I loved the original Diddy Kong Racing.  I played the darn game until I could 
get no more out of it.  Sure, it didn’t have the glitz and glam that Mario 
Kart 64 had, but it was an amazing experience that did new things in the 
racing genre that are still widely used today.  It’s been multiple years now, 
and now my beloved racer is taking another spin on the DS.  The features are 
obviously tailored to fit into this new system, but you know, that old 
adventure is still there, waiting to be uncovered by all who seek it.  So get 
your racing shoes on, we’ve got a long guide ahead of us.  Throughout this 
masterpiece (I use that term very lightly, but it has a nice ring to it), I 
intend to go over every race, every character, every item, and more.  By the 
end of this, you’ll have the know-how required to do everything this game has 
to offer.  By the end of this, I’ll have monkeys on the brain.  Want to trade?

Table of Contents
Section One: Game Basics
Section Two: Racing Tips for Tots
Section Three: Items?  Nah
Section Four: Racers Galore.  My Head Hurts…
Section Five: Main Walkthrough
A. Dino Domain
B: Snowflake Mountain
C: Sherbert Island
D: Dragon Forest
E: Final Boss Fun
F: Post Game and Space Pig…when will it ever end…
Section Six: Conclusion
Section Eight: Legal Information

Section One: Game Basics
------------------------

So you probably are opening your game up right now, or just reading this for 
the sake of reading it (nosy), but if you are playing it for the first time, 
you no doubt are wondering how to move things around and get where you need to 
go.  Well, this is the section that’s going to tell you it.  I came up with an 
amazingly complex name for it, but it basically means this is the section 
where I ramble on about the useless controls for the next five minutes.  
Believe me, this bored me more than it does you.  And I’m the one writing it.

Button Controls
A – Gas on your vehicle.  This is the standard button you’ll be holding for 
the duration of the game.  If you let go of it, your car stops.  That 
sometimes is a good thing, but who knows.

B – Brake on your vehicle.  It basically stops it full swing.  Nothing big, 
simple thing that you’ll very rarely use unless you overshoot the track five 
hundred times.  You never know.

X – Upgrade button.  The little instruction booklet contained in the game came 
up with a great name for it – the power up button.  Ooooooo…this basically 
upgrades your current weapon to some super powerful thing of death.

Y – Does this do something?  Nope.

L Button – Your weapon shooter thingy.

R – I have still yet to see what this is for.  Your horn?  Who cares.

Start: Pauses the game.  You should have known that before I had to waste 
three words on it.

Select: …

Touch Screen Controls
---------------------

In a sense, the only main uses you’ll be finding for the touch screen include 
chucking things.  You’ll use it more in touch screen challenges, but that’ll 
be discussed later in its appropriate section.  That, and if I discussed it 
here, you wouldn’t have anything to read in that section.  Back to the 
chucking.  You’ll mainly be using this feature in very rare instances, but to 
make Diddy Kong Racing DS look more touch screen friendly, the developers 
decided to make some things interactive, such as the frogs that you can chuck 
to unlock Cluck U Chicken (Drumstick).  Some Balloons require you to use this 
feature, but that, again, will be discussed later.

Now that the controls are out of the way, let’s go over some of the actual 
game basics.  In Diddy Kong Racing DS, your main task is to collect a bunch of 
Golden Balloons.  And no, they aren’t to throw some friend a party.  Think of 
these things as the game’s main form of completion, such as what stars were to 
Super Mario 64.  You’ll get Golden Balloons primarily from completing races in 
first place, but there are a couple of other small instances where you can 
pick a Golden Balloon or two up for free.  I’ll detail where you can find them 
later, so sit on it.

Another big thing that you’ll be collecting are coins.  Coins are one of the 
game’s new features, and you’ll be using this currency to purchase a myriad of 
things from Taji.  Coins can sometimes be pretty tough to come by, but after 
playing the game a couple of times, I found a very easy method how to collect 
a whole bunch of coins without much hassle.  First, you have to go to the 
game’s first area, Dino Domain.  The first race in the area, Ancient Lake, has 
about 20 or so coins littered throughout the track.  If you can manage to get 
a good character that can accelerate quickly, you can collect the first five 
or so that your opponents would otherwise get.  The race takes approximately 
three or so minutes, so in fifteen minutes, you’d have more then a hundred 
coins.  You can’t really do this trick in any other of the races, because to 
tell you the truth, the coins located on this track are in dead line with 
where you’ll be driving, meaning you can get them fairly easily without having 
to make many detours.  Rinse and repeat.

Moving on, I’m now going to just take a second to go over the main game 
progression, this way you really don’t have any questions as to how this game 
works.  You start out in the middle of the world map every time you play the 
game.  Going from there, you can go to the area you want and complete its 
races.  But wait!  In order to access an area, you first must collect the 
Golden Balloon requirements clearly printed on the door.  Once you do, you’ll 
be able to enter the area.  Once you’re inside, you’ll be in a hub.  This hub 
is your main access point to the game’s races.  In order to get in those 
races, though, you’ll need to collect a certain amount of Golden Balloons.  
The requirements (surprise!) are once again printed on the door.  After you 
beat every race in a given area, you can go whip the boss.  After you whip the 
boss (and give him a nice slap, as well), you’ll be able to go and replay the 
races in a special Balloon touch challenge.  Those will be discussed later.  
After that, you once again face the boss, collect the final prize, and leave 
this place for good.  Well, at least until you go for the trophy races.  I 
assure you, after that you can leave that place alone for good.  Maybe.

Finally, let me just take a quick second to explain vehicle upgrades.  
Upgrades can be purchased from the Taji’s shop, and for the most part, are a 
big help in your quest to save the world and turn Wizpig into bacon.  I love 
bacon.  I’ll go over much of the meaty stuff later on, but for now, all you 
need to know is that these upgrades make you stronger.  Even if they do look 
like crow.

Section Two: Racing Tips for Tots
---------------------------------

After reading that big section, you probably want to do one of two things.  
Either A, chuck a rock at me, or B, thank me for my hard, glorious work.  I 
vote A.  The following section will cover tips that I think will help you in 
your quest to beat the game.  This won’t be a long section (by now you 
probably hate them with a passion), but it will contain enough information to 
get you going before I go and ramble on about the characters for another 2,000 
words.  Enjoy your brief respite.

Now, the first thing that I usually do when I start a race is do a simple 
practice run.  You’re not doing this to win (although it would be nice), but 
to familiarize yourself with the overall course, possibly gain some insight as 
to how would be the best way to tackle it.  Scout the items that are 
available, learn which curves are where and how you’ll approach them, and find 
practically the easiest way to stay ahead without compromising time.  Trust 
me, you may not need it now (the AI gives new meaning to the word stupid), but 
eventually, when you go to tackle the trophy races, you will.  The AI all the 
sudden becomes god-like.  And that ain’t good.

Next, common sense says that if you are having problems with a certain course, 
it usually boils down to two, very simple things.  Either you’re screwing up 
on certain turns and need to get a bit better, or a new character is needed.  
The game doesn’t do anything to penalize you if you choose to switch 
characters, so if you need someone who can corner a bit better, choose it for 
the race.  If you’re doing long a straightway and can afford to lose a bit of 
turning, take a character with a high top speed.  Following this can save you 
a big amount of time, and to be quite honest, the less time you’re wasting on 
a single race, the more likely you are to finish the game.

Those last two things will help you get past a couple of the early courses, 
possibly making up for your stupidity errors until you can get to the place 
you need to be.  Now comes the tough part.  Once the game starts getting a bit 
harder (and you tackle the darn trophy races), you’ll find that just switching 
characters isn’t enough to make up for your errors.  This is where the 
following tips really come in handy, because just as they helped me, they can 
also help you.  First off, always make sure to drive in a straight line when 
you are tackling straight-aways.  Swerving detracts speed, and if it’s an 
instance where you can travel in a straight line, it’s really a waste unless 
you need to dodge something.  Good instances would be the long curve in Jungle 
Falls.  Players can easily just do a small loop without taking much speed off 
their speedometers.  Just remember, straight is great.

Secondly, you really, really, really need to learn when it’s a good time to 
use an item and when you should stock it.  If you by chance have a missile 
sitting in your bay, and know that there will be another coming up, save it 
for the power up.  If you have a good shot at someone who’s going to get away 
from you, shoot the darn thing and get another.  If there is a boost balloon 
sitting alone and you can take a shot and collect it, then collect it for the 
speed.

Thirdly, always try to ride the inside edges of the tracks.  Most of the time 
you can hit upon a relatively straight pathway if you just practice hitting 
the imaginary lines that hit each loop.  For instance, if your are about to 
hit a zig-zag in the road, go along the inside track of each zig, staying to 
the inside sides.  It’ll save you time, and possibly cut some opponents off in 
the process.

Four, learning when to take risks and when not to is a big part of any racing 
game.  If you aren’t sure you can hit someone with a missile, save it for when 
you have a clear shot.  Common sense says that if you don’t have the novelty 
of time, take a risk and hope you make contact.  At the very least, you aren’t 
losing anything.  It takes a bit of good judgment and timing to an extent, but 
if you can get it down, you won’t have a problem.

Five, it’s obvious that there are three vehicles in the game.  Each has a 
different way of boosting at the start of the game, and in order to get a good 
head start, I encourage you to make use of it.  I can understand that the car 
is a bit hard to get a boost on, but if you do quick, short swipes with the 
stylus, it’s easy enough to get the boost up to level three.  The hovercraft 
requires blowing, and again, it doesn’t take a huge breath to set it up.  The 
plane requires you to swirl the propeller around, and once again, short, quick 
swirls will be more then enough.  Don’t waste time on those big lopsided 
circles.  All you’re accomplishing is putting streaks in your touch screen.

Six, go red or blue.  Out of every balloon power up in the game, often times 
the only two that will really be of any assistance to you are the red and blue 
balloons.  Red contains rockets, which can slow people down, while blue 
contains boosts, which give you the ability to get its namesake.  The others 
are a bit hard to take advantage of, and while green does have its merits, you 
really, really should stick to things you can be sure of.

Section Three: Items?  Nah.
---------------------------

Any good racer will tell you that if you want to do well in this game, you’ll 
have to take advantage of the items.  To an extent, that is true in the later 
stages.  Worrying about using them in the early ones mean you need to go to an 
easier game.  I doubt you’ll find one.  The following paragraphs will go over 
the items that appear in the game, minus the upgrade ones.  Those I don’t 
consider “True” items, but that’s my personal opinion.

Red Balloons: These are your standard ammunition carriers.  Red Balloons 
always contain rockets, and they’ll be what you’ll primarily be using to slow 
down other racers.  Generally, it’s a safe bet to wait for the second Balloon, 
because after that you’ll land the almighty five rockets which can be 
spammed.  Horrifically.  I remember the days when I would unlock them for the 
battle maps and watch the computers shoot me to kingdom come.  Good times.  
Good times…anyway, it’s usually a good idea to play the corners with these 
things, because if you can catch someone swerving, they’ll be wide open to 
take the hit.  How do you dodge it?  Play the corners.  If you follow my 
advice and stick to the inside edges of the track, you’ll go out of view more 
quickly.  The less time they have to nail you, the better off you are.  Trust 
me.

First Balloon: One rocket.  Shoot it and move on or wait for a power up.
Second Balloon: Five rockets.  Definitely worth waiting for, spamming these 
things can put a quick end to any lead other racers have as long as you have a 
good shot.  Don’t be afraid to take as many shots as possible, five rockets is 
a big payload.
Third Balloon: Homing Rocket.  Three balloons is a rip-off for this thing, 
because in my opinion, it’s a complete waste.  Most of the time getting to 
three balloons in the first place can be a pretty daunting task, and by the 
time you get to the point where you can use it, you would have already passed 
several other balloons that could be of assistance to you.  To tell you the 
truth, this thing isn’t a sure shot either, so stick to the five rockets and 
move on.

Blue Balloons: These are your standard boost balloons.  You’ll not only be 
using these often to put distance between yourself and your opponents, but 
also to dodge the occasional rocket.  You see, when an opponent fires a 
rocket, they won’t be expecting you to jet out from your current position.  
Use that to your advantage.  Another thing that most people use these things 
for is snaking.  If you use one of these things to snake along bends, you can 
easily gain a boost and clear the turn without losing much speed.  That can be 
a big help, and it’s required in some of the later stages to get more then a 
couple seconds ahead of your current opponents.

First Balloon: Short Boost.  Your standard shoot boost, gives a bit less speed 
then a zipper.  I tend to just blow these on the first convenient turn, 
because the small upgrades that you get don’t truly stack until its last 
stage.  You can save them if you want, and in certain instances, such as races 
that stack these balloons, you’ll want to.
Second Balloon: Medium Boost.  Your standard medium boost.  Gives about the 
boost you’d get from a zipper, possibly a bit faster depending on the 
terrain.  These things can be nice to use, and the longer tenure of them may 
make them worth it if you can stack them relatively quickly.
Third Balloon: Long Boost.  Best boost in the game.  If you can stack for this 
in a short period of time, do it.  The boost from it will send you flying 
along, and you can easily clear turns without losing any speed whatsoever.

Green Balloons: In a sense, these are your trick and trap balloons.  They’re 
pretty useless if you need them right away, but if you have time to blow a 
lap, they could be your best friend.  You see, I generally consider these 
early race balloons.  Use them on your first and second lap, and then proceed 
to forget about them.  Your opponent should fly into them at some point, 
making them worth it.  I very rarely stack these things, because it’s 
basically useless unless you can get them in a very short time.  All of them, 
except the last, have practically the same effect.

First Balloon: Oil Slick.  Standard puddle.  Covers a good plot of land when 
you use it.  Make sure to throw these down on choke points, because they are 
easily seeable and thus avoidable unless you can put them in a really small 
area.
Second Balloon: Mine.  Standard blow up shot.  No big difference over level 
one.
Third Balloon: Bubble.  This thing is horrifically abuse-able.  It may not 
have a big area coverage, but when it does hit an opponent, it will drag them 
up and keep them there for extended periods of time.  Quite possibly the most 
broken weapon in the game.

Star Balloons: These are your typical gravity balloons.  They pull you into 
the nearest racer ahead of you, and because of that, they may or may not be of 
use to you depending on the point of the race you’re in.  If you’re in first, 
they are really useless.  They don’t do anything special, and I suggest you 
always pass them up.  If you are behind, it may be in your best interest to 
try and pick one up, although boosts still will serve you better for the 
cornering they can provide.

