Have you played Mario Kart World yet? If you haven’t, you are missing out on probably some of the BEST arrangements of Mario music from official Nintendo. However, the covers aren’t what we’re here to talk about today.
A lot of the tracks are rehashes of previous Mario Kart courses, but there are just a few that are original to this game. (Although I do enjoy a bunch of the variations on the songs….and how the N64 Choco Mountain route track sounds like the intro to King of the Hill)
Because of Nintendo’s brilliant choice to add a browser version of Nintendo Music AS WELL AS a fair amount of the Mario Kart World OST onto their platform, I want to highlight what is probably my favorite track of all Mario Kart World, which is the track for Mario Kart World’s Rainbow Road!
You can listen to the official soundtrack through Nintendo Music and this version of Rainbow Road takes you on a journey. This track is a multi-segmented adventure in which you take a road up from Peach’s Castle and in one of the most magical sequences ever, you hear jingles and end up on Rainbow Road. This road hangs high above Mario Kart World and the composers use plenty of star noises (similar to how they do in N64 Rainbow Road) as well as the strings to convey you gliding through the light and the electronic instruments guiding you onward to the next destination.
Each part of the song is different as well, as they take one melody and add different instrumentation to it. At one point it’s just strings and melody. Other times it sounds like it’s underwater. Other times it’s a full orchestra and the way that it is done is nothing less than magical.
Honestly the first time I heard it in-game, I got GOOSEBUMPS. Having the end of the track have the screeching trumpets and full energy that it gives makes me shed those happy tears. The adventure comes to an end, and all of your friends from the adventure are there to cheer you on to the end.
I can’t speak well enough of the soundtrack of Mario Kart World, and now that it’s on Nintendo Music, there’s a good chance it will be one of my sole sources of music. For the greater part of this year, my morning alarm has been one of the various songs from this OST. Because Rainbow Road is in parts, I hear it a lot more, which is why I wanted to highlight this one.
Do you have a favorite song from the Mario Kart World OST? Do you have a favorite Mario Kart song period? Let me know in the comments or in Discord!
