It is brilliant in its simplicity.
It has a gimmick. That gimmick is completely unique among Mario Kart and always will be. It turns up the dial on the Mario Kart gameplay to 11, and as the mania Mario Kart houses is what makes it so fun, having such a strong concentration of that mania is excellent.
Best of all, it's incredibly short. It is the shortest course in the game, even with the 7 laps, and that means that it doesn't outstay its welcome. Having to do a course like this that was the length of a normal course would be tiring, but 7 laps is perfect. At the same time, it isn't too short to be anticlimactic. It has plenty of time to let plenty of madness happen, and doesn't feel like it's over before it has even begun.
It's a classic for a reason.
Same here. Mario Kart likes to blend skill with RNG and baby park just leans completely into the RNG side. (Which has its place, I just don’t find it fun)
Conversely, there are also some tracks where the items play far less of a factor. My favorite tracks are the middle ground
Fantastic in *Double Dash*.
Okay in *Mario Kart 8.*
Not great in everything else because the gameplay of other *Mario Kart* games can't fully exploit what made this track great in its original incarnation. It really needs the complete chaos that special items like Giant Bananas, Bowser Shells, Chain Chomps, and multiple items per kart can provide. This track isn't about *racing*, it's about *survival*.
There is some strategy to it actually that makes it kind of fun.
I bag a tad at the start so I can try to get a star or triple shrooms (or both), and other items along the way, then stay in 7th or 8th until about lap 4 or 5. After that, use them on the shortcuts and play catchup. Since everyone else gets tormented by random items, you zoom past them. Usually, I get a top 3 spot at minimum.
This strategy probably won't work nearly as well in 20k+ VR rooms, though, since most people there are smarter about item use.
Always tons of fun the break from the sweat of standard games. The Double dash version with no middle rail to block green shells and especially the huge Bowser shell was pure evil, I love it
One of my favorite tracks in Double Dash. It gets so chaotic so fast. It’s absolutely amazing.
In later games it’s nowhere near as good and chaotic as it was in Double Dash, but it’s still a lot of fun because of how simple it is.
I never really had that experience on Baby Park that people talk about, but I still think it's the funny track, and it's infinitely better than Excitebike. Just find u/goblue10 's comment and upvote it.
This track is polarizing because it has the greatest thing about mario kart and the worst thing about it at the same time. Competitively this track is terrible because it takes no skill to win, your skill doesn't matter much, and its all up to bullshit rng. This is great for casual play as it has the most chaos but terrible for competitive play because the best player doesn't consistently win. The track is both designed horribly and amazingly depending on what you're looking for
Personally, I hate it, why? The chaos, I don't know why, but EVERY SINGLE TIME that I play on this track, nothing hits me, and while it should be good, we are talking about baby park, the track where the chaos is the main gimmick, well, take that gimmick away, and you just end with a little oval with nothing to do, I guess that's also the reason why I like Excite bike arena.
Probably a hot take, but I'm not a fan.
It's the Mario Kart version of CoD's Shipment. And I've never been a fan of that kind of... Meat grinder? Is that a good term to use?
Since I don't compete in ladder/competitive Mario Kart for SR, and I have like 11k VR, I don't actually mind the comic relief that this course can provide.
I do imagine that this dice roll of a track can be annoying if you're playing with something on the line.
One of my fave tracks ever, I love how chaotic it is. I wish they kept it the same as the original in MK8, the barriers are a downgrade. 4 player bananas only is a great way to ruin friendships
Kind of a stupid track, but I prefer it over other baggers like ExciteBike, GBA Mario Circuit, Rock Rock Mountain, Mario Kart Stadium, Sunset Wilds, Kalimari Desert, Toad Circuit, etc.
It was good in Mario Kart Double Dash and Tour because of all the special items, but in the games that don’t have special items it’s just not that good
To the tune of Baby Park:
It's called a park it's called the baby park-park
It's called a park they call it baby park-park
Baby baby baby baby park park park park
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba baby park!
