With the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch, we may finally have what we can confidently call the definitive Mario Kart game. This “complete” version of the Wii U hit gives fans everything they could want in a Mario Kart game, with a total of 48 courses right off the bat, and a full-fledged Battle Mode. It has owners of the original jumping in for another round of racing, and brand new players getting their first taste of the biggest Mario Kart yet.

To celebrate its release, we’re counting down our list for the Top 10 courses in the game. Whether it was because of theme, visuals, or wild track design, these are the courses that we’re always excited to speed through, all while hurling Red Shells and Fire Flowers at one another. Check back tomorrow when we’ll count down our Top 5 Battle Mode stages in the series!

10. Sunshine Airport

Sunshine Airport is one of those situations where Mario takes a real world concept and makes it fit perfectly in its fantastical settings. You start off in the middle of a terminal, with well-wishers cheering you on and indistinct announcements being made over the PA system. Your path takes you across conveyor belts with luggage, underneath planes in standby, and even a flight alongside a soaring jet that gives you a beautiful view of a coastline area.

9. Toad’s Turnpike

This is one of the most significant upgrades as far as any retro course comes in the franchise, with a healthy dose of color added and several new paths to take in this remake of the Mario Kart 64 track. Toad’s Turnpike takes you through rush hour in Mushroom Kingdom, which may not be the grind that real world traffic can be, but forces you to be on your toes as you navigate the maze of cars, trucks, and buses. The zero gravity feature of Mario Kart 8 added new paths along the walls, giving you more options if the lanes were too clogged for your liking.

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8. Ribbon Road

You gotta love a course set within a toy-filled, kid’s bedroom, especially when that kid is clearly a huge Nintendo fan. Familiar Mario imagery can be seen in the background, as well as on the track, itself. The roads are appropriately enlarged and beautified from their origins on the Gameboy Advance, giving you ample space to battle it out with 11 other racers. The long ribbon bridge is the track’s centerpiece–an undulating road that tempts you to use trick boosts, but also asks that you exercise caution to avoid speeding off the unprotected edges.

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7. Toad Harbor

Toad Harbor isn’t just a Mario-ized interpretation of your generic waterside metropolis–it’s a brilliant reimagining of San Francisco, one of America’s most beautiful cities. The steep streets lined with trolleys are echoes of the iconic Market Street and Nob Hill areas of San Fran, and give you a gorgeous look of the waterfront, which even includes a Princess Peach effigy modeled after the Statue of Liberty. Like any real city, Toad Harbor has a complex layout, with branching paths everywhere at every corner to give you different routes to the finish line.

6. Electrodrome

What does a rave look like in Mushroom Kingdom? Well, it looks like a whole lot of fun. The music here is positively catchy, which explains why those Koopas and Shy Guys are all busting a move on the jumbotron. The lively audio is just the start of the Electrodrome’s impeccably-realized theme. There are Shy Guy DJs mixing jams in the background, giant subwoofers blasting music, the electronic roads are designed with hints of sheet music and sound boards built into them, all while laser lights, fog machines, and pyrotechnics are going off in every direction you look.

5. Thwomp Ruins

It’s a tricky task to find a balance between bland and convoluted, but Thwomp Ruins achieves that perfect medium with a relatively brief course that is engrossing at every length. Dim, torch-lit passages lead to open-air courtyards and walkways that have been overtaken by foliage and water. For as magnificent as these ruins are, they’re far from harmless. Spend too much time enjoying the scenery, and you risk being crushed by a giant, stone wheel that rolls down the tunnels or the enormous Thwomps that guard the ancient grounds.

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4. Wild Woods

Arguably the best of all the DLC tracks, Wild Woods is aptly-named for the gorgeous and thrilling journey it takes you on. The wondrous concept of driving up an enormous tree trunk is fully realized thanks to Mario Kart 8’s anti-gravity feature, and the route proceeds to get more imaginative and diverse from there. The village of Shy Guys built into the trees is just screaming to be included in a Mario platformer or RPG. The winding waterfall is a sheer thrill ride before settling down into the idyllic pond, which sits beneath an incredible view of the gigantic forest beyond. If the upcoming Super Mario Odyssey decides to create a stage based off a Mario Kart track, it can’t go wrong with Wild Woods.

3. Cloudtop Cruise

Here’s another course that feels like it would be right at home in a Mario platformer, taking elements from classic levels, like the Airships of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the aerial ventures in Mario Galaxy’s Gusty Garden Galaxy. There’s so much variety in the terrain you travel here, as the course takes you over sprawling cloud forms where multiple karts can fit at once, to narrow, snaking beanstalks and a crowded ship deck where you have to fight for room. The skies aren’t always majestic, though, as proven by the metal stretch of road set inside a thunderhead where you must dodge bolts of lightning that rain down from above.

2. Mount Wario

Mario Kart 8 was wise to take after its predecessor by making some courses one loop around rather than the traditional three laps, and few ideas were better suited for this concept than Mount Wario. Once you touch down after dropping out of that plane carrier, it’s a raucous descent all the way to the very bottom. The trek feels like you’re going full-speed every second of the way, your momentum building alongside the symphony of blaring trumpets that add all of the pomp and bluster that are natural to a course named after Wario. It’s an absolute blast as you cruise down the slopes, through the caverns, over the Wario Dam, though the forests, over the bunny hills, and finally to the long stretch where crowds of Mushroom Kingdom residents wait to cheer on your finish.

1. Rainbow Road (Mario Kart 64)

Rainbow Road has become an iconic location in the history of video games, becoming synonymous with Mario Kart as the final, ultimate course in every entry. Mario Kart 8 fashioned perhaps the best iteration of all by going back to the track found in Mario Kart 64 and enhancing it appropriately for the franchise’s first HD title. The chromatic road is more beautiful than ever, and its looping, winding path is big enough now to accommodate 12 racers at once. The change from three laps to a single, dramatic dash to the finish line is suitably exhilarating, all the more for the incredible scenery as you race high in the sky above a brightly-lit city. If any place best captures the magic and unabashed fun of the Mario franchise, it’s this.

What do you think of our rankings? Did your favorite courses make the list? Or are you craving to throw a Blue Shell at us in disagreement? Let us know in the comments below or on one of our social media channels, and be sure to check out our next list, the Top 5 Battle Mode stages from the Mario Kart series!

Jeff Pawlak prides himself as being one of the most competitive Mario Kart players you’ll ever meet. Toad has always been his main man behind the wheel, but he’s not opposed to occasionally using Shy Guy, too. If you ever want to join him for a few races or a few battles in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, add him on the Nintendo Switch with his Friend Code SW-1774-4999-4185.

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