Sunday, June 8, 2014

Toad Harbor

History:

Toad was always heavily involved in the Mushroom Kingdom's Highway System, and it was only natural that he eventually pulled some of these connections in the transportation department to get into the Trolley business. He installed the Trolleys in a small Harbor town, which he named after himself. Once he had a firm footing in the region he erected a giant Statue dedicated to Princess Peach, though some believe it was given to him by the French. The next step of course was to build a race track through the town. At this point Toad gave complete control of both the course and the Trolley system over to his lover, Toadette, who ran the show with such ruthless cunning and expertise it became immediately clear that it had been her plan all along.

8:

Toad Harbor is this real amalgamation of DS's Delfino Square, Wii's Daisy Circuit, 64's Toad's Turnpike, and 7's Shy Guy Bazaar. The course is cosmetically similar to Delfino Square with its tight, building-locked paths and steep hills and geographically similar to Daisy Circuit by the bay, particularly the starting line. The Trolleys replace the traffic from Toad's Turnpike but they function the same way. Finally the multiple routes and canvassed paths are reminiscent of Shy Guy Bazaar. These multiple paths make the course pretty interesting, like a streamlined Yoshi Valley but with paths taking up multiple levels vertically instead of a crisscrossed maze.

The course is also notable for being the only course without air and water sections, as well as anti-gravity sections that aren't mandatory. So it's really old school, pure Mario Kart racing. You know, like the first six installments. The Staff Ghost is Toadette in the Cat Cruiser, with the Retro Off-Road Wheels, and Plane Glider in 2:31.066. It's kind of strange that Toadette is the Ghost for a course named after Toad, but he's tied up on the Retro edition of his eponymous Turnpike. It's also the only Ghost appearance of the Cat Cruiser. This combo actually adds nothing beyond the standard stats, so there is plenty of room to customize here. The track is decently twisty, but the terrain is pretty stable, so someone with great handling is going to be solid at the expense of traction. Bikes in the Sport Bike vein with some slick tires make a good combo.

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