Baby Park

Baby Park is a fictional race track that made its first appearance in the 2003 kart racing video game Mario Kart: Double Dash, part of the Mario Kart series. The race track is a simple oval shape set within an amusement park, with a typical race on the track consisting of seven laps compared to the series average of three. The track has since made an appearance in multiple subsequent installments within the series. The track received praise from critics and has been described as one of the best tracks in the series' history due to the track's simplistic design meshing well with Mario Kart's items in moments to occur during a race, making the track chaotic and unpredictable.
Baby Park is a race track located inside of a baby-themed amusement park, with key landmarks of the park being a roller coaster, merry-go-round, and Ferris wheel. The track itself is in the shape of an oval with two sharp hairpin turns on either side of the track, which allow the player to perform drifts. In Mario Kart 8, Baby Park was redesigned to be placed at an angle to make the track accessible for anti-gravity racing, 8's signature game mechanic that allows racers to drive on uneven sections of track and collide with other racers for speed boosts. Additionally, 8's version of Baby Park has the item boxes in constant motion around the track, meaning a player is much more likely to get an item quickly. The track is one of the shortest in the Mario Kart series, taking only ten to twenty seconds to clear a lap normally, and only eight seconds in Mario Kart 8's fastest driving speed. To balance out Baby Park's short size, the track takes seven laps to complete in Double Dash and 8, and five laps in DS and Tour, compared to the usual three laps for most tracks in the series. Another feature unique to Baby Park is that in Mario Kart 8, the track's music speeds up each time the player completes a lap, instead of only on the last lap.
Due to the track's short size, the track became notorious for its close-proximity racing and item attacks. Items such as green shells, banana peels and Bowser shells can ricochet off the walls multiple times, making the track become a lot trickier to navigate. Additionally, the track's length often causes players to lap others who are far behind, meaning no matter the player's position they are susceptible to every players' item attack in their proximity.
Baby Park made its debut in the 2003 installment Mario Kart: Double Dash; directed by Yasuyuki Oyagi, Futoshi Shirai, Daiji Imai and designed by Tsuyoshi Watanabe. The track, depicted as being the signature track for characters Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, is a part of the Mushroom Cup; the first of multiple Cups each containing four tracks. Baby Park reappeared in the subsequent entry in the Mario Kart series, Mario Kart DS (2005) as one of the game's retro tracks. Baby Park didn't make a follow-up appearance until the second wave of DLC for Mario Kart 8 in 2015, alongside other new and returning tracks. The track's most recent appearance was in 2022 when the track was featured in the "Cat Tour" update for Mario Kart Tour.
Baby Park has gained generally positive reception, with the track topping lists of Mario Kart tracks and many publications declaring it as one of the best tracks the series has to offer. Screen Rant's Scott Baird commented that what made the track work well was its simplistic and cramped layout, which meant that no position was safe from any other player's barrage of items. He stated that Baby Park "[encapsulates] what makes Mario Kart fun in only a tiny arena". CJ Andriessen from Destructoid commented that Baby Park was like no other track, describing it as a "baby-themed thunder dome". He likened the track more to the Battle Mode commonly featured in Mario Kart instalments, adding that he preferred the Double Dash version of the track because of that game's character exclusive items making the track a lot more hectic. GamesRadar+'s David Roberts felt that Baby Park is the best track for item-based races, adding that it's the source for consistent chaos and madness but doesn't get old thanks to its short length. When correcting mistakes in their Double Dash review, Edge Online recounted Baby Park as being the series at its "brilliant, chaotic best", feeling this was as mad as the series got.
Writer Kate Gray wrote about how she believed Baby Park to be the series' one true track thanks to its chaos and tight turns requiring a good understanding of drifting. Gray further equated the track to a battle of survival, describing it as the "perfect microcosm of equality". Later writing for Nintendo Life, she praised the track as being a combination of what she believes makes the series great, describing it as being like "a sprint, a hurdle race, and an obstacle course". Gray further asked that the series include more tracks like Baby Park, believing Mario Kart lacks fast, simple tracks. Conversely, Mike Diver of Waypoint disputed Gray's praise when comparing the track to the tracks featured in Mario Kart 8's Star Cup, marking it as being repetitive and lacking memorable moments, though stated the track was still great in isolation of the comparison. Zachary Miller from Nintendo World Report praised the track for its chaotic nature thanks to the combination of items and a simple layout, commenting that it makes the track more about luck rather than skill. Miller also praised 8's version of the track, describing it as being magical. Game Rant's Kirsten Moreton shared similar sentiments, believing that the track's reliance on items embraced what made the series stand out amongst other titles in the genre. Moreton continued that the track coupled with items made Baby Park unpredictable, offering players something unique from every other track in the series.