The Evolution of Rainbow Road World Records (No Glitch)

Rainbow Road No Glitch in Mario Kart Wii has had quite the journey from its first records to what has ended up being the fastest humanly viable way to race the track at the highest level (for now). It remains the only No Glitch category that uses a kart instead of a bike, and even before that it had different bike switches early on. This is a nice hybrid of the WR analysis/reaction series on the channel and taking a closer look at how this WR looked chronologically over the years with a more semi-casual approach of simply discussing different aspects of history/strategy development/player history/etc in this format of video instead of a heavily scripted one. This was really fun to put together and reflect/analyze/react upon. I may not do this for every category in the game, but there are definitely a handful I want to do for this series in the future. For now, I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane of how things developed to where they are today for the Rainbow Road No Glitch category.
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Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:45 First Video Documented WR
3:33 First Strategy Change to Spear
6:26 Last Spear WR
9:18 Strategy Change Back to Flame Runner
12:09 WR at end of 2009 to 2010
14:57 First Kart WR (Unrecognized)
17:41 First Kart WR (Recognized)
20:28 WR at end of 2011
23:14 WR at end of 2012 to 2014
26:00 WR at end of 2015
29:06 WR at end of 2016 to 2018
31:51 WR at end of 2019
34:36 WR at end of 2020
37:22 WR at end of 2021
40:06 WR at end of 2022
42:51 WR at end of 2023 and current WR
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✅ Recommended videos/playlists:
○ Analyzing and Reacting to All Mario Kart Wii World Records Entering 2024: • Reacting to EVERY 150c...
○ The History of Glitching GCN Waluigi Stadium RTA: • The History of the Wal...
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💡 Mario Kart Wii Resources!
• CTGP Website: www.chadsoft.co.uk/
• CTGP Leaderboards: www.chadsoft.co.uk/time-trials/
• CTGP Tutorial by TWD98: • How To Get 200+ CUSTOM...
• MKWRs: mkwrs.com/
• MKLeaderboards: www.mkleaderboards.com/mkw
• WhatIsLoaf's Website for Time Trial Recording Resources: www.tt-rec.com
• CTGP Records: / @ctgprecords
• Best Known Splits Spreadsheet: tinyurl.com/bestknownsplits
• The Game Restorers (making HD textures for MKW): / @gamerestorers
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This is an analysis of the evolution of Mario Kart Wii Rainbow Road no glitch World Records from 2008 to 2024, including strategy changes and notable records along the way.
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Videos/resources used/mentioned throughout this video:
○ Mario Kart Wii Stream Directory on Twitch - / mario%20kart%20wii
○ Custom Top 10 Tool and Input Viewer Display Tool by WhatIsLoaf: www.tt-rec.com/
○ WhatIsLoaf's KZbin: / @what_is_loaf
○ MKWRs for various statistics and player's pages referenced: mkwrs.com/mkwii/
○ Rainbow Road No Glitch TAS in 2:14.984 by Ramoelleus RS, Luke, Marth, Ejay: • [MKWii TAS] Rainbow Ro...
○ Cole's First Sub 2:30 Rainbow Road World Record: • The Future of Rainbow ...
○ First Video Documented RR NG WR: • 2:37.380 Rainbow Road ...
○ First Kart WR (no ghost data): • Rainbow Road Compariso...
○ End of 2015 WR (no ghost data): • Rainbow Road 2:25.257 ...
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#MarioKartWii #MarioKartWorldRecords #TimeTrials

[@NMeade]

Welcome to the start of this new series! I had a lot of fun putting this together. This is a nice semi-casual approach to going through what the WR was at the end of each year along with notable records that changed the path of gameplay for a certain category compared to a heavily scripted video, which would take significantly longer on average. I may not do this for every track and category, but there’s definitely a few I look forward to doing it for. For now, I hope you enjoy this format!

[@DreamOfDyer]

Junior’s waiting to get picked up from school but I told him Nick uploaded and he understood 💯

[@SilverDT1]

hey nick! it's silver - i had the MH WR for a few months in 2014. i've recently started keeping up with mkwii activity again after not having done so for years, partially because one of your videos was recommended to me and that actually got me curious to see what's been going on. hyped to see this series!