First Balloon: Weak Traction.  Pretty useless.  You have to be decently close 
to your opponent for this balloon to work, and it basically puts you right on 
top of them.  As you could guess, this opens you up to a rocket.  …
Second Balloon: Medium Traction.  A bit better then level one, still pretty 
bad on most accounts.  You can generally get a bit farther away when you use 
this one, and it does have a habit of letting you do a sling shot with it.
Third Balloon: This is the only one worth really using, because with it, you 
can basically sling shot yourself around your opponent for the quick getaway.  
Be warned, there is a split second of time when you’ll lose control with this, 
so try to angle yourself so you don’t hit a wall and defeat the purpose of 
using this in the first place.  Oh, and never use this on bridges.  Ever.

Rainbow Balloons: Ever wonder why there’s nothing that can protect you from 
those evil traps and homing missiles?  Well, there is.  Meet the Rainbow 
Balloons.  These babies put up a shield for you, allowing you to run through 
traps, be hit by rockets, or heck, even run into other racers – and not face 
the penalty from it.  Using these things you can easily blow through hordes of 
evil racers who would otherwise beat you up with their rockets, and you may be 
saved by this handy little balloon more than once.  Just remember – it does 
have a time limit.  More then once I’ve been nailed for overestimating the 
amount of time I’d have left from my shield.  It’s cost me more than one race, 
and it’ll do the same thing to you, too.  Haste makes waste.  I got that from 
a fortune cookie.

First Balloon: Short tenured shield.  It won’t last long, so only use it when 
you know you’re going to get nailed.  I generally save these things when I 
know they’ll be more in a short radius, because having a level one basically 
welcomes a rocket to the face unless you can count seconds.  I have never 
managed to get that science down.  And neither will you.
Second Balloon: Medium tenured shield.  Lasts a bit longer then level one, but 
not much.  This is the “Safe” shield to ride around in, since once you 
activate it you have an amount of time before it finishes.  Still, it’s pretty 
unpredictable, so yeah.
Third Balloon: Longest shield available.  You can safely go around in this and 
not be fearing it turning off on you.  Still, it’s pretty wise to consider 
only using it when you need to, because you can wind up getting nailed if you 
misjudge it.  Which will happen.  Trust me.

Now that we’ve covered all of the balloons available (and there were a lot, it 
hurt to write this.  Trust me…)I’ll just take a quick second to go over some 
of the other items that this game offers to players.  First off, every time 
you go to Taj’s tent you can buy different things with coins.  There isn’t 
much to say on any of it, and it’s all pretty self explanatory.  Figure it out 
yourself, even a monkey could do what it requires.  Next, throughout the 
course of the game you can buy certain upgrades for you vehicles.  I don’t 
really consider these items, so they’ll be discussed later on once I get 
around to writing that section.  With that out of the way, I’m happy to say 
this evil section is done.  For now.

Section Four: Racers Galore.  My Head Hurts…
--------------------------------------------

Since this game is about racing, you’ll obviously be having to race under the 
vise of an appalling mascot.  Fun.  Diddy Kong Racing DS offers eight 
characters at the start, each having their own strengths and weaknesses.  
Returning fans of the original will notice that the bear with a banjo and 
Conker are missing.  You can blame that on Rare and Nintendo bickering over 
legal matters again.  Microsoft, you really hurt me.  This is going to be a 
long section, but I guarantee it will be one of the most in-depth characters 
guides on the net.

Characters in Diddy Kong Racing DS are judges by three categories, those being 
Speed, Turning, and Acceleration.  I’ll be using * to give out what the game 
says, and then once I’m done with the pros and cons, plus a final opinion, 
I’ll give a score.  Personal opinion, meh.  Characters, as according to the 
game, are rated on a basis of five stars.  One being the lowest, five being 
the highest.  Not that hard, I think.

Pipsy the Rodent
Speed- *
Turning- *****
Acceleration- *****
Pros: Excellent turning and Acceleration, crow speed.  Pispy is one of those 
characters that will work wonderful for beginners.  Why?  Because she can 
afford to hit a wall and accelerate back up to top speed within a second or 
two.  Her top speed is pathetic, but being able to corner like she does makes 
up for it and more considering she can ride the inside of the tracks without 
many problems.  I personally picked Pipsy for some of the later stages that 
required a bunch of turns, because you don’t get much better than her.

Cons: She’s slow.  On levels with relatively little cornering, she’ll be dead 
weight.  Characters like Krunch basically outclass her in everything that she 
does when it’s a straight out race.  Good luck winning.  Another problem that 
I periodically have with her is surprisingly, her turning.  Due to its high 
level, the controls sometimes “Skid”, meaning that you’ll bend around the 
track when you try to make too tight of a turn.

Final Opinion: If you are willing to put up with her low top speed and 
inability to catch faster racers, Pipsy is a rodent from heaven.  Few other 
racers can really touch her on courses that require a bunch of turns, and with 
a bit of practice, you’ll often find yourself way ahead of the competition – 
even if she is slow.  Score – 3/5

Tiptup the Turtle
Speed- *
Turning- *****
Acceleration- *****
Pros: Tiptup is a male version of Pipsy.  Really.  Their stats are almost 
identical, and there are no big features that will separate these two racers.  
That being said, I find Tiptup to hydroplane a bit less then Pipsy, mainly 
because he tends to have a bit less turning. That actually winds up working 
better in the long run being as though you’ll avoid slipping, though, so it’s 
not like you’ll be losing too much.  He accelerates just as fast as Pipsy 
does, and you’ll often find that he’ll be just a bit faster then here.

Cons: Still has one of the worst top speeds in the game.  That extra speed 
over Pipsy isn’t enough to allow him to get away from the inside tracks, as 
that’s the main way you’ll be wanting to play him as unless you really feel 
comfortable against other racers.  Most people can still outrun him as long as 
they don’t crash, and that often leads to your losing unless you can find a 
way to stall them.

Final Opinion: Tiptup, much like Pipsy, is one of those characters that has to 
be played within the inside parts of the track.  He isn’t fast enough to pull 
ahead of people on straightaway parts of the tracks, and that can, and will, 
lead to his downfall.  He’s practically a clone of Pipsy minus the horrid 
slipping, so feel free to use him if you’re willing to once again put up with 
his slow speeds. 3.5/5

Diddy Kong the Chimp
Speed- **
Turning- ***
Acceleration- ***
Pros: Decent acceleration helps him to get ahead early, turning is okay 
considering his three star rating.  I find that the best thing you can do with 
him is to play the inside corners and hope you can get lucky with balloons; he 
really doesn’t have much else going for him.

Cons: Diddy is the mainstay of the game, as the title reflects, and you’d 
think that he’d be one of the best racers in it.  Wrong.  Diddy winds up being 
one of those average racers that you’d rather forget more than anything else.  
His stars kind of are a joke when compared to what he actually is – a decently 
slow racer who can’t make as quick of turns as the previously mentioned two 
racers.  It’d be one thing if his speed were a bit higher, but it’s not, and 
it just doesn’t compensate for his lack of other stats.  I’d really like to 
believe that he should have gotten a two star rating in turning, because 
you’ll find that unlike some of the other three star turners, he doesn’t have 
that key slide.

Final Opinions: I thought they screwed Diddy in this game.  No offense, but if 
you’re going to name a game after a certain character, at least make him 
average.  They didn’t even do that.  Slow speed and decently bad turning kill 
him, leaving other racers to easily mop up his sorry remains.  This character 
leaves me with one word: next.  2/5

Dixie Kong the Chimp/Monkey/Whatever
Speed- **
Turning- ***
Acceleration- ***
Pros: Much like Diddy, Dixie winds up being average.  Turning and Acceleration 
are passable, while most, if not all, the same strategies used for Diddy apply 
for her.  Stick to the corners and try to get ahead of other people by taking 
advantage of the abundance of balloons.  Most, if not all, of the Kong 
siblings rely on skill rather then raw stats to take them through to the top, 
so don’t expect much of her in anything.

Cons: Much like Diddy, Dixie is another one of those generic characters that 
fails to do anything special.  Unlike Diddy, Dixie winds up getting a bit 
better turning while sacrificing more in raw speed.  The tradeoff helps her a 
bit, but still not enough to suffice for everything else.

Final Opinions: Nothing really helps this poor chimp.  I find most of the 
Kongs to be utterly useless.  Give me back Conker and Banjo.  To tell you the 
truth, even they were bad.  Go figure.  Maybe in the next installment I can 
get a certain chicken.  2/5

Tiny Kong the Chimp…I’m running out of convenient names…
Speed- **
Turning- ***
Acceleration- ***
Pros: I’m starting to run out of things to say for these chimps.  Really.  I 
think I’ll save the paragraph and say read above to the other monkeys.  They 
all are the same, with all of the same abilities, traits, and other crow.  I 
find no use for any of them, so feel free to avoid them or run them off cliffs 
at your leisure.

Cons: Still cruddy.  Nothing special, complete waste of space.  I would have 
been more content if they just left all of the Kongs out.  Sure, they would 
have been blasted about not having enough racers, but they’d save themselves 
the agony of having to listen to people like myself complaining.  Tiny is a 
tiny portion of nothing, still slow, bad turning, and everything else.  I’d 
like to put this chimp as a one, but there are worse things ahead.

Final Opinions: Wait, did I just go over my final opinions in the last 
paragraph?  I must ramble too much.  Oh well.  Stay away from her, that’s 
about all I’ll say.  And eat donuts, they’re good.  2/5

Timber the Cougar/Lion/Ferocious Beast
Speed- ***
Turning- ***
Acceleration- ***
Pros: I think I see a bit of light after having to ramble on about the Kongs 
for I don’t know how many words.  Quite simply put, Timber is the best 
character in the game.  He rocks from start to finish, has excellent turning, 
top speeds, and acceleration.  Doesn’t get bounced around that much from the 
heavier racers, can corner with the best of them without hydroplaning at all.  
Summery?  You could put all of the Kongs together and they wouldn’t touch this 
dude.

Cons: I don’t think there are any, only thing I really have against him is his 
inability to truly keep up with the fastest racers in the game, but even that 
doesn’t merit much worry considering he makes up for that and more with his 
turning.  Just play safely and you won’t have many problems at all.  You can’t 
lose with this guy.

Final Opinions: I said it earlier, and I’ll say it again.  Nothing touches 
him.  He’s excellent for beginners to the series, great on Wifi, and can 
afford to take hits and run into other racers.  Play the corners with him and 
watch yourself overlap other racers without much hassle at all.  5/5

Bumper the Badger
Speed- ***
Turning- ***
Acceleration- **
Pros: Has passable turning, not much else worth mentioning.  You could 
consider this guy your below average racer who can’t do much at all.  I think 
I’ll pass up making Badger jokes for the time being, because it ain’t 
groundhog day yet.  Wait…badger…groundhog…oops.

Cons: Just when I think I saw a bit of light, they had to throw me back into 
the pit.  I got my hopes up after seeing Timber, and then they go and do 
this.  Those stars are complete jokes.  This guy starts off slow and doesn’t 
get any faster as the race progresses.  Turning isn’t nearly as good as it 
should be, and god forbid you bump into a wall, don’t expect to get back up to 
any good speeds within the time that you’d need to keep any lead whatsoever.  
Complete waste.  I can’t believed they dumped him down.

Final Opinions: Not as bad as the Kongs, but he still is bad.  Really bad.  I 
don’t think he should be used at all if you’re new to the game, and even if 
you are an experienced player, you’d better be really careful around those 
walls.  One small stop and you’re finished.  Literally.

Krunch the Crocodile/Alligator
Speed- ****
Turning- **
Acceleration- **
Pros: People tend to dislike Krunch due to his bad turning and slow 
acceleration.  I love him.  Not only is he the fastest racer in the game, he’s 
also one of the hardest to master.  If you can get a hang of him, you’ll 
quickly find out that with a bit of practice on turning, you’ll be one of the 
best.  Few can touch an excellent Krunch player, and if you can master him, 
you’ll be great, too.  As a quick warning – he’s only really meant for 
experienced players who can take advantage of the outside corners.  That’s his 
greatest strength – being able to ride the outside turns with his bad turning 
and still remain ahead due to his speed.  You can risk playing the inside, but 
I view it as a big risk due to his bad acceleration and sub-par turning.

Cons: Just like an Alligator/Crocodile in real life, Krunch does a horrific 
job when it comes to making solid turns.  It’s practically murder to expect 
this guy to ride the inside track and not be smashing into walls.  This is 
only magnified by his slow acceleration.  Some people view these two things as 
the tandem that destroys this racer.  And to an extent, they do.  If he were 
to have a bit higher acceleration, that would possibly cover up, to an extent 
at least, the turning.

Final Opinion: He’s the biggest risk racer that you’ll find in the game.  If 
you can master him and find a way to play the outside corners with skill, none 
can match him.  He very rarely will be passed by someone when going at top 
speeds, and as any skilled Krunch player will tell you, that’s when he’s most 
dangerous.  A strategy that most people find effective with him is to stock a 
boost balloon or two and when he comes to a corner, ride the outside and boost 
to get yourself back to the inside parts of the track.  You won’t lose much 
speed at all, and you’ll possibly save yourself a lot of heartache. 3/5

Section Five: Main Walkthrough
------------------------------

Well, you’ve finally made it.  It’s been a long road to get up to this point 
in the faq, and as the main walkthrough, it’s only about to get longer.  I 
have pages upon pages of notes taken from the game, filled with my personal 
observations and detailed corner trips.  

This portion of the guide will be split up into five sections, detailing each 
of the main worlds and finally the final boss race.  In each section I’ll take 
each race and do something like this:

Race Name: --
Balloons for Entry: --
Number of Laps --
Number of Competitions: --
TT Amulet: --
Strategy: --

Race name is obviously the name of the race, such as Fossil Canyon or Ancient 
Lake.  Balloons for Entry states how many Golden Balloons are needed to enter 
the particular race.  The number is printed on the door, but you know.  Number 
of laps is easy enough to understand.  Number of competitions indicate how 
many times you can enter the race for a Golden Balloon.  In most courses it’s 
two, one regular race and one balloon challenge, plus a trophy race for 
standings.  TT Amulet will only be included if the stage listed has a piece of 
it located inside.  The strategy section will be split up into three, clearly 
marked parts.  First Race, Balloon Challenge, and then finally Trophy Race.  
Once they are done, I’ll give a short concluding opinion of the track that 
will include my closing difficulty score.  Once again, it’ll be on a scale of 
1-5.  One being the lowest, five being the highest.  Not that hard, right?

