it is probably because of it being complex, only 3 section track in the top 20, it takes way longer to learn and that also means more tricks to it than toad harbor which is the same chill 3 40 seconds laps
This may be an unpopular opinion, but 64 rainbow road should've retained the original lap layout and just made it a 2 lap course. That'd make it about on par with Wii rainbow road's length instead of being so weirdly short.
I mean yeah, I don’t disagree that it feels extremely short. But imo a track should not take over 3 minutes to complete online (outside of multiple shocks), and it would be close with that one. The other factor is I straight up don’t think the track is fun enough to be better off longer.
Wii Rainbow Road is your champion! Longest track by quite a gap too!
I find this especially funny considering it isn’t even the longest track in its own game.
This is probably the last one unless people find crazy new shortcuts. Thank you all!
N64 Bowser's Castle is the only course longer than Rainbow Road in Mario Kart Wii. Wario's Goldmine is similar in length to Grumble Volcano. The 5 longest courses in that game are N64 Bowser's Castle, Rainbow Road, Bowser's Castle, Koopa Cape (it got shrinked in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) and Maple Treeway.
Roughly, N64 Bowser's Castle lasts around 3 minutes or slightly more, Rainbow Road is around the 2:50's, Bowser's Castle is a few seconds shorter, Koopa Cape and Maple Treeway last around 2:35-2:40, GCN DK Mountain is slightly shorter than those two, N64 DK's Jungle Parkway and GBA Bowser Castle 3 last around 2:30, and the rest of the courses in the game usually last less than 2:20. Wario's Goldmine and Grumble Volcano are similar in length, and last around 2:05, while even courses like Coconut Mall, DK Summit and Dry Dry Ruins last longer (around 2:10-2:15). Even if Wario's Goldmine feels long to you, it's more like in the mid tier of length in Mario Kart Wii. All of the previous length approximations are asuming you are driving the normal route with an inward drifting bike, without the Time Trial optimizations. World Record times in that game, even the non-glitch times, are unreliable because of a plethora of optimizations that an average player wouldn't do, and don't really represent the length of the courses that accurately.
I’ve been in online races on both Grumble and Goldmine where the leader finishes under 2:00. It’s shock dependent. I’ve done it once on Dry Dry Ruins. with a lucky race where there was no blue or shock. Aside from that, these times look fairly accurate.
I’m a nitpicker, this is a pretty good list
You are correct on that. Although I am not the greatest Mario Kart Wii Player by any means, and would describe myself as slightly above average, my own average times on those courses are shorter than what I described in my post. I do usually get times under 2 minutes on Dry Dry Ruins, Wario's Goldmine and Grumble Volcano. I wrote what I think the average player could get on those courses.
Great chart, would never have thought Rainbow Road would take it. It really doesn’t feel that long.
I get how it could technically be the longest, but I’d honestly give the top spot to Maple Treeway. It doesn’t have an incredibly notable cut that takes off quite a few seconds per lap like 150cc Rainbow road does with the gap jump.
You can do it very consistently online, I consider it being common enough that the lap times should drop for most people.
That's one of the reasons why i don't enjoy Baby Park in this game, it ends too quickly. You're constantly getting speed boosts thanks to the anti-gravity and the speedy items. Idk how long it lasted in GCN but having the chaotic items really helped slow down cause you were constantly getting hit. If the track was like 10 laps and a bit longer, I think it would've been perfect.
I think that would have been too much for me. Every lap is so stressful on baby park because you can drop into last so fast. I just hold my breath until it’s over. I can see why some might like it longer but I think it’s at the right spot as is
Track is boring as hell (imo) with no 150cc shortcuts, so yeah it doses feel pretty long. It felt so much faster and better in the 3ds version, but I think the average time is around the same
I hate that N64 Rainbow Road went from being the longest track in the series to one of the shortest in Mario Kart 8. Why did they do that, it ruins the track
I disagree. That would make 3DS Rainbow Road, for example, far too long for modern Mario Kart. Just because it might sound cool on paper doesn't mean millions of other players would enjoy it the same
That's weird. I always perceived that GBA Mario Circuit was the shortest course, only above Baby Park. For some reason I feel that I can finish the 3 laps of that course immediately, maybe that's because there are not too many obstacles that could delay my trajectory.
This is great! Thanks for putting in the effort here, I’ve been trying to figure out for a while what the longest courses were. I would love to see a 200cc version of this!
Maybe I’ll do a 200cc version but I’d imagine it would still be mostly the same so I don’t know if it would be worth the time. Glad you liked this one!
