This is the end of year World Records compilation for Mario Kart DS, 2024 edition. A special annual video created to recap the last 12 months of intense record-breaking and community effort. These records all take advantage of shortcuts and an advanced technique called PRB (Prolonged Rocket Boost) to achieve the best possible times.
All time trial records in this video compilation are legitimate and performed on real Nintendo DS/3DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay when setting these records.
The high quality recordings were made possible thanks to a modified version of DeSmuME developed by @mkdasher. Video tutorial and download link found here: youtu.be/0BxyA0sjqhg
Big thanks to @pikalex04 for the ripped menu graphics used during course introductions and to @Puddings for the final standings graphic at the end.
Aside from the video compilation, I have put together a DS save file containing all the world records seen in this video for you to race against! Link to download:
This is the end of year World Records compilation for Mario Kart DS, 2024 edition. A special annual video created to recap the last 12 months of intense record-breaking and community effort. These records all take advantage of shortcuts and an advanced technique called PRB (Prolonged Rocket Boost) to achieve the best possible times.
All time trial records in this video compilation are legitimate and performed on real Nintendo DS/3DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay when setting these records.
The high quality recordings were made possible thanks to a modified version of DeSmuME developed by @mkdasher. Video tutorial and download link found here: youtu.be/0BxyA0sjqhg
Big thanks to @pikalex04 for the ripped menu graphics used during course introductions and to @Puddings for the final standings graphic at the end.
Aside from the video compilation, I have put together a DS save file containing all the world records seen in this video for you to race against! Link to download:
This is the world record for the Flower Cup, 150cc Grand Prix mode in Mario Kart DS as of uploading. This run is IGT (In-Game Timed), which adds up times achieved using the in-game timer on the four tracks as opposed to using LiveSplit. So this can't really be compared to a 32 Tracks run.
Run comments: Achieved 18th of February, 2025. This is probably one of the most enjoyable cups to play and overall a pretty decent run. Desert Hills had some scuffed movement, Delfino Square had a minor mistake exiting the mud shortcut on lap 2 and I unfortunately got pushed at the start of Waluigi Pinball. Shroom Ridge was very good even with a Blue Shell trying to get in the way on lap 3. I think the future of this cup is to sandbag for triple Mushrooms at the start of Waluigi Pinball and go for the superbounce shortcut on at least 2 laps. But I'd need to practice a lot.
This is the world record for the Mushroom Cup, 150cc Grand Prix mode in Mario Kart DS as of uploading. This run is IGT (In-Game Timed), which adds up times achieved using the in-game timer on the four tracks as opposed to using LiveSplit. So this can't really be compared to a 32 Tracks run.
Run comments: Achieved 8th of November, 2023. This is a very difficult cup to run but thankfully the RNG was in my favour with only a banana hit on Cheep Cheep Beach and a Blue Shell which I managed to dodge on Luigi's Mansion. Playing with the ROB-BLS kart pays off because of its superior speed stat but getting hit with anything will basically cost you the run. It's got such slow acceleration. Anyway, this is a decent run considering it took me forever to get to the fourth race without getting shocked or messing up any of the driving. It can definitely drop below 5 minutes but I sadly don't have the patience for this cup. I've been trying to beat it on stream lately but I get hard done quite often. Maybe I'll return to it someday.
This is the world record for 32 Tracks in Mario Kart DS, as of uploading. Played on an original Nintendo DS and Mario Kart DS (NTSC-J) cartridge. Click here to see the leaderboard: speedrun.com/mkds
Run comments: Good run with minimal RNG interference, albeit it's only a 1 second improvement. The biggest time save is on Rainbow Road at around 10 seconds, so I will have to risk going for the loop shortcut two out of three laps. There are also precious seconds that add up across several other tracks which make up the difference needed to sub 52. Not much else to say other than I have to drive slightly better throughout and get the same kind of luck to get me over the line. If I persevere enough, the run is bound to fall from the sky someday.
#MarioKart #MKDS #MarioKartDSSNES Choco Island 2 World Record Lap 1 - MKDasher #mariokartds #mkds #mariokartmkdsabel2025-01-13 | Daily Mario Kart DS streams - watch live at twitch.tv/abel Join my Discord server: discord.gg/SqazEXJcJ2 Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mkdsabel
Ranked 3rd worldwide and European record as of uploading. I am the first person to sub 55 seconds using the Egg 1 without the use of PRB and also the first to break a barrier with this kart since August 2006. This is an incredible time with almost no mistakes - probably one of the sharpest time trial runs I've ever driven in Mario Kart DS by a mile. My best splits are 17.959, 18.382, 18.382 which give a 54.723. This would still be .003 shy off matching Beta's former WR which uses ROB-BLS. I guess I will move on to another track now and do more 32 Tracks/All Missions attempts.
Thanks to everyone who tuned in to my Twitch stream for hours and hours every day to watch me endlessly crumble on the final lap. I am really grateful for the continued support!
Played on real Nintendo DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay.
#mariokartds #mkds #mariokartCheep Cheep Beach World Record Lap 1 - MKDasher #mariokartds #mkds #mariokartmkdsabel2024-11-28 | Daily Mario Kart DS streams - watch live at twitch.tv/abel Join my Discord server: discord.gg/SqazEXJcJ2 Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mkdsabel
This is the world record for 32 Tracks in Mario Kart DS for 300cc, as of uploading. Played on a vanilla copy of the game running an Action Replay code which toggles 300cc.
