Editing N64 Toad's Turnpike

|online_play=No longer available ([[Wii U]])<br>Available ([[Nintendo Switch|Switch]])

'''Toad's Turnpike''' (transliterated as '''Kinopio Highway''' on a few occasions<ref>{{cite|date=December 1996|title=''Nintendo Magazine System'' (UK) issue 51|page=28 and 29}}</ref><ref>{{cite|date=April 1997|title=''Nintendo Magazine System'' (Australia) issue 49|page=40}}</ref>) is the first course of the [[Flower Cup]] in ''[[Mario Kart 64]]'', as well as the third longest course in the game (behind [[Wario Stadium]] and [[N64 Rainbow Road|Rainbow Road]]). It takes place on a public road at night. There are vehicles driving on this course which cause the racer's [[kart]] to launch into the air if a collision between the two occurs. The overall shape of this course is roughly a figure 8, with some parts of the road with varying lane quantity.  

 

This course is the first in a series of similar race tracks in the ''[[Mario Kart (series)|Mario Kart]]'' series, to be filled with [[Car (obstacle)|cars]] and other vehicles that drive along the road and serve as obstacles. Similar tracks include [[Mushroom City]] and [[Mushroom Bridge]] in ''[[Mario Kart: Double Dash!!]]'', [[DS Shroom Ridge|Shroom Ridge]] and the returning Mushroom Bridge in ''[[Mario Kart DS]]'', [[Moonview Highway]] in ''[[Mario Kart Wii]]'', [[Wuhu Loop]] in ''[[Mario Kart 7]]'', and [[Tour Berlin Byways|Berlin Byways 3]] in ''[[Mario Kart Tour]]''. Despite being called a turnpike, there are no booths.

The course takes place amid a very late sunset and is quite straightforward in terms of track layout. Players immediately leave a merging starting area to enter a figure-8-esque roadway featuring many moving vehicle obstacles; these include white [[Car (obstacle)|cars]], turquoise tanker [[Cargo truck|trucks]], red box trucks (which can carry three different cargo types), and yellow school [[Bus|buses]]. Players remain on this roadway for the rest of the race, never returning to the starting area. Each lap then consists of a 90° turn to the left, a U-turn to the left, a U-turn to the right, and a 90° turn to the right, with each turn being very long and gradual. At the beginning of the right U-turn, the roadway merges into two lanes, and remains this way until racers pass the finish line. Various points of the track have small openings with four [[Item Box]]es in each. A thin line of grass borders both sides of the track and is blocked off by a white fence. Should the player be knocked over the fence by items such as a [[Red Shell]], [[Lakitu]] will bring the player back to the main road. Beyond the tall walls that border the racetrack, billboards of Toad can be seen, making it his home track in the game. No other decorations can be found besides a lone Nintendo billboard and a large number of street lamps.

In 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc, the vehicles travel forward in the same direction as players. The engine class also affects how fast the vehicles move; traffic moves slowly in 50cc, but it is quite fast in 150cc. The difficulty resides in the fact that the larger vehicles go slowly through the road, sometimes blocking the player (especially where the roadway is two lanes, and vehicles often travel side-by-side, making it difficult to steer between them). In the Extra mode, the vehicles instead drive against players at the same speed as in 150cc. While each engine class in Versus races contains the same number of vehicles (seven of each kind, totaling 28), Time Trials feature one extra of each vehicle type on the course.

Toad's Turnpike makes its classic course debut in ''[[Mario Kart 8]]'' and ''[[Mario Kart 8 Deluxe]]'' as the fourth and final course of the [[Shell Cup]]. The course now takes place in '''Toad City''', as seen on some cars<ref>{{file link|MK8-ToadCitySightseeing.png|A ''Toad City Sightseeing'' bus in Toad's Turnpike}}</ref> and signs in the course. Many of the billboards of Toad himself have been removed and replaced with traffic signs based on traffic signs in Japan, including a Mushroom sign reading "NO LIMITS", and advertising billboards, a notable one being for a highway information radio station on the frequency of 64MHz, which is a reference to the course's origins. A service plaza has been added at the start-finish line, giving the English name more significance, and, similar to [[Mushroom City]] from ''Mario Kart: Double Dash!!'', the starting banner now resembles an {{wp|variable-message sign|electronic message sign}} (or "matrix sign"). The sky is also now completely dark and fairly cloudy, unlike that of the original.

[[File:MK8 N64 Toad's Turnpike Starting Line.png|thumb|250px|The course, as seen from the starting line in ''Mario Kart 8''.]]

Item boxes, as well as coins, now move along the road, while the item boxes in the openings of the track are replaced with coins. The yellow school buses are now replaced by different colored transportation buses while the turquoise tanker trucks are gone. A few traffic helicopters are added, and the cars take a more realistic appearance, with some cars in different color schemes (not including the original white) based on Toyota Comfort taxis, popular in Japan, and the vehicles being scaled down to a size more proportionate to the racers. The empty [[Dash panel ramp truck|auto carrier trucks]] have Glide Ramps, and the pink pickup [[truck]]s have a surfboard which serves as a simple ramp. Vehicles in the left lane change lanes on every other lap of the course they complete, driving in the far left lane until the highway merges from three lanes into two; they indicate that they are changing lanes via orange turn-signal lights. Like in the original, the vehicles tumble over any racers that drive into them, but a [[Super Star]] launches them into the air and renders them harmless. Vehicles will also not tumble over any racers that are either driving too slowly or actively using a [[Boo]].

The third set has 33 vehicles. However, this set also reverses the direction of traffic in the right lane (left in Mirror Mode) so that it now travels against players.

|Eng=Normally, Karts shouldn't drive on a public road, but for some reason, Toad's Turnpike is one of the courses! Drive in a way so that you won't block the large buses or trucks. Cutting one off or driving too slow can cause accidents.

|Eng=Compete against the traffic and other racers in this highway course.<ref>{{cite|deadlink=y|archive=web.archive.org/web/19980205065149/http://www.nintendo.com:80/n64/mario_kart64/flwrcup.html|title=''Mario Kart 64'': Flower Cup|publisher=nintendo.com|language=en-us|accessdate=December 21, 2019}}</ref>

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|Fre=Autoroute Toad

|FreM=Toad Highway

*This is the only course in ''Mario Kart 64''{{'}}s Flower Cup to not appear in ''[[Mario Kart Tour]]''.