Mario Kart: Double Dash Walkthrough
Provided by me: Kellye Boyd
April 14, 2010 is the date I posted this walkthrough up.
My email is amazydaisy@bellsouth.net. Feel free to contact me if you
are stuck or have any questions.
Copyright (2010) (Kellye Boyd)
If anybody plagiarizes, sells or distributes my walkthrough without my
permission, I promise you legal action will be taken. No other website,
magazine, book or companies are allowed to use my walkthrough unless I
give them permission to. This walkthrough is for your personal use
only, and to help you get through this game. And if I DO give
permission, I better be credited.
This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise
distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this
guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is
strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.
I used to play Mario Kart: Double Dash a lot, and I’ve played and
beaten every level in this game four times without ever cheating. I had
to replay Mario Kart: Double Dash a fourth time, because I accidentally
deleted the entire game data on my memory card, trying to erase some
ghost data. But I have beaten this game a few times, something not even
my brother could do, and he is a total master when it comes to video
games. He always told me that I would never get past the higher levels
when playing Mario Kart: Double Dash, but that wasn’t necessarily true
for me. During all the time I’ve spent playing, I’ve gotten so familiar
with everything and so skilled, and I’ve been finding ways and
developing ideas to help myself through the game. I then decided to add
very useful tips to GameFaqs, hoping that other people would read them
and find them very useful. Unfortunately, GameFaqs rejected my file
where I provided only the tips, so I had no choice but to pretty much
provide a walkthrough for this game, covering everything and providing
all the details. But my tips are extremely important, and if you are
going to read through my walkthrough, please read my tips at the end,
and I really hope they’d be very useful to you.
Table of Contents:
1) About This Game
2) Menus
3) Controls
4) Characters
5) Vehicles
6) Items
7) Unlockables
8) Grand Prix
9) Mushroom Cup
- Luigi Circuit
- Peach Beach
- Baby Park
- Dry Dry Desert
10) Flower Cup
- Mushroom Bridge
- Mario Circuit
- Daisy Cruiser
- Waluigi Stadium
11) Star Cup
- Sherbet Land
- Mushroom City
- Yoshi Circuit
- DK Mountain
12) *Special Cup
- Wario Colosseum
- Dino Dino Jungle
- Bowser’s Castle
- Rainbow Road
13) *All Cup Tour
14) Time Trials
15) Multiplayer
- Versus
- Battle
16) Useful Tips
About This Game:
Mario Kart: Double Dash is an incredibly fun game. It’s superbly
beautiful and very much creative. Pretty much everything about this
game is amazing. It’s somewhat a sequel to the original Mario Kart 64
and obviously a lot more fun. The biggest thing about this game is that
you can play as two people behind the wheel, hence the part of the name
Double Dash. The illustrations and graphics are so much more state of
the art and extremely beautiful.
As soon as you turn on your Gamecube, you will hear Mario shout
“Nintendo!” at the same time seeing the Nintendo logo as well as the
“Dolby Surround” logo. You will then see the lakitu. Sometimes he holds
a street light on a rod and waves at you. He also sometimes holds a
cheep cheep on a rod and rubs his chin, or holds a gigantic cheep cheep
that always falls off his rod.
You’ll then see a preview of snapshots of all the characters racing on
all the different racetracks. You can watch it through or skip it by
pressing the start button if you want to and go to the main title
screen.
The basics for this game are pretty much like the ones in Mario Kart:
64, but there are a few new things and changes. In this game, you have
the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup and the Special Cup. But you
also get the All-Cup Tour. Both the All-Cup Tour and the Special Cup
need to be unlocked in order to play through them.
The object of the game is to try and get into first place, or at least
have more points than all the other players in order to win the gold
trophy. You have to try and sabotage the other players all the while
trying to avoid their traps and other traps on the racetrack. You have
to be incredibly skilled at this game. It really isn’t such a good idea
to be trampled by so many traps, and you have to try and hit the other
players with traps as many times as you can in the more difficult
levels.
While you are racing, you have to collect the rainbow-colored item
boxes with the question marks; sometimes they come in pairs, two for
both your characters, and when the character in the back uses his or
her item, the character up front switches places with the character in
the back to use his or her item, too. The item boxes that come in two
for both the characters are often times in hard-to-reach or risky
areas. The question marks are on the item boxes, because it’s a
mystery; you have no idea what you’re going to get, obviously. And you
might see these rainbow changing colored squares on the racetrack that
will boost up your speed if you run over them. I call those things
zippers.
While driving on a racetrack, if you turn around and drive in the
opposite direction, the lakitu will come to you and hold up a sign with
the picture of the U-turn symbol, indicating you should turn around and
drive in the right direction. Each time you pass a lap, the lakitu will
hold up a sign (whether it be “Lap 2” or the “Final Lap”), indicating
which lap you are on. When you reach the final lap, the music of the
racetrack will go really fast and reach a higher note. When everyone is
struck by the lighting bolt, the music of the racetrack will go soft.
And as soon as you finish the laps in a racetrack, the lakitu stays in
front of your characters and keeps waving his black and white checkered
flag.
The award ceremony is always held at the Peach Beach; and when you’re
finished playing the racetracks in the Mirror level, the Peach Beach
will be in the mirror format at the award ceremony, which is pretty
neat. You do not unlock anything for winning the bronze or the silver
trophies, you have to win the gold. If you do get the bronze or silver,
don’t lose hope, because it just means that you are progressing if you
have to repeat a cup.
In this game, there are heavy-weight, medium-weight and light-weight
characters and each different weight of characters has different cars.
