1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 ___ _____ ___ ____ _____ ___ ___ |\ /| /\ | \ | / \ | / /\ | \ | | \ | | \ / | /__\ |___/ | | | |/ /__\ |____/ | | | |___ | \/ | / \ | \ | | | |\ / \ | \ | | | | | | / \ | \ | \___/ | \ / \ | \ | |___/ ___| ___ _____ ____ _____ ____ _____ / \ |\ | | | |\ | | | | | | | | | | | \ | | | | \ | | | | | | | | | | | \ | | | | \ | |--- ==== | | | | |--- | | | | \ | | | | \ | | | | | | | | \___/ | \| |____ __|__ | \| |____ |_|_| __|__ | __|__ If this guide has helped you, don't forget to recommend it to other users by clicking the Recommend button at the top of the screen (GameFAQs only). MARIOK KART DS ONLINE GUIDE FOR THE GAME MARIO KART DS ON THE NINTENDO DS WRITTEN BY RATCHET12345 CREATED 29/06/2008 HOSTING SITES: www.gamefaqs.com (Check here for latest version) www.neoseeker.com www.supercheats.com E-mail me if wishing to request hosting this document on another site. VERSION 1.00 FINISHED 13/08/2008 (First post) + Finished guide, all required information in guide. Contents 1: What is this guide for? 2: Setting Up 3: Differences 4: Techniques 5: Getting Started 6: General Tips 7: Tracks 7.1: Figure 8 Track 7.2: Yoshi Falls 7.3: Cheep Cheep Beach 7.4: Luigi's Mansion 7.5: Desert Hills 7.6: Delfino Square 7.7: DK Pass 7.8: Mario Circuit 7.9: Wario Stadium 7.10: Rainbow Road 7.11: SNES Mario Circuit 1 7.12: N64 Moo Moo Farm 7.13: GBA Peach Circuit 7.14: GCN Luigi Circuit 7.15: N64 Frappe Snowland 7.16: GCN Baby Park 7.17: N64 Choco Mountain 7.18: SNES Choco Island 2 7.19: GBA Sky Garden 7.20: GCN Yoshi Circuit 8: Frequently Asked Questions 9: E-mail 10: Credits/Disclaimer/Copyright /--------------------------\ |1: What is this guide for?| \--------------------------/ Hi, I'm Ratchet12345, and this guide is for Mario Kart DS online. It explains how to get your game online and tips for you to own every Mario kart DS noob you can out there. /-------------\ |2: Setting Up| \-------------/ To get online with Mario Kart DS, you need to be at a wireless access point, or have a broadband internet connection and a wireless router at home (512kbs download/64kbps upload should be fine). Once at the Mario Kart main menu, go to Nintendo WFC (Wi Fi Connection). Go to Nintendo WFC Match. If you get to a screen that has "Friends" and an OK button, then you're online. if you get an error message, your connection requires setting up. If your connection failed, go to Nintendo WFC Settings. From here, set your connection up. Different people will need to do different things here, so it's pointless telling you how, as for most of you, I'll probably be wrong. /--------------\ |3: Differences| \--------------/ There are quite a few differnece in online races: There are only 20 tracks of the 32 total avaliable to you. They are: Figure 8 Track Yoshi Falls Cheep Cheep Beach Luigi's Mansion Desert Hills Delfino Square DK Pass Mario Circuit Wario Stadium Rainbow Road SNES Mario Circuit 1 N64 Moo Moo Farm GBA Peach Circuit GCN Luigi Circuit N64 Frappe Snowland GCN Baby Park N64 Choco Mountain SNES Choco Island 2 GBA Sky Garden GCN Yoshi Circuit Also, the triple banana and triple shell items have been removed from online play. Speaking of items, you can't hold items like shells, bananas or fake item boxes behind your back. You can still shoot them backwards if that weapon has the ability though. /-------------\ |4: Techniques| \-------------/ Out, In, Out: A basic driving technique any racer should know, virtual or not. In driving, the quickest way through a corner is to go from the outer edge of the track, then turn in to the inner edge of the turn, and finish the turn on the outer edge of the track again (the outer edge is the opposite side of the track to the turn - to better explain my inexplainable theory, if you are coming up to a left turn, the right edge of the track is the outer edge, and the left edge is the inner edge. The opposite goes for right turns. There are also several techniques you should consider using to get an edge against your opponents, or to catch up if you're falling behind. Drafting: This is when you drive behind your opponent until a blue force field type thing comes up in front of your kart, giving you the ability to plow throguh rivals, and giving you a speed boost, both temporarily. Snaking: This is when you repeatetly mini turbo (power slide and get the little boost when you tap Left and Right on the D-Pad a couple of times and let go of R) on a straightaway. It is considered exploitation by some, but don't mind them - they won't have an edge anymore, will they? It is a fairly simple manuver, but the trick is to know when to and when not to attempt to snake - some straightaways are not long enough or are too narrow to do it successfully, and if you crash in to a wall, it will really slow you down. The Suicide Bomb: A manuver I thought of myself, but have seen plenty of other racers use is what I call the Suicide Bomb technique. When someone sends a blue shell at you, you being in the lead, and second place isn't far behind, slow down and let second place catch up to you just before the shell hits you. If you