Mario Kart 64 Shortcut Guide
Mario Kart 64
Humanish
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Shortcut Guide
Mario Kart 64 Shortcut and Skip Guide
by Humanish (formerly known as Definitelyhuman)
Table of Contents
1. Basic Tips (-+][\)
Mushroom Cup
2. Luigi's Raceway (LR"::)
3. Moo Moo Farm (MMF^$)
4. Koopa Troopa Beach (KT_B":)
5. Kalimari Desert (KD$@/)
Flower Cup
6. Toad's Turnpike (TODD+)
7. Frappe Snowland (F"S:"_)
8. Choco Mountain (0CM51%)
9. Mario Raceway (MRno64__)
Star Cup
10. Wario Stadium (WS.FAV)
11. Sherbet Land (NOT_SHERB64)
12. Royal Raceway (RR/PC69)
13. Bowser's Castle (BC8*7&)
Special/IQue Cup
14. D.K.'s Jungle Parkway (DKJP{}_)
15. Yoshi Valley (YV#$&^)
16. Banshee Boardwalk (BS$&*&$_)
17. Rainbow Road (RRoad^$64()
18. Notes and Credits (NTSC/PAL?64&)
=====================
1. Basic Tips (-+][\)
=====================
- When using Peach, Toad, Yoshi, or Bowser, you can tap A twice and hold the
third tap to accelerate faster. I use Toad for all these shortcuts.
- When doing more complex skips (ex. Yoshi Valley), you can place a ghost at the
texture you would want to be at to better perform the skip(s) in Time Trials.
- Whenever you drive towards steady or moving obstacles in a straight line and
are unsure whether you have to dodge them or not because the kart aims for their
edges, don't steer to the direction where you want to pass it. Come very close
and move the joystick just a little to the "wrong" direction which points
towards the obstacle. Before the kart will actually go there, it will be pulled
slightly to the outside. Especially useful if you need to turn inwards for the
next corner anyway.
- Mini-turbo around corners and in wide, long straights.
- Try to avoid constantly making large adjustments to your angle, as that
prevents you from keeping a high speed.
- The ramps in RRy and DKJP act as mushrooms, so using a mushroom on these is
redundant.
- When doing frame perfect hops in this game, there is a chance you will miss
the frame and get something known as "0 Frame", where you simply tumble and are
forced to try again.
- If you play in Europe, and own the PAL version, you can compare it to an NTSC
time by dividing it by 1.2024.
- If you hit a banana and don't immediately spin out, bash that B button in
hard so you won't spin out.
- If you remain behind a racer for a couple of seconds, you will draft and speed
ahead of them.
- With a few walls in certain tracks, you can hold the gas, and start hitting
jump. You should begin to climb, unless either the wall is unclimbable,
or you have a heavy-weight and he's too heavy for that wall.
- If you can land on Toad, he can be pushed underground. Watch out!
Now, on to the skips!
++++++++++++|
Mushroom Cup|
++++++++++++|
==========================
2. Luigi's Raceway (LR"::)
==========================
After coming out of the tunnel in Luigi Raceway, head toward the part where the
gray wall meets the brick wall off to your left. Look for the sixth brick from
the left (yes, I counted), and use a mushroom to blast toward it (right behind a
tree). Now jump with the R button as soon as you hit the wall. If all goes well,
you'll jump over the wall and skip the final loop of the course, saving you
about ten seconds.
You can also do a skip with a blue shell in 1st place (obtained in the hot air
balloon) by hitting yourself over the wall onto the grassy section before the
beginning of the lap. Shoot the shell while in 1st, then make a sharp turn to
the left before the finish line, and you should be hit into the tunnel while
passing the finish line also, saving roughly half a lap.
On the Japanese versions of the game, there is a lap skip you can do with red
shells, and very similar in execution with the blue shell strat.
Some minor shortcuts include using 'shrooms to hug the inside wall of the turns,
Get a triple or a gold mushroom for it.
======================
3. Moo Moo Farm (MMF^$)
======================
There are no skips or shortcuts here. Just avoid the moles, and on the 2nd and
3rd patches of moles, hug the inner fence to get the most optimal time.
Mini-turbo a lot, also.
=============================
4. Koopa Troopa Beach (KT_B":)
=============================
On Time Trials, you can mushroom into the cave after the arch and the three
ramps, or get a frame-perfect hop with Toad.
Next to the arch, there is a minor shortcut if you go on the strip of land over
there. Saves about a second. Watch out for the crabs, also.
=========================
5. Kalimari Desert (KD$@/)
=========================
If you manage to get a Star on either of the first two laps, head toward the
tunnel by taking a left at the second railroad crossing. Just before you enter
the tunnel, activate the Star and the lap counter will increase at a certain
point inside the tunnel.