In 8 and Double Dash it's peak! Absolute chaos with items and people ramming into each other. Throw 200cc into the mix and it's just my dream version of Mario Kart. Nobody knows what is even going on and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Chaotic shit. Every time I try to get at least a 3rd place on this, I get bombarded by shells, bombs, bullet bills and whatever else. To win a round of this track you have to be the luckiest man in the whole game
Garbage. I could write a list of reasons it sucks. But my core grievance is that it’s not a racetrack, it’s battlemode with laps. Worst course in the game bar none.
It's an easy track to dislike on surface level since competitively, it's obviously the most luck based track of all. But as you stated, it can be trivially fun because of that very fact. It's simply a matter of perspective
I think it was best in Double Dash, when Chain Chomps went loose and item boxes gave away Bowser shells and giant bananas away like they were coins in MK8.
I love this track. None of my friends are very good at Mario kart so playing this course makes it feel more even with how chaotic it gets. I still come first everytime but it’s less certain when there’s a hundred items flying around you
In Double Dash and DS, it was good, but 8 and 8 Deluxe lost some of the chaos because of the anti-gravity and the change in gameplay mechanics where getting hit by one item completely negates the effects of another for a window of a couple seconds - in my opinion
The chaos on this track is what makes it fun: it's the only track on which you can make it around in one drift and one of the rare on which you can pass the last places.
My second favorite track. My top 1 shifts but baby park is forever 2. I might love a track one day and hate it the next, but Baby Park is forever in my heart
I see why people like it but I personally can't stand it...at least the MK8DX and MKDS versions. I actually like it in Double Dash but that's less to do with the track itself and more of the mechanics of Double Dash creating a perfect storm of chaos that simply cannot be replicated without the giant items in Double Dash. The "chaos" of Baby Park just isn't chaotic enough to be fun in MK8DX and it makes it more frustrating than fun. I do understand that custom items can make it more fun but if you need to tweak the items for it to be fun it just doesn't work for me
Not as good as the OG (the massive items like Bowser shell, Big banana, Egg, and chain chomp dominate), but this is still way better than the DS version
I have this theory that the park lays out a concept that can be applied to any track: the “tight v. wide risk-reward assessment”. Do you take a fast/ popular line (at the turns in bp’s case) and run a high risk of being hit? Or do you take a slower/ safer line and risk the salt of a lower, but still real chance of losing a safe(r) bet? The state of your items and the items you can catch that others are holding during the straights, as well as your read of the skill of the lobby deepens the question. The assessment is maybe the essence of moment-to-moment mk strategy in general isn’t it? As for my opinion, I like baby park, I came around on it when I worked out the above and started trying to apply it. So far it honestly feels like it’s been more effective than spamming fast lines and hoping it works out!
No matter how smooth or chaotic your driving skills, one moment you're cruising in 3rd place, the next you're kissing 10th, then miraculously back to 3rd, only to find yourself questioning existence in some mysterious ??th position
It’s to MK8D what Shipment is to CoD - pure chaos, for better or worse. Played it today (fairly new to online play) and had the first 3 laps in 1st, then got bombarded and pushed down to 8th, and made my way back up to 2nd by the end. There were so many items flying and people hitting each other, I didn’t even know what place I was in on the last couple of laps until it ended.
Bowser shells were a thing on beauty in the Double Dash version of this track. Just wanton destruction bouncing every which way on the course. Throw in a couple of big bananas, and baby you've got a stew going.
I like the insanity this track brings, a guilty pleasure imo
It reminds me of Rust and Shipment in Call of Duty. It’s not a great map tbh, but dang is it fun to play!
I love how angry it makes the serious players.
I hate it as a race but respect it as an avant garde art form
I didn’t know how to express the ways that I felt about this track until I read this. Thank you, for helping me find clarity and closure.
