Welcome back to my spring passion blog thread, through which I am discussing each of the Mario Kart Wii Grand Prix circuits. For the RCL spring semester, there are only seven passion blog posts that students are required to submit. However, there are eight Mario Kart Wii cups—as I am rather a perfectionist, I feel that not having every race series would not provide much closure about my opinions about the game. Therefore, this post is rather just an addition to my blog, not a submission, and not a grade. Just me writing about the game I played growing up. On that note, my post is going to be short and sweet, not because I do not have any word number requirement, but rather because I do not particularly love any courses in Shell Cup.
Shell Cup begins with Peach Beach—the course is perhaps my favorite first course of any series. The music reminds me of summer, there is the right balance between obstacles and course features that make the race challenging, and the course contains one of my favorite shortcuts in the game. Racers are driving around a beach—the ocean tides slow down drivers when submerged and there are many wandering cataquacks. If you have read any of my other posts, you would know that I much prefer courses that are loaded with tons of obstacles that make the course almost more challenging than the actual competition. Despite having only two types of obstacles, racing in Peach Beach seems to have dozens of them as when you are not driving in an ocean tide, you are trying to escape a cataquack. In other words, even though there are few obstacles in the course, they keep you occupied.
The next two courses are some of the most simple concepts of the game. However, the settings of the course make them challenging for beginners. The layout of Yoshi Falls is concrete—racers simply drive around a gorge with three waterfalls scattered about. These waterfalls can be misleading, however—racers can drive through two of them without any mushroom cup, but if they drive through the other, they are swept by the strong current into the gorge. Racing in Ghost Valley presents a similar situation. If racers know the layout of the course, completing the race is quite simple because obstacles are minimal. The most challenging part of Ghost Valley is that the race takes place in the dark—therefore, for beginners, the course might be hard to navigate. For those reasons, these two courses can be seen as easy to some and challenging to others. Aside from that, I think that the straightforwardness of the courses makes them somewhat uninteresting.
The last track is N64 Mario Raceway. The course is rather forgettable—there is no real wow factor and the obstacles are your standard Mario Kart Wii suspects. There are shroombas, surrounding grass that slows racers down, piranha plants, and sharp turns. The only distinguishing feature of the course is the green tunnel towards the finish that racers can perform tricks on. Although Peach Beach is exciting and the other two courses have their challenges, Mario Raceway is plain boring, which unfortunately drags the series down as a whole and makes it rather forgettable.