After getting a Blue Shell, take a left at the first railroad crossing and
travel through the cave. Shortly after exiting, fire the shell and head directly
toward it. This impact of the shell should send you over the guardrail and
shorten the course significantly. You don't have to be in 1st for this to work,
unlike Luigi's Raceway.
Before the second railroad crossing, go to the left into the sand. After the
part where you go downhill and then uphill, use a mushroom and aim towards part
of the opposite side of the valley just next to the train tracks. Hop as you hit
the bump, and you'll bounce over the train tracks and back on the road.
Use shrooms to off-road, just as minor corner-cutters, and that's Mushroom Cup!
++++++++++|
Flower Cup|
++++++++++|
=========================
6. Toad's Turnpike (TODD+)
=========================
(Unrelated) There are in total 28 vehicles on the track: 7 yellow buses, 7 cars,
7 blue tankers, and 7 trucks (3 white, 2 grey and 2 wood).
Select any driver and make sure to have the map selected on your screen. Drive
along the regular course until you come to the part where the map overlaps
itself. Now make a sharp 90 degree turn to the right, and head for the
guardrail, but keep jumping with the R button until your kart lands on top of
the guardrail. At this point Lakitu will tow you back onto the course as usual.
As soon as Lakitu sets you down, hold both the A and B buttons down and hold the
analog stick to the right, so that your driver will do a spin turn. Do the spin
turn until your kart is facing 90 degrees to the right, and release the analog
stick and the B button. At this point, you will see your kart driver from a
profile view. Now jump with the R button before you make contact with the
guardrail. If all goes well, you will jump through the wall and off the course
into a lake. Depending on where you land, Lakitu may tow you onto a later
section of the course!
If you don't end up going through the wall and end up on the guardrail instead,
then repeat the process beginning with the spin turn to right. You should
eventually get this to work, but it takes a lot of practice. Lakitu always tows
you to whichever part of the track is closest, so make sure to aim for someplace
near the later section of the track. (JP) If your jump is really precise, you
may end up landing on the track below instead of in the water.
==========================
7. Frappe Snowland (F"s:"_)
==========================
After starting the race, turn around and head onto the bridge. Align yourself
with either corner of the bridge, hop on the snow without touching the track,
and drive out of bounds past the finish line. Repeat until end of race.
A fun alternative: go to the ramp which takes you over the stream of water and
veer off to the left (or to the right) so that you land in some snow, and make
sure that you never touch the track. Continue to drive in the snow until you are
roughly halfway around the course. Now drive outside the limits so that Lakitu
will pick you up. Depending on where you do this, some very strange results
could happen:
1. Lakitu takes you in the air for a while and then you "warp" to the finish
line, gaining half a lap.
2. Lakitu drops you in some water for a couple seconds, and then you "warp" to
the finish line as above.
3. Lakitu takes you to the finish line, but you lose half a lap instead.
4. Lakitu drops you in the water and just lets you drown.
Cut corners with hops or mushrooms.
=========================
8. Choco Mountain (0CM51%)
=========================
Disclaimer: Most broken track in the game.
Around the bend before the boulders, you can drift and hop at the grey wall to
skip about 4-6 seconds. 0 Frame is common doing this, however.
On the hump before the grey wall, you can mini-turbo into the left wall half a
kart length away from the peak of the slope to put yourself 5 seconds ahead of
the grey wall scale.
Just before you reach the big hill prior to the overpass area, go directly into
the wall on your left. Drive into it at full speed and jump as you hit it. If
you do this in the right place, you will clear the wall and land in the same
area as in the previous shortcut.
At the very beginning of the course, just drive about one kart length forward
from the start line and drive into the wall on your left with the aid of a
mushroom. Jump with the R button as you hit it, and you might land on top of the
mountain. If you do it properly, Lakitu will pick you up and place you right at
the tunnel.
When you start the race, immediately turn around and back into the wall on the
right and hold it until you are about 3 to 4 kart lengths away. Boost into the
wall straight ahead with the aid of a mushroom. Jump with the R button as you
hit the wall and you'll boost up the wall. Hitting that specific part of the
wall so your character clips into the wall ever so slightly makes the game think
you are in a tunnel farther along the track. Once you drop back down, as long as
you're behind the finish line, the game thinks you're at the end of the lap, so
cross it and you'll have done the Weathertenko!
YT links:
Summoning Salt's Choco Mountain video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y99Wj-NStok
Weathertenko video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6BjK5lXbjc
==========================
9. Mario Raceway (MRno64__)
==========================
Drive through Mario Raceway until you reach the part where the track starts
going uphill. This is just shortly before you come across the big mushroom. To
your right, you will see off in the distance two walls which meet and form an
upside-down T-shape. Ordinarily if you were following the track, you'd be just
about to turn left. Instead, use a mushroom when you get to the corner of the
turn and turn right. You will need to jump using the R button and try to aim so
that you land on the right side of the wall. If all goes well, you'll fly over
the wall and cut out a large portion of the track, and end up just shortly
before the large pipe tunnel. Works with a star too.
