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After almost 20 years, dedicated racing game enthusiasts have discovered an enormous skip in one of the most popular tracks in Mario Kart DS, flipping existing speedrun records upside down.
It goes without saying that the focus of the entire Mario Kart series is going as fast as possible, and that quest seemingly never ends, even for the games that have been out and in our hands for the best part of two decades. Mario Kart DS turns 20 next year, but that's not stopped talented players from figuring out how to shave around six seconds off from laps on the Waluigi Pinball course, assuming that you have a speed-boosting Mushroom to aid you.
"Mario Kart DS was known for being one of the least broken games in the series. Just a couple shortcuts across the game’s 32 courses," content creator SummoningSalt writes on Twitter. "Now, 20 years after its release, its most popular track gets a huge shortcut. And looks like there’s much more to come!"
As shown in the clip below, the shortcut requires you to expertly line yourself up with the railing on a specific part of the track, before boosting to bounce over the side and land safely on the next part of the track below. Successfully doing so cuts off an entire section of the road, which previous world records all included in their runs. Needless to say, former record-breaking speedruns of the track – which saw each lap completed in just under 39 seconds – have been dethroned, thanks to now being able to complete one of them in around 32 seconds.
Mario Kart DS was known for being one of the least broken games in the series. Just a couple shortcuts across the game’s 32 courses. Now, 20 years after it’s release, its most popular track gets a huge shortcut. And looks like there’s much more to come! https://t.co/ddrUkj95FSApril 13, 2024
Not only is this shortcut huge when it comes to how much time it can shave off, but as SummoningSalt points out, it's also a really big deal that it was discovered in Mario Kart DS, which historically features barely any skips like this at all. Perhaps the most notable is the Rainbow Road skip, which similarly requires some tactical jumping to different parts of the track, and even falling off the side at one point to be dropped back into the action further ahead than you should be. With this new skip method in tow, though, we'll have to see if players are able to apply it to even more courses, or fine-tune the Waluigi Pinball records further.
If you've got a need for speed, be sure to check out our list of the best racing games.
