Tart Top

History:

Some said that Princess Peach's obsession with Baking bordered on mania. After she grew bored with her excessive Giant Cookie Stage, she again devoted a great deal of the Mushroom Kingdom's resources into financing the creation of a gigantic Tart for Racers to do battle upon. She set this deep within an enchanted room of her own castle, with the secret intention of eating it later as a "midnight snack." Once her plot to dramatically raise her blood sugar level broke, it became a huge scandal with the media of the Mushroom Kingdom. Eventually her plot fell apart and she was ordered to dismantle the Tart. This task was handled by hired Shy Guys, who had a notorious love of eating Tarts.

DS:

Tart Top is very much a continuation of Double Dash's Cookie Land, which itself was a continuation of 64's Big Donut. It is a basic ring around a centralized, non-drivable area. The center area here is a mountain of dash panels that send Racers to the only Item Boxes in the course, which is also a curious facet of this course. The Giant Pastries can smother your screen if you run into them, and the Giant Strawberries can also cost you a balloon if struck. It is unclear why Peach built into her Giant Tart such hazards. The track itself is much wider than in Cookie Land, which allows for more open mayhem and less obscurity than the dividers. Unlike Big Donut, though, it's not too large that it becomes difficult to seek and destroy opponents. It's in general a solid, if not wacky course that, like many DS Battle Stages is a proper size to both have high interactions with opponents but not be constantly annihilated.

Palm Shore

History:

After years of inactivity, the Koopa Troop successfully fielded another Battle Stage to take place on one of their many islands in the paradise just south of the Dark Land. Like the SMK Battle Course 2, the Palm Shore, although constructed and operated by the Koopa Troop, was exploited by Bowser and much of the profits of its use went back to the Castle.

DS:

This is a notable course in that it is one of very few courses that allow Drivers to race through water (the other being Wii's Delfino Pier), and it's also the second Beach Battle Stage after the aforementioned Battle Course 2 from SNES' Super Mario Kart. It's a relatively small course with a lot of varied terrain, from beach to grass, and water that ebbs and flows over the shallower sections. It thus forms both a shortcut and a nasty trap if you mistime your journey across the great moat. Its borders are also deadly - journey too far and you'll be drowned. It's not unlike the many Beach Tracks that have long been commonplace in Mario Kart Games.

This course returned in Mario Kart 7 almost identical, but with the added underwater gameplay made possible by propellers, a new wrinkle is added. It's the only Battle Stage to have this feature, so when selecting it you may keep in mind the advantages or disadvantages different karts and wheels may give you during the battle. Karts such as the Birthday Girl, Tiny Tug, Cloud 9, and Pipe Frame, along with the Roller and Wood Wheels would be solid choices to truly rule this small Battle Stage.

Nintendo DS

History:

Like the Nintendo GameCube stage, every driver felt some extraneous metaphysical force that compelled them to put forth the joint funds that constructed this massive object floating high in space. In doing so they built it in the same night sky as that Grand Prix's Rainbow Road. No racer individually understood the purpose of the Grand Station, and it was abandoned soon after the completion of the 2005 Grand Prix.

DS:

This is actually a brutal course. The top screen is tilted at a slight angle, giving any Driver on that half a great High Ground Advantage in surveying the rest of the course. There are no guardrails, unlike Double Dash's GameCube stage, and falling off with a mistimed mushroom boost is perilous. It's also very open and expansive, allowing plenty of room for Shell and Bob-omb damage. The only safe areas are the hinges along either side where the flat half bumps up against the tilted half. Racers may hide from both view and slaughter by the merciless killers of the Tilted Half. The trade-off here, of course, is that they may also be cornered more easily. This course can accommodate many forms of gameplay because it's so open and inviting. You can sit atop and pick people off or dart around the whole course planting traps. As far as gimmicky shameless self-promoting stages, this is one of the best.