History GuideDangIt / Racing

* ''VideoGame/TokyoXtremeRacer'':
** This became a ''series-defining trait'' starting with ''2''. That game introduced Wanderers, a type of opponent unaffiliated from any team and with very specific requirements to be faced (or bother showing up to begin with). Problem is, the games do not tell you explicitly what those requirements are, and some of them include things the average player might not be aware of they can do. It got ''worse'' in the ''Drift'' sub-series, where every opponent has one or more requirements that have to be met before they show up at the PA, including specific weather conditions. And no, those games also do not tell you what exactly you need to do. ''Import Tuner Challenge'' mercifully Averts the trope for the first time, since every opponent's profile, including Wanderers, contains information on when and where they'll show up, alongside any additional requirements.

* Some of the Wanderer opponents in the ''Shutokou Battle'' series (known as ''VideoGame/TokyoXtremeRacer'' and ''[[MarketBasedTitle Import Tuner Challenge]]'' outside of Japan) have requirements that are hinted at in their profiles, and finding the rest is absolute guesswork.
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* There are keys that unlock the bonus mini-games in each of the first four worlds of ''VideoGame/DiddyKongRacing''. The first one's out in the open, but the other three are in such ridiculous places that you pretty much have to look in a guide to find them (one word: drawbridge). To make matters worse, you ''have'' to beat all four mini-games in order to face the final boss! Gah!
* Games which have a checklist of objectives, like ''VideoGame/KirbyAirRide'', often do not tell you what the objectives are before you complete them. This leads to a few of the objectives becoming Guide Dang Its. In KAR's case, how would anyone guess to win a race on a certain track ''without touching the walls [[FakeDifficulty even once?]]'' Well, the game does reveal a few of the uncleared objectives when you start to clear them, but for most of them, they'll be completed without you knowing what they are or that you've completed them.

* In the SNES ''VideoGame/FZero'', there's one long jump on the White Land II course that you're pretty much guaranteed not to make unless you hold the down button on the D-pad to give your machine extra lift. But the manual only says that the D-pad is for steering, so you wouldn't think that ''down'' would do anything.
** Pretty much every sprite-based ''F-Zero'' suffers from a related issue - when your craft hits the ground after a jump, it bounces and loses speed, something that AI doesn't suffer from. Unless you press down on the D-pad as you land, which will make for a smoother touchdown. Pretty much the only hint for this in the entire series is a demo reel in ''GP Legend'' that uses the technique, but you have to be paying close attention and then consider what might actually control the pitch.

* Games which have a checklist of objectives, like ''VideoGane/KirbyAirRide'', often do not tell you what the objectives are before you complete them. This leads to a few of the objectives becoming Guide Dang Its. In KAR's case, how would anyone guess to win a race on a certain track ''without touching the walls [[FakeDifficulty even once?]]'' Well, the game does reveal a few of the uncleared objectives when you start to clear them, but for most of them, they'll be completed without you knowing what they are or that you've completed them.

* Games which have a checklist of objectives, like ''Franchise/{{Kirby}} Air Ride'', often do not tell you what the objectives are before you complete them. This leads to a few of the objectives becoming Guide Dang Its. In KAR's case, how would anyone guess to win a race on a certain track ''without touching the walls [[FakeDifficulty even once?]]'' Well, the game does reveal a few of the uncleared objectives when you start to clear them, but for most of them, they'll be completed without you knowing what they are or that you've completed them.

** Pretty much every sprite-based ''F-Zero'' suffers from a related issue - when your craft hits the ground after a jump, it bounces and loses speed, something that AI doesn't suffer from. Unless you press down on the D-pad as you land, which will make for a smoother touchdown. Pretty much the only hint for this in the entire series is a demo reel in ''GP Legend'' the uses the technique, but you have to be paying close attention and then consider what might actually control the pitch.

