interesting to see this community rate the level high solely due to its technical impressiveness, even though most users here tend to say the general community care way too much about technical impressiveness of levels in the current era. calling 2.2 levels that push the limits "soulless" or "slop" while praising a 1.9 level for it screams hypocrisy to me

as for the level itself I am not opinionated on it, it's just another easy level

This looks like every 1.9 gdps level under the sun and not very innovative in the slightest, until you realize THIS is the one that started it all. I don't really like this level, but I can appreciate what it did for the time, and can recognize how important it is.

A masterpiece to have come out straight from the 1.9 era, I can’t think of any other level (asides from Bloodbath) to be a more fitting finale to 1.9, which makes sense considering how “Rainbow Road” (a series of tracks that cap off every Mario Kart game) themed this level is.

The decoration was absolutely mindblowing when it first released, with the insane attention to detail in many parts and thoughtful use of progression, and unlike other 1.9 levels that seemed to have suffered the issue of age, this level still holds up remarkably well to this day. It’s really saying something when it not only competes with many 1.9 gdps levels released nowadays, but even surpasses them.

While there are definitely still a few great 1.9 gdps levels to have come out in recent years, I feel the issue for a lot of them with me is that they end up looking too generic, or just focus more on including as much objects as possible so it serves more to show on what you can do with 1.9, rather than being actual levels. However, ROTD seems to get that perfect balance between high quality decoration that will impress, while also still feeling like you’re actually playing GD with its gameplay. Speaking of which…

Yea, the gameplay is solid here! While it isn’t anything remarkable, as it mostly consists of wide open spaces and simple cube/ball gameplay (no doubt due to the confines of being a 7* level), I still think it works enough to let you freely immersive yourself and take in the glory of this beautiful and joyful level’s visuals, especially given that its music is the Rainbow Road from MK7, another level that delivers similar vibes of being mostly a simple level gameplay-wise, yet compliments the mystical and happy vibes of its aesthetics and progression so well. Awesome how ROTD mirrored that track’s concept without feeling derivative of it in the slightest!

If you have not experienced this level at all, I highly suggest you do so, its just such a joy to revisit every now and then, giving me a mix of nostalgic and glorious 1.9 vibes, while still appreciating how much of a technical darling it was back then.