But if you know how to use Mushrooms well and get them often, the track offers many shortcuts to take. Rather than going without railings everywhere, the level is almost entirely lined with jump pads, which can be even worse than having no rails at all. Mario Kart Super Circuit for the GBA, on the other hand, unleashed a Rainbow Road that's something to fear.

Conversely, if your tactic is to quickly gather enough coins and motor ahead then you'll find that they're tricky to spot and not-avoid. Depending on your skill and racer choice, one valid tactic is to actively avoid gathering coins, which increases your top speed - Except coins are placed exclusively on yellow panels and tricky to spot and avoid. Also note also that the CPU racers have a tendency to speed right through those damn invincible Thwomps and never fall off the course.

Rainbow Road in Super Mario Kart has no rails to block the fall, and the course becomes extremely narrow in parts, and the course has Thwomps that cause an instant spin-out when you run into them, and the other racers are as speedy as in the rest of the Special Cup.

Mario Kart 64's is an exception, since it is entirely guardrailed, the only obstacles are occasional zigzagging Chain Chomps, and its only rather big spike is that it's the longest track in the game, taking 4 and a half minutes to finish the race at LEAST - it's so long that, when it was remade for Mario Kart 8, rather than making you do three full laps, you only have to complete one lap with three checkpoints though it makes up for this by removing the vast majority of the guardrails, bringing the aforementioned punishing falls back into play. Slipping just a little off on a turn means a punishing fall rather than a minor loss of speed from hitting the offroad. While other tracks feature similar areas (lava pits, water, etc.), the Rainbow Road is unique in having no solid ground anywhere except the actual road surface.

In all versions, sliding off the track at any point results in a plummet into the abyss that costs several seconds to recover from.

The Mario Kart series' Rainbow Road tracks are infamously difficult.

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