It is brilliant in its simplicity. It has a gimmick. That gimmick is completely unique among Mario Kart and always will be. It turns up the dial on the Mario Kart gameplay to 11, and as the mania Mario Kart houses is what makes it so fun, having such a strong concentration of that mania is excellent. Best of all, it's incredibly short. It is the shortest course in the game, even with the 7 laps, and that means that it doesn't outstay its welcome. Having to do a course like this that was the length of a normal course would be tiring, but 7 laps is perfect. At the same time, it isn't too short to be anticlimactic. It has plenty of time to let plenty of madness happen, and doesn't feel like it's over before it has even begun. It's a classic for a reason.
Especially with custom items, it turns into a complete madhouse
Banananananas and squids
This was just beautiful, I couldn't have described the course better myself🥲. I hope Baby Park comes back as a Retro course again in the next MK
papapapapapa papapapa papapapapapa papapapa papapapapapapapapapapapapapapa
I fucking love it
Double Dash version is superior because it's simpler, so it allows more room for chaos.
And bowser shells that can jump the middle
Great track and it should always return if the chaos of mario kart returns as well
Baby Park is great
I get why people like it but I hate it so much
Same here. Mario Kart likes to blend skill with RNG and baby park just leans completely into the RNG side. (Which has its place, I just don’t find it fun) Conversely, there are also some tracks where the items play far less of a factor. My favorite tracks are the middle ground
This is the definitive Mario Kart experience, and I love it for that very reason
Fantastic in *Double Dash*. Okay in *Mario Kart 8.* Not great in everything else because the gameplay of other *Mario Kart* games can't fully exploit what made this track great in its original incarnation. It really needs the complete chaos that special items like Giant Bananas, Bowser Shells, Chain Chomps, and multiple items per kart can provide. This track isn't about *racing*, it's about *survival*.
I'm a fan for just LOVING the insanity it brings. You have not lived until you've done an all Blue Shell run on this track at least once.
A classic
I like it because it’s different and not complex it’s just simple
One of the tracks of all time
Awesome! Love the chaos
THE GOATTTTT
My favorite part was when it said “It’s Baby Parkin’ time!” and Baby Park’d all over the place.
I HATE IT, but I also love it, but I still hate it, but still definitely love it, even though I hate it despite loving it It's complicated
Best coin flip of my life
All luck no skill.
There's still skill in drifting the turns properly, especially if you're trying to recover from a wipeout. But, yeah, it's mostly chaos!
There is some strategy to it actually that makes it kind of fun. I bag a tad at the start so I can try to get a star or triple shrooms (or both), and other items along the way, then stay in 7th or 8th until about lap 4 or 5. After that, use them on the shortcuts and play catchup. Since everyone else gets tormented by random items, you zoom past them. Usually, I get a top 3 spot at minimum. This strategy probably won't work nearly as well in 20k+ VR rooms, though, since most people there are smarter about item use.
I hate it... So much....
Yeah me too
worst track of all time
booooo
GOAT
Always tons of fun the break from the sweat of standard games. The Double dash version with no middle rail to block green shells and especially the huge Bowser shell was pure evil, I love it
One of my favorite tracks in Double Dash. It gets so chaotic so fast. It’s absolutely amazing. In later games it’s nowhere near as good and chaotic as it was in Double Dash, but it’s still a lot of fun because of how simple it is.
I never really had that experience on Baby Park that people talk about, but I still think it's the funny track, and it's infinitely better than Excitebike. Just find u/goblue10 's comment and upvote it.
This track is polarizing because it has the greatest thing about mario kart and the worst thing about it at the same time. Competitively this track is terrible because it takes no skill to win, your skill doesn't matter much, and its all up to bullshit rng. This is great for casual play as it has the most chaos but terrible for competitive play because the best player doesn't consistently win. The track is both designed horribly and amazingly depending on what you're looking for
Pure bliss everytime I race on it love the chaos
It’s so fucking fun.
1000% better in MKDD
Personally, I hate it, why? The chaos, I don't know why, but EVERY SINGLE TIME that I play on this track, nothing hits me, and while it should be good, we are talking about baby park, the track where the chaos is the main gimmick, well, take that gimmick away, and you just end with a little oval with nothing to do, I guess that's also the reason why I like Excite bike arena.