time it right, the shell will hit both you and second place, slowing both of you down. Loop of Death: On Rainbow Road, put items like bananas and fake item boxes at the top, so when they hit them, they will fall off the loop and have to start at the beginning of the loop again when they come back on to the track. You can also fire shells or hit people whilst you're in Star Mode when opponents are at the top of the loop - this will also cause them to fall off. Shortcuts: There are many different shortcuts in various races. /------------------\ |5: Getting Started| \------------------/ Once you're online, pick an option for the people you would like to race against: Friends: These are people in your Friends list. You add people to this list by getting their friend code and registering it from the Friend Code menu accesible from the Nintendo WFC main menu. Rivals: These are people that are asumed to have similar skills as you in Mario Kart DS - people who have a similar amount of wins and losses, and who have or do not have the stars next to their name (explained later) Reigonal: These are people from your country searching for a game of Mario Kart DS online too. If you live in a country where Mario Kart DS isn't exactly popular, or if it's night time and no one's awake in your country except you, you may want to choose Worldwide. Worldwide: The reccomended option, this justs pits you against anyone the game can find, regardless of location or skill level. When you make your choice, 3 green boxes will come up. Right now, your DS is searching for opponents, filtered by the coice you just made in the previous menu. When 3 opponents are found, the game starts. Sometimes the game can't find 3 opponents, so you might get only 1 or 2 sometimes, but you usually get 3. After opponents are found, you select your kart. All karts that you have unlocked are avaliable. After this is the track selection - you can vote for any of the 20 tracks listed above, or if you don't care what track is picked, you can choose "Random", the first option on the list. The most chosen track will be played. If there is a tie, or all the selections are different, then it will pick one from the votes at random. After your race, you will be back at the track selection screen. You will race 4 times to determine the champion. You are ranked as such: 4 Player Races: 1st: 10 points 2nd: 7 points 3rd: 4 points 4th: 1 point 3 Player Races: 1st: 10 points 2nd: 7 points 3rd: 4 points 2 Player Races: 1st: 10 points 2nd: 5 points /---------------\ |6: General Tips| \---------------/ Snake as much as possible, but know when not to snake. It will be explained further for each track later on. Pick tracks that you're good at if your in it to win it - I pretty much always win on Rainbow Road, so if I want to win some points, or am falling behind, I pick that track. Because Rainbow Road is fairly popular, it is usually the track played when selected as other people vote for it. This goes for some other tracks to, such as Delfino Square and Wario Stadium. Take as many shortcuts as you can, even if they only save you a bit of time - every bit counts. Attack your opponents at every oppertunity. Lay down bananas and fake item boxes in narrow pathways, and shoot green shells when close to an opponent for maximum potential. If you are losing really badly, DON'T disconnect - it p***es people off when they're racing and you quit just because your losing. I find that races are awesome with 4 players, and then people disconnect, and then it's less fun because only the top 2 or 3 racers are left. Practice makes perfect, so keep playing and you'll get better - you can't climb the Mario Kart DS Wi Fi ladder in 1 step. /---------\ |7: Tracks| \---------/ All 20 tracks are listed here - ther are 10 of the new ones, and 10 of the classic ones, making 20 tracks overall. The other tracks were probably removed from online play because they had too many complex moving objects. Waluigi Pinball has the moving pinballs, Shroom Ridge has cars, Tick Tock Clock has the rotating gears and the hands of the clocks, Airship Fortress has the Bullet Bills flying at you, Peach Gardens has the Chain Chomps moving around, Bowser Castle has the Thwomps and the rotating bridge, Donut Plains was cut simply to even the number of old and new tracks online, Bowser's Casle 2 has Thwomps, Koopa Beach 2 has heaps of water, Luigi's Circuit has rain, Mushrom Bridge has cars and Banshee Boardwalk has the bats, so those tracks were cut to save player's bandwidth and download limit. /---------------------\ |7.1: Figure 8 Circuit| \---------------------/ This track is fairly simple - just a big left turn, a bridge, an big right turn and then an underpass. You should lay bananas and fake item boxes on the inner edges of the corners. You can snake on the bridge and through the under pass. You can attempt either one big powerslide or heaps of smaller ones on the corners - the latter is harder to do well, but gives you a lot more speed boosts. /----------------\ |7.2: Yoshi Falls| \----------------/ This tracks provides some great snaking oppertunitues as the tracks