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1[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1000002153.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:349:Play on the go, on two screens, and [[StealthPun online]].]]
3
4The sequel to ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'', ''Mario Kart DS'' is a racing game for the Platform/NintendoDS, released in 2005. It is the second handheld ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' game following ''VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit''. It introduced online multiplayer features via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. This game features a mission mode and introduces two new items in the form of Bullet Bill (capable of turning the user into said mook going maximum throttle on autopilot) and Blooper (capable of blocking opponents' views with black ink), as well as the ability to play Versus and Battle modes in single-player. Plus, the "two characters per kart" feature from ''Double Dash!!'' has been dropped, returning it to one driver per vehicle system as with every installment before ''Double Dash!!''.
5
6[[foldercontrol]]
7[[folder:Drivers]]
8([=*=] denotes a character newly introduced to the series)
9[[AC:Starting Roster]]
10* Bowser
11* Donkey Kong
12* Luigi
13* Mario
14* Peach
15* Shy Guy[[note]]Only playable in multiplayer[[/note]]
16* Toad
17* Wario
18* Yoshi
19
20[[AC:Unlockable]]
21* Daisy
22* Dry Bones[=*=]
23* [[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]][=*=]
24* Waluigi
25[[/folder]]
26
27[[folder:Tracks]]
28[[AC:Nitro]]
29* Mushroom Cup
30** [[TheBigRace Figure-8 Circuit]]
31** [[CaveBehindTheFalls Yoshi Falls]]
32** [[PalmtreePanic Cheep Cheep Beach]]
33** [[BigBoosHaunt Luigi's Mansion]]
34* Flower Cup
35** [[ShiftingSandLand Desert Hills]]
36** [[PortTown Delfino Square]]
37** [[PinballZone Waluigi Pinball]]
38** [[BigHonkingTrafficJam Shroom Ridge]]
39* Star Cup
40** [[ObstacleSkiCourse DK Pass]]
41** [[ClockworksArea Tick-Tock Clock]]
42** [[GreenHillZone Mario Circuit]]
43** [[DreadZeppelin Airship Fortress]]
44* Special Cup
45** [[AthleticArenaLevel Wario Stadium]]
46** [[GardenOfEden Peach Gardens]]
47** [[LethalLavaLand Bowser Castle]]
48** [[AstralFinale Rainbow Road]]
49
50[[AC:Retro]]
51* Shell Cup
52** [[TheBigRace Mario Circuit 1]] (''SNES'')
53** [[{{Arcadia}} Moo Moo Farm]] (''64'')
54** [[GreenHillZone Peach Circuit]] (''Super Circuit'')
55** [[TheBigRace Luigi Circuit]] (''Double Dash!!'')
56* Banana Cup
57** [[GreenHillZone Donut Plains 1]] (''SNES'')
58** [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Frappe Snowland]] (''64'')
59** [[LethalLavaLand Bowser Castle 2]] (''Super Circuit'')
60** [[AmusementPark Baby Park]] (''Double Dash!!'')
61* Leaf Cup
62** [[PalmtreePanic Koopa Beach 2]] (''SNES'')
63** [[DeathMountain Choco Mountain]] (''64'')
64** [[BattleInTheRain Luigi Circuit]] (''Super Circuit'')
65** [[TakeItToTheBridge Mushroom Bridge]] (''Double Dash!!'')
66* Lightning Cup
67** [[DeathMountain Choco Island 2]] (''SNES'')
68** [[BigBoosHaunt Banshee Boardwalk]] (''64'')
69** [[LevelInTheClouds Sky Garden]] (''Super Circuit'')
70** [[ObjectShapedLandmass Yoshi Circuit]] (''Double Dash!!'')
71[[/folder]]
72
73[[folder:Battle Tracks]]
74* [[ConsoleCameo Nintendo DS]]
75* [[BigBoosHaunt Twilight House]]
76* [[PalmtreePanic Palm Shore]]
77* [[SugarBowl Tart Top]]
78* [[ToyTime Block Fort]] (''64'')
79* [[NostalgiaLevel Pipe Plaza]] (''Double Dash!!'')
80[[/folder]]
81----
82!!The game features examples of these tropes:
83* AccordionToMostSailors: Delfino Square, a PortTown track, features an accordion in the instrumentation of its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLKi2PPfEnU music]].