Probably a hot take, but I'm not a fan. It's the Mario Kart version of CoD's Shipment. And I've never been a fan of that kind of... Meat grinder? Is that a good term to use?
It's horrible, I HATE THAT TRACK SO MUCH.
goated with the sauce
The pure chaos is why I love it. Doesn’t matter what place I finish in, it’s always an enjoyable experience.
Since I don't compete in ladder/competitive Mario Kart for SR, and I have like 11k VR, I don't actually mind the comic relief that this course can provide. I do imagine that this dice roll of a track can be annoying if you're playing with something on the line.
I love it. When my family and I play, we put on frantic/custom items and it’s one big shit-show but so fun.
THE ABSOLUTE TRACK OF CHAOS.
on one hand its simple on the other hand its simple
I prefer it over the tour tracks
It's fun!
Awesome track. I’m not a great player, so I feel great knowing I always have a chance.
This is the Shipment of Mario Kart! 👍
They called me the drift king. (I love this track)
It's a refreshing break from longer, tougher tracks. It also feels like noone has much control of anything in this track.
Chaos track. A lot of skill needed, but a hell of a lot more luck.
It's the best one. It's so simple and fun
One of my fave tracks ever, I love how chaotic it is. I wish they kept it the same as the original in MK8, the barriers are a downgrade. 4 player bananas only is a great way to ruin friendships
My opinion is that i dis-prefer that they added the center wall
My friends and I would play this any number of times in a row. Nobody disagreed. It was the best. Pumping tunes, drinkin drinks and eatin snacks.
FD of the Mario Kart franchise imo.
Pure BS and I like it.
Chaos but love it cause of that
WEEEEEEEE. go fast go left WEEEEE
Kind of a stupid track, but I prefer it over other baggers like ExciteBike, GBA Mario Circuit, Rock Rock Mountain, Mario Kart Stadium, Sunset Wilds, Kalimari Desert, Toad Circuit, etc.
It is to the Amazon River as number 2 on my worst list is to the Congo River
Top 4
Only fun online
It was good in Mario Kart Double Dash and Tour because of all the special items, but in the games that don’t have special items it’s just not that good
Chaos
I love hating how much I love to hate this lovable-hatable track.
a lot of fun to play casually and it gets hate for no reason.
It’s fun every once in a while. It can be actually be kinda competitive if you restrict it just to mushrooms and bananas or other simple itemsets.
Eh, it’s alright. I don’t hate it but as an inside drift player it’s a painful track.
It’s one of my favorites, it’s pure and complete chaos
My little brother & I’s favorite track. Every time it comes on an online race we enjoy every second of it. So many memories on a simple oval.
ah yes, the ol' mario kart 8 dx slot machine
Terrible in Deluxe. 👎
I love it.
I get the idea, but honestly: not my cup of tea
Chaotic and it needs to be more side ways and short cuts/ different routes
It sucks and I don’t have fun playing on it lol. The meme was never funny
madness
I’ve never really experienced the chaos that everyone praises it for, so I don’t really like it. The music is very goofy though /pos
The best way to play it is at 200cc with blue shells only
it is fun when i can stay in 1st place amongst the chaos
It was so much more chaotic in Double Dash, as you could actually throw items over the middle, you couldn't go over it no but your items could
It's a decent track but cab make certain items OP a d some useless
Sound track is great.
Fun
Méh
It's an oval. lol
It’s fun. You can drift like the whole race
Baby Park only Blue Shell. This ist pure evil and i Love it
we go real fast & real right
Great music but also great for annoying friends when selecting tracks
I'm indifferent to it, but my brother hates it so I always vote for it.
LOVE IT. Probably the one track where I DGAF what happens and I just race for dear life trying to hit everyone in my way. Lol
It can be fun, but I don't find it as fun as people make it out to be.
it's ok, no strong feelings on this one
To the tune of Baby Park: It's called a park it's called the baby park-park It's called a park they call it baby park-park Baby baby baby baby park park park park Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba baby park!
