Cloudtop Cruise

This article is about the race course that appears in Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. For the race course from Mario Kart: Super Circuit with the same Japanese name, see Sky Garden (GBA).

Template:Racecourse Cloudtop Cruise is the first race track in the Special Cup of Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This course mainly takes place on a giant beanstalk (similar to Sky Garden) and on an airship (like Airship Fortress). Several of Bowser's airships are seen flying in the background. Like several other courses, the music for this course have two different variations; the first one is when the players drive on the cloud and beanstalk sections, while the second one comes up when reaching the thundercloud section. The second variation transitions into a rock arrangement with guitar solo. This music reappears as an arrangement in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on the Mario Circuit stage, which combines the two variations.

Course layout

File:MK8-Course-CloudtopCruise-startingline.png

The course as seen from the starting line.

The race starts on a giant beanstalk. Shortly after there is a ramp with some Item Boxes on it, and there is a Bowser Balloon that characters can bounce on, similar to the mushrooms in Mushroom Gorge from Mario Kart Wii. The racers will then continue racing on a cloud. Later, they come onto an airship, where the player encounters two paths, both of which meet up right before a cannon, which launches the player to a anti-gravity metal track inside a storm cloud. On the track, there are many boost panels, but once in a while, lightning will strike them, which the racers have to avoid or else they will get knocked out. This section then ends to start a gliding section, which touches down on a giant stone ? Block, a reference to how Beanstalks grow out of ? Blocks in Mario games. There is just one more right turn before the finish line.

Shortcuts

• Players can bounce on the second Bowser Balloon without using a Mushroom.
• Near the end of the lap, players can jump off two big leaves, cutting off the final corner.

Gallery

• 

  An image released by Nintendo which revealed the name of the track.

• MK8- Cloudtop Cruise.PNG

  The track's icon.

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  Starting line.

• BabyRosa8.jpg

  Baby Rosalina at the start of the track.

• MarioKart8RosalinaBike.jpg

  Rosalina racing on the track.

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  Cloudy segment of the track.

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  The Airship segment on the track.

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  Entrance of the track's thunderhead segment.

• MarioCatCruiser.jpeg

  Mario racing on the track.

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  Final jump.

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  Aerial view of the beanstalk segment of the track.

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  Shy Guy racing on the track.

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  The stamp obtained for beating the staff ghost at this course.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Chinese	空中花園 (Traditional) 空中花园 (Simplified)[?] Kōngzhōng Huāyuán	Sky Garden
Dutch	Wildewolkenweg[?]	Wild Cloudway
German	Wolkenstraße[?]	Cloudstreet
Italian	Vascello Nuvolante[?]	"Cloudflying" Vessel – "Nuvolante" is a pun of "nuvola" (cloud) and "volante" (flying)
Korean	스카이 가든[?] Seukai Gadeun	Sky Garden
Portuguese	Via Nublada[?]	Cloudy Way
Russian	Заоблачный круиз[?] Zaoblachnyy kruiz	Cloudstrider Cruise
Spanish	Ruta Celeste[?]	Celestial Road

Trivia

• A Mario sprite can be seen hidden in one of the clouds.
• The first portion of the track music plays in amiibo screens in retail stores.
• The end of this course's music uses parts of Sky Station Galaxy's and Gusty Garden Galaxy's music from the Super Mario Galaxy games.