You can also drive through the track until you reach the third turn, farm for
triple reds, then shoot yourself over the wall directly in front of the Mario
cap to skip more of the lap.
There are some minor corner cutters that you can do here, as well.
++++++++|
Star Cup|
++++++++|
=========================
10. Wario Stadium (WS.FAV)
=========================
Almost every wall in this track can be hopped over in one spot. I'll be
documenting only the larger skips, however.
At the 4 humps at the start, you can hop over them all and the walls in between.
Saves about 40 seconds NTSC.
After that, you can turn and hop over the red arrow wall at the first seam with
a frame-perfect hop to land behind the finish line, therefore getting lap times
of less than ten seconds if done first try. 0 Frame and going OOB (Out Of
Bounds) is common for this.
After the part with the sequential bumps, there is the long straight stretch,
followed by a red and white arrows sign that is part of the wall, that indicates
to turn right. If you look closely at this sign, there are three walls that make
it up. there is the one that is in line with the straight stretch you've been
driving on, and there's the one that is perpendicular to you, there is a third
one also in the middle, like the top of a trapezoid. so as you're driving, turn
in to the sign, and you need to make contact with the middle part, perpendicular
to it, and hop just as you hit it. you also need to aim your joystick diagonally
up and left. you will land at the final stretch to the finish line of the lap.
After the big ramp, hop over the red arrow wall straight ahead to save about 10
seconds.
The walls before and after the big humps, respectively, can be jumped over to
save a couple of seconds, but is slightly difficult. Can be jumped the other way
also, and I accidentally shelled myself back over the second hump hop, so take
care with that.
=============================
11. Sherbet Land (NOT_SHERB64)
=============================
No skips (without TAS), but some corners can be cut (i.e. the corner before the big grey
rock).
==========================
12. Royal Raceway (RR/PC69)
==========================
In Royal Raceway, you would normally take the big ramp to get across the water.
However, if you have mushrooms, then you can skip a large portion of the course.
At the start of the course, drive past the first few turns, and drive roughly
halfway across the stretch of track which is parallel to the stream of water. At
this point, turn 90 degrees to the left, use a mushroom, and press the R button
to try to jump over the water. You will want to aim for the large black texture
after the corner seam. Lakitu will tow you onto the ramp, and you'll skip a
insignificant portion of the course.
On 150cc, when you reach the big ramp, power-slide to the left and try to take
off from the left-most corner of the ramp. You will want to aim between the
mountain and where the item boxes are located in GP mode. If this shortcut is
done properly, Lakitu will place you right where the item boxes are located.
The shortcut from the ramp can be done in Time Trial as well the one where you
jump across the river, but it is difficult. First use a lightweight and do the
shortcut across the river, so that Lakitu takes you to the ramp. As soon as
Lakitu sets you down, start a power-slide to the left. Make the smoke turn red
and try to get close to the leftmost corner of the ramp. Turn approximately 45
degrees to the left, but do not execute the mini-turbo. Hold the R button for
the duration of the jump. Ideally, you will want to travel as far as possible,
but land on some dirt. When you land, you'll hear your character make a sound as
if a mini-turbo had just been executed (e.g. Toad will say "Yahoo"). If you did
this in the right place, Lakitu you place you where the last set of item boxes
are normally located in GP mode.
At the ramp (same place as before), hit the spot where the grass meets the
mountainside. Lakitu will put you down just before the finish line, facing
diagonally backwards and left. Usually the lap will end as soon as you're back
on the road, but to be safe it's best to press B and down to go in reverse as
you touch the road.
===========================
13. Bowser's Castle (BC8*7&)
===========================
No shortcuts, only 2 corner cutters through the grass.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
Special Cup (IQue Cup in China)|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
==================================
14. D.K.'s Jungle Parkway (DKJP{}_)
==================================
Whew, this track has a lot of skips, both minor and major.
First, when starting a race, go back into the cave behind the finish line. Turn
around and head back towards the starting line, but veer slightly left into the
corner of the cave wall, where it meets the track. You should clip right through
the seam. Turn slightly left in midair after crossing the finish line, and you
should either land back in the cave or in the water trigger. If the latter
occurs, there is the off chance that you went too far and spawn after the first
turn. If successful, rinse and repeat.
You can jump at the wall next to the ramp to clip on the edge of the ramp and
save a couple of seconds. Pretty insignificant, but hey, it works. You can also
jump over the guardrail.
This one is a little bit tricky and seems to work better in 150cc GP mode on the
second and third laps. After landing from the ramp, go toward the left as usual
and continue down the path until you come to the part where you'd normally turn
right. Instead of turning right, try to go straight ahead but veer outside the
course and try to get to the narrow ledge outside of the course. Even if you
don't make it, sometimes Lakitu will put you ahead on a further section of the
track.
