Sep 14, 2024
Image courtesy of Lucculu
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Image courtesy of Lucculu
Name: DK Pass Debut: Mario Kart DS
DK Pass is your average Mario Kart snow course. There is nothing all that special about it. It's not a bad track, by any stretch of the imagination (even if getting run over by a snowball after a blind turn can feel a little cheap), but I do find it a pretty forgettable one.
Anyway. Isn't it weird that this is a Donkey Kong course for some reason?
Yes, that is literally the entire reason I am talking about this course!
The Mario Kart series has always loved exercising its god-given right to arbitrarily name generic courses after whatever character they so feel like. Toad has a turnpike, Yoshi has a desert, and Donkey Kong has a snowy mountainside! This is Mario Kart after all! They gotta remind people that this series is about these guys:
But I end up singling out DK Pass because out of all the courses arbitrarily named after characters, it easily feels the most arbitrary. At least Toad's Turnpike had pictures of Toad on some billboards, and Yoshi Desert had the big Yoshi Sphinx! The only thing that makes DK Pass a Donkey Kong course is the name. If you renamed this course to "Cool Cool Mountain" or something, it would have no connection to Donkey Kong whatsoever.
I mean, when you think "Donkey Kong" and "places you'd associate Donkey Kong with" you don't really think "big snowy mountain", do you? Maybe you do. Maybe your only exposure to this character is the existence of DK Pass. I'm not judging.
DK Pass wasn't always a winter wonderland, though! Early on in development, DK Pass was a more standard mountain track, with green grass and everything. This version of DK Pass is generically named donkey_course, and while it's clearly early on in development here, you could argue that this version may have been a jungle course reminiscent of DK Mountain, or that it could be set on Donkey Kong Island or something.
But at some point in development, a developer said "Hey! We don't have our obligatory Snow Course yet! We can't have a Mario Kart game without an obligatory Snow Course!" And another developer said "You're right. Let's turn this Donkey Kong course into our obligatory snow course. And let's keep it a Donkey Kong course because he has such a lovable face."
It was either that, or they didn't want a course called "DK Mountain" two games in a row. But if that was a concern...
Then why did they give Donkey Kong ANOTHER snowy mountain course in Mario Kart Wii?! This is DK Summit (known as DK's Snowboard Cross in PAL regions), and while I think its Donkey Kong theming is marginally less arbitrary (this course does have a barrel cannon after all!) it's still weird that there was a period in Mario Kart history where the go-to theme for a Donkey Kong course was "snowy mountaintop".
Of course, since the release of these courses, we've gotten Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which aside from being one of the best games of all time, is also all about Donkey Kong Island being frozen over!
I'm not trying to suggest either of these courses are set on Donkey Kong Island, that would be silly. However! I do think it'd be a fun way to re-theme DK Pass if they ever bring it back again! It would go a long way to make the course feel a lot more memorable, especially since DK Summit does everything it does and does it better. Plus the name would actually make sense now! Bonus!
The only concerns would be places that localize the name as "DK Alps" or "DK Ski Resort," but the original Japanese version is generically "DK Snow Mountain," and that feels like the most important one. Sorry to the other localizers that made perfectly reasonable decisions before this course became Tropical Freeze themed in my imagination!
But I wouldn't get my hopes up, since both these courses are in Mario Kart Tour, and both retain their original designs there. As far as Nintendo is concerned, DK Pass shall remain one of the most bafflingly-named courses forever... And maybe it doesn't really matter all that much! I mean, it'd take someone really pedantic to make such a big deal about this course's name, right?
*slides the rest of this post under the rug*
I was pretty happy with the DK Summit statue from yesterday's art so here it is on its own!
Wii DK Summit // Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass: Wave 4 (2023)
Best Mario Kart Wii course (Flower Cup)
Mario Circuit
Coconut Mall
DK Summit
Wario's Goldmine
See results
Mario Kart Wii (2008) // DK Summit (Final Lap)
A perfect fit for thrill-seekers and holiday lovers, DK Summit (or DK's Snowboard Cross if you'd prefer) now has a stadium in Super Mario Spikers! Use the unique halfpipe shape to get extra height for your spikes on either side of the court. Just look out for oncoming Shy Guys!
Not mine but I love seeing this stuff. This guy always has so much energy too.