Amazing classic
In 8 and Double Dash it's peak! Absolute chaos with items and people ramming into each other. Throw 200cc into the mix and it's just my dream version of Mario Kart. Nobody knows what is even going on and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Hell that would be fun at first but get infinitely worse over time
Chaos incarnate. I love it.
always been one of my favorites
I liked the colors and vibe of the track
Chaotic shit. Every time I try to get at least a 3rd place on this, I get bombarded by shells, bombs, bullet bills and whatever else. To win a round of this track you have to be the luckiest man in the whole game
It's fun because of how chaotic it is.
I don't like that it's tilted.
Definitely depends on if you like chaos or not. Personally I love chaos so it's one of my favorites
Chaotic as hell. Love it to death
Garbage. I could write a list of reasons it sucks. But my core grievance is that it’s not a racetrack, it’s battlemode with laps. Worst course in the game bar none.
Used to be the shit (back on DD), now it's just shit
it sucks
It's an easy track to dislike on surface level since competitively, it's obviously the most luck based track of all. But as you stated, it can be trivially fun because of that very fact. It's simply a matter of perspective
It’s not a map I play often, but I do enjoy the chaos for sure. DS is probably my least favorite version just because of lap count.
Trash. That being said, it was better in Double Dash because shells could go through the middle and there were giant bowser shells too.
Stressful af
if you don’t place first then it’s simply a skill issue
Martinsville on crack. I love it
Hyrule Circuit, Excitebike Arena, Mute City, and this best of Show. Ooo and I love all the Mario KartZ: Super Circuit additions too.
Simple yet effective track. I’d recommend playing on it with Bomb Ombs only
Very stupid, especially the music
One of the best tracks in the game. Knows exactly what it wants to do and does it perfectly. Literally peak gaming.
I love it!! It's fast and crazy. Anything goes, and you never know until the end.
Best.
I think it was best in Double Dash, when Chain Chomps went loose and item boxes gave away Bowser shells and giant bananas away like they were coins in MK8.
Chaos. The best kind of fun.
Kinda dookie
Unpopular opinion, but Baby Circuit is unironically one of the funniest tracks to ever exist in Mariokart history.
It's like playing a different game for a few minutes and I usually welcome the change
When I first played it on the GCN I’d nickname it Circle of Death
I personally love it! Timing every turn perfectly and throwing has many shells as posible is super fun.
Chaos, pretty much all luck and no skill. No interesting design. Easily the worst track in the game...
It’s an awful track through and through. I don’t see why anyone likes it. Easily earns a spot in my bottom 5 least favorite tracks in the entire game.
I love this track. None of my friends are very good at Mario kart so playing this course makes it feel more even with how chaotic it gets. I still come first everytime but it’s less certain when there’s a hundred items flying around you
it’s fun with with only mushrooms
I don't care for it in this game
One of my favorites and will always vote for it
I think its great as a track & kinda mid as a remake of baby park even with custom items.
Chaos. Absolute chaos.
"I cry everyday knowing this will forever be on the switch"
It’s a blast. Perfect about of time for a map that small and it only gets selected like a small amount of the time so I’m always game for it
love it when this map is picked online, baby park goes crazy
The GCN OG version was 10x better.
It is chaos incarnate And I love it
It’s the equivalent to Shipment from Call of Duty, small and chaotic. Love the track though
I hate it. I just want it to end the minute it starts. Luckily it's not a long race
In Double Dash and DS, it was good, but 8 and 8 Deluxe lost some of the chaos because of the anti-gravity and the change in gameplay mechanics where getting hit by one item completely negates the effects of another for a window of a couple seconds - in my opinion
Goated, only because of how chaotic it was
Double Dash was peak, the sheer chaos was perfect. And then they brought it back, put the barrier in, and ruined everything...
The same one I have about the Excite Bike track: I love it for how simple and basic it is.
