Dragon Driftway

Template:Newsubject 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 starting line. Here, several bumps work as ramps giving opportunity to perform tricks. After an additional turn, the characters return to the starting line.

Gallery

• MK8-DLC-Course-icon-DragonDriftway.png

  The track's icon.

• MK8-DLC-Course-DragonDriftway-startingline.jpg

  The course as seen from the starting line

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  A Lakitu in a Kung Fu pose in the background

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  A Lakitu mural in the background

Trivia

• This is the first course in Mario Kart to have a slight alteration to the course intro theme with gongs ending the theme.
• The starting line contains a paifang, a type of gate widely found in Chinese culture, with two golden Cheep Cheeps above it to add a Mario element to it.
• 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.
• The Gobblegut tunnel is shown to have legs, but in Super Mario Galaxy 2 it doesn't have any.
• 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.