Super Mario Kart -- 100cc Special Cup, 2-Player Mode

Okay, let me have it...this is where I cop out a bit. We decided to go back down to 100cc for this cup, because otherwise it might never have gone through. I mean that. 150cc Special Cup is the single task in the whole game that managed to push me to wit's end and beyond. It is not fun. I dare not even think how many years it taunted me...

Anyway, it's not really that bad a cup, but the AI opposition...gosh do they get absolutely ridiculous in this game. So if the courses get challenging, the AI will just follow the predetermined racing lines and leave you in the dust. Annoyingly, when the courses are relatively easy, they just zoom ahead and prove uncatchable, and there are no clever navigational tricks that can save the day.

---

100cc Special Cup
Toad / Koopa Troopa

Our last group is the little guys, Toad and Koopa Troopa. They have the absolute lowest top speeds, acceleration second only to Peach and Yoshi, and the best handling both on and off the track...although I'd strongly recommend the former over the latter.

I will say, since wiping out on the more difficult courses will be just as bad for your performance on 100cc as it is on 150cc, I'm always glad to have a precise handle on my headings in treacherous territory. Of course, another factor to your favor in these cases is that the opposing computer-controlled racers will be just as banded to you regardless of what your top speed is...and they'll outrun you even as the likes of Bowser and Donkey Kong if they've a mind to, so you might as well take some strengths that won't get washed out under the artifices of AI adversity.

---

Donut Plains 3

Oh boy...this...uh...this course is probably the one that'll chew you up, spit you out, then pick you up again and then go in for a second helping. I'd honestly call this the second-hardest course in the game, but I guess you can be the judge of that.

I find it noteworthy that without batting an eye, you're expected to handle the broken bridge without any precedent in the game having taught you that the jump can be used to such an end...

---

Koopa Beach 2

This is a deceptively short course, and very little of it will be particularly taxing except for the water segment...which I'll admit that I managed to lose my way the first time through it. It's just another oddball in that the game has never actually dropped you into a section of "offroad" and placed in the midst of a dense cluster of deep pools of water without the remainder of the track anywhere in sight.

So I think this stage is one of the ones that manages to benefit the most from repeat plays. Or who knows? Maybe that was just me being a "creative" driver and somehow managing to lose myself.

---

Ghost Valley 3

In the trend of the Ghost Valleys before it, this track has a lot of places to fall off and some really tricky turns built into right angles which may or may not have railings to help you out along them. So it's no surprise that the fullest expression of these trends should include some really nasty corners and holes in the planks at the most inconvenient of places.

That said, I will not pretend that this race was won or lost based entirely on skill by our particular human-controlled racers...in a game where there's basically a frame-perfect requirement on timing between hanging on by the skin of your teeth or vanishing over the edge of the track, some things just come down to luck, good or bad.

Well, at least this is the case when you drive like either of us does, maybe. Who knows?

---

Vanilla Lake 2

Hey! This time, Vanilla Lake is very clearly a lake, instead of just being some kind of...uh...colorfully-blocked-in icy "road"...but it would seem that somebody went in and knocked out a huge chunk of it in the middle, so I guess it'll be a race after all.

There's actually not a lot to be said about this one, except that you don't want to get too greedy jumping over the outer edges of the cracks in the track and that the AI players still can't manage to get around ice blocks, in spite of their "best"-path AI tracking to follow.

---

Rainbow Road

Now, the very hardest track in the game, where everything to be said about a Ghost Valley applies...except for the breakaway walls, since there aren't any to begin with. Additionally, the Thwomps from Bowser Castle tracks have shown themselves, but with permanent invincibility--although player invincibility will override it, I believe.

For me, this is the hardest Rainbow Road of all time, too...although some of it might just be me. The bright track itself hard on the eyes, and the stage theme...just never felt "right" to me. It just comes across too in-my-face and almost dissonant to my ears...

Take any other Rainbow Road besides this one, even the one that's the stuff of your personal nightmares, and I prefer to drive it over this one. (Now you may throw your rotten fruits and general insults if you wish.)

Enjoy the credits! (Don't change that channel, though, more Kart to come!)