* In the SNES ''VideoGame/FZero'', there's one long jump on the White Land II course that you're pretty much guaranteed not to make unless you hold the down button on the D-pad to give your machine extra lift. But the manual only says that the D-pad is for steering, so you wouldn't think that ''down'' would do anything.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8 [[UpdatedRerelease Deluxe]]'' inexplicably hides LAN play functionality behind a code. (Go to the main menu, hold in L & R, then push in the left stick.) This isn't explained anywhere in game, but instead buried in the ''"Customer Support" page on Nintendo's website''.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8 [[UpdatedRerelease Deluxe]]'' inexplicably hides LAN play functionality behind a code. (Go to the main menu, hold in L & R, then push in the left stick.) This is never explained anywhere.

* Each character in ''VideoGame/MarioKart DS'' affects the karts' weight rating differently.

* There are keys that unlock the bonus mini-games in each of the first four worlds of ''DiddyKongRacing''. The first one's out in the open, but the other three are in such ridiculous places that you pretty much have to look in a guide to find them (one word: drawbridge). To make matters worse, you ''have'' to beat all four mini-games in order to face the final boss! Gah!

* Games which have a checklist of objectives, like ''{{Kirby}} Air Ride'', often do not tell you what the objectives are before you complete them. This leads to a few of the objectives becoming Guide Dang Its. In KAR's case, how would anyone guess to win a race on a certain track ''without touching the walls [[FakeDifficulty even once?]]'' Well, the game does reveal a few of the uncleared objectives when you start to clear them, but for most of them, they'll be completed without you knowing what they are or that you've completed them.

* Some of the Wanderer opponents in the ''Shutokou Battle'' series (known as ''VideoGame/TokyoXtremeRacer'' and ''[[MarketBasedTitle Import Tuner Challenge]]'' outside of Japan) have requirements that are hinted at in their profiles, and finding the rest is absolute guesswork.

* Some of the Wanderer opponents in the ''Shutokou Battle'' series (known as ''TokyoXtremeRacer'' and ''[[MarketBasedTitle Import Tuner Challenge]]'' outside of Japan) have requirements that are hinted at in their profiles, and finding the rest is absolute guesswork.

* Each character in ''VideoGame/MarioKart DS'' affects the karts' weight rating differently. Similarly, in ''Mario Kart Wii'', each character will provide small boosts to 2-4 of the seven stats, not just weight. The manual doesn't say anything about it, and you wouldn't notice it in-game unless you took a really close look at the stats.
** Or you saw the CharacterTiers. Funky Kong, Rosalina, Baby Daisy, Daisy, Luigi, Toadette, Dry Bowser...
*** ''Mario Kart 7'' repeats this not just for the characters, but for certain kart parts. Some parts can affect your mini-turbo duration, speed underwater, etc, but you wouldn't know by just looking at them.

** In ''Mario Kart Super Circuit'', unlocking the tracks from ''Super Mario Kart'' isn't extremely hard to do, but figuring out how to do it without a guide is. It requires beating every cup on an engine class (one engine class at a time, if preferred) and then going back through each cup again afterward and getting at least 100 coins.

* Some of the Wanderer opponents in the ''Shutokou Battle'' series (known as ''[[ Tokyo Xtreme Racer]]'' and ''[[MarketBasedTitle Import Tuner Challenge]]'' outside of Japan) have requirements that are hinted at in their profiles, and finding the rest is absolute guesswork.

* Some of the Wanderer opponents in the ''Shutokou Battle'' series (known as ''[[MarketBasedTitle Tokyo Xtreme Racer]]'' and ''[[MarketBasedTitle Import Tuner Challenge]]'' outside of Japan) have requirements that are hinted at in their profiles, and finding the rest is absolute guesswork.

* Each character in ''MarioKart DS'' affects the karts' weight rating differently. Similarly, in ''Mario Kart Wii'', each character will provide small boosts to 2-4 of the seven stats, not just weight. The manual doesn't say anything about it, and you wouldn't notice it in-game unless you took a really close look at the stats.