is really wide, but be careful pulling that manuver on the bridges. I would avoid the waterfalls unless you have a mushroom item and it will either save you time or get you another item. /----------------------\ |7.3: Cheep Cheep Beach| \----------------------/ Cheep Cheep Beech is one of my dispised tracks, but that doesn't mean you can't win it. Snaking is discouraged as the track is too narrow. Because of this, it is escellent to lay down items behind you so that enemies hit them, or shoot green shells that will ricochet off the barriers in the course - don't use the green shells near the water. /--------------------\ |7.4: Luigi's Mansion| \--------------------/ Another track I dislike. Laying down items in the hallway at the start is good as most racers will hit them. Once you get up to the slimy bit at the end, use the edge of the parts of tracks that aren't slime as your path as you drive near or past them - driving on the slime all the time is stupid. You could snake, but it might end up in someone elses favor as you mught hit the tree at the end of the slime pits if you're not careful. /-----------------\ |7.5: Desert Hills| \-----------------/ An uncommonly picked track online, Desert Hills is an awesome track that should be played more often. If you get a mushroom item here, you are sure to catch up a lot as you can take major shortcuts of ther the hills at the end that you'd normally have to drive around on the track - simply use a mushrom and drive straight over them to catch up. This tracks is also a great track for snakers. /-------------------\ |7.6: Delfino Square| \-------------------/ One of my favourites. The start is a great oppertunity to snake, but don't snake anyomore after that. The split paths can be used to avoid items or attackers, and I usually turn left at the intersection, because most people go straight down - I'm pretty sure that both paths are of equal length, but less people turn left so less items are there. If you get a mushroom item, save it for the shortcut near the end, just before the bridge - you'll be way in front of or on the way to overtaking your competitors if you use it there. /------------\ |7.7: DK Pass| \------------/ This track is good for those who get mushrooms a lot - mushroom items can be used to take shortcuts over the hills. Be careful avoiding the snowballs - they can cost you the race. /------------------\ |7.8: Mario Circuit| \------------------/ A track for people who can snake and power slide, this is a snakers heaven. You can snake on almost all the straightaways. Use the mushroom on the shortcut through the sand if you get the mushroom - quite the timesaver. /------------------\ |7.9: Wario Stadium| \------------------/ A track that you will no doubt play in your first or second Wi Fi match, this track is one I persnally suck at. It's like the de_dust2 of Mario Kart DS (de_dust2 is the most popular map in Counter Strike) so if you're not good at it, you won't win many rounds. There are a lot of oppertunities to attack opponents, so get rid of items, especially shells and bananas quickly so you an get more items and attack more often. Use mushrooms on the part near the end with the rotating fireballs to cut across the track, avoiding the fireballs and saving lots of time. /------------------\ |7.10: Rainbow Road| \------------------/ My favourite track in the entire game, simply because I kick ass on this track - not to brag, but 9 times out of 10 I win on Rainbow Road. It's simple - you need to know how to powerslide properly. On the first big left turn, powerslide and hit all of the boosters on your way up. Lay items down on the loop, and powerslide on the inner edge of corners to save time. Lay items on the corkscrew as well. /--------------------------\ |7.11: SNES Mario Circuit 1| \--------------------------/ Now to the retro tracks. I've only played Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart DS, so these retro tracks were new to me. Mario Circuit 1 is one of the most simple track ever - extremely easy. There's no real strategy but to avoid the obstacles and use the mushroom on the big empty area near the end of the track, to cut across the track saving a lot of time. /----------------------\ |7.12: N64 Moo Moo Farm| \----------------------/ The old farm, a simple loop around a barn themed track with little moles that pop out of the ground on the inner edges of the turns. You can risk it and drive over the holes, but the moles won't like that and may hit you. I usually go right up the where the mole holes start and no further. Place bananas here to keep opponents away from you. /-----------------------\ |7.13: GBA Peach Circuit| \-----------------------/ An uncommon track, and a boring one too. No obstacles, except a few trees on the grass which you should avoid anyway, and no genuine shortcuts either. You could powerslide and boost over the grass on the very inner edge of a corner, but it's not really worth it - use boosts on the straightaways. /-----------------------\ |7.14: GCN Luigi Circuit| \-----------------------/ What the N stands for in GCN I'll never know (GameCube