Just to save myself a bit of time later on, I think I’ll take a moment to 
explain the Balloon Challenges.  After you beat the area’s boss and and or she 
gives you the go-ahead to start the challenges, the races will open again 
(they close after you beat them).  When you go to race in them, you’ll be 
getting a surprise.  Instead of the usual Silver Coin Challenges from the 
first game, you’ll get a gimmicky Golden Balloon Challenge that forces you to 
pop balloons with the stylus.  More often than not it’s a hazard, mainly 
because you are both popping the balloons and moving the screen around at the 
same time with the stylus.  Hopefully the notes I took will be enough to give 
you through.  They helped me out a bunch, because knowing where the balloons 
are is half the battle.

Finally, after you beat the boss for the second time and gain the Wizpig 
amulet piece from that area, a new series of races will open up.  These are 
the Trophy Races, and they all must be done at once if you wish to complete 
them.  It’s a one after another type of deal, and depending on where you 
finish, you’ll gain points.  Have the highest point total and you’ll win.  
Beat every one available in the game and you’ll unlock Future Fun Land, a 
place that I probably won’t be covering.  Something about saying that this is 
for the main game doesn’t stick with many people.  Oh well.

So, you’ve chosen your character and have talked to Taj a bit, now it’s time 
for your first race.  Oh boy, prepare for the colossal difficulty of racing an 
elephant.

Race Name: Taj Race One
Balloons for Entry: None
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Unlimited, although you can only get one balloon from 
it.
Strategy:  Good lord, this is probably the simplest race in the game.  You’re 
given a car to fool around in, and since Taj moves approximately two miles per 
year, you probably won’t be facing any difficulty whatsoever.  Take this 
chance to get accustomed to the controls, partially scouting a bunch of the 
inside loop of the island.  There’s nothing much really to mention about this, 
mainly because as long as you drive in a semi-straight line and follow the 
clearly marked path, you won’t have any problems.  I once thought it would be 
funny if I let him overlap me and see if I could catch him.  Guess who won.

Final Opinion: Simple, no chance of losing in this.  Get accustomed to the 
character you’ve chosen, the game makes you re-enter a race if you fail to 
take first place.  And that takes time.  Annoying time.  Difficulty – 1/5

After you’ve whipped the elephant around for a bit, he’ll cough up your first 
Golden Balloon.  There really aren’t any other places you can go unless you’re 
dead set about getting the little souvenirs located all over the place, but 
I’m lazy so I’ll worry about pointing those out later.  Till then, let’s go up 
the bridge to the first world, Dino Domain.  It takes only one balloon to 
enter.  What do you know.

Section A: Dino Domain
----------------------

Welcome to Dino Domain, land of the easy beginner courses that house big 
stuffed animal dinosaurs.  With the exception of Hot Top Volcano, every course 
in this area is done with a car.  Hot Top makes you fly through with a plane.  
We’ll get to that later, though.  For now, all you need to know is that there 
are four races in this area, with Tricky being the overriding boss.  I hope 
you enjoy easy land.  Really.

Race Name: Ancient Lake
Balloons for Entry: One/Six for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
TT Amulet: Yes
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: This is the first “True” race in the game.  Most people consider 
that Taj one a joke.  This one isn’t really that much harder, but being as 
though this is your first race with multiple racers to contend with, you may 
or may not be in for a slight culture shock.  Anyway, spin the wheel on the 
bottom of the touch screen to get a slight boost, and head straight along the 
curve.  After going on for a bit you’ll come up to a group of Blue and Red 
Balloons.  These are your first tastes of these babies, so feel free to take 
the one that strikes you fancy.  Depending on your character, you may want to 
take a Blue Balloon and stock it for a bit.  

After driving along the course you should see a zipper.  Take the zipper, but 
instead of following the track along the road, take a detour onto the grass 
and pick up your second Blue Balloon.  Use it to clear the grass, which should 
put you decently ahead of the other racers.  After driving along for about 
another four or five seconds you should come up to a rock formation.  Inside 
of it should be a Red Balloon on the left, a Blue Balloon in the middle, plus 
another Red Balloon on the right.  Outside of the formation is an upgrade 
token.  Swerve for it if you like, you can use it with the X button if you 
have an item to upgrade it.  Repeat this three times for the victory.

Balloon Challenge: This is still by far and away the easiest course on the 
circuit, even in the balloon challenge.  As soon as the course begins, notice 
the two balloons on the far right.  You’ll have to do a semi spin with the 
stylus to get them, but avoid turning all the way this way you can still come 
up in time to pop the others located squarely along the left inside track 
space.  Pop some more, and you should eventually come up to a point where the 
carpet will drag you right, this is the area where you have swerve right on 
the carpet to pop the balloons, and then immediately swerve back to hit the 
left ones before they go out of sight.  

You should come up to the ridge within a few seconds, that’s your queue to do 
a slight turn this way the balloon on the side of the ridge can be obtained 
without missing out on the ones located on the far side of the ridge. It can 
be a bit annoying, because this all happens incredibly quickly, but after 
that, it’s pretty smooth sailing for the rest of the way.  Just hit the ones 
in the bay, and you should be done.

Trophy Race: Bah, people are a bit faster now, but nothing that should worry 
you at all.  Stick to the corners, shoot anyone who gets in your way, and 
proceed to pick up an easy win.  That simple.

Final Opinion: Ancient Lake is one of those races that is too easy to really 
lose.  Everything in it is rudimentary at best, and it basically serves to 
introduce you to the game.  Don’t forget to pick up the TT Amulet key near the 
beginning of the track – it can be obtained by hitting the booster inside the 
stone ridge directly in front of the starting line.  Pretty hard to miss, 
really.  1/5

Race Name: Fossil Canyon
Balloons for Entry: Two/Seven for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Fossil Canyon is your second real race, and because of that, 
will also be one of the easiest to play.  This will be the first race to see 
the use of both Rainbow and Star Balloons, so keep a sharp eye for them as you 
go throughout the track.  Neither will really give you any help, as this is 
still a bit early to rely on them, but it’s a cool little thing to experiment 
with.  Now, as soon as the race starts you’ll want to take a slight curve for 
the inside track.  You’ll notice that it’s the far side when you’re done, but 
if you notice, there’s a small zipper located along the far side of the 
ridge.  When you hit it, make sure to take it at an angle this way you can 
clear the other racers without hitting any.  If you’re playing a character 
with low acceleration, it could be race finishing.  If not, hitting that 
zipper with a character like Krunch will be a real help to get up to full 
speeds quickly.  

There’s a green balloon located directly ahead, and if took the zipper in the 
way I described, you should be in perfect position to pick it up without 
having to swerve much at all.  Make sure to deploy it immediately, and keep 
heading straight.  Take the curve, and head directly ahead towards the lake.  
And no, I’m not going to make you jump off into it.  Wait…okay, be sure to 
jump off into it.  While you’re getting dry, notice the zipper right outside 
of it that can be taken to clear it and cut away that whole ledge of race 
track.  And you’re wet right now.  You should have stopped and listened to 
me.  Enter the temple and pick up the red balloon on the left.  Stock it, and 
keep going for another one soon after.  If anyone is in front of you, unload 
on them.  

When the track splits, be sure to take the left side.  It only contains a red 
balloon, but it’s much shorter in comparison and will put you far ahead of the 
other racers.  The finish line isn’t much farther ahead, so keep going on and 
this race is finished after three laps.

Balloon Challenge: Much like the last Balloon Challenge, this one has the 
potential to either be really easy or really hard.  I hope you make it easy.  
Right from the start just pop the ones that are on the far left and right 
sides, hitting these things at an angle ensure that you don’t have to swing 
backwards for it and potentially screw your race.  The carpet tends to swing 
around several times in this track, so be sure to get yourself in a semi-left 
centered view this way you can nail them without many problems at all.  The 
rest is pretty simple, just stick to the inside edges.  That’s where they 
stuck them.

Trophy Race: Still simple.  As before, racers are a bit faster now, but as 
long as you stay to the insides of the track, no problems should come about.

Final Opinion: Being the second true race in the game, Fossil Canyon is still 
very simple.  Just be sure to ride the insides and you won’t have any problems 
at all.  I wound up lapping some of the last place racers by the time I was 
done. 1/5

Race Name: Fossil Canyon
Balloons for Entry: Two/Seven for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Jungle Falls is your first true test of cornering.  Why do I say 
that?  Because it requires you on the first twist to make a turn that will 
either screw you up or allow you to get pretty far ahead of the competition.  
The race in itself is pretty simple, the track is only about 30 or so seconds 
long, so no problems should really come into play unless you run yourself off 
the bridge, at which point you really need to work on your driving skills.

Starting off, make sure to position yourself along the inside ridge of the 
track.  It ends up being the outside of the track when you really look at it, 
but there’s a zipper located along the outside ridge that when played right 
will put your far ahead of the other racers, much like last race.  You do not 
want to be bunched in with the other racers at the bridge, because that will 
lead to you getting shoved off if you aren’t careful, which could be race 
finishing.  Before the bridge you’ll have an opportunity to pick up either a 
Red Balloon on the left or Green Balloon on the right.  If you’re behind, take 
the Red one to shoot a rocket out to get someone out of your way.  If you’re 
in first, just take the green one and slow people down.  The temple is another 
tight place, so make sure to either be ahead or lag for a bit this way you 
don’t crash into someone.  Coming out of the temple you’ll see a zipper, make 
sure to hit it and either grab the Star Balloon on your left or dodge it for 
the next part.

Once you head down the hill, make sue to head for the dinosaur’s skull.  There 
is a zipper inside that will take you along the straightway inside, and 
barring that you don’t ram into something, the finish line is right ahead.  
Repeat three times and you’re the winner.

Balloon Challenge: Fossil Canyon tested your ability to swing the carpet 
around, Jungle Falls will test your perceptiveness.  Most of the balloons are 
in hard to see places, and that can and will lead to many blown opportunities 
to score the balloons necessary for gold.  Your margin of error is very slim, 
so take a practice run or two if you have to in order to clear the race.

Starting off, notice the two balloons on top.  Pop them immediately and swing 
left for the balloons along the crevice.  Make sure to pop the others as you 
swing around this way you don’t miss out.  If you do, restart.  After clearing 
the initial spurt of balloons at the beginning, pop as many as you can see in 
the next area before you enter.  There are some in the lake, as well as some 
on top of you.  Make sure to pop the ones on top of the temple, as well as 
hitting the one inside.  It’s a dead shot, but be careful not to hit the coin 
that’s in front of it instead.  As you leave the temple immediately pop the 
balloon on the bottom of you.  It’s extremely easy to miss, and you have about 
a second or so to hit it before you’d have to turn around for it.  As soon as 
you can pull up, make sure to hit the balloons on the stone structure on your 
left, then immediately hit the ones on your right before you have to swing 
around for them.  As you go back, the rest are in pretty plain sight – just be 
careful of the ones hidden in the last couple of bones.

Trophy Race: Still simple.  Stomp ‘em like you have in the last two races.  
Just be sure to be careful of the bridge, for some reason the racers love to 
push you off if they have the opportunity.

Final Opinion: Jungle Falls could be considered you first medium easy race.  
Some parts of it can be a bit challenging if you aren’t careful, so remember 
to take your time and work around the little errors you make.  It’s imperative 
to hit that first zipper at an angle this way you can be in position to hit 
the other one without having to swerve, so be sure to take your time and be 
careful of your surroundings.  2/5

Interlude
---------

So you’ve managed to clear the first three races, now you’re in a bit of a 
dilemma.  The next place, Hot Top Volcano, requires you to have five Golden 
Balloons.  You have three.  Where will you get that last balloon?  Well, you 
could always leave Dino Domain in search of other areas, or you could go five 
inches from the exiting point after leaving and talk to that fat elephant who 
pops up in front of you.  It seems that he wants to challenge you to another 
race, this time making you race him in your airplane.  And what do you know…
that’s what you’ll be using in Hot Top Volcano.  Lame excuse for random 
tutorial.  We need that balloon though…guess we have to take on the elephant.

Race Name: Fat Elephant…er…Taj Race Two
Balloons for Entry: Technically, four.
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Unlimited, although you can only get a Golden Balloon 
from him once.
Strategy: This is your first technical race in an air plane unless you managed 
to be smart and take on the next area before time, but you know how that 
goes.  At any rate, this is basically another one of those can’t lose races, 
because just like last time, Taj shows his inkling to want to sit there and do 
nothing.  Truly.  Just follow the conveniently placed race markers around the 
island and you’ll be fine.  As you’re going by, take note of the other racing 
locals you’ll be visiting soon.  Dino Domain is practically almost done (well, 
for me at least, at this point you’d still have to do the Balloon Races).  
Whatever.  After you once again tan this elephant he’ll cough up another 
Golden Balloon.  And what do you know, now it’s time to go to Hot Top 
Volcano.  Fun.

Race Name: Hot Top Volcano
Balloons for Entry: Five/Ten for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: This is your first true plane race, because like last time, no 
one in his or her right mind would count Taj’s challenge as a serious race.  
Bah.  Anyway, this is probably the only challenging course in Dino Domain, so 
beware.  Wait, is this even challenging?

Right when you start you’re greeted by a fork in the road.  The left side 
leads to two red on the bottom left and two blue on the bottom right.  The 
right side, which is unfortunately longer, leads to a power up coin.  Take the 
left side this lap, come back for that coin on another lap when things are a 
bit less crowded.  In the cave, make sure to take the right side.  The left 
side only gives you a coin, while the right will net you a Blue Balloon.  You 
see the obvious benefits from that.  You’ll come to a semi-short track area 
which will lead to a small indentation of rock.  You can either choose to take 
the outside path or cut some time with the inside one.  The outside will get 
you a red balloon, while the inside won’t cough up anything.  Just take the 
right, that extra time off can be infinitely helpful in your quest to separate 
yourself from the track.  Go longer on and you’ll come to a hill that bends 
up.  In the middle you’ll find a power up token, on the right a Blue Balloon, 
with the left netting you a Red.  Grab the Upgrade Token, swerve left for a 
zipper in the sky, and point downwards slightly for a Blue Balloon.