[@zackythegamer]

I’ll look forward to the next video!

[@TTRPG_Witch_Leon]

You, yet again, do not fail to disappoint with the content, fella! I've long since retired the "Baby Luigi+Cheep Charger" combo but it's still amazing to see the WRs! Looking forward to the next vid!

[@Tafari7]

I want to see your channel grow dude. I try to watch your and Troy’s videos at the same time

[@LLInnovA]

"Popular with cheaters" is too accurate of a statement, especially back in the early 2010s

[@deanpetersen8691]

Shoutout to “? !”

[@atlafan7364]

This is perhaps the most hyped I’ve been since your monthly wr review series

[@tunnel0]

Some insider knowledge: Karts do not spindrift, they just want to drift wide into that ramp for moonjumping that shortcut. There's a kart TAS in the works, that will be much faster than the Spear TAS. So karts will also beat the TAS category at some point.

[@NMeade]

Thank you for the insights! I was puzzled by the inputs originally as that was my previous assumption that karts can’t do that technique. And that’s EPIC to hear that it will end up being faster than the Spear TAS. Can’t wait for it to come out!

[@tunnel0]

@@NMeade Yeah, karts can't spindrift, which is why they also can't supergrind or superhop. What karts accel at are momentum hops. It's what they use for the kart moonjump and it's also what the coming TAS will exploit much more. I very much apprechiate your curiosity about kart tech, as those things have some surprisingly interesting properties. And you did a great job highlighting that in this video!

[@thepolice3822]

@@NMeade kart has also been confirmed faster for dkm no glitch by an even larger margin than RR

[@EjayB]

Shhhhh keep it on the down-low. Also "much faster" is a bit of a lie

[@jkfjsfaugueyfhsdfjfafajjgu6769]

Dinner with the family is ready in 10 minutes. Im making time for this

[@rryumi]

LOCKING IN WITH SNACKS

[@dankmemewannabe7692]

Me gusta merendar

[@Mai.Calico]

disorder?

[@Mai.Calico]

disorder.

[@Hugos68]

I can't stress how much I appreciate you putting the ghosts in from the previous run, really makes it easier to follow the progression and strategy changes, thank you!

[@scarecrow8978]

I reiterate, “oh baby” indeed.

[@CowMaam]

have you heard the theory that a.wesker and biohazard are the same person? they’re both karters from the same country who revolutionized a track with karts, the miis are both very similar looking (resident evil characters iirc) and apparently the names relate to something similar as well. could be cool if this was the case !

[@NMeade]

I haven’t actually! That’s fascinating, would be so cool if that was the case. What a storyline that’d be to have the DKM history and to have been a part of RR’s history after the switch over to the kart.

[@rrk4ede705]

Thank you for the good video🍺 I will continue Rainbow Road

[@NMeade]

Of course! You've been a legend of Rainbow Road for so long long now. I wish you all the best on continuing to improve and compete at the highest level here!

[@vairrin]

thank you so much for this video and for shouting out the kart community! i've been playing this game for so many years and i remember being heavily inspired by A.Wesker's run as a little kid. I just couldn't believe the crazy stuff he was doing and I wanted to do it too!!! shoutout 7k and all the karters in this game!

[@dankmemewannabe7692]

Pregant

[@deviantlord142]

Ooh so you shouted me out too vairrin? (I’m a karter ;)

[@dankmemewannabe7692]

@@deviantlord142 meowmeow Σ:•3

[@vairrin]

@@deviantlord142stay away from me, you freak. i literally want nothing to do with you. it’s creepy that you’d look for this comment just to reply to me.

[@kogmawmain8872]

Don't have the time to watch right now but I got the time to leave a like and then watch the video in about 20 minutes.

[@lukevanamerongen5622]

4:15 As someone who used to main the Sneakster, a lower drift stat makes that halfpipe shortcut way easier and more consistent; with the flame runner it's very easy to drift too sharp and hit the wall.

[@ace_beaton]

Back with a banger 🔥

[@david.2987]

The ghost comparison is amazing! Makes the times so much easier to watch and understand the minuscule time saves/losses. Great idea Nmeade, thank you so much for this.

