn’t the only one. F-Zero is another racing series, known for its futuristic setting, awesome music, and blistering speeds. Although its most well-known character, the bounty hunter Captain Falcon, has appeared as a fighter in several Super Smash Bros. games, the F-Zero franchise has been largely dormant since the release of F-Zero Climax in 2004. But even if Nintendo doesn’t release a modern 3D instalment any time soon, we still have a couple of F-Zero-based tracks in Mario Kart 8 to zoom around on.

The first of these two tracks takes place in F-Zero’s most famous metropolis, Mute City. As you would expect from a track based in the F-Zero universe, this is a course that defies both gravity and the limits of speed: swooping corkscrews, endless boost pads, and purple energy strips abound. The visual design here is excellent, perfectly nailing that classic F-Zero chrome-and-neon futurism, with towering skyscrapers, massive electronic billboards, and glowing roadways. Everything is sleek, metallic, and lit with saturated blues, pinks, and cyan accents. Even if you’re not intimately familiar with the world of F-Zero, you can still tell you’re definitely not in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore.

Mute City in Mario Kart 8 is a high-speed, neon-lit, futuristic city circuit transplanted from Nintendo’s F-Zero franchise.

Signs and buildings throughout the course depict and reference various F-Zero racers, including Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, Dr Stewart, Pico, Jody Summer, and Mr EAD. Some of the signs show Captain Falcon’s art from F-Zero X alongside the text ‘SHOW ME YOUR MOVES!’, a reference to his famous taunt in the Super Smash Bros. series.

A desert can be seen on the outskirts of the city, possibly a reference to the Sand Ocean course from the F-Zero series.

Mute City thoroughly adapts F-Zero for Mario Kart by altering several aspects that players, by now, have come to expect from a Mario Kart track. For a start, Coins are not naturally present on this course; they can only be obtained via Item Boxes, by picking up those dropped by other players, or by driving over the Pit areas. This is a reference to the Pit zones seen in the F-Zero series, which can be used to charge or repair vehicles. Dash Panels are scattered much more liberally around this track than usual, ensuring consistently breakneck speed. And in the second and third laps, an additional Dash Panel will activate along the finish line, mirroring the Boost Power mechanic from the F-Zero series, which is activated after completing a lap.

Some of the Dash Panels on Mute City randomise each time the course is played.

While Mute City is the first Mario Kart track based on the F-Zero games, this was not, in fact, the first direct crossover with them. A kart version of the Blue Falcon – Captain Falcon’s trademark futuristic racing vehicle – appeared in Mario Kart Wii and is one of the fastest vehicles in the game. It returned in Mario Kart 8’s first DLC, alongside this track; the model has been redesigned to look like the original Blue Falcon from F-Zero for the SNES, complete with flames coming out from the exhaust pipes and an engine noise mimicking that of its original counterpart1.

Next time, we’re back in the Mushroom Kingdom and zooming along the rickety wooden tracks of Wario’s Goldmine.

  1. It should also be noted that there has been a Mario Kart/F-Zero crossover the other way, too, with the Mario Kart 64 incarnation of Rainbow Road showing up as a track in the 1998 N64 game, F-Zero X. ↩︎

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