Win at Mario Kart DS

Extra track tips
Here are some extra tips and tricks to set you on the road to success...

Cheep Cheep Beach
After the second speed-up ramp, there's an area where the tide rolls in and out. With a mushroom and the tide out, this provides you with an excellent opportunity to get ahead.

Luigi's Mansion
Always lay shells and bananas in the hallway that leads down to the basement. When you've got mushrooms, always zoom across between the graves on the strip of grass to the left of where you exit the mansion.

Desert Hills
The track here chicanes around sandy hills, and with mushrooms or a star, you can zoom over the hills and cut out each corner. There's also a shortcut that requires a mushroom to the left of the building by the start line.

DK Pass
Use mushrooms and stars to cut over the big snow banks to the left as you're going up the hill. On the final snow bank (the one after the bit where the snowball rolls down the hill), you'll find an item box. This will give you a star almost every time.

Bowser Castle
There's a splendid shortcut here. When you reach the rotating room, don't head for the exit straight ahead. Instead, keep powersliding around and you'll reach a tunnel that leads directly to the spiral staircase bit. You'll have to watch out for the flame jet by the entrance and the Thwomp inside, though.

Frappe Snowland
There are no real shortcuts here - the old glitch from the N64 version where you could head off-course and get put back later on in the track is sadly absent - but like Desert Hills, you can zoom over the snowy corners with the aid of a mushroom.