Keep heading out until you come up to a suspended ledge in the air.  See a Red 
and Blue Balloon grouping nearby.  Keep going and you should come up to a Dino 
walking along the path.  You can shoot it with a rocket, but it ain’t doing to 
do you any good to do so.  You’ll get a chance to shoot a prince soon enough.  
You should see a zipper in the air when you dodge the Dino.  Make sure to hit 
it on an angle this way it allows you to position yourself, point towards the 
Blue Balloon, use it, point yourself towards the top left, and shoot for the 
finish line.  Not that hard, right?  Repeat it three times.

Golden Balloon Challenge: This is probably one of the first races that you’ll 
be pressed to get balloons.  To put it lightly, they’re tough to get.  
Extremely tough.  The carpet will swerve right after the initial impass – make 
sure to pop the balloons on the left to avoid screwing up and having to swerve 
backwards.  That can make you miss the balloons located in the cave, so 
restart if you mess up.  As you leave, make sure to notice the balloons 
located on the ledges, plus the ones on the insides of the caves.  Probably 
the toughest part to get all the balloons will come in on the part where the 
Dino makes his appearance.  He can be blocking them, and you’ll have to do a 
semi-swing to avoid missing them and having to start over.  The rest are 
pretty easy to get, just be sure to hit the last one on top of the cave.

Trophy Race: This can definitely be a patience trying race unless you get 
incredibly lucky with the turns, because for once, the AI is smart enough to 
grab balloons and shoot you to kingdom come.  Be careful with the Dino Area, a 
simple swerve could mess you up big time if you’ve got a racer or two up your 
butt.  Luck be with you.

Final Opinions: Hot Top Volcano is probably the first semi-difficult race in 
the game.  There are enough turns, curves, and racing spots to put you out of 
commission quickly, and couple that with a semi-competent AI, and you might be 
in for some problems.  The Trophy Race can be a bit hard for this track, but 
as long as you play smart and stay to the corners, you shouldn’t be in too 
much trouble.  3/5

Interlude
---------

I technically don’t have to go over this for another race or so, but as long 
as I’m right before the boss, I might as well slip this in to save time.  What 
could it possibly be?  Whipping boy is back.  Only this time, he won’t be 
whipped so easily.

Race Name: Taj Race Four
Balloons for Entry: --
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Unlimited, although the Golden Balloon can only be 
collected once.
Strategy: Okay, I lied.  Taj is still a joke.  The only reason why this race 
may be a remote challenge to you is if the hovercraft controls screw you 
over.  And they may just do that.  The hovercraft in this game is incredibly 
hard to keep on a solid course, and turning with this thing can be absolute 
torture unless you plan to make the turn several seconds ahead of time, which 
makes you lose speed.  Just great.  To think that we’ll have to single-
handedly deal with several courses starring this vehicle.  Fun.  Anyway, Taj 
still doesn’t move at any speeds that will overly challenge you, and if you’ve 
managed to take down most of the races in Dino Domain, this won’t really pose 
that much of a threat to you.

Final Opinions: Joke.  Taj races, in general, are a joke.  I wish I could make 
jokes in real life, but alas, they elude me. 2/5


Boss Time
---------

Race Name: Boss Race One
Balloons for Entry: Complete All Main Races in Dino Domain/Complete All Golden 
Balloon Races in Dino Domain
Number of Laps: One
Number of Competitions: Two/plus a special touch challenge at the end.
Strategy: Below

Race One: Well, this is it.  Our first Boss Race.  By now you’re probably 
itching for a challenge, and to an extent, you may get one.  Tricky is a 
competent racer who can easily pull ahead of you if you aren’t careful, and if 
by any chance you manage to get under his feet, he’ll flatten you like a 
pancake and force you to drive slowly until you can un-flatten yourself.  The 
track is a bit different from the N64 version in the fact that the cheap 
course passing cave is no longer there, forcing you to run a fair race.  This 
might have scared some people, but unlike last time, there’s a little trick 
that can put you ahead of Tricky and keep you there for the duration of the 
race.  See the little Red Balloon located ahead of you?  Well, let Trick 
sprint ahead of you.  That’s right, don’t do a boost.  If you did it right, 
you should pick up the balloon the second he starts making a turn.  He won’t 
be far ahead of you, and to tell you the truth, you could probably pass him up 
if you stuck to the inside, but why waste a perfectly good chance to put a 
rocket up his hide when he’s going to run right in front of you?  Well, after 
you’ve landed one and he gets stopped, simply charge ahead of him, grab the 
Blue Balloon located a bit later in the track, use it, and start up the hill.  
You have to stay on the inside track here, because if you go to the outside 
you risk him catching up to you.  Just be careful of the trees, grab Blue 
Balloons as needed, and you should be fine.  Nothing really presents much of a 
challenge if you play smart.

Race Two:  Tricky’s back…and he still is as dumb as ever.  He’s a bit faster 
now, but the same strategy used before can still work perfectly.  He’ll just 
be closer to you, and if you aren’t smart enough to take the inside track, 
you’ll probably be flattened.  Luck be with you, it ain’t really that hard.

Race Three:  This really isn’t a “Race” per se, but it is a touch challenge 
that will net you 100 coins if you can complete it.  This race forces you to 
direct you racer with the stylus, while at the same time making you drive your 
racer along by swiping at the wheel located at the bottom.  It can be 
annoying, but as long as you direct your racer properly, you shouldn’t have 
many problems.  Heck, they basically made Tricky sit there for you.  That’s 
right, he moves just about as fast as Taj.  Well…maybe a bit faster.  You get 
the point, though.  I hope.

Interlude
---------

Well, you’ve finally beaten everything Dino Domain has to offer.  It’s been a 
long ride, but thankfully you can call that shiny piece of the Wizpig amulet 
your own.  Three more to go.  You have a couple of options as to where you 
want to trek off to, but for the sake of this being a guide that doesn’t force 
you to go in fifty thousand different directions, we’ll be heading off to 
Snowflake Mountain.  The number of Golden Balloons needed for entrance is a 
paltry two, but with your completion of Dino Domain, you should have about 13-
15.  Not bad, eh?  Anyway, Snowflake Mountain can be reached by taking the 
airplane up that snowy log on located in the central hub and racing along to 
the door.  Well, better get a jacket on.  It’s going to be a cold…well, ride.  
Whatever.

Section B: Snowflake Mountain
-----------------------------

Snowflake Mountain will feature some tough races, but there’s no need to panic 
too much.  You’ll wind up spending a race riding in a plane, but the rest are 
in the car.  The exception is the boss race, which will feature you riding 
around in that blasted hovercraft.  …  Anyway, I’d like to say that you should 
spend anywhere between a half hour to an hour clearing this place, while I’ll 
spend about three writing everything up.  Fun.  Well, for you at least.  I’m 
just the faq boy.

Race Name: Everfrost Peak
Balloons for Entry: Two/Ten for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Ah, the fresh alpine sent is in the air.  This race is notably 
played in a plane, and unlike your last outing in a volcano, this one will be 
a bit chillier.  Anyway, you’ll find this place to be a bit easier then Hot 
Top, mainly because A, it’s a beginner course (they’ll all be easy barring any 
hovercraft problems), and B, the plane is most notably one of the easiest 
vehicles to control in the game.  So if you lose, well, you don’t have my 
sympathy.  Maybe.  It depends on how bad you lose.

First off, I want to say that this is the first race we’re you’ll start to see 
other racers using upgrades.  Not to point anyone out, but Dixie is the prime 
candidate for it in Snowflake Mountain.  Because of that, you’ll find her 
often up your butt.  She’s faster then you unless your Krunch, at which point 
she’s much more maneuverable.  How do you win?  Nail her with rockets early, 
plus hit the zippers.  Anyway, starting of you’ll want to take the inside 
track for a Blue Balloon, and while it may be a bit hard for you to work with 
at first, you’ll find yourself in prime position to hit the zipper straight 
ahead on the ground.

Once you’ve managed to pull yourself up, notice the Red and Blue Balloons on 
the side of you.  Take the Blue one, because we don’t need the Red one at the 
moment.  If you haven’t used your other Blue one yet, you should have two.  
Take the inside track of the next turn, and you should see an upgrade coin.  
Get it now, because most likely it will be long gone by your next lap.  
Another can be found under the ridge a bit ahead of you, but that shouldn’t be 
necessary to grab at the moment because the AI never makes the other players 
grab it early.  After clearing the ridge, fly past the two Red Balloons and 
grab the Blue Balloons on the outer corners.  Use your triple boost to propel 
you into the cave, aiming for the ground.  Unless you have the boost, it’ll 
cost you a bunch of time to hit the next zipper on the ground.  Once you do, 
pull up to hit the zipper in the sky, then descend again for another on the 
ground.

As you approach the split in the track, note that if you want a Red Balloon, 
you’ll have to take the left.  Right will net you a Blue Balloon, and is the 
suggested path that you take.  As you approach the ledge make sure to pull 
down for a zipper, and that should be it for this track.  There are one or two 
more Balloons scattered about, but nothing that groundbreaking.  Complete 
three times for the win.

Balloon Challenge: This place is absolutely evil when it comes to hiding 
Balloons from you, because as you’ll soon see, there are more then enough of 
them hidden in the mountains out of your plain view.  How do you get around 
this?  Keep your camera tilted in a way that allows it to take a full 360 when 
necessary.  If you need to point up, point up.  If you need to point down, 
point down.  Watch out for the Balloons hidden behind the trees, because they 
are extremely easy to miss if you don’t pay much attention to them, and that 
can be a real problem.

Trophy Race: Most of the animals now have little toys attached to their 
vehicles, making this a slight nightmare unless you do what I always tell you 
to do and that’s sticking to the inside corners.  Trust me, it will save you 
much heartache to simply stick to that formula.  Nothing will be able to touch 
you, and as long as you play smart and hit the zippers, you’ll be fine.  The 
AI in this game is still dumb, even with enhancements.  And that’s when you 
really have to think about why they did what they did to it.

Final Opinions: Everfrost Peak is a decently fun stage that manages to get 
what it needs to get done easily enough.  It’s still not that hard, but it’s a 
nice little jump from what you’re used to from Dino Domain.  Is there more to 
come?  Trust me, there’s more.  Although I don’t know how much good it’s gonna 
do you to wait. 2/5

Race Name: Walrus Cove
Balloons for Entry: Three/Eleven for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Surprisingly, this is one of my favorite courses in the game.  I 
don’t know why, I think it’s partially because of the music.  And that big 
loop.  And the bouncing chickens.  Wait…wrong game.  Scrap that last 
paragraph.  My bad…well…moving along…all right, I have chickens on the brain.  
That and I’ve been writing now for more hours then I care to mention.  Social 
life…Diddy Kong Racing…I can’t decide…darn it.

Anyway, starting the race you’ll want to head along the inside curve.  You’ll 
see a mild grouping of balloons coming up.  Blue are on outside, Star on the 
inside.  Take a Blue Balloon, and approach the gigantic loop from the left 
side.  You’ll want to come off of it taking a slight curve, because if you 
don’t, you’ll most likely miss the zipper located along the back right side 
just out of your view?  You’re probably happy that I told you that.  You 
should come out of the cave within a second or two, at which point you’ll be 
up to a strip of track.  

There’s a zipper located on your right, followed by another one on your left.  
It’s farther down the strip, so make sure to swerve slightly for it when you 
boost.  Take the last one on your right, approach the curve and take the 
outside track on your left.  You’ll basically walk into an upgrade token, 
which will then set you up for a zipper.  There’s a Red Balloon located on the 
hill once you hit to the zags.  Make sure to play along the corners, and it’s 
easy to get a rocket up your hide in here if you aren’t careful.

After you come out of that turn, make sure to be careful of the ice.  If you 
touch it, you’ll bounce and lose all of your speed.  Most cars can jump the 
cracks pretty easy.  Once you pass that area, take the left side once you hit 
the area where the track splits for a Rainbow Balloon and a zipper.  This is a 
much shorter route.  Repeat three times for the victory, not that it really 
matters that much.

Balloon Challenge: Fun.  That’s the one word that I could think up for this 
challenge.  Well, if annoying Golden Balloon popping and screen swiping are in 
your definition of fun.  Darn it.  Anyway, there are balloons located along 
most of the outer cracks and edges, and if you aren’t careful, you’ll probably 
miss the lot of them.  Make sure to keep your camera in a tilted position at 
all times, because you’ll want to be able to do the wide turns that are 
necessary to grab the balloons evilly hidden behind the trees.  I wound up 
having to do this several times to get it into my head where the last balloon 
was.  Don’t make my mistakes.

Trophy Races: Ah, Dixie’s the worst problem this track has to offer, 
everything else isn’t much of a problem.  Just stay to the inside parts of the 
track, hit the zippers, and you’ll be fine.  If you’re smart, you’ll grab the 
Blue Balloons and boost along the crack to prevent your bouncing.  It’s tough 
to come back from a screw up like that.

Final Opinions: Still not that hard, but you can tell the game is starting to 
heat up.  If you’re having problems here, it’s either because you’re not 
taking the corners or you’re messing up on the ice.  Everything else isn’t 
that bad, and with a bit of luck, you should be able to ace this place in 
little time at all.  2/5

Race Name: Snowball Valley
Balloons for Entry: Six/Fourteen for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Besides the fact that you’d most likely have to finish most of 
Dino Domain if you haven’t already to access this place, Snowball Valley is a 
decently fun course.  It features a bevy of turns, tricks, and traps to throw 
you off and allow the other racers to get by you.  At the end waits a perilous 
stretch where only the most foolhardy will tread.  Wait…scratch that last 
point.

Starting off the race is a small strip of regular track that will lead up to a 
junction.  Do yourself a favor and take the right side in the first lap.  It 
may be a longer alternative to the left side, which you will be forced to take 
in later laps, but it contains an Upgrade Token near the jump after you’ve 
maneuvered around the turns.  There are Red and Green Balloons near the 
entrance to the right junction.  Anyway, after you’ve collected the token and 
taken the right turn, you’ll be in the air for a bit.  That’s right, it’s a 
jump.  Make sure to point downwards on your DS Pad this way you don’t hang in 
the air for too long – the opponents have a nasty habit of getting down there 
pretty quickly.

