I’m sure some folks consider this course to be overplayed in the Mario Kart series, especially now that it’s been in back-to-back games. I say screw that — Rainbow Road is awesome. It’s a simple yet challenging course with no walls whatsoever, an acid trip color scheme on the track and ever-growing Thwomps waiting to ruin your day.

As an added bonus, the music is awesome. Considering how good the MK8 soundtrack is as a whole, when the second set of DLC tracks was announced and Rainbow Road was there, I had to check out the theme immediately. I was not disappointed.

A lot of comments on various YouTube videos for this song get into a debate about which version is best: this, the original or the MK7 version. I think a lot of that comes down to personal preference; rarely is one version of a track objectively “better” than another. The original has an 8-bit feel that can’t be beat, but this most recent interpretation of the track gets a more bombastic, spacey feel.

Rainbow Road (SNES) – Mario Kart 8

Music to My Ears covers soundtracks or individual songs from video games. You can view all posts in the series by clicking here.