[@toraya1718]

I was excited to see who would break 28 seconds first, Jorge or Retty at end of 2009. I remember well the day Jorge set 27.916, feeling both excited and a little sad as a Japanese player. This video brings back those nostalgic feelings, and I realize once again that Jorge's 27.916 was at an extremely high level for that time.

[@NMeade]

That time period at the end of 2009 was truly memorable. Those records felt momentous, especially with Jorge’s 2:27. Looking back at them now 14-15 years later it’s irrefutable how far ahead of their time both Jorge and Retty were when they were competing.

[@fxdedvxmpire]

I love your video's Nick, keep it up and thank you for keeping us up to date with everything MKW!

[@Serperior10101]

Excellent video Nick! So interesting to see how the record has changed, especially with the different strategies, all made more clear by the ghost comparisons! Excited for the rest of the series!

[@liammcgrath7051]

I would love to see a video all about Niyake's utter dominance on Grumble Valcano glitch WR. Like when I think of that track, he is who I think of. Very unique in this game for someone to have as much of a presence on one single category as him

[@MxCraven]

Great series! Love it! Definitely the correct choice to show off important strat changes and subs. This game is so well preserved, it's incredible.

[@HyliaBeilschmidt]

So happy to see you talk about WRs again! I've been watching your video for years and I have to thank you for using so much retro Mario rpg music because even though I'm playing TTYD for the first time I'm already overwhelmed with nostalgia thanks to your use of music from there.

[@aeonyx12]

This has made my day and then some. Love the idea for a series!

[@LukeChandler]

incredible video. thanks very much for doing this, i know you deem it semi-casual but it's still a significant amount of work.

[@SilluxD]

Very cool how you included the comparison to the previous record. : )

[@deadmanwalks3991]

Awesome vid man!🔥 Much love from the kart community❤️

[@zup23]

Nicholas I’m so serious, this is your best video ever. Please, please keep doing these

[@cadvik]

Thanks for this in depth look at MKWii Rainbow Road Nick! Just seeing the amount of detail they put into their runs makes me feel like trying to TT Yoshi Falls again and try for a sub 1 minute. I really enjoyed your analysis and perspective. Hope you do more videos like this:)

[@TaraGrace56]

This is great!! It's crazy just how much this track has changed

[@Pinkhalfmooni]

this series is gonna be awesome dude

[@katepuddings2]

Oooh exciting concept. I've always had the idea to do this for mkds but could never get the format right. This was a great watch, loved the history and chat! Truly a deserving karter contest winner and legend :P -puddinga

[@Sanic9KVR]

Wow, great vid nick. This is great

[@Rerim47]

Glad ur uploading again bro 💪🏻

[@jackwong379]

you and troy were my childhood, glad to see you back on my recommended :)

[@kaioh16]

You couldn't have started on a better track! I've been slowly grinding my kart time down on this track and it's such a joy to play!

[@cappuccino_please]

I am so excited seeing a 45 min NMeade video in my feed! :)

[@streedrop]

idk why by this title I lowkey expected a documentary video, not another "reacting to" lmao

[@VitaEmerald324]

The title really resembles a Summoning Salt video imo

[@AnshulRaman]

I'm so excited for this series!

[@llamabs2k]

Hyped for this new series!

[@vincentpham991]

Nice video, Nick! It‘s interesting to see its history, from BB to Spear, back to BB, and then to the Flame Flyer. I can‘t wait for the future of Rainbow Road no-glitch (and glitch). Maybe one day, we‘ll use the Spear again and do the trick, just like the TAS does. None of this trick is humanly impossible

[@Ursi_]

This series is going to be great :)

[@princessjellyfish98]

What a cool WR history to watch back! I'm curious if there will ever be a kart breakthrough on another MKW track. For now it's just another element that makes rainbow road unique

[@kaioh16]

21:34, the input can be done like a spindrift, which is pretty reasonable because you need to drift left but not hit the boost panel holding hard left, but spindrifting actually isn't needed to get the kart moonjump, a neutral hop and then a left drift once you hit the boost panel also works. As far as I know, it's the downwards sticky road on a sideways angle that gives the kart a ton of horizontal momentum, which is needed to make the cut

[@xy9784]

Pumped for this series

[@aimless-SWBF2015]

Just know this will be a banger ❤

[@mrlizardman]

Yo I love seeing u in twd98's vids, but I had no clue you had a yt channel! Great vid!

