New Mario Kart Shortcut Discovered After Almost 20 Years

Summary Mario Kart fans recently discovered a challenging shortcut in Mario Kart DS, opening up new possibilities for speedrunners.

The shortcut in "Waluigi Pinball" has stumped enthusiasts for decades, with iMathll achieving a world record lap time after mastering it.

While Mario Kart 8 remains popular, the DS version still holds a place in many players' hearts.

While the Mario Kart community may constantly be trying to figure out new routes to trim down those lap times, it's not often that an entirely new shortcut is discovered nearly 20 years after a game's release. Mario may largely be known for his ability to jump over obstacles and onto enemies but whenever he gets bored of rescuing Princess Peach he trades in his stomping boots for some thrifty racing gloves. The Mario Kart series has remained one of Nintendo's most popular spin-off franchises for over three decades, and fans are still discovering some impressive secrets.

Speedrunner iMathll showed off the newly discovered shortcut in Mario Kart DS in a video on YouTube (via GoNintendo) where they demonstrated exactly how to pull off the maneuver.

The actual process requires both precision and skill as an entire section of the Waluigi Pinball course can be glossed over by successfully launching off a ramp and colliding into a specific section of the track wall, prompting a jump over the windy downhill and landing directly in the "bumper field" area. It's an incredibly difficult trick to accomplish and was previously thought to only be possible through the use of external software tools.

Related Nintendo's Next Big Game Release Would Be The Perfect Mario Kart 8 DLC Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's success as one of the highest-selling games is sustained through DLC. The upcoming Luigi's Mansion 2 is a great DLC opportunity.

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While Mario Kart DS may no longer as relevant as it was back in 2005, the secret shortcut in Waluigi Pinball has eluded enthusiasts for decades, with many trying to successfully land the jump to no avail. After pulling off the trick, iMathll managed to achieve a world record lap time on the course and challenged other speedrunners to try the trick and beat the time of 0:32:069. While many have no doubt attempted to topple the champion, no one has successfully beaten the time so iMathll may be holding onto their title for a while.

The Mario Kart community may still be avidly exploring the game's latest release, that is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition, but that doesn't mean the DS game has been completely forgotten. Several of the handheld's most popular tracks managed to make it into the most recent entry, including "DS Cheep Cheep Beach," "DS Wario Stadium," and "DS Peach Garden" amongst several others. While they may lack the complexity of subsequent games' courses, they remain some of the community's favorite tracks.

As for the future of Mario Kart, players have openly expressed their interest in a new mainline entry in the series given that Mario Kart 8 is itself a decade old. Despite the additional content included in the expansion pack, fans have petitioned Nintendo for a new game that advances the established mechanics. Whether it takes another decade to unearth all the secrets in the Deluxe Edition remains unknown but it's fun to speculate what speedrunner could eventually achieve with the Nintendo Switch game.

Source: iMathll/YouTube, GoNintendo