After you’ve fallen down you’ll be on a slight curve along the track.  Take 
the right inside track, which has a zipper kindly located right along its 
base.  The developers seem to reward good racing.  You have an option when you 
get up to pick up either a Blue Balloon or a Shield Balloon.  It’d usually 
make sense for you to go for the Blue Balloon, simply because if you have been 
following my advice and have been stocking them, you should be in fine 
position to go and blast through the open plain with minimal problems.  Which 
brings us to the next portion of the track.  You generally won’t be in this 
part long if you’ve gotten three Blue Balloons, but if you’re cruising by with 
a shield, you can pick up more Blue Balloons and an upgrade token on your 
right.  Just be careful – there are snowball rolling around ready to crush you.

After you’ve entered the giant igloo, make sure to pick up either a Red 
Balloon on your outside or a Blue Balloon on the inside. Doesn’t really matter 
either way.  After that it’s a simple blast to the finish line.

Balloon Challenge: From this point on I don’t intend to go heavily in-depth on 
the Balloon Challenges, mainly because by the time you’ve gotten to this 
point, you’ve been given a heavy course analysis.  I will be going over 
highlights, so keep sharp. Anyway, this place, in all senses of the word, is a 
literal heck.  Balloons are all over the place, there are several areas where 
they are easily miss-able, and to make matters worse, a couple of them require 
you to make split second turns that are easily botched.  How do you get past 
it?  Center your camera on an angle.  Most of the balloons follow a pattern 
that is easily seeable apart from some of the later ones, and if you are 
perceptive of your environment, you won’t have many problems.  This place can 
be a heck – if you make it one.

Anyway, starting off make sure to hit the Balloons that are placed on the 
impasse in front of you.  There are some on the left, and a bunch of the 
right.  Make sure to hit the ones on the left as soon as possible, because 
spinning to the right to catch the others can be a pain in the butt.  There 
are a few more scattered on the next corner straight, none that are not that 
hard to pop, however.  After you make the jump, make sure to hit the ones that 
are around the trees.  The carpet make a kind of zag, so you’re given a good 
amount of time.  After you make it out of the house, be sure to turn around.  
There are some scattered on the roof, and they can screw you over.  Otherwise, 
everything else is in plain sight, just a bit hard to hit.

Trophy Race: Characters are faster, hit harder, and can make your life 
miserable if you wind up screwing up in the impasse.  Make sure to hit the 
zippers, and take the left route at the beginning to give you a good lead.  
Remember, triple Blue Balloon will get you through.

Final Opinions: Snowball Valley is yet another one of those courses that can 
be annoying if you don’t bother to follow simple guidelines.  If you do follow 
them, you won’t have a problem.  Racers are starting to upgrade, so now’s a 
good time to start looking into buying them yourself.  Focus mainly on what 
your character is lacking, and if you’re not attached to anything in 
particular, go with speed.  The faster you are, the better. 2.5/5

Race Name: Frosty Village
Balloons for Entry: Nine/16 for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Please make a mental note to finish Dino Domain before coming 
here.  If you’ve been following my guide, you should have already.  If not, 
well, you won’t be able to get in here.  See, that’s why you should follow my 
guide.  Duh.  Frosty Village is a decently challenging course for a world 
ender, and I suggest that you really work on your cornering here.  This is a 
great place to work on it, because many of the turns located within have that 
zing that you’ll be facing soon enough (we still have a world before you have 
to worry.  Let me take that back, you have one world where turning is nearly 
impossible, then we get back to the car).

So as soon as you get that beautiful start signal of go, boost off and head 
for the first turn.  You’ll want to take the outside portion to line yourself 
up for the zipper located squarely in the middle of the tunnel exit, because 
trust me, if you don’t, you’ll have a tough time hitting it.  Just a note – at 
the entrance of the cave you’ll be able to pick up a Blue Balloon.  Save it 
for the time being, because you’ll want the double boost coming off of the 
zipper.  After you do hit the zipper you’ll be greeted by a fairly large 
outside area.  I know you may be tempted to go straight for the Balloons, but 
please just take the inside portion of the land formation and head for the 
cave.  There’s an upgrade token located inside after you go on for a bit, plus 
a zipper on your left if you swerve a bit.  This is the ideal place to 
practice your cornering.  

After you’ve finished the cave you’ll be greeted by a set of Balloons.  Take a 
green one, immediately lay it down, and take an immediate right.  Why right?  
The track may look straight, but if you take the right turn off track you’ll 
be on a short cut that will allow you to cut off much of the track.  There are 
several zippers in that straight pathway, plus a Star Balloon to get you back 
on the track if anyone is in front of you.  Head into the tunnel to meet a 
zipper.  It’s a short tunnel, so you’ll see the zipper almost instantly after 
you leave.  There’s an upgrade token on your left.  After you’ve cleared the 
next short cave, it’s a simple gallop to the finish line.  Just make sure to 
hit the zipper on your right – it’s easy to miss.

Golden Balloon Challenge: More balloon fun.  This is the final Golden Balloon 
Challenge of this world, and if you’ve been keeping pace with this guide, your 
next track in line (I cover races together on a particular track, but if 
you’re going by Golden Balloon Challenges, all races are in order.  So say we 
started off with Everfrost Peak.  It would then be Walrus Cove and in the 
order I did it).  Anyway, this track isn’t particularly hard for a final 
track, just a bit annoying if you lose your bearings early.  There are a 
couple of Golden Balloons from the get-go that you’ll have to hit, plus some 
scattered in the arch of the cave.  As you leave and start that big valley, 
notice the Balloons in that giant bridge, plus the few that are scattered in 
the housing area.  They aren’t that hard to hit, and you should be able to get 
yourself ready for the cave in more then enough time.  After you’ve entered 
the cave, make sure to hit the Balloons as quickly as possible.  For some 
reason or another the carpet speeds up when you enter it, and it can be tough 
to hit everything if you go on lollygagging.  I know some of you do, but 
that’s a different story.

After you’ve left and entered that long straight of track, you’ll notice that 
the carpet swerves around several times before finishing up and heading into 
the next area.  That’s your queue  to be smart and look around for any 
balloons scattered around hidden.  You’ll have a decent amount of time to do 
so, just be sure to look around in the trees for any that are placed behind 
them, plus some behind the light poles.  There are a few scattered near the 
cave.  When the carpet’s done zagging around, it’ll take the shortcut that was 
described earlier.  It’s not that hard to see, and you should really have that 
hard of a time hitting it.  Just make sure to pay attention since the carpet 
has a bad habit of speeding up when you least expect it.  When you’re finished 
with the area you’ll be introduced with the final portion of the track.  The 
balloons are in plain sight, just make sure to hit the ones in that final cave.

Trophy Race: Characters now have upgrades, you’d be wise to take the corners 
whenever possible.  Hitting the zippers is a literal must, because of you 
don’t, you’ll find the extra speed that the other characters have gained may 
be a bit too much for you to handle.  Remember, take the shortcut once you 
reach that long stretch of track.  It cuts off a huge portion, which is about 
5-6 seconds.

Final Opinions: Things are getting harder.  As a final race in a world, you’d 
expect this race to test what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown from it.  
Frosty Village does and more while holding true to that learning curve that 
makes this game easy.  I still think that you shouldn’t have any immense 
problems with this, mainly because you still are racing in the car, while 
zippers are abundant enough to give you a good lead. 2.75/5

Boss Race
---------

Well, you’ve finally managed to take down the races in Snowflake Mountain, now 
it’s time to test you meddle against someone who will make your life 
miserable.  Normally, this race wouldn’t be that big of a challenge.  It’s a 
pretty straightforward track, no big turns, no tough obstacles to cross.  But 
there is a catch.  Instead of doing this in a car or plane, you’ll have to 
race in the hovercraft.  This thing controls like a drunk, and maneuvering 
around the caves and other obstacles that normally wouldn’t be a problem 
become annoying at best.  Unlike other bosses, Mr. Walrus doesn’t be a cheat 
and race out ahead of you, but he’ll catch you quickly enough and probably 
keep the lead for the duration of the race unless you can get incredibly lucky 
at some point.  If you’re behind, I wouldn’t worry too much.  The final 
portion of the track is a downward slope that allows you to speed up a bit, 
and that’s the main time when you’ll be able to close the gap.

Race Name: Walrus Boss
Balloons for Entry: Complete Regular Races/Complete Golden Balloon Challenge 
Races
Number of Laps: One
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a special touch challenge at the end.
Strategy: Below

First Race: Well, make sure to blow on your DS to get that nice boost at the 
beginning.  Without it, he’ll catch you before you hit the tunnel – or most 
likely overtake you in it and flatten you, which is even worse.  Make sure to 
swerve right for the Blue Balloon, and don’t use it until you actually are in 
the tunnel.  To make turning a bit easier, it may be in your best interest to 
ride your breaks, because if you do do that that hovercraft will be a bit less 
skittish and easier to control on your part.  Anyway, once you enter the cave 
it will go on for a while.  Make sure to use your boost once you manage to get 
in on that slope, because it will allow you to clear the cave faster and 
hopefully keep your lead on the Walrus.

Moving on…you’d think that a Walrus would be slow.  Anyway, grab the Blue 
Balloon from the end of the cave and stock it.  You’ll want to use it on the 
final clearance, this way you don’t have to swerve to get the other one.  
Anyway, you should still have a slight lead on the Walrus, and if you manage 
to keep it throughout the next part where snowballs are coming down to crush 
you, you’ll be in a good position to pick up the next cave.  There’s nothing 
really of note in the cave, just take it to the final part.  There’s a huge 
downward slope, and if you followed my advice earlier and focused on keeping 
your Blue Balloon, use it and press down on the control pad to shoot down the 
slope and take the win.  If he’s ahead of you, you should be able to catch him 
as long as he’s within a couple of yards.

Second Race: He’s faster now…plus a bit smarter.  The course is identical, and 
he basically does everything like he did last time.  Just use a similar 
strategy and you should be fine.  It’s important to get the third level of 
boost in the beginning when you blow on your DS, because the extra yardage is 
really helpful to maintain a good lead.

Coin Race: Bah, another one of those stupid stylus challenges.  This one is 
notably easier then the one in Dino Domain, mainly because Walrus boy finally 
goes the speed he should be going for his species.  Hit everything that gets 
in your way and take it easy for the win.  This should be cake after going 
through everything else.

Final Opinions: Can you say hard?  This race will always come down to how good 
you can corner in the tunnels, because if you wind up taking a long time going 
through them, he’ll easily take the lead and make your life miserable.  You 
should be able to win this within a try or two, but as I said at the beginning 
of this guide, take a race to scout the track and practice cornering in the 
tunnels. 3.5/5

Interlude
---------

Well, you’ve officially conquered Snowflake Mountain.  Collect your second 
piece of the Wizpig amulet and move on to your next destination.  At this 
point it’s strongly recommended that you tackle Sherbert Island first, as 
although it is much harder then Dragon Forest, it’s notably shorter and 
contains a boss that is tough to get by.  Believe me, you don’t want to start 
Dragon Forest and find out that you’re stalled on this place.  Trust me.  If 
you’ve been going by my guide, you should have the Golden Balloons to do 
anything, but if I know DKR players in general, they’re wayyyyyyy to impatient 
to wait for me.

Section C: Sherbert Island
--------------------------

For one reason or another, I tend to dislike this place.  Sure, it probably 
has some of the best level design in the game, excellent music, a good set of 
difficulty.  But there’s just something that sticks in my head like a tuna 
fish sandwich gone wrong.  It’s on the tip of my tongue…Oh, yeah, that’s 
right.  Now I remember why this place should be shot to heck.  One word: teh 
hovercraft.  Did I spell ‘the’ wrong?  Yep.  I’d believe the hovercraft 
deserves that treatment.  Anyway, out of the courses in Sherbert Island, two 
feature the hovercraft.  The other two feature the car, and will be the easier 
courses of this world. The Boss Race is unfortunately done by way the 
hovercraft, so unless you manage to learn how to control that thing quickly, 
it’s off to the dog house with you.

Race Name: Whale Bay
Balloons for Entry: Ten/Seventeen for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: This is your first race with the hovercraft unless you count 
Snowflake Mountain’s finale, and since this is considered one of the easier 
hovercraft courses in the game, now would be a good time for you to learn how 
to corner and work your way around the turns.  There aren’t many of them 
necessarily (which is why people consider this easy compared to later 
iterations), but there are one or two that will give you the opportunity to 
get some quality practice time in before the next hurrah comes through.

Now that that’s out of the way, as soon as you start the race you’ll see a 
zipper on your far right.  Don’t take it this lap, because it basically 
requires you to slam through a cloud of other racers that will slow you down 
tremendously.  Instead, be wise and go directly for the cove under the falls.  
It’s not hard to make out from far away, so begin preparing yourself to sidle 
through.  Once you get in the cave, they’ll be an upgrade token on your right 
on a sand bar about 50 yards from the entrance.  Take the turns and navigate 
your way through the cavern.  It may prove to be tricky if you don’t prepare 
to make the turns in advance, but as long as you ride your break, you’ll be 
fine.

They’ll be a Blue Balloon about 40 yards away in the middle of the track soon 
after, followed by a Red Balloon grouping.  There’s another Blue Balloon in 
the mix, but it’s incredibly hard to hit unless you ride your break well into 
it before time.  It doesn’t make up for the time, so just blow through and use 
your Blue Balloon to ride the sharp curve at the exit.  The next area will 
greet you by a wide open area filled with…well…water.  There’s a zipper 
located on your right, and after you’ve managed to hit it, I recommend that 
you go for the pirate ship directly ahead of you.  There’s a whale near it, 
and as you approach it, the whale will raise providing you a clear cut across 
the ship.  Make sure to swerve around the hole, because if you don’t, you’ll 
wind up screwing the point out of taking this.  There’s a Magnet Balloon on 
top of the ship, and if you play your cards right, you can use this to catch 
up to anyone who is in front of you.  There’s an upgrade token on your left in 
a sand bar as you leave the ship, and after that, it’s a simple shift to the 
finish.  There’s a Blue Balloon on another bar, so don’t forget it.