Light weight characters can move very fast, but they can get trampled
on by the larger players. Heavyweight characters can trample the
smaller players, but they’d also move a bit slower than the rest. You
can mix characters of different weights, but the heavier character
drives the car that matches their weight. Also, each character has
their own car, but most of the cars have to be unlocked first. You can
choose any car you’d like to drive but the selection of cars are
limited depending on the weight of the characters. You can mix
characters of the same weight, too. Depending on which character you
chose first of the same weight, their car appears. For example, if you
select Daisy before Peach or any other medium character, then her car
the Bloom Coach will appear provided that you unlocked it. Or if you
choose Luigi first before another medium weight, then his car will
appear after you’ve made the choice of the second person. Of course,
you can choose any medium car you’d want to. The same goes for two
heavyweights racing together and two light-weights. Two light weight
characters only get small cars, two medium weights only get medium cars
and heavy weights only get the larger cars.
You have the levels 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc, but rather than have Extra
as a level, you have Mirror. 50cc should be a total piece of cake and a
pure breeze. You can easily be in first place and be very far ahead of
all the players at all times, and you should always be able to get a
perfect 40 points and win the gold trophy. All of the players drive
slow on the racetrack, and in this level, it’s as if things are being
bent over backwards for you.
100cc is not as easy, but it’s really not that difficult either. You’d
still have to work a little bit to get into first place, but when you
do, you should be able to be far ahead from all the other players.
100cc is not as effortless as racing in the 50cc level. You should
still be able to win a perfect 40 points in the Mushroom Cup, Flower
Cup and the Star Cup, but it can get very difficult in the Special Cup.
In 50cc and 100cc, that blue-spiked shell pretty much never comes for
you if you are in first place. The only person who can wield that item
is you.
Needless to say, the 150cc level is very difficult, and you‘d have to
work very hard to win. If you are ahead, the other players can gain up
on you fast. You might not get a perfect score but you can certainly
still try to win more points than the other players and win the gold
trophy.
The Mirror level is by far the most difficult level you can ever play
as. It might be really hard to win the gold trophy. In the Mirror
level, the racetracks look exactly like they would in a mirror,
obviously. Hold up a mirror to the racetracks in their regular format,
and they actually do look exactly like the Mirror level and vice versa;
holding a mirror on the Mirror level racetrack would totally look like
the regular racetrack format as well. I’ve actually tried doing these,
and the theory does work. In the mirror level, the words on signs and
even on characters’ karts are backwards as if reading them from the
mirror. Even when the lakitu counts down from his streetlight, each of
the three lights light up backward as if looking at them in a mirror.
And the signs he holds up as you passing the goal line and start on
each lap are mirror-backwards.
You have to try to emerge victorious at the end of every cup, and only
then will you be able to unlock something and move forward.
This pretty much sums it up here. And by the way, when I place a star
next to something [*], that indicates that something has to be unlocked
first.
Menus:
On the main title screen, you will see the words Mario Kart: Double
Dash, and when you press start you’ll see that you have three choices:
Start Game, Records, and Options. I will cover the Records and the
Options first.
When you get to the Records screen, you can choose to see your records
at the Grand Prix or the Time Trials, or Go to the Title Screen, but
you can do that by pressing the B button.
When you choose to look at your Grand Prix records, you choose which of
the Cups you want to see your records in. You tilt the control stick
left or right to choose which Cup you want to see. You will see the
picture of the Cup, and then below it from left to right, you will see
the level that you raced at, the trophy you won, your time, the number
of points, the characters you played as and the vehicle you chose, and
then your initials. These are all listed vertically. You can look at
these with every one of the Cups. You can even switch the cups at the
previous screen of the Records menu and press the A button to look
inside.
When you choose to look at your Time Trials records, at the very top,
there is the name of the Course/racetrack, followed by the best lap
with the characters you played as and the vehicle you used, and then
the time and your initials. Then underneath, your best laps are rated
in order from first to fifth. Each rank is shown, then the time, and
the characters and the vehicle you chose. Tilt the control stick left
or right to see your records in each of the racetracks. If you haven’t
done a certain racetrack in Time Trials, then the records page for that
racetrack would be empty.
When you go to the Options menu, you can adjust the Sound to Stereo,
Surround or Mono. You will hear Mario’s voice to test each of the
sounds when you tilt the control stick.
You can adjust the Volume from -10 to +10.
You can turn the Rumble on or off. If you tilt the control stick to
“on,” you should feel your controller shake.
You can turn the Time Trials Ghost on or off. If you turn the ghost on,
then you should be able to see the option to save your ghost after the
Replay option on Time Trials after you complete all your laps. You’d
have to save your ghost data to your memory card.
You can switch the Vs. Item Box to either Recommended, Basic, Frantic,
or None.
You can choose how many Vs. Laps you want from 1 to 9 or you can
choose the Recommended.
After you confirm and choose “OK” the data will save onto your
Gamecube, provided that you have a memory card.
Start Game
If you select the 1 player, your only choices will be the Grand Prix
and Time Trials.
When you choose the Grand Prix, you select your level whether it be
50cc, 100cc, 150cc or Mirror. You then select your characters; when
selecting your characters, tilt the control stick left or right to
choose the vehicle, and press the Z button to switch the characters of
who gets to sit up front driving and in the back holding items. Whoever
sits in the front or back when you press Z, that’s exactly how they’ll
be every time you begin a racetrack. After choosing your characters,
you select the Cup you want to race in.
When you choose the Time Trials, you must enter your initials, select
your characters, select a Cup, and select a racetrack within the Cup.
