Haunted Mansion Stages

History:

The Boo Woods were once one of the most wealthy sections of the Mushroom Kingdom, filled with lakes, docks, and mansions. It was a heavy wine producing region as well as a tourist destination. As the Woods fell into disarray though, they were abandoned as the Boos, the Restless Souls of the Deceased Inhabitants, took over. After a long period of deception, Luigi came to acquire one of these mansions .Having no real use for the mansion, Luigi thought it easiest to convert it to a Battle Course, and later, a Race Track.

Another Battle Course was converted out of the Twilight House, a large mansion hovering over the Void that surrounds parts of the Twilight Trail, located in the region around Rogueport in an isolated Reach of the Mushroom Kingdom. Dry Bones took charge of the course, although it was clear he was merely acting as a conduit to Bowser's interests in the region controlled mostly by other evil rivals.


Double Dash:

Luigi's Mansion is similar to Double Deck from 64 with its different levels and ability to drop off the third floor back to the starting area. It's a pretty decent stage with some tricky winding hallways and some nefarious corridors on the bottom level. The Central Ballroom also tends to be a Death Zone, where people can lay traps for those careening off the Top Level with little idea of where they're headed.

DS:

The Twilight House appears in DS, which we paired with the equally creepy Dry Bones who made his debut in that game. It's aesthetically similar to Luigi's Mansion, but lacks the different levels and wide spaces. It's a tough course because of the many right turns and isolated rooms, which makes running into other drivers sudden and painful. The time spent in between these terrifying moments, though, is rough.

This course returned in Wii with some minor adjustments. The influx of racers in Wii makes it a crowded track and it's easy to accidentally crash into a Banana or Fake Item Box. There is no real difference between the open areas and the indoor areas. There are lots of dastardly spots to place items and shells zipping around can get nasty real fast. Still, it can be a difficult arena to seek out and target Racers because so much can interrupt a hunt while the prey zips two rooms over.

Pipe Plaza

History:

By 2003 Toad's enterprises had grown strong enough that he was able to secure some land within the lush rural sections of the Mushroom Kingdom owned by Peach. She subsidized the land with the knowledge that Battle Courses had been bringing in nearly as much money as Race Tracks for much less expensive upkeep and land commitment. Toad also used the Mario Brothers' to install the transport pipes, exploiting their expertise. For all this, Toad skimmed off the top tremendously and neither Peach nor Mario and Luigi were really compensated. For this reason when it was chosen to return for the 2005 Games was yet another course administered by Mario, a strain on the plumber's time and energy that resulted in rather shoddy management.

Double Dash:

The course is strong in Double Dash, but not as elegant as Block City. It's almost like Double Dash's equivalent to Double Deck - the solid B stage that's played only when we get bored of Blocks. It also has a few ramps and easily traversed levels. One of the trickiest things to do is to place a Banana Peel or Bob-omb directly outside a pipe exit, leading to certain doom for uncautious players. Only players may traverse the pipes, items like Shells will not.

This stage returned in DS without a tremendous amount of changes. Since it is comparatively one of the smaller courses in DS it becomes a bit more entertaining than the milquetoast treatment in Double Dash. There are a lack of many walls, leading to a more open environment. There is however, the scaffolding and ramps that interrupt conflict a bit by obscuring views of other racers and deflecting projectiles.

Cookie Land

History:

Princess Peach was a just ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, but her obsession with baking at times strained the nation's resources. When she decided to create a Battle Stage from scratch, she naturally chose to make an enormous cookie in the heart of Yoshi's Island. Not only was it difficult to procure the vast amounts of sugar, flour, and butter to originally create the massive cookie, but the stage would damage easily, cracking and crumbling under the weight of the racers. The course was popular, though, and it would return for the 2008 Battles. With many more drivers in this installment along with much heavier karts, the strain on the Cookie was tremendous. Eventually Toad swapped in an entirely new stronger Cookie Material mined from the Sweet Sweet Galaxy. Now located in the Mushroom Kingdom, this has held up far better, although the Princess was kept unaware of this maneuver.

Double Dash:

Cookie Land follows in the theme of tracks like Big Donut - a big concentric ring with a few mild barriers. There aren't very many dangers here, but that tends to make the track a bit less interesting. The action is very spread out and it's more difficult to find and target other players.

The course returned in Wii with little changes, but it's a much better course. The mere fact that Wii battles involve twelve drivers makes it much more chaotic and interesting. Cookie Land becomes one of the highest-scoring maps in this game, with an inner ring full of death and an outer ring full of maniacal drivers making passes to send shells into said inner ring.