Time Trials

Master Time Trials in Mario Kart DS! Learn how to set new records, save ghost data, and race against your best times or Nintendo's staff ghosts. Get the fastest times!

Alright, let's talk about Time Trials in Mario Kart DS! This is where you go head-to-head against the clock, all by yourself, to set the fastest time possible on any course. It's a great way to really learn a track inside and out. Before you start, you'll pick your character, your kart, and then choose a cup and the specific course you want to race. You'll also get a chance to mess with ghost data settings here. What's a ghost, you ask? It's basically a recording of your best performance on that course. Once you've saved a ghost, you can race against it next time you play, which is super helpful for improving! ### Ghost Menu When you're setting up your race, you'll see a few options for ghosts: * None: Simple enough, no ghost will appear. * My Ghost Data: This lets you race against your own personal best time. It's like having a shadow of your fastest self on the track! * Downloaded Ghost: If you had friends playing back in the day (or maybe you'll trade with someone now!), you could race against their ghost data. * Staff Ghost Data: These are ghosts set by Nintendo themselves, showing their best times. They're usually pretty tough to beat, but a great challenge! ### Screen Information and Saving Ghosts When you finally cross the finish line and set a new personal record, your kart's data is automatically saved as a ghost. If you have ghost data saved, you'll see it on the course with you. Pay attention to the Touch Screen – it shows you different routes your kart takes: * Blue route: This is your standard racing line. * Yellow route: This shows where you were drifting. * Red route: This indicates when you used a mini-turbo boost or hit a Dash Panel. * Mushroom icon: This pops up when you use a Dash Mushroom. Heads up! You won't be able to save your ghost data if your race takes way too long, or if your finished time isn't actually faster than the ghost data that's already loaded. So, keep those times tight! ### Saving Downloaded Ghosts For every course, you can save one player ghost for each new record you set. If there aren't any ghosts saved for a course, the Ghost Menu won't even show up. * You can save up to 32 of your own ghosts. Back in the day, you could also save up to 10 ghosts from friends via Nintendo WFC. * You only get to save one set of ghost data per track. Your absolute best record is saved as your own ghost data. If you were using Nintendo WFC, a friend's ghost data would overwrite yours, no matter which one was faster. Kind of a bummer, but that's how it worked!