Golden Balloon Challenge: For once, I really managed to get an almost Gold 
rating on my first try.  Seriously.  One Golden Balloon off.  If that’s any 
indication, you shouldn’t have many problems with this.  There are a couple of 
trick spots, but as long as you take your time and spot the Balloons 
accurately, you should be able to get many of them with much time to spare.  A 
general note is that it’s a good idea to grab them at an angle to your left as 
the race starts for the first part of the track, because most, if not all of 
them, are located on your left.  There’s a Golden Balloon hidden in the 
waterfall to your left that’s easily missed if you don’t pay attention, but if 
you’re on an angle as I’ve told you, you shouldn’t have any problems getting 
it.  The rest of the Balloons up until the pirate ship are in plain sight and 
should be easy to pick up.

Trophy Race: Bah, with the exception of the fact that riding the break is 
necessary to keep up with the other racers, you should be able to do this in a 
fairly decent manner.  If you don’t get within the top three on this race, 
restart.  The rest of Sherbert Island can be patience testing if you don’t.

Final Opinions: Whale Bay is one of those levels that is perfect for practice 
but lacking in almost everything else.  It isn’t a very long level, and the 
overall difficulty of the level itself is incredibly easy if you can manage 
with the hovercraft.  As I said earlier, use this opportunity to get that 
practice in.  Mr. Mine Butt won’t be so forgiving.  2/5 (if hovercraft is 
learned) 3/5(if not)

Race Name: Crescent Island
Balloons for Entry: Eleven/Eighteen for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Thank God, we’re out of that hovercraft.  It’s off to the easy-
to-control car we go.  Thankfully, this course will be much, much easier then 
Whale Bay, and because of that, should be a quick race to complete without any 
retries.  Relish this while you have the chance.  …

Well, the first part of the race is simple enough.  Go straight down the hill 
and you’ll notice that the track diverges.  While the right side can be a bit 
shorter if you can boost through it, it’s strongly recommended that you take 
the right side.  There’s a zipper in the middle after you go on for a bit, 
plus a Rainbow Balloon and an upgrade token on your left.  It’s technically 
longer, but it’s great to catch up to people with.

Once you clear the cave, they’ll be a zipper roughly in the middle right hand 
portion of the track.  Prepare yourself to take the turn earlier, because 
there’s a bump before it that cuts speed if you hit it at an angle.  After you 
take the zipper you’ll notice a grouping of Red and Green Balloons on your 
left, plus another grouping of them later on the track on your right.  You can 
hit both of them in time for the upgrade, but it’s usually not a great idea to 
do so because it requires a huge swerve to get to them, and the extra balloons 
can easily be made up within a few seconds.  Coming out of that strip of 
straight track, you’ll find a zipper on your left along the wall.  Make sure 
to take it this way you can clear yourself for the straight track leading up 
to the pirate ship.

There’s a plank leading up to the ship, with Red Balloons sitting on it.  
Figures.  If you’ve managed to collect a Red Balloon or two before this, you 
should be able to stock the five rocket upgrade.  Once you’re actually on the 
ship, they’ll be two routes you can take.  Although it requires you to swerve 
more then the top route, make sure to take the bottom portion.  It’s a bigger 
opening, and although it is harder to hit than the top, it won’t make you take 
the drop that the top route requires.

Ride your beak into the corners as you go to exit the ship and you should see 
a wide-open area leading up to a cave.  There’s a zipper located right after 
you leave, plus an upgrade token on your right.  Pick it up, and move 
forward.  They’ll be a grouping of Red and Rainbow Balloons.  A you should be 
out of your rockets by now, but if you’ve kept at least one, you can upgrade 
to a homing rocket.  Fun stuff.  Just be careful not to shoot yourself with it.

Upon your entrance to the cave, you should see a zipper on the inside track.  
DO NOT TAKE IT.  This may sound weird considering I’ve been yelling at you 
take every zipper available in the darn game, but trust me, this is the one 
time you’ll want to avoid listening to that little rule.  Why?  Because if you 
take the zipper, you’ll overshoot the rock portion where you can take an easy 
right and avoid that wide turn.  If you take the zipper, you just screwed 
yourself for another 3+ seconds.  Great job.

Golden Balloon Challenge: Some people view this as annoying, unruly, and 
unfairly cheap.  I…agree.  I find some of the challenges in here to be tough 
to cope with, practically cheap.  But you know, this is what you’ll be having 
to deal with.  Unlike some of the beginning stages from the last couple of 
worlds, a new feature has been added to the starting line.  Instead of saying 
3…2…1…or something like that), it shoots you out in a quicker motion that can 
make you miss Golden Balloons if you aren’t careful.  What does that translate 
into?  Pain in the royal tuckus. I have reservations about using that other 
word.

Right from the get go you’ll be treated to the two pathway treatment.  The 
carpet takes the left path, so make sure to hit any and all Golden Balloons 
located on the left part of the track before your carpet swerves away.  If you 
miss any, you’ll have to turn around slightly when you come out of the 
impasse.  You’ll have to anyway to get that final balloon at the exit, but it 
makes sense to shorten the time as much as possible considering there’s more 
then one Balloon sitting around the next area.  After you’ve cleared the next 
area, you’ll be in the vicinity of the pirate ship.  The carpet goes AROUND 
it, not INSIDE of it.  So to make a long story short, point down, shoot the 
balloons as you see them, and enter the final cave for the finish.  This is 
the area where you’ll probably miss a Golden Balloon or to behind the mast of 
the ship, so luck be with you.

Trophy Race: Arg…okay, I’m not a pirate.  Crescent Island is an easy course to 
pass, mainly because it’s done with the car and several shortcuts can be taken 
to speed by.  Not that bad.

Final Opinions: I loved this course in the original, and my love for it hasn’t 
diminished one bit.  It’s simple, easy to get to know, and has enough nooks 
and crannies to keep things interesting.  It ain’t hard, but it’s fun.  And 
you know, that’s why we play games, right?  1.5/5

Race Name: Pirate Lagoon
Balloons for Entry: Thirteen/Twenty for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Well, we’re back to that infernal hovercraft.  I knew my respite 
wouldn’t last long.  Crow.  Pirate Lagoon is your genuinely hard course for 
this world, and it will prove to be incredibly annoying unless you can be 
smart and hit the scattered shortcuts.  You will need to ride your break for 
the duration of the race, because to be quite honest, you’ll lose a ton of 
speed on the curves.  And believe me, it’s tough to recoup from unless you’re 
using a fast accelerator.  Krunch lovers, thou hath met thine damnation.  Too 
bad.

Pirate Lagoon starts off with a straight track littered with many sand bars.  
There are a grouping of Red and Blue Balloons directly in front of you, but 
it’s advisable for you to skip it and skid to your left this way you can pick 
up the zipper.  It’s a better boost, and since the Blue Balloons on this level 
are incredibly limited, you’re playing with fire.  Make sure to ride your 
break past the next curve, because if you don’t, you’ll eat a hideous break in 
your speed that will mess with you.  There’s a couple of Green Balloons past 
the curve on the outside, plus some Magnet on the inside.  It’s your choice, 
judge it by how far you are and if you’re sure you won’t run over it yourself 
on a future.  The next part of the track is just a straight race towards the 
next cave.  There’s an upgrade token on your far left, and it’s foolish to 
think you can that you’d be able to hit it and still make the hole in time.  
Once you hit the hole…

You’ll run right into a wall.  It’s a pretty funny trick, but it’s a good idea 
to pick up the Blue Balloon sitting pretty right before the drop off.  Why?  
Because unless you stop yourself, the wall right there will kindly do you the 
favor.  The Blue Balloon will get you back up to regular speeds, which is 
needed since the other racers aren’t affected at all by the drop off.  After 
you leave the cave, you’ll be in a rocky area that contains a zipper straight 
ahead.  Hit it, break hard to make the next curve, and collect either a Red, 
Blue, Red, Green Balloon in that order.  Break for the turn, and you should be 
on another straight course dotted with sand bars.  You’ll have to dodge the 
palm tree located in the middle, but if you ride your break and hit the 
zipper, you’ll be able to jump a sizable portion of the turn and collect a 
Blue Balloon the boot.  Just a hop skip and a jump till the finish.

Golden Balloon Challenge: This is another one of those fast start courses, and 
it hurts.  Right from the start you’ll be bombarded with multiple Golden 
Balloons that will require some expert popping skills to get.  After the big 
curve, you’ll be in that open area where a large grouping of Balloons will 
be.  Most are in plain sight, and since you have a good portion of time in 
that area, it shouldn’t be that hard to hit the balloons.  After you enter the 
cave you’ll be treated to a fast jump of the carpet, with the Golden Balloons 
you’ll be trying to pop right in front of you.  Upon leaving the cave you’ll 
be treated to a jagged area filled with Golden Balloons in the crevices.  The 
carpet swerves back around once a few seconds pass, so don’t be scared if you 
miss a balloon or two.  The rest of the Golden Balloons on the course are 
scattered behind palm trees and on the turn.  As you come upon the finish 
line, make sure to grab the Golden Balloons in the mesh.

Trophy Race: Heck on steroids.  No joking on that one, either.  The hovercraft 
makes this place incredibly tough on regular races, and that doesn’t even 
touch the trophy difficulty where most, if not all, of the racers get 
substantial upgrades to their machines.  Now would be a great time to start 
planning ahead for the next world, so spend your hard earned coins on 
upgrading the speed and acceleration statistics if possible.

Final Opinions: Pirate Lagoon is a good indicator of if you’re ready for the 
Boss Race.  If you know you can’t make the curves, then you really, really, 
really have to practice more.  The Boss Race is only a race away, and since 
his course is littered with obstacles, it can be very hard unless you have a 
solid skill at turning with the hovercraft.  The race itself is incredibly 
annoying due to the constant stops, so it gets the gold star for being the 
toughest race in this world.  3.75/5

Race Name: Treasure Caves
Balloons for Entry: Sixteen/Twenty-two for Golden Balloon Challenge
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Well, we’re back to the car.  Enjoy your brief respite before 
heck sets in with the boss.  God rest your soul.  Treasure Caves is your 
standard race course bunched with a great difficulty.  This is one of those 
courses that will require a restart or two, and I can say it right now, you’ll 
need it.  Compared to the other car courses, this is king.  Well, almost.  I 
still say Frosty Village can be a pain in the royal tuckus.

Treasure caves leads off with a straight track of land leading up with a 
slight curve.  There’s a zipper on your right about 50 yards from the starting 
line, so try your best to get a good boost so you can hit it with minimal 
collisions from other racers.  Once you do take the boost, make sure to curve 
in to the inside track.  It’ll cut you into third-fourth place, if you’re 
lucky, and put you in prime position to pick up that sweet Blue Balloon.  Why 
do I think it’s sweet?  Because with it you can literally bypass the next 
downward slope and gain the first place slot going into the cave.  There’s a 
zipper located on the ground going at a curve before it, plus a grouping of 
Red and Green Balloons.  Pick up whatever you want and continue your march 
into the main namesake of the course, Treasure Cave.

A word of warning, though.  As much as you may want to take a swim in the 
pleasantly shining green swamp water, refrain from doing so.  It completely 
stalls your vehicle, and in a course like this, it’s a fatal mistake.  Stick 
to the inside tracks, because that’s where most, if not all, if the zippers 
are located going through the cave.  There are multiple attractions for you to 
view, such as a pirate ship with a piece of the TT amulet (hint), plus some 
more real state.  Get ‘em while they are hot.  The rest of the race is 
basically a zipper located on the inside track of the exiting part of the 
track, with a small stretch of track before the finish line.

Golden Balloon Challenge: I must have taken about seven tries on my first go 
around to get the 40 Golden Balloons needed to advance.  What does that mean?  
I don’t know.  Either I was not concentrating or in the most likely scenario, 
was annoyed beyond belief.  The course opens up with you having to pop a bunch 
of balloons along the side parts of the track, plus more located around the 
crags and hills located along the ocean scenery.  There are a couple located 
under the bridge, so make sure to grab them on your way through to the next 
area.  Once you hit out of the cave, you’ll be upon that large crag of area.  
There are multiple balloons to your right, but there are also a couple of them 
scattered in the cliff.  Make SURE to hit these before you go around, because 
if you don’t, you’ll miss them because the carpet speeds up dramatically and 
there are still more of them sitting after that area which you will need to 
pick up.

Treasure Cave is next, and this is the part where you’ll be in the most strap 
to get the Golden Balloons.  Most of them are hidden within the masts, and 
water, and rocks.  So please make sure to have your screen tilted on an angle 
to get where you need to get quickly.  I STRONGLY recommend that you take your 
time when popping, because the longer you take to pick up a Balloon, the more 
you’re cutting your chances of finishing up with everything.  As soon as you 
manage to get out of the cave, you’ll see the finish line.  IMMEDIATELY swerve 
backwards to hit the Golden Balloons on top of the exit.  You have about three 
seconds…so don’t screw up.

Trophy Race: Duh, duh, duh…pain.  This place is a nightmare unless you’re 
careful and hit the zippers.  Take the corners, beat people over the head with 
rockets, and you should be done with it in good time.  Take your time, haste 
makes waste.  The corners can be a bit tricky, so be careful.

Final Opinion: This is probably one of the hardest car courses in the game.  
It’s tough, the curves are nice, and the AI difficulty itself is decently 
tough to deal with.  I personally love this course because of it, because it’s 
a rare sight in this game. 3.5/5

Boss Race
---------

Well, if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably lucky or talented.  I vote 
number one.  As I said earlier, either this race can be a heaven sent gift 
from above or a literal nightmare filled track of death.  Mr. Octopus himself 
isn’t the big problem of this course.  He’s actually a slow poke compared to 
his Walrus and Dino brethren, so if you can steer well, you’ll be in a good 
position.  The hovercraft can be a nuisance, but as long as you keep your cool 
and work on making the turns correctly, you will win.  Keep thinking that.  I 
will win.  I will win.  You won’t win.  You won’t win.  Oops.

