Worth it!!

I have been toying with the idea of buying component cables for my Wii to connect to my HDTV, rather then the standard AV Cables that the unit comes with. I have had several different packages in my had, whether it be from Best Buy, Target or GameStop, but never quite pulled the trigger.

One of my co-workers got the GameStop brand and said it was amazing the difference for many of his games. End of last week, I came across a deal on eBay that seem to good to be true. I got a pair for $6.99 Free Shipping. For $7, I was willing to take the chance.

They came in the mail yesterday, I tried them out on Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart.....

All I can say is... WOW!! Totally worth it, if you have a Wii and HDTV, get the component cables, makes the gaming experience so much better!

Slip stream past your opponents

Slip streaming your opponent allows you to pass by them in a boost like style.

What is Slip Streaming??? Its like drafting and sling shotting in NASCAR, drive your kart or bike directly behind your opponents until you see blue blue/green lines begin to appear. Stay behind for even longer and eventually you will get a kind of bubble around your kart or bike which will then let you zip past your opponents.

The slip stream then lasts for a few more seconds and is similar to having a boost. Be careful when using a light character and bike combo though, because hitting heavier characters can throw you off course. Also, slip stream boosts in weird places such as in tight corners and around ledges can get you in to trouble and having you boost when you don't need it....

Get back on your wheels quickly

There is nothing quite as irritating as getting bumped off the track or POW'd as you approach a jump and you slide off into an abyss. While good drivers stay clear of falling off tracks, there are certain times that it is inevitable and out of your control.

So the next question is, how do you minimize the effects of when you are unfairly removed from the track by your competitors??

When are being dropped back on the track by Lakitu (the cloud guy), hit & hold the acceleration button at the exact time you hit the track and you will get a nice turbo boost to help you get back to full speed and minimize time lost.

Good Racing!!

Mashing Buttons Locks in your Items Faster!

Have you ever been racing along, grabbed an item box, waiting for your item to lock in & get shot by a red shell before you get locked in??? Is the computer just trying to cheat you or do your competitors know something you don't?

Once you have picked up an item, repeatedly tapping the B or Left direction pad on the Wii wheel (left trigger on the Game Cube controller), will make locking in on the next item you get, much quicker. Careful not to press to many time or you fill deploy your new toy before you are ready. This is very useful if you know that one of your friends behind you has a Red Shell, or it could be useful for firing a shell quickly before the person in front of you locks in or if you think someone is about to win a race!

Hopefully you can surprise a few of your friends with this little trick!

Hoarding Item Boxes Helps

Typically you can drag one item (shell or banana, etc) behind you and have another up in your queue box upper left of you screen. When you hit items boxes it makes them disappear but you get no more items. You should still drive over them when you can....

It takes a bit for them to refresh, so by you grabbing it, that is one less item box for someone to grab behind you to get a bullet, star, red shells and all that goofy stuff. It will help you keep your lead. Also, if you are taking your normal fast line and grabbing the easiest ones, your fellow competitors may need to take wider corner or line, which will slow them down more to grab an item box.

You can also drop items behind you as you approach them to make room for new items, so you still keep the same number of items but not you have dropped some trash for them to work around or hit when trying to get their items. Often racers take similar lines, so you can throw them off by hoarding the easy boxes.

The only downside, is that Bananas & shells are good shields when dragged, if you drop a green shell and then end up with a fake dummy box, you lose your shield, so keep that in mind as you plan your item drop & grab strategy. Maybe it will help you keep the lead against your friends or gain you a few precious points on the WFC!

Beat The Game - Credits Roll - Why Wait?

When you finally beat the Lightning Cup and the credits start rolling, the peaceful mario music starts playing and it appears that you have to wait the 3-5 minutes or so for all the credits to roll, until it goes back to the main menu.


Some of us might go make a snack, or take some time to write a blog, maybe go outside and see the sun for 5 minutes...

However, if you just press the '+ button' on your wii remote, it skips through all the credits and brings you to the congratulations menu where your mii is standing there, then it shows what you opened such as a new kart or character. So to ensure you can continue right back into your Mario Kart playing just press +

Avoiding or Defending Against POW Blocks

Eluding or minimizing the effects of the POW Block is probably one of the best tricks you can master when racing WFC or Grand Prix mode, especially when you start to try to get Stars on 150cc or Mirror Mode Cups.