Controls:
Whenever you are racing, you press the A button to accelerate and the
control stick to steer of course. You use the B button to brake or use
B and tilt the control stick back to reverse, and you use X and Y to
use or throw items. If you have no items, you would just honk the horn
of your car; watch how each character shows off when you honk the horn.
You press the Z button to switch your two characters; you switch who
goes up front driving and who stands in the back throwing items. You
use the L and R buttons to drift, which is very useful if you have to
drive on a very circular racetrack. Whenever you are racing in Grand
Prix, if you were to press start, you would see these very controls on
a picture of a Gamecube controller. Underneath that controller, you’d
see the options Continue and Quit.
Characters:
Mario and Luigi- Mario and Luigi are both brothers. Of course you know
these two guys. Mario is always the main character in many of his games
and he’s the one who always has to go on an adventure, fighting through
places and trying to rescue the Princess Peach from the evil King
Bowser. He always has to emerge out the hero. Mario and Luigi are
medium-weight characters. Both of their special is the fireballs, which
if they aim and shoot close enough, the fireballs can hurt and burn
another player. Mario shoots red fireballs and Luigi shoots green ones.
Peach and Daisy- Peach and Daisy are two gorgeous princesses. They are
both medium-weight characters and their special is the pink hearts.
Whenever they are using that special, rather than get trampled upon by
an object that hits them or they run over, they automatically pick up
that object, and they can use it to try and trample the other players.
It always works best when someone tries to hit you with an item and you
can throw their attack straight back at them. ^^ The greatest thing
about this special is that you can carelessly run over an item without
worrying about getting hurt by it.
Yoshi and Birdo- Yoshi and Birdo are two dinosaurs, and they are
medium-weight characters. Their special is a polka-dotted egg, which
like the red shell, aims at a player and hits them. However, if the
player ahead is fast and far ahead enough, they can probably escape the
egg, because the egg doesn’t travel very far for very long. The best
thing about this egg is that after it breaks open, three items appear
out of it and they can be anything useful; they can be things like
mushrooms that would boost your speed if you run over them or things
that other players can trample over like the shells. Sometimes, a star
might pop out. Yoshi’s egg is white with green polka-dots and Birdo’s
egg is white with pink polka-dots.
Baby Mario and Baby Luigi- They are incredibly adorable little tykes
who are the baby versions of Mario and Luigi obviously. They are light-
weight characters, and their special is the Chain Chomp which as it
goes along chomps the other players in its path. Be sure to move your
rump out of the way when that Chain Chomp comes.
*Toad and Toadette- They are the cutest little mushroom people, and
they are both light-weight characters. Their special is the golden
mushroom, which they can repeatedly use to give themselves boosts of
speed constantly.
Koopa Troopa and Paratroopa- You know the Koopa Troopas. They’ve been
around forever. These two guys are both light weight characters. Their
special is having either three green shells or three red shells. Either
of these guys can carry green shells or red shells, depending on what
place you are in while racing. Having those red shells would definitely
be most useful.
Donkey Kong (DK) and Diddy Kong- You know these two apes very well.
Donkey Kong is a heavy weight character and Diddy Kong is a light-
weight. Their special is the giant banana, which can trample a player
when one runs over it and breaks down into three smaller, regular-sized
bananas.
Bowser and Bowser Jr.- You know the evil King Bowser. He is Mario’s
chief rival, and he is always abducting the Princess Peach and trying
to beat Mario at every turn. Bowser is a heavyweight and his sidekick
Bowser. Jr. is a light weight. Their special is the gigantic Bowser
shell which doesn’t aim, but can trample multiple players and hurt them
dramatically.
Wario and Waluigi- They are obviously sort of the vicious clones of
Mario and Luigi. I wouldn’t call them evil, but a little sort of
vindictive. Wario is a heavyweight character and Waluigi is a medium
weight. Their special is the bomb which can hurt a player dramatically
if they are close to it when it explodes. The bomb can explode early if
something or someone were to come in contact with it.
*Petey Piranha and King Boo- By far the best characters in the game,
these two are heavyweight, and they have every other characters’
specials. It’s really kind of unfortunate that they have to be unlocked
so near the end of the game, unless you want to try and beat the Star
Cup in Mirror Mode early on, but that’s not really recommended as you
should try beating the lower levels first to prep yourself.
Vehicles:
This describes every vehicle as seen when you are choosing the
characters. The stars represent the value obviously.
Mario’s Car
Speed: 3 stars. Acceleration: 3 stars. Weight: 3 stars.
*Green Fire (Luigi’s Car)
Speed: 4 stars. Acceleration: 2 stars. Weight: 2 stars
Peach’s Car
Speed: 2 stars. Acceleration: 4 stars. Weight: 3 stars.
*Bloom Coach (Daisy’s Car)
Speed: 3 stars. Acceleration: 3 stars. Weight: 2 stars.
Yoshi’s Car
Speed: 2 stars. Acceleration: 4 stars. Weight: 3 stars.
*Turbo Birdo (Birdo’s Car)
Speed: 3 stars. Acceleration: 3 stars. Weight: 3 stars.
*Waluigi Racer (Waluigi’s Car)
Speed: 3 stars. Acceleration: 3 stars. Weight: 3 stars.
Baby Mario’s Car
Speed: 1 star. Acceleration: 5 stars. Weight: 2 stars.
*Rattle Buggy (Baby Luigi’s Car)
Speed: 2 stars. Acceleration: 4 stars. Weight: 2 stars.
*Toad Kart (Toad’s Car)
Speed: 2 stars. Acceleration: 4 stars. Weight: 2 stars.