Run comments: Achieved 2nd of April, 2024. This is a meme category. Can be fun to play but is extremely challenging to maintain your composure throughout and not fly out of bounds. Shroom Ridge, Rainbow Road and N64 Choco Mountain are particularly frustrating to race without making mistakes. And yes - the use of mini turbos is somehow slower when racing on this speed class, which is why you don't see me doing any.
Played on real Nintendo DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay.
Run comments: Achieved live on my Twitch stream. European record and 5th worldwide.
This has been an ultimate goal of mine – subbing 2'10 on 100cc and beating Rupa's run from 2012. Wario Stadium is by far my favourite track to race on 100cc. For disclosure, 100cc is the speed class the game uses for online play, so this category is also dubbed 'Wi-Fi strat'. It is similar to NITA ('No Item Time Attack') from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which also does not permit the use of Mushrooms. By default, the game's time trial mode is set to 150cc so an Action Replay code is required to toggle 100cc.
What can I say – I have dreamed of achieving this standard of play on Wario Stadium for over a decade. Considering it's a long and grueling 2-minute marathon of non-stop mini turbos and PRB, I am more than pleased with the end result. And although I am confident of knocking off another .1 or .2 to beat MiTi and Towa, I don't think it proves anything further for me.
This video is dedicated to one of my heroes in this game – Rupa. I have had the goal of beating his 2'09"681 for quite some time now and I wanted to use the same music he used in his original video as a tribute. Rupa currently works on Super Mario 64 DS TAS'es, check out his channel here: youtube.com/@keiki5364
Played on real Nintendo DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. Cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay are not used to gain an unfair advantage.
This is the world record for All Missions in Mario Kart DS, as of uploading. Played on an original Nintendo DS and Mario Kart DS (NTSC-J) cartridge. Click here to see the leaderboard: speedrun.com/mkds/?h=All_Missions&x=02qg44yd
Run comments: Achieved on the 18th of July, 2024. Capitalised over a horrendous 1 second improvement to the previous WR, which had a big mess up during the King Boo fight. But of course, in classic Abel fashion, I make another huge mistake in this run during 2-7 where I restart instead of exit the stage, which means I can save roughly over 7 seconds from that alone. This run is still however a nice 16 second cut!
#MarioKart #MKDS #MarioKartDSMario Kart DS World Championships 2024 - Short Trailermkdsabel2024-06-17 | The MKDS: World Championships is a Mario Kart DS online tournament open for anybody to join! More information in the full trailer: youtu.be/kGVei0iecoE
This custom track was created by @SuperGameCube and features in version 1.1.0 of CTGP Nitro (dshack.org/ctgp-n/). Extract from their website:
"CTGP Nitro is the biggest, most ambitious Mario Kart DS Rom Hack to date. Instead of replacing the existing tracks, it preserves the whole vanilla experience and adds new tracks, speedrunning quality of life improvements, online mode adjustments, new skins for characters and much more!"
Having played it on the N64 and Wii for years, it's pretty cool to now be able to do it in Mario Kart DS and develop a strat. Decent enough run although it can obviously be brought down to a 2'07 - maybe even further. For now it's obviously quite unoptimized. I was originally going for a flap hence why I shroomed on the first lap after those awkward stairs (only big downside about this port I think). It's almost certainly better to use the Mushroom in the grass area in laps 2 or 3, so I'll be doing that in future attempts. I also find it very difficult to fit in a second mini turbo on the bridge before the stairs jump due to a combination of the surface not allowing me to execute the blue and red sparks quickly enough and how narrow this section is in general. But it's possible - just difficult to do it every lap. The ROB-BLS is probably faster to use overall at some stage and I don't think it's any different nor harder compared to DS Bowser Castle.
Played on real Nintendo DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS community. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay.
This is the world record for All Missions in Mario Kart DS, as of uploading. Played on an original Nintendo DS and Mario Kart DS (NTSC-J) cartridge. Click here to see the leaderboard: speedrun.com/mkds/?h=All_Missions&x=02qg44yd
Run comments: Achieved on the 25th of January, 2024. Good run with tiny mistakes which added up. Any further improvement to this will require implementing much more advanced IL strats. It will be very hard from now on.
Played on real Nintendo DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay.
Date set: 18th of April, 2024 Previous WR: 17"525 by Matt Utter Twitch highlight: twitch.tv/videos/2123440694
Set live on stream. My first WR in 2024 which did not involve some kind of gimmick/shortcut discovery (and not counting that, it's the fifth I've hit this year!) Really pleased to get this, although it could sub 17"5 easily. The start was quite weak but what really won it against the ghost (17"528) was the corner coming into the shroom. Might try to improve this, might not - we'll see.
Played on real Nintendo DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay.
Date set: 14th of April, 2024 Previous 3lap WR: 1'51"186 by Stefan M
So the shortcut madness in Mario Kart DS has begun. Never in my wildest dreams did I think something like this would be possible. Luigi's Mansion and Delfino Square also have bounce-tech shortcuts, though they save nowhere near as much time as this one.
First to sub 1'52 and now first sub 1'51! Quite pleased with those feats though I now want to focus on the fast lap. This is only the third time I have hit this shortcut and it has culminated in a third WR. Great lap 1, albeit with a missed MT so it had flap WR potential. Good lap 2 but improvable lap 3 since I missed another MT near the end by the bumpers. It's very nerve-wracking to complete a run after hitting this shortcut. What a time to be a Mario Kart DS player.
Played on real Nintendo DS hardware - as verified by staff and community members from the Mario Kart DS Players' Page. There is no use of cheat codes, or external hardware such as an Action Replay.