Welcome back to my passion blog thread, where I discuss the highs and lows of the Mario Kart Wii Grand Prix. I am trying to keep a pattern of good series to bad series and then back to good series, so since I covered Banana Cup, which I regard as almost a waste of software, I am going to turn to one of my favorite Grand Prix circuits–Flower Cup.

I see Flower Cup as almost a carbon copy of Star Cup–the first course of the circuit is the most underwhelming, but the second, third, and last courses overcompensate for that. In the case of Flower Cup, the first circuit is Mario Circuit. There are not too many obstacles within the course aside from the wandering shroombas and the chain chomp, but similar to Daisy Circuit in Star Cup, there are small shortcuts by driving tangents off the course. Despite being a mediocre start to the circuit, the course remains a classic Mario Kart Wii course because players drive through there before receiving prizes at the podium.

The one and only Coconut Mall is the second course of the circuit–and is perhaps the best known Mario Kart course because of the trend of putting its music on to increase your efficiency when working. On a side note, I ended up becoming more efficient listening to Coconut Mall music when working, so I would definitely recommend trying it out. Aside from the music, Coconut Mall is one of the most exciting Mario Kart Wii races–there are so many obstacles embedded into the course in the sense that they would be seen at any shopping mall from the early 2000s. On top of that, there are so many paths that racers can take to get through the course and the chaos reminds me of Black Friday Shopping. Two of the most lethal obstacles are the escalators that can either slow players down or speed them up and the dreaded parking lot with bad drivers with cars that racers crash into. My favorite feature of the course is the shortcut through the small shop–it creates somewhat of an escape from the chaos for a second.

Although the hype of Coconut Mall is rather hard to match, the next course, Donkey Kong Summit, rises to the occasion. As I mentioned in my previous blogs, any Mario Kart Wii course that has a cannon is automatically one of my favorites–and DK Summit has one cannon that sort of acts as an extremely fast ski lift for racers because it shoots them to the top of a snow–covered mountain. From the top of the mountain, there are halfpipes and snow mounds that racers use to accumulate speed and avoid thick snow that slows them down. There is also a shortcut over tight turns on the course that when completed with the right amount of speed, can save you tons of time.

Wario’s Gold Mine is the last course of the series and completes the one–two–three punch of the last Flower Cup courses. I must admit that this course is one of the most tricky out of all Mario Kart courses primarily because the tracks are rather narrow and there are tons of downward and upward slopes throughout, but it’s exciting nonetheless. Besides the sloping, narrow track and sharp turns, the primary obstacles are the minecarts that when bumped, can send cars plummeting off the course. These make driving through part of the course rather tedious especially since the track is already so narrow, but they add to the excitement. And I cannot discuss Wario’s Gold Mine without mentioning the bats that fly at you when you first enter the mine, those are always a shocker to the system.

I ranked Flower Cup rather high because I see the series as nearly a mirror of Star Cup– the first course is rather underwhelming, but the last three are fantastic.