Super Mario Bros Movie honors one of Mario Kart’s best shortcuts

As Bowser (Jack Black) and his minions fast approach the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Peach successfully unite with the Kongs for the greater good. In a bid to catch up with Bowser and his fleet, Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) hatches a plan to intercept his army in a Mad Max: Fury Road-style battle on the Rainbow Road. First there’s a short sequence of our heroes creating their karts using the exact same sliders and customization buttons that were first introduced in Mario Kart 7, and then it’s on to the racing. A remix of Koji Kondo’s “Mario Kart” themed explosions, the transparent and colorful road manifests itself.

Since 1992’s Super Mario Kart for Super Nintendo, every entry in the series has featured a new version of the track as the grand finale. The Rainbow Road depicted in The Super Mario Bros. Movie isn’t an exact 1:1 recreation of any particular version of it found in the games, but it is faithful to many of the same aesthetics and rules. The Neon Road consists entirely of a beam of light floating around the night sky with little or no crash barriers, making it one of the most challenging tracks in any Mario Kart game.

However, more experienced players know exactly how to take full advantage of the rail-free design. In most versions of Rainbow Road, it’s possible to skip entire sections of the track with enough planning and a well-timed speed boost. One of the more well-known examples of this comes from Mario Kart 64 (see above), but the speedrunner community has in titles such as “Mario Kart Wii” And “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.”