Ever since Mario Kart Tour arrived and provided multiple routes through the city tracks added to it, I’ve been thinking. Thinking that multiple routes can offer new things to the main game. My article on CultureSlate outlined a few of them. New twists on retro tracks without spoiling the original route. A refreshed career mode that allows use of all the track variants. And a lot more tracks in the game without needing unique themes for all of them.

So in the spirit of all that I’d outlined in that article, I’m taking a look at four tracks that I would feature as part of a cup. It would be easy to say Mario, and chuck in a few Mario Circuits. But that’s not something I’d want to do. Characters shouldn’t have a cup full of tracks that represent them. One is all they need. And each character should have variety in what track themes are used.

To start with, I want to mention Wuhu Island. Mario Kart 7 had two tracks from this sport’s resort featured in it, both of which I brought back in this concept of mine, along with adding two new ones. If track variants exist, then all of these would only take up one slot in the track theme roster. Such a thing would not happen for the Super Mario Kart tracks, as I’ll explain.

The SNES tracks are not variants, but rather different tracks that share a theme. A track variant would be a track that uses parts of its standard route, splitting away to take the race somewhere else, but then rejoining that standard route to complete the lap. None of the SNES tracks that share a theme can be made to fit into that description. Mario Circuit at a stretch, but not without altering the routes in subtle ways.

With SNES Koopa Beach 1, its route is made up of islets that form a loop. The obvious way to create a track variant here is by adding more islets to the map. Extending them across the east side would be a way to have a longer version of this track while retaining most of what made it enjoyable. In the days of underwater driving, this track would utilise that much the same as DS Cheep Cheep Beach in Mario Kart 8 does.

The second variant would take full advantage of underwater driving to bring the race into the centre of the loop. The deep water route would lead to a twisty tunnel through the large southern islet. Once out of the tunnel, racers would emerge onto a new islet on the south west of the main loop. A tight turn would put them onto the final straight to the line.

From a beach to a city, with GCN Mushroom City. Now, this rendition of it makes a few changes, including making the highway a bit more functional with entrance and exit roads on both sides. The corner that would take racers back onto the highway becomes a roundabout. And in general, more roads open up new areas of this section of the city to explore with these track variants.

The first of which is almost an opposite of the standard route. The racers begin pointed in the opposite direction from the standard route, heading to the new off-ramp, cutting a tight corner onto the roundabout to head south. The city blocks are fully open to choose a route through, including going through the car parks of the northern buildings. Then, at the north-east of the city, racers drift onto the new on-ramp and to the finish line.

For the second of the variants, racers start the same direction as the standard route. Down the new on-ramp, to the right, following the new road to the south. Once down to the south road, the route is more restrictive than the others. Up the west of the city blocks, around to the centre, then crowded into the pedestrian zone running to the south west. To make up for the more restrictive route, the traffic is a bit heavier than usual.

When it comes to 3DS Alpine Pass, it’s a mountain. The obvious thing to do is take the track inside it. And the obvious way to do that is the tail of the track that leads to a dead end. It can only be accessed by going in reverse, so more tunnels through the mountain are also needed. But, I also wanted to take a route through the parts of the forest only there to fill the map out.

With this first variant, the racers use the standard start line, but facing the other direction. Just before getting to the glide ramp, there’s an entrance into the mountain. This twisting route winds through the mountain, offering a tight corner to navigate. Out of the mountain, along the track mostly skipped with the glider, then into the mountain again. This route stays mostly low until beyond the standard route’s path. Then it gets steep to attach itself to the second corner of the standard route.

The other variant changes where the start line is. This start line is on the track racers mostly glider over. Rather than take the right to the smaller glide section, racers continue straight on, up a ramp to the unused forest section. There’s a tunnel here too, which contains a pool. It then connects to the route through the mountains, soon splitting again. A cannon launches racers to the open mountain section of the standard route. The track again splits from the alternate route for a glide down to its finish line.

That is three known tracks, and some variants of them. But what of an unknown track? One from this series that I presented an idea for? Airship Firefleet is the track I’m showing off, in concept form. A top-down satellite-style map isn’t the best way to present a multi-layered track, after all. But these routes offered should at least show my thinking with the track.

It’s a warzone, with multiple airships firing upon each other. The start line on one of the ships is located on its upper deck. Down the ramps to where the cannons are, racers are fired across to another airship, landing through a hole in its side. To the front of this ship and through another hole, an airstream takes the racers onto a third airship’s upper deck. To its rear, they drop off onto the lowest of the airships, where they navigate to a cannon which takes them to the starting airship through a hole in its front.

The first of the variants sticks with the same line and the same direction. Rather than going down to the cannon deck, racers stay on the upper deck, dropping down onto the lowest airship. They head for the cannon deck on this airship, flying to the lower deck of a third. Navigating to the cannon deck of this airship, they fly to a fourth, where again the race heads for the cannon deck and one of those cannons to take them to the finish line.

The second variant has a different starting position, on the top deck of another airship. Racers head for the cannon deck, using one to fly over the lowest airship and through a hole that places them in the cannon deck of another airship. The same thing happens for the transfer onto a third airship, where racers drive to the upper deck, using airstreams to safely land on the upper deck of a fourth airship. Down to the cannon deck, where they use on to reach the finish line.

Now, if you felt I was using airship a lot there, that’s just because there’s so many airships. Not included on the map are those the race routes never touch. But those, plus the ones they do, will be firing cannonballs – and fireballs – at each other. The gliding sections cross into the paths of these cannonballs, so you’d better keep an eye out for them and hope you can dodge in time.

What I’ve presented here should give an idea of how track variants can be used. While I haven’t done so here, it’s also possible to create a marathon variant using a circuit, taking a route out far from original confines of the track. It would be good to see track variants become the norm for Mario Kart, even if there’s only one for certain tracks. However, I can see why Nintendo would avoid it for their playable for everyone kart racer.