Mario Kart DS

Balloon Battle
In a balloon battle against computers, you might have noticed four balloons in the top right hand corner of the upper screen. You can press Select rapidly to inflate those balloons and add them to your single one that's on your cart.
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Blocking Red shells
You can block red shells by dropping bananas and Fake Item behind you at the right time.
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Blue Shell/Squid
Don't use these items when in first place as they will only hurt you.
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Boost After Falling Hint
When you fall in deep water, lava or a hole and the cloud guy picks you up and releases you if you press A at the right time (when you hit the ground after he releases you) you will start with a boost.
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Hit With a Bat
Go to VS mode and when your racing press pause and say into your mike 'bat'. Your guy will get a bat to hit with.
Bowser has some spikes on his.
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How to Power Boost Drift
If you don’t know how to already do a power slide boost, ( which is required in some of the missions), this is how to do them:
When coming up towards a corner and you want to do a power boost drift, turn in the direction you want to drift and press and hold the R button and hold the direction you want to drift. At this stage your kart will be drifting normally. Now, whilst you are drifting in a direction and you are STILL holding the R button in, keep pressing left and right on the key pad, you will then get a small blue boost. Now keep pressing left and right until you get a red boost. That is the power boost that allows you to finish the mission levels.
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Items List
Items that can be dragged behind you:
Banana: Makes karts spin out when run over.
Blooper: Sprays ink on the all of the karts in front of you, obscuring those drivers' view of the track.
Bob-omb: Explodes after a brief pause or when another kart comes near it. Any kart in the blast radius will be knocked over or spun around.
Boo: Unleashes Boo, who turns you invisible for a brief time, making you impervious to enemy attacks, and steals an opponent's item for you.
Bullet Bill: Briefly transforms the user into a Bullet Bill that soars through the air along the track, knocking over karts along the way.
Fake Item Box: Looks just like an item box, but when you run into it, it knocks you over.
Golden Mushroom: Allows you to use Mushroom boosts as many times as you want for a short period of time.
Green Shell: When thrown, this shell travels in a straight line and knocks over the first kart it hits.
Lightning: Makes all opponents spin out, drop their items, and shrink for a brief period of time.
Mushroom: Provides a short speed boost.
Red Shell: These automatically lock onto and chase after the next kart in front of you. When hit, the kart rolls over.
Spiny Shell: This shell tracks and chases after the lead kart and blows up when it reaches its target. Any kart in the blast radius will be knocked over or spun around.
Star: Makes you invincible for a brief period of time. While invincible, you will knock over any kart you hit.
Triple Bananas: Press L or X to deploy behind you. Tap the button again to drop one.
Triple Green Shells! Triple Red Shells: Press L or X to deploy, then press the button again to launch a shell. Each one has the same effect as a single Green or Red Shell.
Triple Mushrooms: Each press of L or X uses up one Mushroom.
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Jump High
This is just for fun, I don't think it makes you faster.
When your going up a jump, right at the tip, press R and you'll bounce higher in the air than you normally do, and it's really fun! I think it makes you faster, if not, at least you'll be jumping higher than other people in WiFi!
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Play as Baby Mario
Play as Mario in every cup for 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc and win gold (a.k.a. 1st place).
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Saving Thunderbolts
Save your thunderbolts for when your rivals are leaping gaps, as it will make them fall and lose time.
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Shortcut in Bowser's Castle
When you’re spinning around the room with the rotating thing, instead of going through the passageway, keep driving and you'll find another passageway. Take it, it's faster.
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Shortcut in Delfino Square
Once you get to the dock area in Delfino Square, you will see an alley between two buildings, go through there if you have a mushroom and use it when you hit the mud in the middle to cut the distance of the original turn in half.
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Shortcut in DK Race Mission
When you are doing missions, you will eventually come to one where you must race DK at DK Pass Mirrored. Having trouble beating it? Follow DK until he goes up the side of a snow covered hill as a shortcut, use a mushroom to get past him and you will have smooth sailing from there on.
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Shortcut in Dry Dry Desert
If you get mushrooms, don't use them right away, save them when you have to zig zag through the sand, but instead, cut right through by using the mushrooms while going over the sand hills.
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Shortcut in Mario Circuit
When you are coming up to the large pipe that you go into in Mario Circuit, you'll see that there are two Pihrana Plants in pipes. Before you pass the first one, use a Mushroom to cut across the dirt path to the right of the first pihrana to help improve your time.
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Shortcut in Peach's Garden
Instead of going the long way, cut through the flowers.
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Special Power-Up In DK Pass
On the second turn when the giant snowball is following you, go up the hill and there will be an item box. Get the item box and receive a star or three mushrooms, no matter what position you're in.
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Staff Ghosts
To get Staff Ghosts, you need to get around 5, 10 more seconds than the actual Staff Ghost has (or less). These are the times you have to break:
Banana Cup
SNES Donut Plains 1: 1:08:027
N64 Frappe Snowland: 2:08:781
GBA Bowser Castle 2: 1:52:258
GCN Baby Park: 0:50:920
Flower Cup
Desert Hills: 1:31:262
Delfino Square: 1:54:601
Waluigi Pinball: 2:23:288
Shroom Ridge: 2:05:123
Leaf Cup
SNES Koopa Beach 2: 0:54:847
N64 Choco Mountain: 2:15:571
GBA Luigi Circuit: 1:46:581
GCN Mushroom Bridge: 1:30:600
Lightning Cup
SNES Choco Island 2: 1:01:620
N64 Banshee Boardwalk: 2:14:403
GBA Sky Garden: 1:44:400
GCN Yoshi Circuit:1:48:793
Mushroom Cup
Figure-8 Circuit: 1:36:481
Yoshi Falls: 0:57:677
Cheep Cheep Beach: 1:43:654
Luigi's Mansion: 1:59:357
Shell Cup
SNES Mario Circuit 1: 0:50:688
N64 Moo Moo Farm: 1:17:751
GBA Peach Circuit: 1:12:011
GCN Luigi Circuit: 1:29:759
Special Cup
Wario Stadium: 2:14:868
Peach Gardens: 1:52:989
Bowser Castle: 2:19:661
Rainbow Road: 2:16:246
Star Cup
DK Pass: 2:14:607
Tick-Tock Clock: 1:54:903
Mario Circuit: 1:56:533
Airship Fortress: 2:07:748
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Super Boost
Halfway through the #2 countdown, begin to hold the A button down and you will get a super boost.
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Tip in Rainbow Road
When you’re racing, be sure not to fall off, but when you have a chance, bump anyone ahead of you off the rainbow, they'll go right to last place.
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Unlockable Characters
Daisy- Get a Gold Trophy on every cup in Retro Grand Prix on 50cc
Dry Bones- Get a Gold Trophy on every cup in Nitro Grand Prix on 50cc
R.O.B.- Finish 150cc Mirror Mode Nitro Class with Gold Trophies on all cups
Waluigi- Get a Gold Trophy on every cup in Retro Grand Prix on 100cc
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Unlockables
150cc Mirror Mode- Finish 150cc Retro Class with Gold trophies on every cup
3rd Kart for all characters- Get a Gold Trophy on every cup in Nitro Grand Prix on 100cc
Choose from 7 karts for each character- Get a gold trophy in every cup in Nitro Grand Prix on 150cc
Unlock "Mission 7" in Mission Mode- Get at least a 1-star ranking on all levels of every mission in Mission Levels 1-6
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