Race Name: Mr. Octopus Boss Race
Balloons for Entry: Complete All Regular Races in Sherbert Island/Complete all 
Golden Balloon Challenges in Sherbert Island
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a special touch challenge at the end.
Strategy: Below

First Race: Well, two things to note before we get to the actual race.  One, 
it’s a three lap Boss Race.  It will be much longer then anything you’ve 
already gone through, and it will get progressively harder as the laps go by, 
but think of it as a safety net if you mess up.  He’s not the fastest boss 
that you’ve faced, so as long as you keep going at a good clip and nail him 
with a couple of rockets (he’s a big target, trust me.  That red stands out a 
mile away…), you’ll be fine.

The race starts with a short, straight area that gives you the opportunity to 
gain some ground on him.  Make sure to ride your break past the curve, and 
head into the cave.  Grab the Red Balloons scattered around, but resist the 
urge to nail him until you upgrade to the five rocket item.  It will give you 
five shots, and since he is pretty big, that’ll be all you’ll need to slow him 
down.  Just make sure not to shoot him when you are directly BEHIND him.  He 
will spin out, crush you when you smack into him, and jump out ahead of you 
again and partially gain even more ground than before.  Is it lunacy to think 
you can avoid him?  Depends on the distance.  If you’re a couple of yards 
away, don’t do it.  If you have a good amount of room, nail him in his 
tuckus.  He gives you a couple of opportunities in the cave where he’ll slowly 
jut out to the right.  That’s your queue to shoot him dead.  He’ll skid out to 
the right more, and give you the opportunity to gain a bunch of ground.

The next area goes into a curve that you’ll have to ride the sand bar on.  
Why?  Because throughout the race Mr. Octopus will shoot mines out of his butt 
that will knock you incredibly high into the air.  These CANNOT hit you, 
because it will practically take any chances of you winning way out of the 
race.  If you can stay ahead of him, you’ll be fine for the first lap or two.  
By the third lap, he’ll be placing them in areas that will be incredibly hard 
to dodge in thanks to the controls on the hovercraft.  God be with your soul 
if you get hit.

Anyway, once you’ve taken the sand bar around, you’ll be in another cave.  If 
he’s ahead of you, waste away your remaining ammo on him.  There are roughly 
two-three Red Balloons on the final stretch of the track, and if you can pick 
them up, you’ll be refilled.  Only do this on your first two laps.  The last 
lap will be too dangerous to swerve.

Second Race: He’s faster, and he’s got a new weapon up his sleeve: fart 
bubbles.  And no, this isn’t another one of my horrific jokes that are 
pathetic, it’s true.  He really shoots bubbles out of his butt.  These bubbles 
can be extremely hard to dodge, and if they catch you, they’ll hold you in the 
air for several seconds before they let you go.  That’s your queue to restart 
if you do get caught.  There are one or two “Choke” points as I like to call 
them where you’ll wind up being stuck in a short span of both mines and 
bubbles.  Please be wise and dodge these at all costs.  You can’t afford to 
mess up here.

Coin Challenge: Much like the one in Snowflake Mountain, this coin challenge 
will make you do simple tasks.  Not much to say, destroy anything in your path 
and you should be fine.

Final Opinions: A tough race if you can’t get yourself accustomed to the 
hovercraft.  Practice making turns in it if you’re having a hard time, or 
possibly go into free play and try out courses that rely on it.  If you can 
fine tune it, then you should be able to dodge anything he can throw and 
overtake him quickly.  Luck.  That’s all it takes.  Don’t mind skill.  Or 
patience.  Or a new DS after throwing yours out the window.  4.5/5

Interlude
---------

Well, congratulations.  You’ve officially conquered one of the toughest worlds 
in the game.  There’s only one more world to go, then we get to make Wizzy 
into Bacon.  I’ve already get my oven set on charbroil.  Our next stop takes 
us to Dragon Forest, a location set in the middle ages that will test your 
general skill with every vehicle in the game.  The courses will be tough, but 
in a game like this, that’s not saying much.  So strap on your armor, it’s 
dragon slaying time.

Taj Race Four
-------------

But before we can do that, we have to go through yet another one of tar butt’s 
challenges.  This one will be a bit simpler than the others, mainly because 
instead of racing against someone, your task is to blow out the touches keenly 
scattered across the island.  How do you do this?  By throwing your DS off the 
top of a tall building and letting the wind whoosh into the microphone.  …  In 
case you want to know how it’s really done, all you have to do is blow into 
the mic when you’re near a torch.  There are approximately two areas of 
torches that you’ll have to venture to, and you have 60 seconds to blow them 
all out.  Oh, and before I forget.  This is done in the hovercraft.  Fun.

Race Name: Taj Race Torch Challenge
Balloons for Entry: Automatically after completing Sherbert Island
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Unlimited, although only one Golden Balloon can be 
collected.
Strategy: Well, there’s an arrow on the top of your screen that will direct 
you to where the torches are, but if you’re smart, you avoid following it and 
head straight for the are where Dragon Forest is located.  There should be a 
hallway outside the door filled with the torches.  The hovercraft has a 
tendency to skid, so if you can skid around to each torch and blow as you pass 
each torch.  Make sure this hallway is done by the time your timer hits 35 
seconds.  After you’ve cleared that hallway, head to the underground cavern 
which leads up to the river underneath Snowflake Mountain.  It can be found in 
the waterfall closest to the right of Dino Domain if I remember correctly.  
It’s done on a moving river, so simple blow as the current takes you.  I had 
15 seconds left by the time I was finished blowing.

Taj Race Five
-------------

So now we’re finally ready to go into Dragon Forest…WHAT?!  Looks like tar 
butt has yet another challenge for us.  This is thankfully the last Taj 
challenge in the game, so breathe easily once you’re done with it.  We’ve been 
through four others, so this one should be a drop in the bucket, right?  
Wrong.  Looks as though the developers thought it funny to torment us by 
putting Taj on steroids and making him challenge us to a race to collect 
coins.  In lamens terms, first to ten coins is the winner.  A Golden Balloon 
is at stake, so get that game face on.  It’s time to take out the trash.

Race Name: Taj Race Five
Balloons for Entry: Complete previous Taj race and finish any outstanding 
Golden Balloon collecting.  If you’ve been following this guide, it should be 
automatic.
Number of Laps: NA
Number of Competitions: One
Strategy: Well, the whole island is fair game for this challenge, and since 
it’s a competition to see who can collect ten coins first, this can lag.  Big 
time.  The race is done in the plane, meaning any perch is fair game for a 
coin to appear on (they’ll be one coin at a time up for grabs – once it’s 
collected, another will appear.  So on, so forth).  They’ll be an arrow at the 
top of your screen that can point you in the right direction, plus a map to 
help you scout out the island.  Don’t think it’ll be easy, however.  Taj knows 
where each and every coin is when it appears, so it’s basically a race to see 
who can get to it first.  Only problem is you don’t know where it is exactly 
hidden.  So it’s like the known leading the blind.  Just great.

So how do you win something like this?  You have about a small two second slot 
where Taj will stall when he’s turning around.  That’ll be the amount of time 
you’ll have to search for the coin before he starts up and heads for it.  
Since you are faster then him, some people like to trail behind him and when 
the coin comes into view, grab it.  It’s risky, though, and since often times 
Taj will be of a similar coin amount, you could be in big trouble.  In the 
first time I took the challenge, he beat me 10-3.  Second time I reversed 
that.  For some reason or another, if you lose the challenge, it’ll be 
easier.  As long as you take sharp turns with the right hand shoulder button, 
you’ll be fine.

Interlude
---------

As soon as you collect the Golden Balloon from Taj, he’ll keel over and die…I 
wish.  Take pride in the fact that you’ll never have to deal with this 
Elephant again.  Well, almost.  You get the picture.  So with two shiny new 
Golden Balloons now in our possession, it’s time to head to the den of 
dragons, Dragon Forest.  It may have been a long diversion, but hey, I’m not 
complaining.  Too much.

Section D: Dragon Forest
------------------------

Well, you’ve made it.  If you’ve been following this guide to a tee, this is 
your first entrance to this medieval wonderland.  You’ve passed the door to 
get into it several times now, but if you are drawing a blank as to where it 
is for some reason, simply either take the cave outside of the lighthouse and 
go down the hall of torches, or just go into the waterfall near the river.  It 
takes sixteen Golden Balloons for entrance, but by this time, you’re close to 
doubling that.  Now aren’t you happy?

Race Name: Windmill Plains
Balloons for Entry: NA (every Balloon count in this world will be skipped, 
mainly because in all of my files I was never smart enough to pick up the 
Golden Balloon counts.  Stupidity at its finest.
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Windmill Plains is your first race in Dragon Forest, and will 
provide you with a good indicator of what’s to come.  It’s a decently tough 
race, but as long as you focus on cornering and hitting the zippers as you go 
along, you should be fine.  This race will be done with the plane, and will 
take approximately 2:30-3:00 to complete on a decent run.

Windmill Planes starts off by introducing you to a straight track littered 
with the course’s name sake – Windmills.  There’s a zipper located underneath 
one of them, and you’ll need to curve slightly down in order to hit it.  It is 
on the bottom part of the ground, so make sure to skim this way you don’t land 
and kill the speed you’ve built up from the initial boost.  There are Balloons 
located straight ahead, groupings of Red and Blue, plus some other Balloons 
located underneath the Windmills.  As you clear that first section of the 
track, you should come out to a wide open space.  It’ll have a zipper 
suspended in the sky, so make sure to curve away for it this way you can get 
ahead of the main pack.  Most, if not all, of the racers now have upgrades to 
their vehicles that will allow them to out speed you fairly easily, so make 
sure to race smart and PLAY THE DARN CURVES.

They’ll a zipper in the cave once you hit it, plus some other Balloons 
scattered about.  Most of the Balloons scattered in this course are primarily 
Green and Blue, plus a fair amount of red, so keep that in mind.  If you’re 
smart, you’ll get Green Balloons and put them at choke points in the course.  
Instead of the usual puddle, it releases a cloud of smoke that will knock you 
down for several seconds, meaning that you’ll be able to stall the nearest 
person to you.

After you’ve cleared the cave, you should be to an area that features a lone 
Windmill.  There should be a zipper underneath it, and once you take it you’ll 
be in a wide open area of the track that has a zipper located in the middle of 
it.  Make sure to curve inside of the track, because it will allow you to cut 
off a sizable portion that most, if not all, of the other racers will 
undoubtedly take.  What does it mean?  Free lead.  Be a good boy and take it.  
Upon getting past that big open area, you should be in a canyon like valley.  
There are Red and Blue Balloons scattered about, so make sure to grab them 
depending on the situation.  I recommend that you personally go for the Blue 
ones, because any distance you can put between yourself and your opponents 
will be a big help.  As soon as you clear the canyon, you’ll be in a big open 
area.  There’s a zipper on your left located directly on the ground, plus 
another in the air.  There’s a cave straight ahead, so boost towards it.

The cave itself contains a decently sharp upward turn that can mess you up, 
but as long as you be wise and look at it before time, you should be fine.  
The rest of the race is a peace of cake, just be careful with cornering.

Golden Balloon Challenge: The Golden Balloons are everywhere, and this can 
easily be an annoying challenge if you’re going for all of them.  If not, then 
you should be able to pick up more then enough in the time you have.  What 
makes this race so hard isn’t necessarily the speed or possibly the turns the 
carpet takes, but rather the placement of the Golden Balloons.  More often 
than not they are scattered in some of the weirdest, hardest to get places 
possible, and if you aren’t careful, you can wind up screwing up and missing 
the Balloons necessary to keep on going for a perfect score.  I won’t go into 
heavy details, but some of the trickiest Golden Balloons to get are located in 
the last big chasm where you were told to skip by earlier.  The carpet does a 
major swerve in it, and if you aren’t careful, your screen will wind up 
messing up and forcing you to rapidly turn it around in an attempt to get the 
Golden Balloons necessary.

Other then that, there are a couple scattered between the windmills, and it’ll 
be your job to grab as many as possible if you wish to pass.  Just be careful 
of the ones hidden behind and inside the haystacks – they’re really easy to 
miss if you aren’t paying attention.

Trophy Race: This place can be made easy if you follow the corners and use 
that cut off that I talked about earlier.  Grab the Blue boost Balloons to cut 
time as your passing corners, and play nasty with the Green Balloons.  This 
place gives plenty of choke points for you to take advantage of and be nasty 
with.  Good luck, although you probably won’t need it.  Unless you’re a two 
year old.  At that point, you probably would need it.  But who would let a two 
year old play a DS?  Parents.  Just shows what the parenting has come to these 
days.

Final Opinions: This is by far and away the easiest course in Dragon Forest.  
The plane is an easy vehicle to ride in, and with a couple of upgrades, you 
should be able to ace this place without many problems at all.  The racers can 
be a bit nasty if you aren’t careful, and watch out for potential choke 
points, but still, you should be fine.  2/5

Race Name: Greenwood Village
Balloons for Entry: NA (every Balloon count in this world will be skipped, 
mainly because in all of my files I was never smart enough to pick up the 
Golden Balloon counts.  Stupidity at its finest.
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Ah, back to the car.  I missed this vehicle.  Although the 
controls will be easier to cope with in this course, don’t expect an easy 
time.  There are several tough points to race through, and to tell you the 
truth, the racers are starting to get smarter.  That still ain’t saying much, 
though, but you get the picture.

Greenwood Village starts off by introducing players to a small portion of 
straight track.  There are several balloons up ahead, mainly of the Green and 
Rainbow variety.  Pick up a Green Balloon and get ready to use it shortly.  
There’s a curve coming up that you have to take short if you want to hit the 
zipper, but when you’re making the turn, plop down the Green Balloon.  At 
first it may seem like a waste, but since so many other racers will be taking 
that curve, it’s a perfect choke point.  Don’t pass it up, you want to put at 
least a little bit of distance between yourself and your opponents when you go 
for the next jump.

Now, instead of doing what every other racer will do and head to the right, 
keep going straight ahead.  It may sound stupid, brash, and going against 
everything I’ve ever bothered to tell you about, but trust me – there’s a 
secret passage underneath that water main.  When you’re approaching it, you’ll 
see a small opening.  You’ll have to break to enter it, because it’s 
horrifically easy to overshoot (God forbid that you do overshoot it, you’ll 
have to either back up and waste even more time, or go the regular way 
around.  Whenever I overshoot it, I normally just head the normal way.  Having 
to back up and go back in can be annoying, because you have to head around the 
whole darn main again.  If you do make it into the secret passage, you’ll come 
to a short stretch of track that has a zipper inside.  Take the zipper and 
it’ll shoot you out onto the regular track, hopefully ahead of the other 
racers.  It cuts off an incredibly large stretch of track, so you should have 
a small lead.

