- Drifting and Snaking

Mario Kart Wii Guide - Drifting and Snaking

Manual Versus Automatic

Very simple. Manual means you'll have to put your car into a drift manually with the jump button. If you don't, you'll lose speed around corners and your turning radius will be huge.

Automatic will automatically put your car into a drift around every corner. Pro here is that you don't have to worry about it. However, it can make it harder to snake. Wii Wheel is pretty much the only controller you should set to automatic.

Drifting

Drifting is crucial to even the most inexperienced player. If you don't drift at all, you wont win any races. Ever. Drifting means to put your car into a drift around a corner. Doing this saves your speed and tightens your turning radius.

If you have it set to Manual and you drift long enough, you can get a short burst of speed.

Jump

Drifting...

...friction building...

...and release

The longer you hold it, the more of a boost you get (it'll even turn orange).
 
To get longer boosts, jump and start drifting into the curve, then pull in the opposite direction of the curve while still drifting. Turing with the curve will sharpen the curve, turning against will widen it. Using this, you can control your position on the track and keep from falling off, thereby prolonging your drift and eventual boost.

Snaking

Remember the above. Snaking is much harder in this game then in the DS version.

The concept of snaking is pretty easy, but it takes a lot of practice to actually see results.

To snake, you basically drift constantly, even on straight-aways. To do this, start on one side of the track (lets say left) and start drifting to the opposite (which would be right). Now pull back towards the left to prevent from pulling a 180 or crashing off the right side. By they time you reach the right side of the track, you should have been able to build up a boost. Let it rip and immediately start on your next drift toward the opposite edge again.

Snaking gets it name from the snake-like movement this technique gives.

As said, snaking is possible, but harder. It also doesn't pay off as big as in the DS version. There is also a fine line between snaking and simple drift boosts. Drift boosts are a standard part of the, and just shows you know your curves. Snaking takes it to an extreme, as you do it even where you're not cornering.