84* AdvancedMovementTechnique: "Snaking", as the game community calls it, involves drifting back and forth on a straightaway, gaining mini-turbos when releasing the R button. [[DumpStat A low drift stat]] will prevent a kart from just slamming into the wall, and a high mini-turbo stat on a vehicle like the Dry Bomber means a skilled player can spend an entire race with boosted speed.
85* AlwaysNight: The followings courses are in perpetual nighttime:
86** Luigi's Mansion, which returned in ''Mario Kart 7''.
87** Wario Stadium, which has been set in the daytime when it reappeared in ''Mario Kart 8''.
88** Frappe Snowland and Banshee Boardwalk from ''VideoGame/MarioKart64''.
89* ArtificialBrilliance: In this game's Rainbow Road, the AI actually seems to know that if it puts a banana peel or fake item box on the loop-the-loop or the corkscrew, there's no chance to survive.
90* ArtisticLicensePhysics: If it weren't bound to the ToonPhysics of the Mushroom Kingdom, the ROB-LGS kart (the one that looks like a pair of legs for ROB) would be as aerodynamic as a brick, and would most likely fall over at the slightest provocation. Instead, it's one of the fastest karts in the game, and always lands on its wheels.
91* AthleticArenaLevel: This became the first game in the series to feature a traditional racetrack that isn't named after Mario or any other character, the Figure 8 Circuit (which, as the name suggests, is an 8-shaped racetrack). There ''is'' a circuit hosted by Mario, but it's noticeably more challenging layout-wise and has special features like Piranha Plants that shoot fireballs and paths that go through grassy hills, thus making the track veer closer to GreenHillZone than this setting (it's the reason why the track is part of Star Cup instead of Mushroom). The game also brings back Mario Circuit 1 (''Super''), the Luigi and Peach Circuits (''Super Circuit''), and the Luigi and Yoshi Circuits (''Double Dash!!'') as retro tracks.
92* BatScare: Starting from this game, the series has featured tracks with Swoopers, bats that can form a hazard for racers to avoid. In this game proper, they appear on N64 Banshee Boardwalk (its original version only had regular bats).
93* BigBoosHaunt: Among the racetracks, there's Luigi's Mansion, whose first half takes place inside the eponymous building, taking drivers across haunted corridors based on the halls of the 2001 game's setting; the second half takes drivers to the outdoors areas in the gloomy forest, overlapping with TheLostWoods. Among battle courses, there's Twilight House, an abandoned manor with several rooms played during a dark sunset.
94* BlindIdiotTranslation: The Shroom Ridge track in the game's kiosk prototype contains trucks with the word "''flesh''" (fresh) labeled on the side. This was fixed for the final version, where they now properly say "''fresh''".
95* BuildLikeAnEgyptian: Desert Hills, a racetrack in the desert that features the pyramids seen in Desert Land from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''.
96* CameraAbuse: This and later installments of the ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' series have the Blooper item, which squirts ink all over the screen and makes it hard to see the track.
97* CarFu: The battle modes as usual place the karters into an all-out brawl. Boss battles in this game also qualify, since you use your kart and/or items to attack the bosses.
98* ChestInsignia:
99** From this game onwards, the ''Mario Kart'' series itself does a vehicle variant of this, with each kart having two or three places on it for the driver's personal emblem. Each playable character has their own icon (for instance, Mario's trademark red "M").
100** Just for this game, players can also design their own custom symbol, [[TemptingFate although the custom icons]] were removed in all later games due to [[VideoGamePerversityPotential the staggering number of crude and/or offensive images people created.]]
101* ClockworksArea: Tick Tock Clock, a location that originally debuted in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' as a platformer level. The drivers will pass through giant clocks in the floors whose hands move step-by-step, enormous rotating cogs that can be used to boost one's speed, and a large pendulum that can potentially cause inconveniences due to oscillating in the middle of a segment of the track.
102* CompetitiveBalance: Every racer starts with two vehicles then gains a third. All three can be classified as items, skill and standard: items (the ones with big tires) are heavier and can hold more items, skills (the ones with small tires) are better in every other stat but lighter and hold less items, and the standard makes a compromise between both with a standardized weight.
103* ColorCodedMultiplayer: In Versus races and the Battle modes, the order of each player is green, blue, yellow, red, purple, cyan, orange, and magenta. This is why free-for-all Balloon Battles in single player always give the player green balloons.
104* ConsoleCameo: One of the battle courses take place on a huge Nintendo DS system floating in space.
105* CoolBike: Waluigi's Zipper is the only motorcycle of this game. However, ''Wii'' and ''8'' has a full dosage on that type of vehicle.
106* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Did you get used to using the snaking technique in this game? It doesn't work in the later games and for some that were used to snaking all the time, they were left wondering why they slid off the road or weren't going any faster.
107* DeathAsGameMechanic: Dying early while playing multiplayer Balloon Fight or the Shine Runners results in your character turning into a ghost until the end of the battle. The ghost can't interact with the alive players, but they can summon item boxes and get a dose on revenge by purposely putting them near fake boxes
108* DubNameChange: In the Japanese version of the game, ROB was named HVC-012, since that was his series number.
109* DumpStat: Drift and weight can be affected by this trope. Due to the exploit of snaking, it was actually beneficial to have ''less'' drift, since if you had more, you'd be turning too sharply while power sliding on straightaways. The same is said for weight since it's combined with acceleration for the "offroad" stat. The less weight and more acceleration you had, the faster you could go off road such as in grass or dirt. Plus, bumping into other players had no effect online. The item stat was also pretty useless, especially online where you couldn't get triple items. It was good for some courses during time trials though, as you got more mushrooms to take shortcuts.
110* EmbeddedPrecursor: The Retro Grand Prix, which is a recurring tradition from this game onwards. Besides the four Nitro cups (Mushroom, Flower, Star, and Special) are the four Retro cups (Shell, Banana, Leaf, and Lightning). In ''DS'', each retro cup features a ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' track, a ''VideoGame/MarioKart64 track'', a ''VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit'' track, and ending with a ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'' track in that order.
111* EternalEngine: Tick Tock Clock, which returned in ''8''. True to its ClockworksArea setting, it features all sorts of gizmos and mechanical setpieces that, depending on the case, can be either an ally or a hindrance to the drivers.
112* FinalBoss: Chief Chilly in Mission Mode, being the boss of the sixth page of challenges. [[spoiler:Although he's TheDragon to the [[TrueFinalBoss Wiggler]] himself.]]
113* FragileSpeedster:
114** Regarding characters, Peach, Yoshi, Toad and Dry Bones are the Mario Kart definition: they share a strong acceleration and handling at the cost of a light weight and low to average top speed.
115** Regarding vehicles, skill karts combine the series definition with a traditional one compared to the others: they are lighter and hold less items, but reach higher top speeds, gain better boosts and are more controllable.
116** Luigi's skill kart, the [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion Poltergust 4000]], could have its place in ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', considering it combines great acceleration, handling and top speed with a low drift stat to abuse snaking and a lightweight to cross offroad like no one's business.
117** Other skill vehicles follow Mario Kart's "quick to start, hard to catch up" definition: Yoshi's skill kart, the Egg 1, has less top speed than the above and is the lightest, but benefits a better acceleration and handling. Dry Bones' skill kart, the [[TankGoodness Dry Bomber]], despite its less light weight and even worse top speed, is the most extreme example because of its maximum acceleration ''and'' handling stats.
118* GameBreakingBug: The game can be completely frozen simply by holding A and B together and turning on the steps of the Luigi's Mansion track.
119* GoForTheEye: Eyerok, a boss from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' with eyes in its hands, have to be hit in them. Like in the 1996 game, you can't damage the eyes unless they're open.
120* GuestFighter: ''Mario Kart DS'' is the only game in the series where R.O.B. appears (he later emigrated to the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series).
121* HedgeMaze: The Special Cup track Peach Gardens features a segment that goes through a hedge maze inhabited by a Chain Chomp and which has grassy floors that damp the drivers' speed. There's also a topiary of Mario, [[ImpliedLoveInterest which comes as no surprise]]. It makes a return in ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'', ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' and the DLC of ''VideoGame/MarioKart8 Deluxe'' as a NostalgiaLevel; in the latter two games, topiaries of characters like Luigi, Toad, Toadette and the host Peach herself are present as well.
122* HomeStage: Many tracks, both old and new, are owned (or at least sponsored) by playable characters, so the game associates said tracks with them in some way: Yoshi has Yoshi Falls (new) and GCN Yoshi Circuit (retro), Luigi has VideoGame/LuigisMansion (new) and GCN Luigi Circuit (retro), Waluigi has Waluigi Pinball, Shroom Ridge is usually associated with Toad, DK has DK Pass, Wario has Wario Stadium (a new one, not the track that appeared in ''VideoGame/MarioKart64''), Peach has Peach's Gardens (new) and GBA Peach Circuit (retro), and both Mario and Bowser have not only a new track each like usual but the former has also his first track from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' and the latter has his second track from ''VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit''.