*Toadette Kart (Toadette’s Car)
Speed: 1 star. Acceleration: 5 stars. Weight: 2 stars.
Koopa Troopa’s Car
Speed: 2 stars. Acceleration: 4 stars. Weight: 2 stars.
*Para-Wing (Paratroopa’s Car)
Speed: 1 star. Acceleration: 5 stars. Weight: 2 stars.
*Barrel Train (Diddy’s Car)
Speed: 4 stars. Acceleration: 2 stars. Weight: 3 stars.
*Bullet Blaster (Bowser Jr.’s Car)
Speed: 4 stars. Acceleration: 3 stars. Weight: 1 star.
DK’s Car
Speed: 4 stars. Acceleration: 2 stars. Weight: 4 stars.
Bowser’s Car
Speed: 5 stars. Acceleration: 1 star. Weight: 5 stars.
Wario’s Car
Speed: 4 stars. Acceleration: 2 stars. Weight: 5 stars.
*Piranha Pipes (Petey Piranha’s Car)
Speed: 4 stars. Acceleration: 2 stars. Weight: 5 stars.
*Boo Pipes (King Boo’s Car)
Speed: 2 stars. Acceleration: 4 stars. Weight: 5 stars.
*Parade Kart (This car is for all the characters)
Speed: 4 stars. Acceleration: 3 stars. Weight: 4 stars.
Items:
Mushroom - You can collect one mushroom or even three, but the mushroom
gives you a boost of speed.
Green shell - You can collect one and the Koopa Troopas’ special can
collect three of these. They are very useless for they never aim, and
they rarely hit another player. They go only in the direction and angle
they are thrown, but they can bounce off walls and bounce back to the
road and might hit a player in the way.
Red shell - These are very useful items. You can collect one and the
Koopa Troopas’ special can collect three of these. These red shells aim
straight for a player and hits them.
Hearts- This is Peach and Daisy’s special. Rather than get hurt by an
item thrown at you or you trample over, with these hearts, you can pick
the items up and use them against the other players.
Chain Chomp- This is Baby Mario and Baby Luigi’s special. The chain
chomp runs forward, dragging the kart along, and they trample the
players in its path.
Bomb- This is Wario and Waluigi’s special. If players are near this
item when it explodes, it will hurt them dramatically.
Fire balls- They are Mario and Luigi’s special. They can burn players
when thrown.
Polka-dotted eggs- They are Yoshi and Birdo’s special. Much like the
red shell, they aim and hit the player ahead, and when the egg cracks
open, three items pop out of it that might be of use.
Blue spiked shell- This item aims for no one except the person in first
place, and it does dramatic damage. There is no way of escaping this
thing when it comes at you, unless you are really lucky. It explodes on
a player much like the bomb. Try not to be in first place when this
thing strikes.
Giant banana- This is Diddy and DK’s special. It’s a gigantic banana
that tramples other players and breaks down into three regular-sized
bananas.
Giant Bowser Shell - This is Bowser and Bowser Jr.’s special. Throw
this to trample multiple players and cause dramatic damage to them.
Gold mushroom- This is Toad and Toadette’s special. You are able to
hold this gold mushroom for a while and give yourself constant boosts
of speed when you need to.
Banana - This is a regular item that other players can slip and stumble
upon.
Star- For a very short time you are invincible against all traps you
may run into and you can even smash into the other players and
dramatically hurt them while you’re wearing this star.
Lightning bolt - This items shrinks all of the other players down to a
small size when struck. It’s pretty funny listening to the players
speak in chipmunk form and even the honk of a player's vehicle sounds
small. ^^
Fake item box- This item is very distinguishable from the regular item
boxes. This fake item box is red and has an upside down question mark.
It tramples a player that runs into it.
Unlockables:
If you win the gold trophy at level 50cc in the Mushroom Cup, you get a
vehicle called the Green Fire, that's obviously Luigi‘s car.
If you win the gold trophy in the Mushroom Cup at level 100cc, you get
the Rattle Buggy, a green baby-carriage vehicle that‘s for Baby Luigi.
If you win the gold trophy in the Mushroom Cup at 150cc, you unlock
Luigi's Mansion, a stage in Battle Mode.
Winning the gold trophy in the Mushroom Cup in Mirror Mode gets you the
Toadette Kart.
If you win the gold trophy at level 50cc in the Flower Cup, you get the
Bloom Coach, which is Daisy's car.
If you win the gold trophy in the Flower Cup at 100cc, you get the
Waluigi Racer, obviously Waluigi's car.
Winning the gold trophy in the Flower Cup at 150cc gets you the Turbo
Birdo vehicle, which is Birdo‘s car.
Winning the gold trophy in the Flower Cup in Mirror Mode will unlock
the Tilt-a-Kart stage in Battle Mode.
If you win the gold trophy at the Star Cup on level 50cc, you get the
Para-Wing, a small, red car that’s the Para Troopa’s.
If you win a gold trophy in the Star Cup at 100cc, you will unlock the
Special Cup.
Winning the gold trophy in the Star Cup at 150cc will get you the
Barrel Train vehicle, which is Diddy Kong’s car.
Winning the gold trophy in the Star Cup in Mirror Mode will unlock the
characters Petey Piranha and King Boo and you will also get the Piranha
Pipes, Petey Piranha‘s vehicle.
After winning the gold trophy in the Special Cup at 50cc, the credits
will play, but afterward you get the Bullet Blaster vehicle, Bowser
Jr.’s car.
The credits will play after you win a gold trophy at the Special Cup at
level 100cc, and afterward, you will have unlocked the characters Toad
and Toadette and you will get the Toad Kart vehicle.