Nintendo probably, but it doesn't sound right, does it?), but this is a snaker's heaven - you can snake all the way down the straightaways and not worry about hitting walls, but be careful - careless snaking can cost you time. Keep to the inner edge of the 2 corners - I find it a bit quicker than the boosts on the outer edge. /-------------------------\ |7.15: N64 Frappe Snowland| \-------------------------/ Another uncommon track, and a difficult one to race on. The snow makes it hard to turn and control your vehicle, and if you go too far off the track, you'll be reset, wasting valuable time. Place bananas, bombs and item boxes anywhere durung and after the part where you have two big walls of ice on wither side of you. It's also a good place for shells. /-------------------\ |7.16: GCN Baby Park| \-------------------/ The shortest track of them all, this is a good, quick track where your kart needs a bit of everything - speed and acceleration for the straightaways, and handling for the incredibly tight corners at each end. You can also snake on this course to, and lay items everywhere to add that extra layer of confusion. /------------------------\ |7.17: N64 Choco Mountain| \------------------------/ A course where the first lap can set the race - once opponents are around that bend and out of your sight, you havelittle to no chance of catching up. Unless, of course, soemone gets a Blue Shell. Nonetheless, put all your effort in to getting out in front on that first lap - snaking is extremely hard on this track, so only do it if you know what you're doing. /-------------------------\ |7.18: SNES Choco Island 2| \-------------------------/ Another track I hate, because it's fileld with bumps at the end - if you can't manuver your kart around these bumps, be prepared to suck at this track. I find simply concentrating really hard at this point helps, but any other strategy that works would be good to put in this guide. With only a few item boxes, use them wisely. /--------------------\ |7.19: GBA Sky Garden| \--------------------/ Yet another uncommon track, and it's just as god as it is bad. It's a decent track with an average length and average difficulty, but your performance on this trak cmainly relys on luck - if you get a muchroom item, you'll be able to go over the jumps and the cloud shortcut and be far ahead of the competition. Lay items near the speed boost jump and near other item boxes. /-----------------------\ |7.20: GCN Yoshi Circuit| \-----------------------/ The last track on the list is an awesome one, mainly because a snaker can kick ass here. However, items are common place on this track, so take every oppertunity you can to attack your opponents, Be sure to take the shortcut at the beginning if you get a mushroom - save a mushroom for this shortcut if you get one before hand. /-----------------------------------\ |8: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)| \-----------------------------------/ Q: What internet connection and peripherals should I have to play Mario Kart DS online? A: 256 kbps download speed should suffice - 512 kbps is more than enough. You should also have a wireless router. But that's if you want to play at home - if you find a wireless hotspot in your neighbourhood, then you can use that too. Q: Are there hackers playing Mario kart DS online? A: Not many, but yes. As with all online games, there's always some dip**** out there spoiling the fun. I've seen hacks where the player can drive over ny terrain and not lose any speed, and hacks where the player goes at a rediculous speed. I'm not sure how you would get the hacks on to the DS - probably through a custom cartridge or emulation on a computer. /---------\ |9: E-Mail| \---------/ Feel free to send me e-mail. Tips, suggestions, even hate mail, I'll read it. Just make sure it's got Mario Kart DS somewhere in the subject, and don't send me any attachments of any kind - I will not open it. My address is: [email protected] /--------------------------------\ |10: Credits/Disclaimer/Copyright| \--------------------------------/ This guide is copyright 2008 Ratchet12345. This guide may be read with no permission, and with that the reader may not: 1: Distribute this guide in any form. 2: Put this guide in any material freely or restrictively accessed by the public or persons other then the downloader. 3: Sell this guide. 4: Do any other things that are illegal with my guide. Any illegal actions performed concerning this guide will result in legal action. Credits go to: Me (Ratchet12345): For writing this guide. Any site wishing to have a link to this guide may e-mail me for permission. (See E-mail). _________ ___ ___ _____ ___ ____ _____ __ ___ ___ / _____ \ | | | | | | | | | | /| / \ \ /| | | | | |___| |___| | | |___| |___ | / | / __/ /_|_ |___ | |_____ | | \ | | | | | | | | | / \ | \ \_________/ | \ | | | |___ | | |____ | __|__ /__ ___/ | ___/ _______________ __________________ __________________ _________________ | / \ / \ / \ _______________| | | | | \_________________/ | | | | | / \ |_______________ \__________________/ \__________________/ \_________________/