123* InterfaceScrew: Blooper, the ''Mario''-universe squid, has been an item since this game, covering your opponents' screens in black ink, obscuring their forward view (this is also visible by painting the entire vehicle/driver black). It even has an effect on the AI, causing them to swerve and slow down a notch when it's in effect. The ink can be removed early by hitting a booster while it's in effect. There's also the cake frosting when you bump into giant whipped toppings at Tart Top.
124* InvincibilityPowerUp: In addition to having the classic Super Star, the game also introduces the Bullet Bill, which not only increases speed (more so than the Super Star) and grants invulnerability, but also guides the vehicle via auto pilot.
125* JackOfAllStats:
126** Every character has a standard vehicle with a standardized weight and whose stats are a compromise between balance and the character's strength and weaknesses. Because Mario's standard kart is looking for the perfect balance, his stats being the closest to the middle, he provides the main page image.
127** Among all 36 karts available in the game, Mario's karts' stats are the most balanced, though he focuses a bit more on acceleration. The other middleweights make the difference on other criteria: Luigi is balanced at a more advanced level, his strong areas being top speed, handling and acceleration, while its weak stats are weight and drift, which are nearly useless when you want to cross offroad and spam drifts on straight lines. Waluigi is on the heavy side, sharing Luigi's top speed on heavier but less nervous vehicles. Daisy's strong area is drift, which like stated above, actually is a handicap at a more advanced level, and her handling is one of the worst in the game, being similiar to Donkey Kong's, while her other stats are about average.
128* JapaneseRanguage: The Cheep Cheep trucks [[https://imgur.com/P57yHew prominently displayed the word "FLESH"]] in the kiosk demo, which was thankfully changed to "FRESH" in the final game, though this misspelling can still be seen in the final game's GCN Mushroom Bridge icon.
129* KidAppealCharacter: The only one here is Toad, like he did in the first three ''Mario Kart'' games.
130* LevelAte: The game has the battle level Tart Top which, true to its name, is a level set on the top of a tart. Complete with strawberry cream puffs, cherries and love hearts as decoration.
131* LevelInReverse: In addition to featuring Mirror Mode like most games in the series, the game also features challenges in Mission Mode where the player has to go through a non-mirrored racetrack backwards.
132* LevelInTheClouds: Sky Garden, returning from ''Super Circuit''. Like before, it's part of the Lightning Cup, and is a racetrack made of a cobble road suspended in the sky, bridges made of vine wires, and clouds that outline it. Large beanstalks can be seen in the background.
133* LevelMapDisplay: The bottom screen shows 2 variants of this that alternate if you tap on it: a zoomed-in map of the course moving around you, and a full view of the map where you can see characters' placements, but not where items are travelling or any of the course's details.
134* LighthousePoint: The Mushroom Cup track Cheep Cheep Beach features a lighthouse, though it's largely for decoration's sake because you can't enter it.
135* LightningBruiser: All three ROB karts can count considering they share the best top speed, a heavyweight, a good handling, a decent acceleration and a low drift. The best example remains ROB-BLS who actually has the best top speed to acceleration ratio in the whole game.
136** Due to the miniturbo duration depending on acceleration and off-road speed depending on how light the kart is and its acceleration, karts with good acceleration are low weight will have longer miniturbos and better off-road. Luigi, for example, has a solid acceleration for his karts, on par with Mario and Peach, but they also have high top speed and handling, especially the Poltergust 4000, and their drift is only slightly higher than ROB's karts. This combination gives Luigi some of the best movement in the game, and its off-road movement is solid compared to other karts.
137** Yoshi's karts have about average speed, but his acceleration and handling are only second to Dry Bones and they both have mediocre drift. Yoshi's Egg 1 has okay speed and its miniturbos are excellent, and while Dry Bones's karts have the lowest top speed in the game, the Dry Bomber's miniturbo is so strong that it has the power of a Mushroom or a Super miniturbo from the later games while also losing very little speed off-road.
138* LimitedAnimation: Only your character is with full animations while everyone else on your screen are stiff (and they're even rendered with less polygons to boot). This was most likely done to prevent the system from being taxed and keep things running smoothly. This strategy was repeated in ''7''.
139* LogoJoke: The game has the sound of an engine revving and Mario saying either "Yahoo!", if you're playing on a classic DS model; or "Here we go!", if you're playing on anything DS Lite or later.
