Special Cup

The Special Cup isn't available at the beginning of the game; you'll need to unlock it by beating the Star Cup on 100cc mode. By virtue of its ultimate position among the cups, you should expect to find some unique challenges here, and the Special Cup doesn't fail to deliver, with four tracks that feature twisting turns and unprotected sections of track.

Wario Colosseum

Wario's Colosseum is the sinister product of a twisted mind, bent towards evil and the wretched promise of hideous power. Or so we guess; it's actually kind of fun, if you don't mind the occasional ten-second powerslide or trips around unbarriered sections of track. Before you begin, take note that the Colosseum is a two-lap track; it's so long that you only have a pair of laps to make your way to first place.

The level begins with a warmup consisting of a few right turns and a few boost-assisted jumps, before sending you over a huge jump which segues immediately into the longest powerslide in the game. It's not a simple corner, of course, but rather a downward-oriented spiral, so lock in your powerslide and adjust it as necessary to maintain your distance from the outer edge of the track; if you rub up against it, you'll lose a lot of speed, and will often see a quicker character zoom past you as you try to get back on course.

The track without outside barriers follow upon the death-spiral, so keep your wits about you and stay away from the edges, being especially wary of items that are dropped in the path. Following this little adventure, there's another hard spiral section, leading to what appears to be Wario's interpretation of the effects of a black hole's gravity on a 3D representation of the space-time continuum. Wario gets extra credit on his physics project, but you get to head around the bottomless pit, avoiding the jump in the middle. While the jump looks tasty, and may be suitable for heavyweight karts with high top speeds, it doesn't afford smaller karts much of a time bonus, and is fairly dangerous; if someone hits a Thunder Bolt while you're going over, you'll head straight for the bottom of the pit, and that's not something anyone wants to have happen.

Following the science experiment, you'll need to anticipate the hard left turn that follows; the signage is invisible until you crest the hill here, and by the time you do that, it will be too late to make a proper turn. So, begin turning before you reach the top of the rise, and you should be in good shape. The last little batch of item cubes comes in another pair of lines, so grab one from the first line, then switch drivers for another item before you hit the last boosted jump before the finish line.

Dino Dino Jungle

Welcome to Jurassic Park, sans ravenous raptors; the only dinosaurs here are of the placid, walking-in-place variety. Your primary point of frustration isn't going to be the herbivores, though; it'll be the two points at which you'll find it rather easy to fall off the track.

To begin with, however, make your powerslide around the first hard turn and avoid the jumps that line the track; they'll suck away all of your speed, and you'll be able to find plenty of items later on. If you wish, you can attempt to grab a dual-item cube from underneath the Dino in the clearing, but you'll have to avoid his stomping feet, or you'll spin out.

After a very short cave, you'll come out onto a series of plank paths leading to the upper half of the level. This is the area where you're going to start throwing your controller at the screen, because none of these paths have railings to prevent you from going into the water. With proper control, you should be able to hold yourself onto the course by taking the main path, which is to say, the left-hand path at the bottom of the planks. The right-hand path leads to a booster pad, but that track is a bit narrower than the main path, and has a more severe turn at the end to get you back on course; only experts should try to hit it.

Beyond simple skill, though, you'll need to worry about immobile objects, item attacks and, far from least, getting bumped into the water by heavier karts. If you have any Bananas or Fake Items, and are close to the lead, you can use them here, and be relatively assured that they won't be around when you next pass through; this is also a perfect place to bust out any Red Shells you have waiting around, in the hopes that you can knock the next kart up the food chain into the drink. As far as the roughhousing goes, you'll obviously want to stay away from any heavier karts while you make your way through this area.

Another short interior bit follows the plank paths; hit your powerslide as soon as you make the first little left turn, and you should come out into the cave with a good line. The level's main shortcut is off to the right after you enter, but the log jump will prevent you from accessing it unless you have a Mushroom or other method of boosting your speed. Otherwise, you'll have to avoid the waterspouts on the left-hand side, while aligning yourself with the middle of the jump on the far side of the cave, which leads out to another hanging bridge area.

The Dino you passed below will occasionally swing his head out over the right-hand side of the bridge here, so stick to the left if possible.