The credits will play after you win the gold trophy in the Special Cup
at 150cc and afterward, you will have unlocked the All-Cup Tour.
The credits will play after winning the gold trophy in the Special Cup
in Mirror Mode, and you will unlock the Boo Pipes, King Boo’s vehicle.
You get nothing for winning the gold trophy in the All Cup Tour at
level 50cc.
The credits will play after winning the gold trophy in the All-Cup Tour
at 100cc, but afterward, you don't unlock anything.
The credits will play after winning the gold trophy in the All-Cup Tour
at 150cc, but afterward, you will have unlocked Mirror mode.
The credits will play after you win the gold trophy on the All-Cup Tour
in Mirror Mode, and afterward, you will have won the Parade Kart, which
is the same vehicle that you see in the award ceremony on the person
who won first place.
Only by winning the gold trophy in all the cups and levels will the
title screen change as well as the image at the end of the credits;
instead of seeing just Peach and Mario after the credits roll, you will
see all the eighteen characters in the game together. In the new title
screen, you will see Toad and Toadette and King Boo and Petey Piranha
along with the regular characters.
Grand Prix
While you are racing, in the upper left corner of the screen, there is
the place you’re in (first place through eighth place) next to the
screen where your item appears. In the upper right corner of the
screen, there is the time. On the middle left side, there are all the
players that are in first to fourth place. In the middle right part of
the screen, you see the map-outline of the racetrack, and the faces of
the players who are racing on it. The players’ faces spin around
whenever they get hurt by something. On the lower left part of the
screen, there is the number of laps you are on out of the total number
of laps there are. On the lower left part, there is your speedometer
and how much you are traveling at miles per hour.
Right before the race begins in a racetrack, on the upper left part of
your screen is the picture of the Cup you are racing in and the words
“Grand Prix,” next to it. On the upper right corner is the number of
the racetrack you are currently in out of how many racetracks there
are. On the lower left corner is the number of laps and on the lower
right area is the level you are racing in (50cc-100cc) next to the name
of the racetrack.
After you reach the goal in the final lap, for a brief moment before
the stats appear, on the upper left corner of the screen is the place
you were in, on the middle is the total amount of time altogether when
you were racing, and on the upper right corner is your time for each of
your laps.
As for the statistics, on the upper left corner of the screen is the
Cup you are playing at, in the middle is the racetrack you were in, and
on the upper right is the level you are racing at. Below all that is
all the players with their ranks and their time. Points are added to
each person depending on what place they came in while racing, and then
you’ll see your points altogether so far. Places will then be shown but
only by the highest number of points to the lowest. After you confirm
and hit the A button, you will see three choices: Next Course, Replay
and Quit. You can select the Replay if you want to see yourself race or
choose Next Course if you want to go on. When you choose Replay, you’ll
just see yourself at different camera angles on the racetrack, and
while the Replay is going on, if you press start, the option changes to
View Replay From Start.
After the award ceremony, if you have won a trophy, you will be taken
to a screen, where the word “Congratulations” is on the top in capital
letters. On the upper left side of the screen is the place you came in,
and in the center is your trophy, and on the far right is the
characters you played as and the vehicle you used. Then, in the middle
left there is the Cup you raced in and the level. After that will be
the time and the number of points you got. At the bottom, you will have
to enter your initials.
Mushroom Cup
(Every shortcut or secret I explain is only optional, meaning you
choose whether or not you want to do it.)
Luigi Circuit
When you're racing in the Luigi Circuit at 50cc, there is a barrier
that separates the two roads that have arrows pointing in the opposite
directions. The barrier isn’t there when you’re racing at the higher
levels and neither is it there in Time Trials. Farther up from the
starting/goal line near the big chain chomp, there is a little road to
the side that you can drive on (the road is not there in 50cc), which
has a double-item box. Just make sure that when you’re driving on that
little road, and then towards the wall with the zippers, the chain
chomp isn’t near you and doesn’t harm you; he may go for the other
players that are passing him and thus might not hurt you. There’s also
another little side road (which also isn’t there in 50cc) next to the
second wall with the zippers. You can drive on those walls with the
zippers and there is an upper road above the walls, but these are a bit
useless. The zippers on the wall don’t really get you ahead, when you
can get ahead of the other players by drifting ahead of them on the
main road.
Peach Beach
A little bit after the starting/goal line, keep driving and you will
see a little side road on your right with a warp pipe that has a double
item box. This isn’t necessary, however, because you should be focusing
on the road and getting ahead of the other players. That warp pipe
would just slow you down a little. However, near the beach and shore,
you can optionally go to the far left and run the zipper, collecting
the double-item box there and pass the small island with the lone palm
tree, but sometimes that piece of island fills with water. Be sure to
avoid those ugly fish near the shore. You don’t want to crash into
them. They are absent in the Time Trials. You can drive around the big
pink arches but that isn’t necessary. Also, near the starting/goal
point, you can drive around the fountain though that isn’t necessary.
Baby Park
Because Baby Park is such a short track, you need to complete seven
laps instead of the usual three. There are absolutely no secret
pathways here. You just got to watch out for that roller coaster that
occasionally comes, but I don’t think it can hurt you. Since you’re
going around in a circular racetrack, it’s sometimes important to drift
a lot to go around the curbs.
Dry Dry Desert
There are no secrets or shortcuts here. Stay away from the Pokeys and
stay away from the whirlwind and the quicksand. When the lighting bolt
is struck, the Pokeys get demolished, but they grow back.