140* TheLostWoods: Luigi's Mansion mixes it with BigBoosHaunt: The parts of the track that don't go through the eponymous mansion do go through the haunted, gloomy forest where it is located, complete with slippery mud that makes driving harder. The course returns in ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' as a [[NostalgiaLevel retro track]].
141* MarathonLevel: Waluigi Pinball in Flower Cup is the longest track in the entire game. However, the track itself is fairly straightforward to complete.
142* MightyGlacier:
143** For the traditional definition, the items vehicles are these compared to the others: they are larger, heavier and can hold more items, but are worse in every other category.
144** For the Mario Kart definition, Bowser's vehicles are the heaviest, have the best top speed and good drift stats, but are also the hardest to control otherwise and endure the worst acceleration. While more balanced, Donkey Kong will focus on drift while Wario will focus on top speed and handling. Even if he's a middleweight, Waluigi comes close to this trope, his main strengths being top speed and weight and his main weakness being acceleration, but it's just average, and his karts have stats on par with Mario, but with speed and acceleration stats reversed.
145* MusicalNod:
146** This game's title theme contains part of that from ''Double Dash!!''. ''Wii'' did the same thing ''DS'' did before.
147** The game's Bowser Castle had an OminousPipeOrgan like the one ''Double Dash!!'' Bowser's Castle had.
148* MythologyGag:
149** The Mario Circuit of this game isn't the only Mario Circuit to be part of the Star Cup. [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart Remember Mario Circuit 4?]]
150** Much like ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', Wario, Peach, and Bowser all have their tracks in the same cup together, though this time in the Special Cup.
151** Before it became the third course of this game's Lightning Cup, Sky Garden was originally the second course of the same cup in ''Super Circuit''.
152** The Japanese version of the game names ROB after his series number, HVC-012.
153** A few of the karts are based on other spin-offs. Wario's Brute is a repaint of his car from ''VideoGame/WarioLand4'', and Donkey Kong's Rambi Rider is based on his Animal Buddy from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry''.
154* {{Nerf}}: Baby Park's lap count has been reduced from 7 to 5, and the absence of the specialized items from ''Double Dash!!'' (with the exception of the Bob-Omb, which turns into a regular item in this game) makes it an easier track overall.
155* NoFairCheating: If you use a cheating device to unlock all the characters and vehicles, [[spoiler:you will unlock everything... except R.O.B. Strangely, despite not being available through cheats, you still unlock R.O.B.'s karts for everyone to use.]]
156* NostalgiaLevel: This game and all ''Mario Kart'' games thereafter traditionally featured retro courses, including both race tracks and battle tracks. While the tradition had a precedent with ''Super Circuit'', that game only brought back the SNES ''Mario Kart'' tracks and their cup format was a bit different (and the fact ''Double Dash!!'' didn't have retro tracks made it seem like a one-time novelty back then). For this game in particular, there are equitably four tracks from each of the previous four games in the series; meanwhile, two of the six Battle courses are retro: One from ''64'' (Block Fort) and another from ''Double Dash!!'' (Pipe Plaza).
157* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Like it did in ''Double Dash!!'', acceleration is the central stat not only because of how fast the vehicle gains its top speed, but also because it determines the power of turbo boosts.
158* OutrunTheFireball: If you manage to turbo boost at the right time while still enduring the effect of a previous turbo boost, you can actually dodge the dreadful Blue Shell.
159* PalmtreePanic: Mushroom Cup has Cheep Cheep Beach, set along the coast of an island with plenty of palm trees, crabs, and rising tides, while [[NostalgiaLevel Leaf Cup has SNES Koopa Beach 2]] that lacks palm trees but still is in a beach setting, and the Battle Mode stage Palm Shore is on small tropical islands occasionally submerged by water.
160* PassThroughTheRings: The game requires the player to pass through rings in some stages of Mission Mode. And to earn the three-star rank, it's necessary to do this ''fast''.
161* PinballZone: Waluigi Pinball, which returned in ''7''. As its name suggests, the course takes place in giant Waluigi-themed pinball machine. The roads you travel are also traversed by the balls, and eventually you make it to the center of the machine, with bumpers, flippers, and ricocheting pinballs as obstacles. This track is also notable for its unique feature of having sound effects replaced with 8-bit pinball-sounding ones.
162* PlayerElimination: In the exclusive Shine Runners battle game, all players with the fewest Shine Sprites are eliminated from the game when the timer reaches zero. Then the timer is reset and the process continues until one player remains.
163* PortTown: Delfino Square, which takes place in a lively harbor town set in Isle Delfino. There's a drawbridge that opens and closes periodically.
