Dragon Driftway
Template:Racecourse Dragon Driftway is a racecourse included with The Legend of Zelda × Mario Kart 8 downloadable content in Mario Kart 8. It is the third course in the Egg Cup. The stage has an ancient Chinese theme, taking place in and on a giant dragon resembling Gobblegut. Throughout the course, various statues and murals of Lakitu appear. The dragon in this race course never actually ends its tail, as it loops back to the start. This may be a reference to the cultural symbol of a snake eating its tail.
Much like Mario Circuit, almost the entirety of the track is played in anti-gravity, with only the beginning and end segments near the start/finish line having standard gravity.
Course layout
At the beginning of the race, characters drive into the mouth of the dragon, and go down in a winding hall, modeled after Chinese temples. Throughout the Gobblegut tunnels, images from the original Super Mario Bros. can be seen at the top of the walls. After a set of zigzagging turns, players exit the dragon, although continue to drive on its exterior. The spin boosters found here appear to be hyōtan gourds. After several winding turns, players will loop back and drive over the finish line. Here, several bumps work as ramps giving an opportunity to perform tricks. After an additional turn, the characters return to the finish line.
Gallery
- MK8-DLC-Course-icon-DragonDriftway.png
The track's icon.
An anti-gravity section of the track, with hanging lanterns.
Baby Luigi on a portion of the track.
Baby Luigi about to drop a banana before the anti-gravity spinners.
Baby Luigi performing a trick above the start/finish line.
Baby Luigi performing a trick before crossing the finish line.
Baby Luigi about to enter Gobblegut's mouth.
A Lakitu in a Kung Fu pose in the background
A Lakitu mural in the background
Names in other languages
Trivia
- The starting line contains a paifang, a type of gate widely found in Chinese culture, but with two golden Cheep Cheeps on top of it, a possible reference to Hands-On Hall from Super Mario 3D World.
- One of the Lakitu images in the tunnel depict one holding a staff and riding a cloud. This is similar to Sun Wukong, a character who rides a cloud and uses a staff in the Chinese novel Journey to the West.
- Three Chinese characters ("朱盖木") can be found on the lanterns above the starting line or on the murals. It is Lakitu's name in Simplified Chinese.
- Before the spin booster section, there are six unique lanterns with the design of the Lakitu Hanafuda Card from the Club Nintendo Hanafuda Cards reward.[1]
- The various poses of Lakitu on this course match that of a "Kung Fu Lakitu" poster on the wall of the bedroom in GBA Ribbon Road.
- The Gobblegut tunnel is shown to have legs, but in Super Mario Galaxy 2 it does not have any.
