Music Park

History:

The inspiration for Music Park derives from Toadette's Music Room. As conniving as she is, Toadette sought to extrapolate her interests into an entire Course and exploit its profits as part of her own bid for power within the Mushroom Kingdom. She contacted Rosalina, the only figure she knew with Galaxy and Reality-Warping powers. Rosalina and her Army of Lumas constructed the Music Park in the stars above the Mushroom World, but once she found out Toadette's true corrupt intentions she retained control of the Park and raced it herself rather than give it up to the machinations of evil.

7:

Music Park is a bizarre track. It comes in as the Third Course in the Flower Cup and has a lot going on. It seems like a closed-in track, but it has patches of offroad that pop up here and there, some big drums that act as trampolines (similar to the Big Mushrooms on Wii's Mushroom Gorge), and a long Air portion. What's more is that while there are no especially difficult curves, many of the winding turns are driven over keyboards that play notes as racers drive over them. The air portion is also full of big bouncy animated notes that threaten to upset any careless players.

The Ghost here is Rosalina, which may be a nod to the course's mystical yet positive nature. The Normal version uses the Birthday Girl, Roller Wheels, and Super Glider in 02:19.336. The Expert switches completely, to the Soda Jet, Slim Wheels, and Paraglider in 02:07.551. With the amount of Air dodging one needs to do along the Air Section the Paraglider or Swoop Glider are probably the best option. The Birthday Girl / Roller Wheel combo pushes handling to the extreme at the total expense of speed, you can find a better balance. The Soda Jet and Slim wheels are a really good option here, but the Mushroom Wheels may be a better option that doesn't lose so much Speed on land, yet maintains handling.

Rosalina

History:

Rosalina is one of the most powerful figures of the Mushroom Galaxy. She started out as a mortal girl in the Mushroom Kingdom centuries upon centuries ago, older than even Lord Bowser. One day she was contacted by an emissary of the Lumas, supposedly looking for its mother. Unbeknownst to Young Rosalina, the Luma was lying, for its true intention was to obscond with Rosalina and make her into the new Mother Figure for the Luma people and by extension, the Galaxy.

As Rosalina began consuming the Star Bits of the Lumas her powers grew. The Star Bits linked her awareness to the cosmos and she eventually rose to become the Guardian Mother of the Universe, presiding over many galaxies and able to transport her Comet Observatory any where nearly instantaneously. For all her wisdom she has failed to realize the trickery of the Lumas, though she now accepts her role graciously.

Her first contact with Mario came when Bowser expanded his threat to the entire Universe and developed Space Travel. Since then she has become his ally, for her powers of teleportation, clairvoyance, and making bubbles are not adequate to deal with Bowser's Dominion, nor is her role to actively protect the cosmos, rather to silently watch for danger and then recruit a warrior. After Bowser was defeated she was perplexed to find that apparently in between Wars all these people do is race each other. She quickly joined the Circuit and has even begun to use her extensive abilities, contacts, and influence to design and procure her own Race Tracks.

Wii:

Rosalina is an outstanding Racer in Mario Kart Wii, though extremely difficult to unlock without a Super Mario Galaxy Save File on the same hard drive (which unlocks her automatically after 50 races). Each driver in this game is sorted into Three Separate Size Classes, each of which has access to Six Karts and Six Bikes of various stats. Additionally, each Character adds his or her own Bonuses to certain stats. It's notable that Rosalina is the first ever Large Female Character and does driver similar to a Big Daisy. She adds a moderate Speed, Handling, and Mini-Turbo Bonus, identical to Daisy, but more balanced (+3 in each instead of Daisy's +4/+2/+3). Her specific stats for each Kart are as follows:

She excels most with her signature Bike and Kart, the Shooting Star and Honeycoupe, respectively. Both are fairly balanced with favours toward Speed and Mini-Turbo. It makes Rosalina a danger in just about any circumstance although her acceleration and Off-Road may leave something to be desired. She therefore does best when she doesn't hit anything and stays on the path. She's a good character to get in front and stay there.

She has a single Staff Ghost in the game, claiming Rainbow Road as her home to go along with her mystic, cosmic origins. She first uses the Shooting Star in 03:05.895, while her Expert switches to the Jetsetter in 02:44.734. This is the longest of all the Original Tracks and Rainbow Road is arguably the hardest course in the game to Finish, let alone beat a Staff Ghost. Luckily among drivers there are options in any given style better than Rosalina so play to your strengths and style and beat her.

7:

Rosalina returns in Mario Kart 7, this time in the Cruiser Weight Class, one notch below the true Heavyweights. Is she really as big as DK or Wiggler? Sure. In 7 each Weight Class affects stats but the characters don't as much, meaning that she's essentially identical to both DK and Wiggler. Again, bizarre to think about. Each Kart adds or subtracts from these base stats but then players can additionally manipulate stats by selecting specific wheels or gliders. It's a dizzying way to customize a racing experience. For simplicity's sake we'll pair Rosalina with a Kart befitting her needs, in this case the Gold Standard. Its disadvantages in Air Speed, Acceleration, and Mini-Turbo are largely mitigated by the Roller Tires and Parasol. Just one of the many possible Rosalina combinations follows:

She also has one signature course in 7, the first explicitly Rosalina Track in the Mario Kart series, Rosalina's Ice World. It matches her frosty exterior and has a great deal of elements from the Super Mario Galaxy series, including visual references to the Cosmic Cove Galaxy and the Comet Observatory. With the combination set forth above Rosalina is above par in everything, albeit with a massive sacrifice in drift. This can be solved by using either the Slim or Wood tires as well as the Gold Glider.

She has two ghosts in the Time Trials of the game, as does every character. Her first, Music Park is kind of random, but it's a girly enough track. The Normal Ghost uses the Royal Ribbon, Roller Wheels, and Super Glider in 02:19.336, the Expert uses the Soda Jet, Slim Wheels, and Parafoil in 02:07.551. Her other Ghost is on her eponymous Ice World. The Normal goes 02:25.784 using the Standard, Sponge Wheels, and Parafoil while the Expert pulls a 02:13.091 using the Gherkin, Red Monster Wheels, and Super Glider.