[@llamabs2k]

Let’s gooo! We needed this!!

[@FrostbytesYT]

Mander is the one of the guys I used to race as a kid on Time Trials, little me not know he cheated, one of them was the same Mander ghost you compared against and I raced a few others when his times were in the 2:30s-2:32s. To only just find this out is very infuriating. Not only it mocked my level of gameplay for the time (not that great but still) but it also showed that cheating doesn’t mean you will be successful. Thanks for this information and this video as a whole! ❤

[@BSAnime]

Pretty close, the first person shown, ヨスオ, is Yosuo (pronounced yo-sue-oh). Yasuo is a LoL champ haha

[@tolltobipkmn7154]

I like the format. More speedrun history 😊

[@nicot7891]

Absolutely screaming seeing this in my feed

[@yhtawyw]

Question, how did the guy on the first record already know funky kong and flame runner was one of the fastest combinations in the game just 4 days into the game's release?

[@EternityUnknown]

#nosleep

[@samuelitooooo]

I'm not really a time trials guy (I prefer chaos with items lol) but this is really interesting.

[@WigglerFan5]

mushroom gorge has a crazy glitch shortcut (not ultra tho, and doesnt save too much time, even if the kart wr uses it, it would prob be best for flap) that you can do but only with a kart

[@jonathanp935]

will the 2010 analysing and reacting video be coming? Love this idea for the new series, looking forward to following this series along with the longer analysing and reacting to all the WRs for given years, as well as the infinite flounderfest series.

[@brunomcleod]

3:32 I had a simply guitar ad and right when I skipped it he was singing “billy o tea”, and then NMeade said charming to see, it rhymed so well

[@inspiresmariokartchannel5635]

Been with this game since the days of mindscarp recording and track is still my favorite from this game and probably one of the most I put time in. The innovations of this track were are always amazing to see. If anyone wants to know how to do all these strats for karts I got a tutorial for them btw :)

[@jacobkrout9883]

Awesome TTYD music at the start for those who also recognize it.

[@thomas-wt6fm]

i remember watching a.wesker’s world record when i was at least 8 years old. i’m now 20 😭

[@yanispetit6167]

Nice video dude, it would be cool if you do the same thing for Waluigi Stadium. It would allow to go through a shit-load of iconic WR.

[@jdwc3995]

Cool concept like it :)

[@fortniteisgay1373]

finally found something i can eat to 🙏🏻

[@izab3ru]

Return of the king 👑

[@kaioh16]

33:55, there are some other tracks on which karts are pretty good, mario circuit 3 has a kart tas that beats the bike wr, gv2 is allright too. Waluigi stadium also has some incredible kart strats and kinda has the same thing going for it as rainbow road where you're usually in a (miniturbo) boost. Other than that though, maybe some weird barrel roll tech ultra could give karts a chance at another wr

[@ethandrew1290]

I know this is about to be peak 💯

[@Jwayspillz]

The way the world records have progressed is insane. 🤯

[@SireCire]

Is it purely coincidental that you and Zilla both posted a video about this lol

[@tommyhansen7600]

Nmeade i find it very impressive you're an educated health care nutritionist

[@adriankozubal]

so 2009 jorge is standard online driving thats crazy to say and see

[@kart5486]

There is one unused strat on Rainbow, but it requires I believe three frame perfect inputs which can only be done on GCN or classic controller (unless you can Tetris roll on Nun chuck lol), and only saves a handful of milliseconds. It's just on landing after the cannon, by slip drifting on frame one of landing, then releasing on frame two, then hopping with the other drift button on three, allows the kart to do a small momentum bounce. It is used in the current Kart TAS. Not sure on any others, but Bob or Ivan (better known as Fleza) might know more than me as far as consistent strats are concerned.

[@Nightcaat]

Locking in for this vid

[@Neonaccelerator]

I’m old. I remember when a Dry Bowser had the WR on this track

[@simonfetwi]

New NMeade upload!