There are actually a few ways to defend against POW Block in Mario Kart Wii:

1. In automatic mode when using the wheel, by flicking the remote/wheel up on the third pound (or shaking it wildly after the second). You'll still spin out, but you'll keep your momentum, meaning you can stay in the race! The small blue shockwave that will appear under you will indicate that you've escaped.


2. Driving in manual mode on the 3rd pound, hit the right trigger with the game cube controller ('B' on the Wii Wheel) to hop off the ground. Note that you have to be moving to hop, otherwise your vehicle will try and reverse, because this button has two functions. What this essentially does, its make your character hop off the ground and therefore dodge the power of the POW.

The timing on the first two of these take a little while to master but it is definitely worth it!

3. You can also avoid the hit if you're in midair after launching off a ramp or other big jump. Note Anything that is off the ground when a POW hits will not be effected by it. So half pipe jumps, ramps, cannons, etc. There is not much skill to this, more luck of timing.

Learn these techniques and you will be winning many more races!

Lastly, I would like to recognize and welcome my new co-author Jacon (Jason). He will be helping me add fresh and frequent content on Mario Kart and other Wii titles.

Saturday Night Jetsetter

Friday night I was able to get stars on the 150cc Shell, Banana, and Leaf cups. I took one attempt at the Lightning Cup, failed and got tired. So Saturday night, I sat down determined to get that Star. On about my 3rd try with the combo of Funky Kong on the Flame Runner I got a 2 star score.




I actually used the Funky/Flame combo on all 150cc Retro cups except for the Banana, for that I raced Toadette on the Magikruiser bike. That combo seems to be best on off road, so it seems to good for that set of 4 tracks.


So at this point, I have at least one star on all the tracks I had raced, so I went on the WFC to see if I had a star next to my name. Nope!!! Guess I need to get stars on the Mirror cups as well. I got a single star on the Mushroom cup with Peach in the Super Blooper before I raced some friends in Regional WFC. Got my score up to around 6600 before bed.

Dry Bowser is Mine!!!!

Last night I finished getting stars on the 150cc Wii Cups, so last night I got the Star Cup in a single try and it took about a half dozen attempts at the Special Cup.

So my formula was the following for each Wii Cup Circuit:

Mushroom Cup - Diddy Kong with Mach Bike

Flower Cup - Peach with with Super Blooper

Star Cup - Mii with Super Blooper

Special Cup - Mii with Super Blooper

All this was with Automatic drift. Overall the bikes seem to be faster and I like to wheelie, but I was just getting pushed off the tracks too much with the bike, going with a quick kart seem to help with that respect. You can win and get stars with just about any character, this just worked for me.

So here is Dry Bowser, he is very bad ass looking and makes cool noises when you drive him. Now I just need to dig into the Retro 150CC cups, which I think are a little easier and open the Jetsetter. Then also I should have stars on all tracks that I have raced, so I then should have a star next to my name online. I have unlocked Mirror Mode but have not raced. I am resisting the temptation so that I can get the star rating and then just get one star at a time in Mirror Mode to preserve that ranking.

Automatic vs. Manual - Mario Kart Wii

This is probably one of the biggest question when it comes to serious Mario Kart drivers and one beginners actually ponder about when they first start racing. So what really is the difference & which is better?

Well, first off, manual and automatic have nothing to do with shifting, it actually refers to drifting. From what I understand, drifting has always been manual on previous Mario Kart, where you hold a button into a turn to create a drift until the sparks behind your kart change colors and you let go and get a speed burst. So new to Nintendo Wii is the Automatic drift, so Karts & Bikes automaticly drift into corners. From what I have read, Automatic turns and drifts a little better and faster to compensate for the lack of speed boosts, trying to make them somewhat equal.

You drift by holding the "B" or trigger on the back of the remote or wii wheel when going into and holding during a turn. First you will get blue sparks from kart & bikes, when you let go of B out of the turn, you will get a speed burst. For Karts, if you can hold the drift longer, you will get orange sparks and get an even bigger burst of speed. I think karts get that to make up for lack of speed bursts that bikes can get from wheelies.

The purists will tell you that Automatic is for "noobs" and beginners and that its no fun to drive in automatic and some automatic users will tell you there are just as good with Automatic when racing against manual racers.