Flower Cup
Mushroom Bridge:
Right after the starting point, go right to the little opening and
drive down the ramp and go through the warp pipe on your right. You’ll
come out, collecting a double-item box and you will be on the main road
after the first tunnel. After you emerge out of the first tunnel, you
can drive inside those gates to your left, collecting item boxes, and
the gates end at the second tunnel. Before you reach the finish line,
the arch of the bridge has zippers, but since the arch is so narrow, it
can be really hard to stay on top of it and you definitely might just
fall off, which isn’t good. You got to align yourself at the perfect
angle and don’t try and steer when you’re on that narrow arch as you’ll
fall off. Since I've never really made those arches myself in Grand
Prix mode, I'm not really sure if there are item boxes on top, but it
still wouldn't be worth the risk at all. If you are going to go on top
of the arches, just keep your hand on the A button and let the zippers
speed you on through. Stay the heck away from those bomb cars and avoid
that large centipede car, too. If you bump into either of these things,
it will cause you dramatic damage. You can also bump into the mushroom
car, and mushrooms will pop out on the ground and you’ll get a boost of
speed if you run over them. The bomb cars and the mushroom cars are
absent in Time Trials mode.
Mario Circuit:
There are no shortcuts in this racetrack. The chain chomp extends
farther to the person in the first place, so be sure to avoid it.
You’ve just got to avoid the piranhas and the goombas. The piranhas are
capable of getting hurt by objects; just a fun fact. ^^ The piranhas
pay no mind to you if you are racing in Time Trials, even when you
drive up close to them.
Daisy Cruiser:
When you’re in the room with the moving tables, you can drive around to
the edge away from the tables, but that might take time. Sometimes, it
might be better to drive on through the tables just dodging them
whenever they slide around. Not really that much of a cruise, is it?
The inner tubes at the stairs right before the finish line never hurt
you, but they are gone in the Time Trials mode. After the room with the
moving tables, you can drop down to the hole in what seems to be a
luggage room. Collect the double-item box as you emerge out of the fan.
Waluigi Stadium:
There are no secrets or shortcuts in this stage. Just avoid the
fireballs and the gigantic piranhas that come out of the warp pipes;
whilst the piranhas may never harm you, they can still get in your way
and slow you down. The audience does groan whenever you get hurt. You
might want to drift a little when you get to the twisty light brown
road and try not to travel on the dark brown part.
Star Cup
Sherbet Land:
There are no secrets or shortcuts here. Just don’t drive on the upper
areas with the snow as they will slow you, and stay the heck away from
the shy guys and those icicles, which can immobilize and freeze you.
They are gone in Time Trials.
Mushroom City:
A bit far after the starting/finish line, you’ll reach the arrows that
are pointing away from each other. If you go in the direction of the
right arrow, the cars are facing you and they still face you if you go
right passing the lane barrier and keep continuing. Right after that
left arrow, there is a purple shortcut that can get you far ahead and
into the lane barrier; the shortcut oftentimes has a double-item box at
the end. After the starting/finish line, you can also go to the end to
the farther arrow that is pointing right and you can choose the lane
barrier or the road up ahead of you. When you get near the barrier,
just turn right and you’d only need to worry about the cars ahead of
you and head for the finish that’s near. When you’re about to reach the
finish, there is a short narrow path on the right side that you can go
on, but it slows your movement. Stay the heck away from the bomb cars,
which are absent in Time Trials, and the mushroom cars drop mushrooms
if you were to bump into them.
Yoshi Circuit:
Farther up the road, before the tunnels, you might see a little opening
to your right. Try to get past it with a mushroom and quickly head
right when you reach the track and don’t fall off. You might want to
stop and brake for a little bit, so you might not fall off, but this is
incredibly risky and you might fall in the water. Right before you
reach the flowers, align yourself diagonally near the fence. Don’t
touch the fence and don’t take off from the edge. You have to have a
mushroom to speed up and get to the squared area, which contains a
double-item box. You’ll emerge on the part of the track where you make
the two U-turns with the yellow lines on them. Stay away from the
snapping piranhas, which don’t bother you in Time Trial mode.
DK Mountain:
There are no shortcuts here, but when you get to the volcanic mountain
after blasting out of the cannon, but as you are driving downward on
the mountain, you can drive to the dark sides that can get you ahead of
the other players instead of taking the main path. Drift when you reach
the edge of the cliff or stop accelerating and accelerate again when
it’s safe if you don’t want to fall off the cliff. Avoid those falling,
gigantic rocks and be careful on the wobbly, rickety bridge.
*Special Cup
Wario Colosseum
There are absolutely no shortcuts here. The only thing is that the
racetrack is very long, in which you need only complete two laps. Don’t
fall off the racetrack into the gaps and avoid the fireballs. Near the
finish, there is a zipper in that round, circular area with the long
arrow pointing towards both directions. Only at a good enough angle
should you take that zipper, or don’t risk it lest you fall off the
racetrack.
Dino Dino Jungle:
The logs near the beginning of the stage might slow you down, so don‘t
drive over them. Right before you get to the bridges, turn left and
you’ll see a zipper that’s on a small narrow bridge next to the main
ones. It’s way too risky though, and you might just fall off. When you
reach the bridges, you can take the dark brown bridge, which has a
double-item box. When you get into the caved area with the water
sprouts, look to your right and you’ll see a ramp. The only way to get
across that ramp and land safely on the ground and collect the item box
is with a mushroom. In the Dino Dino Jungle, avoid the water sprouts
and the dinosaur’s head on the bridge. Don’t risk going underneath the
dinosaur’s legs just to collect an item box; the dinosaur doesn’t stump
her legs when you drive underneath them in Time Trials.