164* ProlongedVideoGameSequel: Barring the case of ''Super Circuit'', which featured a total of 40 tracks (20 original plus all 20 from the original SNES game), it used to be a tradition for the games in the series to have either 16 or 20 racetracks and 4 battle courses. Not here, and not ever since. This game brought back the idea of NostalgiaLevel cups seen in ''Super Circuit'', this time including retro tracks from all of its predecessors, ramping the amount to 32 tracks and at least 6 battle courses. This has been a steady amount for the following games until ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' raised the bar even further.
165* RankInflation: If an A rank is not enough for you, try to get 1, 2, or 3 stars.
166* RecurringRiff: The game does this with a lot of its track themes using riffs from the title screen music.
167* RemilitarizedZone: Star Cup has Airship Fortress which, true to its name, harkens back to the [=SMB3=] Airship levels while also incorporating the Fortress motifs. It returns in ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' as a NostalgiaLevel.
168* {{Retcon}}: Peach and Yoshi returned to light weight from their middle weight status in ''Double Dash!!''[[note]]since this game's default roster was based on ''Mario Kart 64'''s, where Peach and Yoshi were lightweights[[/note]] before becoming middle weight again in ''Wii''. Waluigi is a JackOfAllStats here like he was in ''Double Dash!!''[[note]]though his vehicles lean on the heavy side[[/note]], before he was made heavy in ''Wii'' and ''8''.
169* ShiftingSandLand: Desert Hills, which is based on the desert levels from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' and features many of its original elements such as pyramids, Fire Snakes and the Angry Sun (Pokeys are present as well, but they weren't present in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' itself, so their presence here is credited to the desert levels from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' instead).
170* SinisterSentientSun: There is an [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 Angry Sun]] in the skies above the Desert Hills racetrack, and while it doesn't ram into the players like it did in it's debut game, it shoots hazardous fireballs at the racers.
171* SlippySlideyIceWorld: DK Pass as well as [=N64=] Frappe Snowland. In DK Pass, you traverse a snowy mountain large snowballs fall down, thus making the ascent part more dangerous (the descent is easier, as the snowy road is wider and there's more leeway to dodge them). Meanwhile, Frappe Snowland is similar to its [=N64=] counterpart: a snow land with snowmen and snow sculptures of Mario and Yoshi.
172* SpitefulAI: The game makes this worse with team races or battles. Because friendly fire applies, the AI on your team doesn't care WHO they hit as long as they hit someone with an item, even if it costs your team the whole game.
173* SpritePolygonMix: All items apart from the Fake Item Box and Shiny Blue Shell are sprites. In addition, a few course hazards are also sprites.
174* SteelDrumsAndSunshine: The game has steel drums in its melody for [[https://youtu.be/QDQZleFBa8g Cheep Cheep Beach]]. They're even more prominent in the updated ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' version.
175* {{Superboss}}: Giant Wiggler, the boss of the secret set of Mission Mode levels that is unlocked after earning at least one star in each of the regular missions. Due to its size, it runs incredibly fast, so you have to use the Star at all times to win the race (luckily, all Item Boxes have Stars and nothing else).
176* SuperTitle64Advance: This is the first game since 1997 to play it straight, as ''Super Circuit'' (GBA) and ''Double Dash!!'' (GCN) had averted it.
177* TankGoodness: Dry Bones' skill vehicle Dry Bomber looks like a tank: while it's one of the lightest cars, its acceleration is the best in the whole game.
178* TickTockTune: Tick Tock Clock's music incorporates a ticking motif to go along with its ClockworksArea setting, which is notable because the area originally averted the trope in its source material (''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', in which it merely reused the Slider theme). This is taken further in the rendition of the track in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8''.
179* TwoGirlsToATeam: Peach and Daisy are the only two female characters in the game. This is the first and last time this trope has appeared in the series.
180* VideoGamePerversityPotential: The game has a feature that lets players create an emblem to display on their karts throughout the game, including multi-player and online. Didn't take long for nearly every player to decorate the hood of their karts with breasts and penises. You could also change your profile name, which led to some "creative" names online. Nintendo was not impressed and removed this feature after this game.
181* WeirdSun: The Angry Sun appears as a background character in the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''-inspired Desert Hills course, shooting Fire Snakes onto the course to slow down the racers.
182* WhenTreesAttack: In the ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' track, the forest contains some trees that scoot about. They like creeping into the way of racers (making them more like trolling trees) but are otherwise harmless.

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