For the most part, I have done most of my racing on Automatic setting. I have managed to unlock nearly all the staff ghosts and beat a few expert ghosts so far with Automatic (not spent much time doing so) and have an online WFC rating of 6400+ which is not great but respectable.

Its my opinion for all out speed, manual is faster, thus all but one world record comes from manual racres, Moonview Highway being the one exception. So if you are trying to really nail down time trials, manual will be the way to go in the long run.

As far as Grand Prix and WFC racing, I think Automatic can work very well. There are many more variables when playing with other players that may limit the benefits of manual and automatic may have some benefits, so try them out, use what works best for you!!

Below is a video of a guy somebody using their mii character in a wild wing kart on Luigi Circuit demonstrating the drift

Fun Wii Sports Bowling Trick

Just trying to add some variety the Mario Kart info, there will be plenty more Mario Kart info to come, don't' worry ;) This is to show you how to throw your bowling backwards and get a reaction from the crowd.

This especially fun when you have some friends over to show off a bit, you can roll your bowl backwards and make all the miis in the crowd jump, kind of fun. Below is a YouTube video of it


Basically you just let go of the trigger on your back swing and it should work for you, I was able to do it on my first try. Plus, it let's you re-throw, so you can show off during a game and it will not effect your scoring!

Racing Tricks & Tips for Mario Kart

So now you are racing, having fun, but trying to get a leg up in the Grand Prixs or on the WFC, here are a few trips to help you post more wins.

Get a Quick Boost from the Starting Line

Ever wondered how some players get a boost at the start of every race in Mario Kart Wii? By pressing and holding the accelerate button ("2" on the Wii remote) right when the number "2" on the countdown is disappearing, or watch his hand when its at about 11 o'clock position as he says 2.

Get a Boost After Returning from a Fall

In some cases, falling off the edge of a course in Mario Kart Wii can quickly send a player from first to last place. In order to make falls a little less painful to their position in a race, players can press the accelerate button ("2" on the Wii remote) at the exact moment they hit the ground upon returning to the course. This provides a temporary boost.

Do a Special Trick, Get a Temporary Boost

One of the best ways to the move to the front of the pack in Mario Kart Wii -- or to cut some seconds off one's Time Trial time -- is to do a special trick after any jump or bump in the road in Mario Kart Wii. This can be done by lifting up the Wii Wheel as one is going into mid-air. Special tricks aren't just for looks - they provide a temporary boost when one hits the ground.

Avoid Blue Shells

This is not that practical of a tip, because you rarely have a mushroom when in first. Blue shells (which cause the person in first place, and anyone around that player, to spin out of control) are one of the most annoying items in Mario Kart Wii. Fortunately, there is a solution -- if one is lucky enough to have a mushroom in his or her arsenal, using the mushroom at the exact moment before the blue shell would normally crush the player will allow the player to avoid the "dreaded blue shell." Also, if your time is right going though the cannons on a few of the boards can escape you from the shell as well. Another thing, sometimes you can slow down and let someone pass you and they will get hit or atleast get blown up by the explosion, so you share the pain.

Dodge POW Blocks

When players launch the "POW Block" power-up, most players will both spin out of control and lose their items. Though one will still lose items he or she does, one can prevent spinning out of control and thus losing speed by lifting up one's Wii controller (as if he or she were attempting a special trick) at the exact moment before the POW Block would normally hit the player.

Alternatively, those players in the middle of a long jump or a special trick will not be affected by the POW blocks.

Block Green and Red Shells

The people near the front of the pack get progressively worse power-ups -- generally, banana peels, green shells and red shells. However, one can use these weapons to his or her advantage by pressing and holding down the left or right direction button once one receives the power-up and, thus, dragging the weapon behind the kart or bike. This way, if one sends out a green or red shell at the player, the shell will be blocked.

Warning: Fake item boxes and bob-ombs can be dragged behind the player, but they do not block weapons. Instead, if the player is hit by a weapon, the player will then hit his own fake item box, or be blown up by her own bob-omb. You can also use the up or down button to throw most items forward or backwards.

Wipe out the Blooper's Ink

The blooper, one of the most annoying weapons originally introduced in Mario Kart DS and brought back in Mario Kart Wii, sprays ink on each player's vehicle, thus making it harder to see the screen. However, by activating a mushroom or hitting a boost in the road, one can wipe the ink off his or her screen.

Utilize these tips to dominate your friends!!!