[@iipiantissimo5098]

Did you see Sosis on sherbit land? 1 millisecond on glitch and glitch catagories now

[@rmzing]

If I recall correctly, the mini-turbo boost for karts and bikes is precisely the same as the wheelie speed (or theoretical wheelie speed). The Flame Flyer is going 101 kph in a miniturbo; that means it would be the fastest bike if it were one, as not even the spear hits triple digits in a wheelie. I think this can also be seen in the drift speed, as iirc the Flame Runner has 84 kph, while the Flame Flyer has 85. Though this could also be an extremely slight speed increase from straightaway speed, as it seems like the Flame Flyer is going 84 on straightaways, and that's the exit speed from the cannon. It also seems like even the boost speed is affected? On the normal orange boosts, the Flame Flyer is going 118, which is exactly double the boost from the miniturbo. I know that speed boosts hard cap at 120 kph, so that means the Flame Runner would be going slower from these orange boosts; 112-113kph if my math is correct. Trick boost speed seems to be a midway point between these two boost types. You could call the miniturbo a 'half boost' and the trick boost a 'three-quarters boost'. For my math, the Flame Runner goes 105 on a trick boost; again, the Flame Flyer is beating it out in this area with a 110. But you can also stack these boosts with a wheelie. In a wheelie, the Flame Runner is at about +14kph from baseline, and if this adds, that means miniturbo + wheelie is the full boost of 112-113kph, and both the trick boost and the panel boost are right at that cap of 120 when combined with a wheelie. EDIT: Ooooh. Miniturbo for the Spear is 103. So, wheelie is a bit lower than miniturbo. And Flame Runner is 101. So the Flame Flyer is basically, in terms of speed, identical to the Flame Runner. Well, everything above is kind of a moot point. But, thanks for hearing me out anyways.

[@pureile]

this is your year 💪💪💪

[@spitscool]

babe wake up nmeade dropped new video and it's not just his own gameplay

[@stanz47]

WOAH this series will go crazy. How long did it take to set up this vide and watch all notable rainbow road WR's??

[@HyperLexus]

looking at the katakana for the first record holder, it would hint to his name being "yo-su-(w)o" instead of "ya-su-(w)o" just a bit of jp nerding lol

[@NMeade]

I appreciate the corrections for this. Always want to be able to pronounce names correctly. Noted for the future!

[@HyperLexus]

@@NMeade

[@Sizzliii]

Omg he’s back

[@ninjamage5215]

What a great day to have an internet connection

[@2FrostyforU]

i thought the first spear wr was a recent run because the quality is amazing (compared to the first one)

[@Progamermines]

awesome

[@AgsmaJustAgsma]

Someone should send this video to Summoning Salt to keep the series going.

[@jarednuebel517]

It would be cool if you made a video about the history of all of the cheating back in the day! i’ve been interested since you’ve brought it up a couple times in your recent videos

[@queenofsmiles98]

Oh baby

[@sarahspeedrun6419]

I’m pogging!!!!!!!

[@napkinx4341]

NICHOLAS TIME TRIALS UPLOAD 🚨🚨🚨

[@geezy_7733]

Holy banger

[@shub6539]

The grumble volcano in this series will be a video

[@benjackson6115]

NMeade video essay? Yes please!!

[@samuelzackrisson8865]

I have heard that the wavy road cycles favours the kart much better than bike as well

[@brunomcleod]

4:53 Are we just gonna ignore how the quality from the first to second video went from microwaved potato quality to 4K ultra HD??

[@deviantlord142]

It’s because he probably recorded all the records that had ghost data available in high quality himself.

[@WindyDelcarlo]

What was your definition for 'first WR' when gathering the runs? Were you looking for the first one that stayed for some amount of time? (In theory, the first time that was faster than the expert staff ghost would be the first World Record, even if swiftly displaced, wouldn't it?)

[@bfpncsr3608]

the records are gotten from mkwrs, which starts on 4/12/2008, 2 days after release

[@tefhypr2]

YES

[@slackaxeable]

OH BABY

[@Hugos68]

NMeade world record video 😯

[@MKayyMC]

The most well earned 20,000 views 🎉 let’s goo!!!

[@benjihuynh2970]

Hell yeah

[@contemplationsobservings6591]

Oh yes