Monday 23 June 2008

Mario Kart Wii - how do you get 3 stars? (part 1)

Update: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

I've spent quite a lot of time playing Mario Kart over its many incarnations (from the Super Nintendo "Super Mario Kart" up to "Mario Kart DS"), and have been playing Mario Kart Wii for the past few months.
It took me a while, but I now have every character and kart unlocked, and the one remaining item is to get a 3 star rating on every Grand Prix. When you have a 3 star rating and play online, it shows up next to your name, so everyone can be in awe of you!

I've had a look around on the internet, and while there seem to be plenty of pages pointing out that you need to get 3 stars on every GP to get that ranking, there's very little information about how to actually do it. So, I'm hoping to put up a number of blog posts which will give you tips on how to go about it.

Marv's First Tip: practise.
As with many other games, you will get better and better as time goes on and you have played the same level over and over again.
If you have played through enough to win a gold cup in every Grand Prix, the chances are that you'll have a few one-star ratings (and perhaps the occasional two or three-star!). Now you need to build on those skills and keep playing the same tracks until you are fast enough to win every time. Make sure you are taking advantage of every shortcut (where appropriate - if it's off-road for too long, it might not be worth it) and using mini turbos at every opportunity. Use a lot of tricks, but only where you don't have to go too far out of your way to do them, or where you end up in the air for a long time unneccessarily.

Marv's Second Tip: choose a character and vehicle and stick with it
Find a character and kart (or bike) combination you like and stick with it for a while. The characters and karts are all different and mostly have advantages and disadvantages, but if you keep switching you may find it difficult to pull of that tricky-shortcut because you aren't used to the handling.

Marv's Third Tip: bikes are better
Bikes are probably going to make it easier to get 3 stars, because even though they are generally lighter and more easily knocked around, they can get a speed boost on dead straights, which karts cannot. My own character/kart combination is my Mii (medium-weight - roughly the ame as Mario) and the Mach Bike. This gives me a fairly low top speed, but it's pretty good off-road, and the acceleration is nice. It also has a good turning circle.
Ideally, acceleration shouldn't be an issue, but when you are playing a GP, as opposed to a Time Trial, you know that you will occasionally be hit by blue shells, red shells, Pow blocks, lightnings and so on - no matter how far ahead you get!

Marv's Fourth tip: turbo after spin out
This is of use mainly to those whose characters have low acceleration ratings. When you are spun out, or hit something and stop completely, you can get a turbo start. Hold the brake (/powerslide) button at the same time as the accelerator for a couple of seconds until you see the blue sparks; now let go of the brake and you'll turbo off at full speed!
If your vehicle has good acceleration anyway, you won't need to do this, and the one-or-two second delay will actually slow you down more (especially if you get spun out again while you are waiting). I find that with my combination (above), I do use it, but only occasionally.

More tips to follow soon...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

...... its so impossible.... =(

Marv said...

It's totally possible - don't give up! Are you following all 8 tips so far? I will post more soon.
Which Grand Prix is giving you trouble in particular? Concentrate on one until you get the triple stars...

Anonymous said...

Great post, looking forward to Part 3 :-)

Anonymous said...

Unlocked everything with a mix of 1 to 3 star ratings, next on the agenda was 3 star all the way.

Decided to start with a cup in 50cc and 3 star it to 150cc. 1st one to do was the leaf cup.

50cc Leaf Cup:
Start in 8th position - turbo start with wheely instant 1st place. Kept 1st position from then on for the entire 4 races. Did as many wheelies as I could and lapped comp on a couple of courses and got hit very little as I have a very defensive play [hanging shells etc].

Ranking - 2 Star!!!

I gave up then and there for 3 star as I know I could not have performed better.

On another note I got 3 star on my first ever attempt of mirror special cup!!! I thought I would be lucky if I got 'B' rating!

I've read somewhere that if you show resilience you will get higher ranking. So maybe playing too defensive in 1st place is not good, maybe get hit by some red shells... lol

Anonymous said...

one tip i find works very well in certain situations eg: waluigi stadium FIRST and SECOND corners.. also the third last turn in the course..
powerslide over the jump AND trick.. you get 2 boosts out of it and dont go way off course.
you can cut the corner pretty sharply using this trick and the right vehicle
and like i said, if done properly you dont go off course and bang a wall

on the third last turn in waluigi stadium you can do the same thing and turn sharply to avoid the mud right before the last jump

Anonymous said...

This is really helpful! I just got a two-star rating on 100cc Flower Cup, and I cant even get an A on Mirror. :(