Bowser's Castle:
There are no shortcuts here. Never drive on the red carpet with those
pounding Whomps. It’s common sense really. Drive to the side away from
the Whomps. Avoid those big fireballs that shoot out of the gigantic
statue of Bowser. Whenever you get hurt, you’ll hear Bowser’s stupid,
rude laugh.
Rainbow Road:
There are no shortcuts, but there are lots of zippers that can do more
harm than good. You don’t want to accelerate so fast that you fall off
the racetrack. Also, sometimes you can collect the falling stars, but
not in Time Trials. Drift at the U-turns carefully or stop accelerating
if you think you’re going to fall off. You should especially be careful
accelerating at the second U-turn you come across. Be very careful when
you reach the narrow, twisty part of the road. You might want to stop
accelerating and then keep on accelerating when it‘s safe.
*All Cup Tour
This features all of the sixteen stages in all of the four cups. The
Luigi Circuit is your first stage and the Rainbow Road your very last.
All of the other stages go in random order.
Time Trials:
Whenever you are selecting a racetrack in Time Trials, you will see the
“best time” and then the “best lap” for that racetrack in the upper
right area of the screen. Much like in Grand Prix, while you are
driving in Time Trials, there is the map on the middle right part of
the screen. On the upper right, there is the time, on the bottom right
is the speedometer, and on the lower left is the number of laps you are
currently on out of the total laps there are. Whenever you press start
and pause in Time Trials, you will see the options Continue, Restart,
Change Course, Change Characters, and Quit. After you finish all your
laps in a racetrack, for a brief moment, on the upper right part of the
screen, your total time will show next to the time for each of the laps
you’ve done and then afterward a screen will show the rankings of your
best laps in that racetrack from first to fifth. Your game data will
then save onto your memory card, and then you will see the options
Retry, Change Course, Change Characters, Replay, Save Ghost if you
turned the Time Trials ghost on and Quit.
Whenever you are racing with your ghost, when you reach the goal line,
it will show how many seconds more or less you were with your ghost.
Even if you didn’t save your ghost, you will still see the ghost
version of yourself racing when you Retry the same course, but when you
exit the racetrack and go back to it, the ghost you didn’t save won’t
be on that racetrack anymore.
If you are saving your ghost, you will be taken to a screen where you’d
choose to save in either Slot A or Slot B of your memory card. In the
slot where you placed a memory card, there will be the words Ghost Data
and how much of it you are saving and what Available room you have on
your memory card. You take up each of those boxes on your memory card
for every character and racetrack you save a ghost in. I definitely
wouldn’t recommend saving a ghost with this game on your memory card,
because it might take up a whole lot of memory, but then again, this is
your choice. The option Don’t Save is at the bottom of the screen. When
you select a slot, you will be taken to another screen, where at the
top, it reads Ghost-To-Be-Saved and it will show the name of the
racetrack you are saving, the time you completed it, your initials, and
the characters and vehicle you used as well as the date. Then
underneath, you can select a New Save or save over a file that’s
already there.
If you choose a racetrack you have saved a ghost on, you will be asked
if you want to load. The number of Ghost Data you will have saved so
far will be shown in whichever slot has the memory card and the
Available room will show. You will then be taken to another screen
where you select which ghost data of which characters and racetracks
you want to load. The Don’t Load option is at the bottom of the screen.
When you go to delete ghost data from your Gamecube, you will see a
tiny logo in the box, that indicates which racetrack you saved at.
Normally, if you choose a racetrack such as Peach Beach or Baby Park
for example, you will see the faces of those characters indicating
which racetrack it was. You can delete the data in each of the boxes,
but be totally careful not to delete the data for the entire game. I
made that mistake very recently and had to start over and complete the
whole game for the fourth time, but luckily I’ve gotten so skilled at
this game, that it was really no big deal to me. I could regain all
that lost data pretty quickly.
Multiplayer
When you are playing multi-player, you can choose to do Grand Prix,
Versus or Battle. When you select Versus, you must first choose the
level you want to race at (50cc, 100cc, 150cc or Mirror), then you
select your characters, you choose the Cup and you choose the
Course/racetrack you want to race in.
When you select Battle, you must first choose whether you want to play
the Balloon Battle, Shine Thief or Bob-omb Blast (the descriptions for
those three things are below that I quoted from the actual game). You
must then choose your characters and then choose one of the stages:
Cookie Land, Block City, *Luigi’s Mansion, Nintendo Gamecube, Pipe
Plaza, or *Tilt-A-Kart.
Balloon Battle - “Hit your rivals and pop their balloons! The last
player with balloons wins!”
Shine Thief - “Steal the shine and flee! If no one hits you before
time’s up, you win!”
Bob-omb Blast- “Use Bob-ombs to blow up your rivals. The first player
to get 3 points wins!”
When you select 2 players, you can choose to be against each other (P1
vs. P2) or you can work together as a team (P1-P2). If you choose to
work against each other, your choices are the Grand Prix, Versus and
Battle. If you choose to work together, your choices are only the Grand
Prix. You can’t do Versus and Battle if you’re only two players and are
not working against each other, obviously.
When you select the 3 players, you can all choose to work against each
other (P1 vs. P2 vs. P3) or Player 1 and Player 2 can work together as
a team against Player 3 (P1-P2 vs. P3). If you all choose to work
against each other, your choices are Versus and Battle. If Player 1 and
Player 2 are working together against Player 3, then your choices are
Grand Prix, Versus and Battle.
When you select 4 players, you can all work against each other (P1 vs.