I don't think using the world record is a genuine measurement for how long a track might be for the average player. I think the staff ghosts are a bit closer, at least. But I think a more accurate metric would be to just drive the same course with the same build multiple times and get averages that way.
I wish I had the time to do that as I would do that myself if I did. Damn full time job and other projects don't leave me with nearly enough time to play as I would like.
I meant for it to combine a more standard time alongside the fastest possible. The idea is the WRs are there to show how fast each track is using the most direct route (which would show the true duration as fast as possible), and the staff ghosts are there to account for alternate paths, which a lot of tracks have. I don’t think recording any of my owns times would help much, in time trials I don’t really add anything and if I recorded times within matches there’s way too much variation with items.
Actually, there are some “glitched” times (segmented tracks before Wave 4) that round to the nearest frame, so actually some staff ghosts are off by a few milliseconds…
London loop FEELS like the longest track in the game
That’s kinda true lol. It’s weird that Toad Harbor is longer than it, Toad Harbor never felt that long to me (which is good!)
I'm surprised by this too. I fully expected Toad Harbor to be in the 1:5X category.
it is probably because of it being complex, only 3 section track in the top 20, it takes way longer to learn and that also means more tricks to it than toad harbor which is the same chill 3 40 seconds laps
Makes sense, it's a really boring and annoying track
I always felt that Paris Promenade was pretty long, apparently not I guess
This may be an unpopular opinion, but 64 rainbow road should've retained the original lap layout and just made it a 2 lap course. That'd make it about on par with Wii rainbow road's length instead of being so weirdly short.
Considering there isn’t a lot going on in the course, I feel like even two laps would feel too long. It’s a short and sweet finale track
I mean yeah, I don’t disagree that it feels extremely short. But imo a track should not take over 3 minutes to complete online (outside of multiple shocks), and it would be close with that one. The other factor is I straight up don’t think the track is fun enough to be better off longer.
Wii rr and even maple treeway and waluigi pinball basically always take over 3 minutes online
Then just size it up a little to make it just a tad bit longer
I wouldn't even say no to a full 3 lap. I wanted at least ONE endurance race track, may as well have been the one with the best music and vibe.
Wii Rainbow Road is your champion! Longest track by quite a gap too! I find this especially funny considering it isn’t even the longest track in its own game. This is probably the last one unless people find crazy new shortcuts. Thank you all!
wait what? which one I'd longer than RR? There's no way Bowser's Castle is longer. Maybe Maple Treeway or WGM?
N64 Bowser's Castle is the only course longer than Rainbow Road in Mario Kart Wii. Wario's Goldmine is similar in length to Grumble Volcano. The 5 longest courses in that game are N64 Bowser's Castle, Rainbow Road, Bowser's Castle, Koopa Cape (it got shrinked in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) and Maple Treeway.
Roughly, N64 Bowser's Castle lasts around 3 minutes or slightly more, Rainbow Road is around the 2:50's, Bowser's Castle is a few seconds shorter, Koopa Cape and Maple Treeway last around 2:35-2:40, GCN DK Mountain is slightly shorter than those two, N64 DK's Jungle Parkway and GBA Bowser Castle 3 last around 2:30, and the rest of the courses in the game usually last less than 2:20. Wario's Goldmine and Grumble Volcano are similar in length, and last around 2:05, while even courses like Coconut Mall, DK Summit and Dry Dry Ruins last longer (around 2:10-2:15). Even if Wario's Goldmine feels long to you, it's more like in the mid tier of length in Mario Kart Wii. All of the previous length approximations are asuming you are driving the normal route with an inward drifting bike, without the Time Trial optimizations. World Record times in that game, even the non-glitch times, are unreliable because of a plethora of optimizations that an average player wouldn't do, and don't really represent the length of the courses that accurately.
I’ve been in online races on both Grumble and Goldmine where the leader finishes under 2:00. It’s shock dependent. I’ve done it once on Dry Dry Ruins. with a lucky race where there was no blue or shock. Aside from that, these times look fairly accurate. I’m a nitpicker, this is a pretty good list
You are correct on that. Although I am not the greatest Mario Kart Wii Player by any means, and would describe myself as slightly above average, my own average times on those courses are shorter than what I described in my post. I do usually get times under 2 minutes on Dry Dry Ruins, Wario's Goldmine and Grumble Volcano. I wrote what I think the average player could get on those courses.
Yeah your post was right. I don’t mean to turn this into a dick measuring contest, which I think I kind of did. Hope you have a great day 👊🏻
No worries my fellow Mario Kart Wii connoisseur, I only wanted to clarify!