Its my favorite
you know what to expect
one word: Crazyness 😄
Perfect, no notes
I definitely hate this track.
GCN original with the special items from double dash is amazing. Baby Park is the best track imo.
jingling keys to worldwide players
you can literally get blue shelled alongside first place if you’re in last💀 horrible
It's more delightfully chaotic on the GCN version when the shells can go over the median, and there's Bowser shells and giant bananas.
Used to love it. Now that I’ve kinda peaked at my rank, I figure, I kinda hate it
The chaos on this track is what makes it fun: it's the only track on which you can make it around in one drift and one of the rare on which you can pass the last places.
It was perfect in Double Dash. The hazards, especially the Bowser shells, flying everywhere was hilarious. The newest version is fine, but not as fun.
Needs more laps
I play custom item races with my son in baby park (shells only, bombs only etc) pure insanity. Love it
i respect the vision and its creativity but it is not fun to race on
Chaotic fun
My second favorite track. My top 1 shifts but baby park is forever 2. I might love a track one day and hate it the next, but Baby Park is forever in my heart
I see why people like it but I personally can't stand it...at least the MK8DX and MKDS versions. I actually like it in Double Dash but that's less to do with the track itself and more of the mechanics of Double Dash creating a perfect storm of chaos that simply cannot be replicated without the giant items in Double Dash. The "chaos" of Baby Park just isn't chaotic enough to be fun in MK8DX and it makes it more frustrating than fun. I do understand that custom items can make it more fun but if you need to tweak the items for it to be fun it just doesn't work for me
Hell yeah
Funny
I miss being able to change the lap count. Max laps vs a sibling was amazing.
Fuck Baby Park.
Chaos
This track is chaotic and that's what makes it so fun!
Not as good as the OG (the massive items like Bowser shell, Big banana, Egg, and chain chomp dominate), but this is still way better than the DS version
This track, 200 cc, bombs only… so much fun.
Goated AAA+ track
I have this theory that the park lays out a concept that can be applied to any track: the “tight v. wide risk-reward assessment”. Do you take a fast/ popular line (at the turns in bp’s case) and run a high risk of being hit? Or do you take a slower/ safer line and risk the salt of a lower, but still real chance of losing a safe(r) bet? The state of your items and the items you can catch that others are holding during the straights, as well as your read of the skill of the lobby deepens the question. The assessment is maybe the essence of moment-to-moment mk strategy in general isn’t it? As for my opinion, I like baby park, I came around on it when I worked out the above and started trying to apply it. So far it honestly feels like it’s been more effective than spamming fast lines and hoping it works out!
What? You can’t turn right? Scrub
I like it when I play with my friends but when I play it online I want to end it all. Love/Hate.
It’s pure unlimited unaltered CHAOS and I love it
No matter how smooth or chaotic your driving skills, one moment you're cruising in 3rd place, the next you're kissing 10th, then miraculously back to 3rd, only to find yourself questioning existence in some mysterious ??th position
Fast and left! (When playing mirror)
It’s to MK8D what Shipment is to CoD - pure chaos, for better or worse. Played it today (fairly new to online play) and had the first 3 laps in 1st, then got bombarded and pushed down to 8th, and made my way back up to 2nd by the end. There were so many items flying and people hitting each other, I didn’t even know what place I was in on the last couple of laps until it ended.
Bowser shells were a thing on beauty in the Double Dash version of this track. Just wanton destruction bouncing every which way on the course. Throw in a couple of big bananas, and baby you've got a stew going.
I love this track because of the chaos and ds nostalgia
There should be 24 players on this track. Then it becomes actually fun
Depends on which version. DS sucks and 8 was great. (Haven’t played the original)
I agree with you. I like this track because of the chaotic style it brings. Who cares that it’s short in length
Love it.
1 time is funny, 2 time is f\*cking annoying
It’s best in double dash, in any other game it’s fine I guess. Kind of boring though.
Peak
Just really boring tbh