P2 vs. P3 vs. P4) or Player 1 and Player 2 are on a team working
against the team of Player 3 and Player 4 (P1-P2 vs. P3-P4), or Player
1 and Player 2 are on a team working against Player 3 and Player 4 who
are separate (P1-P2 vs. P3 vs. P4). If you all work against each other,
your only choices are Versus and Battle. If the two teams are working
against each other, your choices are the Grand Prix, Versus and Battle.
If one team is working against the other two players that are
individual, your choices are Versus and Battle.
Useful Tips:
For those of you who might think cheating is a last resort or using
that Action Replay, please do not do it. Have some pride and dignity.
There are ways of conquering this game without ever cheating. Always
follow these tips when you’re playing the game at the difficult 150cc
level or the Mirror level:
Useless items such as green shells and bananas are better thrown behind
you towards the back. If you throw them ahead of you, you’re going to
risk getting trampled by them; you can get hit by your own traps. The
green shells never aim, but bounce off walls and might just hit you
when they bounce back towards the road. You might also slip on your own
banana if you’re not careful. If you throw these items in the back,
they can trample the players behind you. To throw an item back, just
simply tilt the control stick backwards and hit either X or Y to throw
the item. Also, the fake item box is best thrown behind you too, so the
players behind you may run into them, instead of you.
You can also save those green shells or bananas. When a red shell or
polka-dotted egg comes at you, use any kind of shell or banana to break
up those oncoming items.
The place you are in can determine what kind of items you may have. If
you’re farther behind, you get very useful items (the lighting bolt,
the blue spiked shell, the star or three mushrooms, for example) and if
you’re farther up, you have almost no need for the items you are given
like the green shell and bananas, unless you want to use those to break
any oncoming items thrown at you.
Dangerous items like the bomb, gigantic Bowser shell and the giant
banana are better to be thrown in the back too. You would most
definitely get trampled by them if you throw them ahead of you and try
to drive on past them.
You lose the items you might be holding if you are struck by a bomb,
the blue spiked shell, fall off the racetrack, get bitten by the
piranhas or crash into the ugly fish at the Peach Beach or get struck
by a lightning bolt; you might also lose items if you‘re caught up in
the whirlwind at Dry Dry Desert or the water sprouts at Dino Dino
Jungle.
Never get in first place too early at the 150cc level or the Mirror
level. Try to remain at least in second, but stay close to that player
in first place. The big reason for this is because of that blue-spiked
shell. Nothing hurts more than being crushed by something at the last
minute just when you thought you were going to make it. If you don’t
get into first place so soon, at least the player in first place will
get hurt by the blue shell and not you. For you or anyone who is in
first place at 150cc or Mirror, there is always that big chance of that
blue spiked shell coming; it’s like a 7 out of 10 chance and it can
come by more than once. Also, if you are too close to the person in
first place when that spiked shell comes (you will be notified at the
very bottom of your screen if items are coming your way), hit your
brakes so you’ll be far away from that person when they drive ahead of
you and not get caught up in the radius of the blast.
Pick characters based on the most effective specials, not by whom might
be your favorite. Not every character is best for every level. For
example, I’ve always loved Daisy and Peach, but they’re best suited for
the 50cc and 100cc levels and not the more difficult ones. For more
than one special, pick different characters from different pairs; for
example, I’d choose both Waluigi and Diddy Kong or maybe Waluigi and
Bowser Jr., because these characters are not large and I love the bomb,
the giant banana and the gigantic Bowser spiked shell.
Choose the vehicle with the most acceleration. Make sure the
acceleration has more stars than the speed and weight.
In 50cc and 100cc, there will always be matching pairs of characters
(Diddy and Donkey Kong, Wario and Waluigi, Mario and Luigi, Peach and
Daisy, etc.), but in 150cc and Mirror mode, different pairs will mix
up, so consider that. You can mix up pairs of characters in any level,
but there will still be matching pairs in 50cc and 100cc. The other
half of the pair of characters you chose will work together with each
other; for example, if you choose Diddy Kong and Bowser, then Bowser
Jr. will be teamed up with DK, or if you choose Peach and Baby Mario,
Daisy and Baby Luigi will be paired up.
Small characters move much faster (such as Toad and Toadette, the Koopa
Troopas, the babies, etc.), but they can get trampled by the larger
characters. If you choose a large character (such as Bowser, Wario, or
DK), you can trample the smaller players, but you’d also move slower.
Unfortunately, it may not be wise to choose a large character, because
neither of their cars have that much acceleration. Don’t pick any large
characters until you unlock King Boo and Petey Piranha and those Boo
Pipes.
Whenever you’re driving over very narrow roads or parts of a racetrack
and think you are about to fall off, take your finger off the A button
to stop accelerating, especially on Rainbow Road. Accelerate again when
you’re safe. Stopping and starting your acceleration can really save
you, especially when you‘re going over those zippers on the narrow
parts on Rainbow Road.
No matter what happens, always stay calm and focused.
Do not get reckless on the road and do not be sloppy.
No matter how bad things get, never lose hope. Don’t expect miracles to
happen too much, though.
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t develop a big head and become
so arrogant when things are going good for you on the racetracks, for
that might just be your downfall. ^^
During the start, hit the acceleration button at the same time the word
“Start” appears, so you’d do a turbo boost. That can be most helpful.
With the mushroom, you can speed and ram into someone and steal an item
they might be holding.
Try to avoid traps, such as the big Bowser shell and move out of the
way when the Chain Chomp comes.
If you have any questions, you may contact me by email, which is at the
very top. Please let me know if these tips have been very helpful.