Worlds

Royal Raceway exudes a rather peaceful aura. Bells gently toll in the background and confetti litters the track. Pink-tinged clouds can be seen in the sky and gorgeous cherry blossom trees line certain sections of the road.

The first world that Mario and Cappy visit after the grey, London-esque Cap Kingdom is the lush, colourful Cascade Kingdom. This is the greater location of Fossil Falls, which is a prehistoric dinosaur-themed area – a wild, vibrant, grass-covered mountainside nestled in a basin surrounded by towering waterfalls.

One of the few retro tracks from Super Mario Kart to make a reappearance in Mario Kart 8, Donut Plains 3 has received a huge graphical overhaul. It’s a beautiful HD interpretation of a classic Mario World 1 motif.

As a zoologist, I’m perhaps particularly intrigued by the creatures, the wildlife, the non-sentient animals, that occasionally pop up in the Star Wars films. Sometimes, these are part of important plot beats, such as the rancor or the wampa; other times, they are brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearances that serve only to…

Dry Dry Desert is an Egyptian-themed track, with lots of pyramids, obelisks, and large stone statues of Hammer Bros. to see in the background. There’s even a huge Hammer Bros. Sphinx (based on the Great Sphinx of Giza), which is rumoured to be cursed.

The J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1974 only includes a few new illustrations, but one of them, ‘Fangorn Forest’, is particularly interesting. This image, in one form or another, has been used to illustrate all three of Tolkien’s major works.