Selecting a racer to fit a track is one of the most important features of any Mario Kart game. Why select someone with great offroad abilities if the track has no offroad portions? In Mario Kart 7 this becomes even more important when courses offer extensive travel by Air and Sea. The following charts distinguish some different course aspects:
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Terrain:
Terrain doesn't really matter, but it's interesting. The most common kind of Terrain is pavement, followed by Dirt. There are much more Combinations of Terrain, though, more often in the later games such as DS, Wii, and 7. The most varied terrain often come in Beach or Water courses. Cheep Cheep Beach from DS has long stretches of sandy beaches, wooden piers, and a dirt track jungle section. Both Pipe Tracks, Koopa Cape and Piranha Plant Slide have four different varieties of terrain.
Koopa Cape is also the only course with glass sections in its long pipe portions. Other unique terrain include the Keyboards in 7's Music Park and Carpet Sections in that game's version of Mario Circuit and Bowser's Castle, as well as DS's Luigi's Mansion. There are also the three bizarre unique tracks from Super Circuit, Cheese Land, Ribbon Road, and Sky Garden. Of course, in every game there is a Rainbow Road track made out of Rainbow. 7 has the unique feature of splitting its Rainbow Road between Rainbow and a Planet's Surface, though.
Other interesting tidbits include the sand tracks making up Deserts and Beaches, the decline of Ice Tracks and surge of Metal Tracks, as well as Wood. There are many small wooden bridges in different courses (Riverside Park, Peach Gardens, etc), but we tried to include predominant Terrain, mostly material that took up at least a quarter of a track. Every pure Wood course was a Ghost Track until Daisy Cruser in Double Dash.
Edges:
We have four categories for the amount of Edges a course can have. Continuous Edges include tracks that have a constant danger, surrounded by the Abyss, as in Ghost Tracks, Lava, as in Bowser Castles, as well as Sky and Space in the Rainbow Roads and Sky Garden. As noted, Sky Garden lacks edges, although there are plenty of offroad buffers, Rainbow Road 64 is the only Rainbow Road with a continuous guardrail, and Rainbow Road SMK is the only course with no guardrail at all.
Limited Edges are by far the most populous kind of courses. These are courses where racers can fall off at some point. This includes small gaps such as in Coconut Mall or Shy Guy Bazaar, cliff edges for limited sections of track such as Moonview Highway or Wario Colosseum or even long stretches such as Yoshi Valley or DK Mountain. Finally, this also includes tracks that are landlocked but still have kart-destroying hazards such as the water in the SMK Donut Plains Tracks, Toad's Factory, and Desert Hills.
The Shore courses are mostly Beach and Desert Tracks. They involve the gradual destruction of karts tho not a hard edge. The best example is Koopa Troopa Beach, where you can certainly die in the water, but you're not falling off anything. The same goes for Dry Dry Desert, and even Frappe Snowland, where you can drive off into oblivion. These courses do not have walls limiting the driver's exploration.
Finally, we have true Landlocked Tracks, where there is no way without severe glitching that racers can fall off. This includes many of the easier Circuit Courses, but also some surprises like DK Pass, Sunset Wilds, and Cheep Cheep Cape.
Offroad:
This is the most important course feature to understand and memorize. We have developed Five Different Standards of Offroad that are found in Mario Kart. The first is unavoidable sections, Offroad that is Essential to Course. This is whenever you must travel over Offroad with no option to go around. These are the most important to consider when picking a driver. The best examples are Shy Guy Beach and Luigi's Mansion.
The second are All-Encompassing. The tracks on these courses are surrounded or mostly surrounded by Offroad and usually they can be used for shortcuts to skimp across sections of track. Many courses are like this, from Grumble Volcano to most Mario Circuits. Also included are tracks with small but important Offroad portions that are essential for shortcuts, such as Waluigi Stadium and Mushroom Bridge.
Next we have courses where Offroad is existent but cannot really be used for any gain. Basically, while it's there, there's no reason it should be traversed and it's much less important to pick a Driver who has good Offroad. Basically the only advantage of using one of these characters here would to have less catastrophic consequences after a screw-up. These include many Luigi Circuits, but also much more complex courses filled with other dangers, such as Dino Dino Jungle and Mushroom Gorge.
There are also courses that have very limited Offroad sections that could affect gameplay but only in very isolated portions. Unlike Waluigi Stadium, for instance, though, they can't really be used for shortcuts. While the Existent Courses are essentially all-encompasing but do not affect gameplay, the tracks with limited offroad offer only small chunks. A lot of Bowser's Castle are like this, but there's also weird little bits in tracks like Music Park and Toad's Factory.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are courses that completely lack any Offroad at all. There are actually more of these courses than any other, which is a substantial fact (although there are certainly more Offroad Tracks combined). These include every Rainbow Road, most Bowser Castles, and most Ghost Tracks. There are also city courses like Toad's Turnpike and Mushroom City as well as some surprises like Sherbert Land 64 and Maple Treeway.
Mario Kart 7:
Mario Kart 7 presents the interesting issue of combining Air and Sea travel with the standard Land Travel. Air and Sea speed and handling significantly change based on Driver, Kart, Wheel, and Glider selection, but that shouldn't matter depending on what course is chosen. Many tracks have some kind of Air Travel (23/32), but sometimes this can be avoided. A smaller number involve Sea travel (8/32), and some have both, especially later courses. Only the retro Luigi's Raceway and Rainbow Road lack any kind of either Air or Sea, so you need to prepare for something in most cases. Also depending on your skills, you may be able to avoid Sea Travel (in Koopa Troopa Beach, Daisy Cruiser, and Rosalina's Ice World), although this may not be the most direct option.
