If anyone can lay claim to the most iconic track in Nintendo’s jubilant kart racer, it’s probably Twitch streamer Technical. The 22-year-old holds the distinction of having the fastest possible run time in Mario Kart 8’s Rainbow Road, both for original version and the Deluxe re-release on Switch. Naturally, the speed demon has been grinding away on the prismatic track since the release of Mario Kart World, and after nearly a hundred hours of Rainbow Road loops he’s hit a record way faster than anyone anticipated.
That Rainbow Road would be different than other iterations of the track was a given from the get go. Beyond being the most majestic interpretation of the multi-colored circuit, it’s also one of the longest since Mario Kart 64. One lap on its own takes most of us a minute or more, and there are four of them in a time trial. Onlookers guessed that finishing the course in under four minutes was entirely feasible — but it would likely take months if not a year to whittle it down that much. The sub-4-minute hype was immediate among those who follow Mario Kart speedruns, and the competition has been fierce. In about a month, a new record for the track has been set 34 times by a handful of different runners. The majority of these runs have been skirting near the 4-minute mark, but none managed to break the barrier until now.
Part of what made the record so tricky was the sheer length of the track: Players have to race at their best for an extended period of time. One critical trick for saving time doesn’t happen until happen until nearly the end of the track, before the final glider ramp. If they mess up, that could mean minutes thrown into the trash before needing to restart.
“It’s a very precise trick and I had lost many world record pace runs to that final trick,” Technical tells Polygon.
Compared to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe record — which is under two minutes — Mario Kart World is much more demanding.
“It is very easy to be 3:40 into the run only to hit a wall or touch off-road and lose the run completely,” Technical says.
Right now, Technical’s Mario Kart World Rainbow Road record clocks in at 3:59.987, which is just a hair under 4 minutes. Fans who have been following his monthlong journey there are thrilled based on the comments.
“It’s not Boo Cinema, it’s Absolute Cinema,” one YouTube commenter says. “SummoningSalt is going to have a field day on this,” another opined.
Still, this is likely just the beginning for records on Rainbow Road. New records were being set in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe years after its release, and new techniques are being developed in Mario Kart World all the time. We know for certain that time can be shaved off the current record because it was achieved despite what’s known in the community as “pacelock.”
As players know, coins help karts go slightly faster. In Rainbow Road, there’s a train that drops a bit of money at one point, but it’s easy to arrive after the vehicle doles them out. In this case, Technical took a slightly different route that allowed him to collect some coins earlier in the run, but a perfectly optimized run could still take advantage of the train.
It’s a run worth watching even if you don’t follow speedruns at all, but do enjoy playing Mario Kart World. You might learn a thing or two to help you on your next race.
For now, fans are lavishing praise on the expert’s display of skill. “Forever the Rainbow Road Master,” one fan wrote.
