5. Rainbow Road
Mario Kart series
Is it a cop out to choose a series of themes rather than just one for this spot? Rainbow Road and its music are among the most iconic traditions of the entire Mario Kart series. I couldn’t just pick the music from one particular version, because they each build and remix one another. While the racetrack was in the original Super Mario Kart, the modern Rainbow Road theme as we know it started with Mario Kart 64, and the classic melody has shown up in some form in pretty much all Mario Kart games to follow.
I have to say that the best version of the Rainbow Road theme is probably the most recent one from Mario Kart 7. It’s got the classic riff from the Nintendo 64 game, the structure of the Double Dash version, and the spacy feel from the Mario Kart Wii variant all wrapped up into one awesome racing theme.