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Super Mario Kart
Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Mario Kart Double Dash!!
Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart 7
Terrain:
Terrain doesn't really matter, but it's interesting. The most common kind of Terrain is pavement, followed by Dirt. There are much more Combinations of Terrain, though, more often in the later games such as DS, Wii, and 7. The most varied terrain often come in Beach or Water courses. Cheep Cheep Beach from DS has long stretches of sandy beaches, wooden piers, and a dirt track jungle section. Both Pipe Tracks, Koopa Cape and Piranha Plant Slide have four different varieties of terrain.
Koopa Cape is also the only course with glass sections in its long pipe portions. Other unique terrain include the Keyboards in 7's Music Park and Carpet Sections in that game's version of Mario Circuit and Bowser's Castle, as well as DS's Luigi's Mansion. There are also the three bizarre unique tracks from Super Circuit, Cheese Land, Ribbon Road, and Sky Garden. Of course, in every game there is a Rainbow Road track made out of Rainbow. 7 has the unique feature of splitting its Rainbow Road between Rainbow and a Planet's Surface, though.
Other interesting tidbits include the sand tracks making up Deserts and Beaches, the decline of Ice Tracks and surge of Metal Tracks, as well as Wood. There are many small wooden bridges in different courses (Riverside Park, Peach Gardens, etc), but we tried to include predominant Terrain, mostly material that took up at least a quarter of a track. Every pure Wood course was a Ghost Track until Daisy Cruser in Double Dash.
Edges:
We have four categories for the amount of Edges a course can have. Continuous Edges include tracks that have a constant danger, surrounded by the Abyss, as in Ghost Tracks, Lava, as in Bowser Castles, as well as Sky and Space in the Rainbow Roads and Sky Garden. As noted, Sky Garden lacks edges, although there are plenty of offroad buffers, Rainbow Road 64 is the only Rainbow Road with a continuous guardrail, and Rainbow Road SMK is the only course with no guardrail at all.
Limited Edges are by far the most populous kind of courses. These are courses where racers can fall off at some point. This includes small gaps such as in Coconut Mall or Shy Guy Bazaar, cliff edges for limited sections of track such as Moonview Highway or Wario Colosseum or even long stretches such as Yoshi Valley or DK Mountain. Finally, this also includes tracks that are landlocked but still have kart-destroying hazards such as the water in the SMK Donut Plains Tracks, Toad's Factory, and Desert Hills.
The Shore courses are mostly Beach and Desert Tracks. They involve the gradual destruction of karts tho not a hard edge. The best example is Koopa Troopa Beach, where you can certainly die in the water, but you're not falling off anything. The same goes for Dry Dry Desert, and even Frappe Snowland, where you can drive off into oblivion. These courses do not have walls limiting the driver's exploration.
Finally, we have true Landlocked Tracks, where there is no way without severe glitching that racers can fall off. This includes many of the easier Circuit Courses, but also some surprises like DK Pass, Sunset Wilds, and Cheep Cheep Cape.
Offroad:
This is the most important course feature to understand and memorize. We have developed Five Different Standards of Offroad that are found in Mario Kart. The first is unavoidable sections, Offroad that is Essential to Course. This is whenever you must travel over Offroad with no option to go around. These are the most important to consider when picking a driver. The best examples are Shy Guy Beach and Luigi's Mansion.
The second are All-Encompassing. The tracks on these courses are surrounded or mostly surrounded by Offroad and usually they can be used for shortcuts to skimp across sections of track. Many courses are like this, from Grumble Volcano to most Mario Circuits. Also included are tracks with small but important Offroad portions that are essential for shortcuts, such as Waluigi Stadium and Mushroom Bridge.
Next we have courses where Offroad is existent but cannot really be used for any gain. Basically, while it's there, there's no reason it should be traversed and it's much less important to pick a Driver who has good Offroad. Basically the only advantage of using one of these characters here would to have less catastrophic consequences after a screw-up. These include many Luigi Circuits, but also much more complex courses filled with other dangers, such as Dino Dino Jungle and Mushroom Gorge.
There are also courses that have very limited Offroad sections that could affect gameplay but only in very isolated portions. Unlike Waluigi Stadium, for instance, though, they can't really be used for shortcuts. While the Existent Courses are essentially all-encompasing but do not affect gameplay, the tracks with limited offroad offer only small chunks. A lot of Bowser's Castle are like this, but there's also weird little bits in tracks like Music Park and Toad's Factory.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are courses that completely lack any Offroad at all. There are actually more of these courses than any other, which is a substantial fact (although there are certainly more Offroad Tracks combined). These include every Rainbow Road, most Bowser Castles, and most Ghost Tracks. There are also city courses like Toad's Turnpike and Mushroom City as well as some surprises like Sherbert Land 64 and Maple Treeway.
Mario Kart 7:
Mario Kart 7 presents the interesting issue of combining Air and Sea travel with the standard Land Travel. Air and Sea speed and handling significantly change based on Driver, Kart, Wheel, and Glider selection, but that shouldn't matter depending on what course is chosen. Many tracks have some kind of Air Travel (23/32), but sometimes this can be avoided. A smaller number involve Sea travel (8/32), and some have both, especially later courses. Only the retro Luigi's Raceway and Rainbow Road lack any kind of either Air or Sea, so you need to prepare for something in most cases. Also depending on your skills, you may be able to avoid Sea Travel (in Koopa Troopa Beach, Daisy Cruiser, and Rosalina's Ice World), although this may not be the most direct option.
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