Vote up the best race-winning shortcuts from all the Mario Kart games.
In the Mario Kart video games, driving in reverse or into a body of water may not seem like the best tactic. But on certain courses, straying from the designated path might just be the best trick to securing a first-place finish.
From alternate pathways to unintended glitches, there are hundreds of potential shortcuts across the video game series. Some are easy to find and complete, while others require expert-level execution. By mastering these awesome Mario Kart shortcuts, you can shed anywhere from seconds to minutes off of your races and beat your friends every time.
You'll find that the best shortcuts in Mario Kart are often those that exploit design flaws, allowing you to jump through walls and skip entire laps. Despite being patched for online play, you can still exploit these glitches when you play offline.
Using a boost or a mushroom, this glitch allows you to drive onto the large volcanic rock to the left of the finish line. Once there, each lap driven around the rock counts as a lap in the overall race.
At the beginning of the race, boost past the third yellow line and then jump over the left railing. The goal is to time it so that you land on (or at least touch) the road below, and thus skip a portion of the course. If you miss the landing completely, Lakitu will bring you back to the start. This is a classic high-risk, high-reward Mario Kart shortcut.
After passing the finish line, use one of the dirt hills to hop over the left wall. Once you've made it over, you can take your shortcut to the extreme by immediately looping back around and jumping over the wall again. With this trick, you can complete a lap in less than 10 seconds.
Shortly after the finish line, there is a yellow jump pad on the right side of the path. If you use a mushroom while driving over the jump, you should be able to make it across the large gap. This course has a couple of other jump pads that can be used to skip ahead, too.
Before driving onto the wooden bridge, turn around and boost onto the giant mushroom. Perform a trick so that you reach the rock wall, and then wheelie along it until you land back on the track. When you cross the finish line, you'll be on your next lap.
