Aibu how to win Mario Cart

CPU are the other players on the screen (played by the computer) they can be set to easy, normal, hard and master

When you're cornering, use the jump button and turn at the same time. Your character will start to drift/powerslide - as they drift it builds up a speed boost that will launch your car out of the corner. The longer the drift, the bigger the boost. As soon as I learned this my kids were toast!!

Pick a lightweight car.
Learn how to do blue sparks
Learn throw bananas backwards

Toad or Yoshi are the ideal drivers for players learning the robes.

You can also use mushrooms to avoid the blue shell, if you hit it at the right time.

Basically its lots of practise!
Pick the right character, car and wheels.
Pick up the coins, i think 10 coins is max, but you lose them when you get hit.
practise drifting in turns for speed boost.
Bikes are often a bit faster, but they are harder to handle on turns. DH hates using bikes, i always use bikes.
Our winning rate is 60-40, he beats me a bit more often. Our 11 year old DS is getting there, but he doesnt quite beat us yet.
DD is hopeless at games, we arent sure if shes been swapped in the hospital…

Play obsessively from the age of five
if you’re in first place and you get a boom box keep hold of it. It’s the only thing that stops a blue shell.
Sometimes you can use a mushroom to cut corners off the main track (the section that usually slows you down if you drive on it)
I think once you have ten coins the drifting around corners is faster

What they said! Many hours spent playing once DS had gone to bed!

Coins also affect jow badly you're affected if you get hit by a shell or obstacle. No coins and you get really wiped out!

Press either the + or the - to show the vehicle attributes when you're choosing your vehicles (I think it's the + button). They're not automatically shown. You want a combo with good acceleration but also good top speed. Good acceleration with a shit top speed means you'll reach your highest speed quickly but you won't be able to go very fast in total.
Also don't press accelerate until the countdown gets to 2 or your engine will just backfire! (Try it and find out for yourself). That's literally the joke at the start of the Mario movie!

You are all so impressive. I can barely remember which way round to hold the controller.

My mum used to do this with our Sega mega drive 😂

Practice playing online against other real people. Don't play against the computer it's too easy and will lull you, go online.
Collect coins, drift round corner, jump everytime you go over a bump for a boost. You can fire stuff backwards if you press back and fire as well, like bombs and stuff. My perfect play is with toad on a bike, bit of you gey bumped you will really go off track. Only go on grass/mud using a mushroom or it slows you down. Be ruthless.

Choose the best combo of vehicle/wheel/glider - teddy bike, roller and paper glider get good reviews - also I believe each character is ranked. I always use birdo as my youngest reliably informed me she's top tier 😆

Then practice! Learn how to do pro moves like drifting, short cuts, trick jumps, mashing button with a golden mushroom etc. learn the tracks as well - lots of YouTube videos about them.

I'm improving but it's slow progress.

Press the accelerate button as soon as the 321 countdown starts - you’ll start zooming off immediately

Go for every question mark box you can and chuck all your prizes (the bombs, bananas, ink splotches etc) as soon as you can.

Press the accelerate button as soon as the 321 countdown starts - you’ll start zooming off immediately

Go for every question mark box you can and chuck all your prizes (the bombs, bananas, ink splotches etc) as soon as you can.

And watch ghost data to get the good racing lines.

My middle DS (18) pans us all now, without fail. Every time. To the point I'm thinking he should only play with the broken, stick-drifty joycon.

Do time trials repeatedly when everyone else is asleep

This is also true.

I can launch a bob-om a good distance so the front of the pack hits it and I can sail past.

Also learning how to use all screens to strategically chuck a shell backwards as you overtake

Which version are you playing?

Watch YouTube tutorials and play your arse off.

Turn off auto steering and auto accelerate and learn to properly control the car/bike depending on the version you’re playing.

DH and are unbeatable in normal company. It’s a skill we are particularly proud of.

Try to get the coins as soon as possible. Each coin increases your speed by 0.8%

@SomeOfTheTroublemine hadn't at 10, he's 13 now and I can't beat him. I'm still the Mario Golf master though 😃

My 10 year old has never beat me 💅🏼

The Karts have different attributes too. Some are faster than others but the slower ones handle better. The same is true of the tyres and parachutes too.
You need to play around and find the best set up for you. I was trying to play with the fastest everything but one day I decided to play with the slowest set up possible and I won every race - probably because the handling was cleaner.

Also definitely learn to drift, tubo start, and trick jump, and be tactical with your items. If you carry a shell or banana behind you, for example, a shell will bounce off and not slow you down.