On the ramp, you can turn slightly left in the air (angle towards the item
boxes) to skip a couple of seconds. You can also detour up the hill in the cave.
========================
15. Yoshi Valley (YV#$&^)
========================
Sandbag for triple mushroom or go on Time Trials for this one. At the start of
the course, go forward just a little bit until the very first tree on the left
is directly to your left. Align yourself with a black texture on the wall of the
track across (where you want to hit). You may want to put a ghost here for
future reference. 'Shroom over the fence and hit the aforementioned black
texture to bounce left. If done correctly, Lakitu will put you in front of the
finish line and a lap will have counted. Rinse and repeat if you have triple
shrooms.
Just before the hairpin, where the track is closest together, drift into it and
let go of the accelerator, then hop at the edge to skip about 3 seconds.
===============================
16. Banshee Boardwalk (BS$&*&$_)
===============================
You can hop over the large crack next to the first wave of bats in the house(?),
but that's it.
============================
17. Rainbow Road (RRoad^$64()
============================
At the start, before you get air on the big, long hill, take a wide left turn
off the course and into midair. If you've got the correct angle and speed,
you'll fly through the air for nearly 5 seconds, and will land on the same
course below. This shortcut will save you time immensely.
Be careful though as it's easy to overshoot the track.
There is also a way to reach the spiral. First, make sure to select the zoom-out
view. This is not required but it helps a lot. At the beginning, start off with
a powerslide toward the left wall so that your kart is facing right. Make sure
to get close to the left wall but do not hit it. Just as you are facing almost
90 degrees to the right, execute a SSMT (straight stretch mini-turbo) near the
second red stripe past the start. You will now be heading toward the right wall.
Now do a very hard left turn, nearly 180 degrees so that it is like a U-turn. As
soon as you get close to the left wall, jump. You should be near the third red
stripe, or possibly on a yellow stripe at this point. All of the above should
occur in just under 4 seconds for this to work. If all goes well, you will clear
the fence, and you may even feel a slight "lift" as you jump the leap of faith.
If the angle is dead-on, then you may be able to reach the top portion of the
spiral. This will save almost ten more seconds than the regular shortcut. Please
note: This is VERY hard to perform.
At the end of the track in 150cc, you can shoot a shell, hop into it, and go OOB
past the finish line on the right side to skip a lap. Shoot the shell slightly
before the right side starts merging left-ish and ricochet it off of the wall to
perform it correctly.
And cue the credits! At least if you're doing this on 150cc GP.
===================================
18. Notes and Credits (NTSC/PAL?64&)
===================================
Did I miss something? E-mail me at definitelyhumangamer{AT}gmail[dot]com or PM
me on GameFAQs at Definitelyhuman, if that's where you're reading it.
Credits:
David Wonn and the countless others that discovered these skips.
CJayC for creating GameFAQS.
The Mod/Lead Mod/Admin that accepted this on GFAQS.
Beck Abney for the speedruns that helped me write this.
Me, for the ramp clip in DKJP, the WS "hump hops", and for writing this guide.
Nintendo for the game.
strategywiki.org for information on the RRy warp.
And most importantly, you, for reading this guide. Yeah, you. Deal with it.
I will give written permission for you to use this on your website as long as
you e-mail me and do not use it for an income, and unwritten permission for
personal use only (ex. downloading onto a USB drive as a .txt, etc. file).
COPYRIGHT Jordon Olson 2020-2024
Updates (Oldest to Newest)
-2020-
v0.50 [Wario] (July 10) - Halfway done
v1.00 [D.K.] (July 11) - Just released
v2.00 [Mario] (July 15) - Changed a slight few things, added update log, added
more tips that seem to be more technical than anything, updated TT shortcut,
aded KD shortcut, changed WS shortcut to an easier method, got the
aforementioned finish line warp (finally) in RRy, thanks to strategywiki.org.
Oh, and I also got the Weathertenko on text. Yay. I put some video links to it
below the heap of text.
V2.01 [Luigi] (July 18) - Fixed an error where the KD booklet tag was also on
KTB, as well as the KD.
V3.00 [Bowser] (July 20) - Fixed more things, added ASCII stuff.
V3.10 [Yoshi] (July 22) - Added list of sites, as there are multiple now. Fixed
typos.
V4.00 [Toad] (August 11) - Added update labels, WS hump hops, and fixed
something with the tips. Did this update on a Wii U, lol.
V.PGGG [Marty] (July 12 2024) - Uploaded a slightly revised version for playguide.gg (where you're reading this!)
Sites where this guide is located:
gamefaqs.gamespot.com
neoseeker.com
Linked at speedrun.com
supercheats.com
playguide.gg (you are here!)
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