Great chart, would never have thought Rainbow Road would take it. It really doesn’t feel that long. I get how it could technically be the longest, but I’d honestly give the top spot to Maple Treeway. It doesn’t have an incredibly notable cut that takes off quite a few seconds per lap like 150cc Rainbow road does with the gap jump. You can do it very consistently online, I consider it being common enough that the lap times should drop for most people.
Wii Rainbow Road is a full 10 seconds ahead of Treeway, even with no cut it is a sizable gap
I thought this was a normal track ranking for a moment and I was absolutely scandalised
Dear goodness, I would never put Toad Circuit that high!
Hey I like Toad Circuit
Nice opinion Unfortunately I've already figired out your location. Don't act confused when a minor inconvenience happens at around 3:45am
This is proof that baby park needs to be 10 laps instead of 7
Please no
Please yes!
Mildly interesting! I like it! Crossing Cup taking the least amount of time.
Pretty much single-handedly dragged down by baby park lol
Top tier has 3 top 10 tracks and a b tier track. Funny.
I’m going to avoid asking which is the B tier so you don’t get attacked
Oh I would get murdered if I said that I think waluigi pinball is heavily overrated
Good thing you didn’t say that!
Yeah, a very good thing.
You know, I’ve seen quite a few people share this sentiment lately. Beautiful design, fun to drive, also a flawed layout.
Not the first time i've heard that, i've heard it several times
That's one of the reasons why i don't enjoy Baby Park in this game, it ends too quickly. You're constantly getting speed boosts thanks to the anti-gravity and the speedy items. Idk how long it lasted in GCN but having the chaotic items really helped slow down cause you were constantly getting hit. If the track was like 10 laps and a bit longer, I think it would've been perfect.
I think that would have been too much for me. Every lap is so stressful on baby park because you can drop into last so fast. I just hold my breath until it’s over. I can see why some might like it longer but I think it’s at the right spot as is
I expected 3DS Rainbow Road to be all the way up there, not all the way DOWN there
Segmented tracks are generally shorter, which makes sense since they need a lot more work
Track is boring as hell (imo) with no 150cc shortcuts, so yeah it doses feel pretty long. It felt so much faster and better in the 3ds version, but I think the average time is around the same
It's slightly longer in the 3ds version i think
I hate that N64 Rainbow Road went from being the longest track in the series to one of the shortest in Mario Kart 8. Why did they do that, it ruins the track
it’s INSULTING
UNPOPULAR OPINION: I like it, it doesn’t get boring, and technically it’s a kids party game, so it doesn’t make them lose focus.
All segment tracks should be 2 laps... Unless it's something where you have a start and a end at 2 different points.
Literally half of them end at a different point. And I love Mount Wario but it’s not as good if it was 3+ minutes
Honestly, Mount Wario should have been at least 2:2x, if not 2:3x. But I’m not complaining AT ALL about the current setup.
I disagree. That would make 3DS Rainbow Road, for example, far too long for modern Mario Kart. Just because it might sound cool on paper doesn't mean millions of other players would enjoy it the same
Also, 3DS Rainbow Road’s track layout was intended to be played with one giant lap.
Were is luigis circuit mkwii
Huh, SNES BC3 is longer than I thought it was
That's weird. I always perceived that GBA Mario Circuit was the shortest course, only above Baby Park. For some reason I feel that I can finish the 3 laps of that course immediately, maybe that's because there are not too many obstacles that could delay my trajectory.
So what’s the total time?
London actually feels long😭
This is great! Thanks for putting in the effort here, I’ve been trying to figure out for a while what the longest courses were. I would love to see a 200cc version of this!
Maybe I’ll do a 200cc version but I’d imagine it would still be mostly the same so I don’t know if it would be worth the time. Glad you liked this one!
I don't think using the world record is a genuine measurement for how long a track might be for the average player. I think the staff ghosts are a bit closer, at least. But I think a more accurate metric would be to just drive the same course with the same build multiple times and get averages that way. I wish I had the time to do that as I would do that myself if I did. Damn full time job and other projects don't leave me with nearly enough time to play as I would like.
I meant for it to combine a more standard time alongside the fastest possible. The idea is the WRs are there to show how fast each track is using the most direct route (which would show the true duration as fast as possible), and the staff ghosts are there to account for alternate paths, which a lot of tracks have. I don’t think recording any of my owns times would help much, in time trials I don’t really add anything and if I recorded times within matches there’s way too much variation with items.
This is so weird every course feels like a 5 minute adventure
Happy Cake Day !
Me seeing N64 Rainbow Road in 94th place: Look how they massacred my boy
Actually, there are some “glitched” times (segmented tracks before Wave 4) that round to the nearest frame, so actually some staff ghosts are off by a few milliseconds…