5 tips for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

The road to victory actually starts when you choose your racer and vehicle. While you select your vehicle, tap the plus symbol to open the statistics. You can see exactly which wheels are good for off-road racing, for example. But the racer you choose has an impact as well. Heavier characters such as Bowser and Wario are faster, but accelerate slower than Baby Mario, for example. Experiment until you find the right combination.

You can unlock vehicles and accompanying parts by collecting coins. These are spread across the tracks, but that's not the only advantage of coins. That's because they also increase your maximum speed. So collect as many coins as you can during the race and make sure you keep them. You can carry up to 10 coins and every coin contributes to your speed. This means you'll be able to take over someone who was fewer coins than you.

Play a track multiple times and mostly in different ways. The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe tracks are full of secret paths and routes. For example, you can easily float into a cave with your kite after a ramp at Shy Guy Falls. Or discover the secret passage in Coconut Mall. Explore every map and find all routes.

The items you collect from the blocks differ from your position in the race. Are you driving in first place? You mostly get bananas, the horn, and coins. Use the horn to blow away enemies and the blue shield. You'll get mushrooms if you drive in the middle of the pack. These are great for shortcuts across the grass. In the last spot, you score the better items, like the blue shield or the Bullet Bill. The Bullet Bill is a fast autopilot that'll move you forward a few spots. Keep it until you reach the sixth spot on your own. Then deploy the Bullet Bill and reach the top 3.

Drifting is also a good way to build up speed. Drift by pressing the R button. Do this just before entering a corner. Keep this up for a long time for extra acceleration. The color of the sparks flying off your kart indicates how much speed you're building. Do you have purple sparks? You've reached maximum acceleration and will soon be tearing around the track a lot faster. Stunting with your vehicle also accelerates you. Drive over a ramp and shake your controller to do a stunt. Use the R key if you're playing with a Pro Controller, for example, or have motion controllers turned off. If you land after such a stunt, you'll also temporarily drive faster.