The next area introduces you to a new breed up track, a bumpy area that can be 
hard to turn in.  Make sure to streak in it, take the inside track, and hope 
you don’t get shot at some point or another.  Once you clear it, and after you 
go on for a bit, you should be to a semi-open cave.  If you take the inside 
track, you should come to a zipper once you curve outside.  Take it, boost 
ahead, and streak towards a small open area.  You have the option to go left 
for a longer route (but a nice surprise), or straight for a quicker 
alternative.  I’ll say it now – in order to stay ahead, you’ll have to take 
the straight route.  The left route is hard to recover from, and has the 
propensity to screw you over if you can’t make the turn in enough of time.

At any rate, the final portion of the track has you going through yet another 
cave, but this time instead of a straight track outside of it, you’ll have to 
make an incredibly sharp turn.  Best place in the game to lay down a trap.  No 
joking.  Everyone will either have to bank out to get away from an inside 
track trap, and it will force them to hit the wall and mess their speed up 
royally.  If you have to dodge it, good luck.  Nine times out of ten you’ll 
fail.  The rest of the track is just a simple curvature that requires you to 
speed around a short turn or two.  There’s a zipper on your left before the 
finish line.

Golden Balloon Challenge: This is another one of those fast start challenges 
that really serves no meaning other than to annoy you.  It’s not that hard of 
a course, and most, if not all, of the Golden Balloons are finally in plain 
site.  Just MAKE SURE to poke around the tops of the trees in the forest to 
look for those strings.  There are a couple of Golden Balloons hidden on the 
walls and in the sky, but as I said earlier, most, if not all, are in plain 
site.

Trophy Race: If you screw up here, you’ll have to do a bit of catch up in the 
coming courses.  I can’t stress this enough – if you know you can’t make the 
secret passage, don’t do it.  It can put you so far behind that you’ll be in a 
loosing situation.  There are several good choke points as I mentioned 
earlier, and you have multiple chances to put some serious distance between 
you and your opponents.  Just take it easy, the worst thing you can do in a 
course like this is panic.  The turns can be horrendous if you start getting 
frustrated, so if you do feel like you’re in a bad situation, cool off.  And 
eat chicken.

Final Opinion: Greenwood Village is a decently hard course that will test your 
ability to make fast curves.  I suggest you really start buying any and all 
upgrades possible, because not only will the car be extremely important in 
future races, but it will serve as the finishing vehicle in the last race of 
this world.  As another tip, it’s also a very good idea to start investing in 
the plane.  The Boss Race of this world makes use of it, and without some 
serious upgrades you could be in some trouble once you get to the final 
world.  3/5

Race Name: Boulder Canyon
Balloons for Entry: NA (every Balloon count in this world will be skipped, 
mainly because in all of my files I was never smart enough to pick up the 
Golden Balloon counts.  Stupidity at its finest.
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO……………well, it was good while it lasted.  
After escaping the wrath of the hovercraft for two races…it’s back.  And it’s 
here to make your life miserable.  Just kidding…unlike other the hovercraft 
races that the game has offered thus far, this one does a great job of 
converting the awful controls to something that’s actually doable.  How does 
it do that?  Aside from a few, secluded turns that will drive you up a wall, 
this course primarily takes place on a wide open river, one that uses the 
current to drag you along.  With small boosts from your engine, you’ll easily 
be able to navigate and get past any control issues.  Almost.  There are still 
obstacles in the water that you’ll have to avoid, but with some practice, this 
race will turn out to be one of the best in the game, and my personal favorite.

After you’re done doing the customary spitting exercise on your DS to get that 
mini boost at the beginning, Boulder Canyon begins on a wide open river that 
has some secluded logs floating along.  Ride your break to steer around them, 
while primarily using the river to maneuver your boat downstream.  It’ll make 
dodging the planks easier, and you’ll be able to get ahead quickly.  After 
going on for some time you should be to a gigantic waterfall-like downhill 
rush.  There’s a Blue Balloon on the right side, plus a Red Balloon for your 
taking.  Take the Blue Balloon, you’ll be using it soon enough to get back on 
track.

After you’ve cleared that downstream portion, you should be to a river basin 
at the bottom.  There’s a stretch of land that heads up, so that’ll be where 
we are headed next.  If your hovercraft starts to waver a little and you lose 
speed, use your Blue Balloon to recover from the turn and speed up again.  The 
next portion needs you to be adequately ahead of the other racers if you wish 
to take advantage of your surroundings.  After making another semi sharp turn, 
you’ll see a large bridge.  On the other side is a bell, and if you hit the 
bell, you’ll be able to raise the bridge and strand every other racer that’s 
behind you on the other side.  They’ll then have to leap off, drive around the 
river, and come up on one of the conveniently placed bridges.  Let’s put it 
like this – they’re screwed for about five extra seconds.  In a race like 
this, that’s gold.  Before you actually race this course, though, you may want 
to raise the bridge and climb it to the top for the key.  Yep, it’s up there.  
Bet you didn’t know that, now didn’t you.

Getting back to the race, you’ll now be in a semi-large castle that will 
require you to make a pretty sharp turn.  There’s a booster in the middle of 
the track before it, so make sure to take it and ride your break around to the 
next one conveniently also located on the middle of that track.  You should 
now be in a hall leading up to a river inside of the castle.  Take it, and 
ride it’s current to a diverging section of two halls.  Be sure to take the 
left one.  It’s much shorter, and will lead you into an area where you don’t 
have to make that hard of a turn.  Once you hit the river again, all you have 
to do is follow the river to the end.  There’s a zipper located on your far 
right, plus a Blue Balloon before the finish line.

Golden Balloon Challenge: This challenge, unlike some others, can be a royal 
pain in the tuckus.  Balloons are scattered in some extremely hard places to 
reach, and if you aren’t careful, you can very easily miss several of them in 
not much time at all.  It’d be a WISE idea to put your screen at an angle, 
because if you don’t do it, you’ll be pressed to pick up the Golden Balloons 
hanging out in some of the places, such as the castle rafters.  There’s a 
Golden Balloon grouping scattered near the drawbridge top part, so be sure to 
look up, while there are more hidden in the river castle area.  Make sure to 
look around that big open area, there are several hidden in the moat 
surrounding the castle, and even more once you get inside.

Trophy Race: Yet another hard course made easy by some great steering.  I 
don’t have that much to say on this, other then that you should be careful 
with how you steer and use the bridge.  I actually once was forced to go 
around the moat, simply because an evil AI controlled racer raised the bridge 
on me.  And I thought the AI was dumb.

Final Opinion: My unopposed favorite course in the game.  This is one of the 
few places that truly does the hovercraft justice, and for that, it has my 
regards.  3/5

Race Name: Haunted Woods
Balloons for Entry: NA (every Balloon count in this world will be skipped, 
mainly because in all of my files I was never smart enough to pick up the 
Golden Balloon counts.  Stupidity at its finest.
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

Regular Race: Haunted Woods is another course done in the car, so you’d think 
it would be easy.  Not so fast.  Not only does this course tie for one of the 
hardest in the game, but it’s also probably one of the trickiest to stay ahead 
in.  Not only are there some sharp turns to worry about, but unless you know 
where the zippers are, you really will be in genuine trouble.  Rarity.  You’d 
think the AI would pose nil challenge.  But they find a way to.

Haunted Woods opens up with a short sharp turn that can turn into a debacle 
unless you get a good boost or hang back.  It’s obviously better to get the 
boost so that you could actually win, but when you think of everyone getting 
clogged in that small turn…you’ll see my point.  After that turn, things get 
somewhat wider.  You’re instantaneously greeted by a large fountain, with two 
branching pathways.  You’ll want to take the left one, because although it 
doesn’t have a nifty Balloon to greet you with, it’s shorter and requires a 
less strenuous turn to pass.  After you’re inside the track, you’ll come up to 
a long hallway filled with a couple of zippers.  You’ll spot one on your left, 
and further down the track, towards the end where the track merges with your 
next area.

You should be up to a short area of track now leading up to a bumpy area.  
This area won’t be easy to traverse, and it’s incredibly easy to screw up and 
lose a bunch of speed when you’re going down the wooded area.  Make sure to 
try to stay along the inside, because although it can be a bit perilous to 
take, it’ll be a godsend since there aren’t *as* many bumps to deal with.  Be 
careful not to get shot in here, you’re practically an open target for anyone 
passing by.

As soon as you’re done with the wooded area, you should be to yet another area 
with a zipper or two laying around.  Make sure to stay to the sides to catch 
them, and then you should be to a short hallway with chains hanging down from 
them.  Do not hit the chains.  They kill speed, and will make your life 
miserable.  There’s a final zipper right before the finish line, but be 
careful when boosting – there’s a turn before the actual line.

Golden Balloon Challenge: It’s done?!.  Hallelujah.  Honestly.  It’s been many 
a Golden Balloon Challenge since we started this walkthrough, and I can 
thankfully finally say it’s just about done.  Enjoy this respite.  The final 
Golden Balloon Challenge that I will be covering is not only one of the 
hardest, but also one of the most well crafted.  Balloons appear in some 
wickedly hard places that can easily be well out of your reach, and if you 
aren’t careful, you’ll flunk this one with flying colors.  How do you avoid 
that?  Do what I’ve been telling you all along.  If you’ve been following my 
advice and using that special little technique of keeping your screen at an 
angle, you will have little, if any, problems at all.  Most of the Golden 
Balloons can be entirely hit on any angle if your screen is positioned 
correctly, with the ones out of plain view seeable.

The level opens up with you going around that fountain.  If your screen is at 
an angle, you should be able to pick up the lot of them before having to shift 
to the other side.  If you do this quickly, you’ll be able to come out of this 
with few problems.  The rest of the level basically features Golden Balloons 
hung up in the rafters, with the final place where the chains are the most 
irritating of the bunch.  Do NOT hit the chains.  Be precise with the Balloons.

Trophy Race: Still hard, enjoy it.  It’ll be the last one you do.  Make sure 
to hit the corners, and be smart.  Zippers always helps.

Final Opinions: This is you genuine hard course.  Future Fun Land is almost 
here, and although I won’t personally be counting that in the regular game, 
this will be a good testing pole to see if you have the mettle to finish it.  
Good luck.  4/5

Boss Race
---------

Well, here it is.  This is the race we’ve all be waiting for.  The race where 
you finally get to finish off Dragon Forest and gain the last piece of that 
swine’s amulet.  The Boss is, adequately enough, a dragon.  It’s a fun course 
that you’ll be racing on, and while it can get a bit tricky, you’ll be fine as 
long as you follow everything I’ve told you so far.  This race is done with a 
plane, and will last for three laps.  The dragon itself isn’t extremely fast, 
although his course can be a hazard if you aren’t careful.  Upgrading your 
plane makes this course a joke depending on the level of upgrade.

Race Name: Boss Race Four
Balloons for Entry: Finish all regular races in Dragon Forest/Complete all 
Golden Balloon Challenges in Dragon Forest.  Same old thing I’ve been telling 
your god knows how long now.
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: Below

First Race: Dragon boy seems to love to take the inside track of his courses, 
and because of that, you better either be ready to pelt his fat hide with 
rockets or be sure to dodge around his tricks and traps.  He’s a big target, 
but since he bobs and weaves so much around the course, you may have a tough 
time.  A word of caution – unlike other bosses who slow down for a good period 
of time, he gets going fast.  You’ll be going through a ton of rockets, so 
make sure to stick to the five rocket packs and pelt him as much as possible.  
You want to be ahead of him.  If for some reason he manages to get ahead of 
you, he’ll let out a trail of fire balls that you’ll have to dodge.  It’s not 
as hard as, say, the traps that Mr. Octopus laid down back in Sherbert Island, 
but unlike the hovercraft, the plane crashes when you get hit, taking you 
longer to get going.  He’s not the fastest racer in the world, but since he 
takes the inside tracks…he could put a good bit of distance between you and 
him rather quickly.

My first big tip for this race is to stay as near to the ground as possible 
without actually touching it.  Skim, if you will.  Reason being is that unlike 
other plane levels which penalize you for doing that (zippers being in the 
air, etc.), this one contains very little, if any zippers at all.  Doing this 
will keep you out of his immediate range when it comes to fireballs.  It’s 
slower, and can be tedious, but it ensures you won’t screw up royally.  You 
can take your chances in the air, but hey.  That’s up to you.  I’d much rather 
be out of harms way and be able to make the turns easily then stay in the air 
and make myself a target.

Second Race: He’s faster now…plus he lays down many more fireballs then he 
previous did.  What does that translate into?  Roast monkey.  Seriously, if 
you follow the strategy for the first race, you’ll be fine.  Every fireball 
can be dodged if you stay close to the ground, and while you will have to be 
in the air at some times to keep up with him, this still makes more then up 
for it.  If you get hit, you’re finished.  Nail him in his tuckus with 
rockets, and you should come out the victor.  Hopefully.

Touch Challenge: Read strategy for Dino Domain.

Interlude
---------

Well, you’ve defied all odds and finally have managed to collect every single 
last piece of the Wizpig amulet.  I salute you, not because it was some insane 
task that few can do (quite the contrary, this was incredibly easy.  The fact 
that you’ve had this big of a guide to help you out of every jam gives no 
excuse), but because you’ve managed to put up with my rambling for the past I 
don’t know how many KB.  It’s been a long guide, but the end is in sight.  
It’s time to get some revenge on our little piggy.  It’s time to reclaim our 
island. It’s time to turn Wizpig into bacon.  Monkey style.

Final Boss Race
---------------

Well, it’s here.  The final boss.  Although some people don’t view this as the 
true final boss, I do.  Future Fun Land has to be unlocked by beating all of 
the trophy races, and because of that, doesn’t really fit into the category of 
main game.  It should be unlocked anyway if you’ve been following my guide, 
but meh.  If you don’t know where the race will be taking place, then shut 
your game off now.  Kidding.  Remember that big statue of Wizzy in the rock 
located in the main center of the over world?  It’s open now.  The mouth is 
open…and you go in.  It’s here.  The moment of truth.  Buy any and all car 
upgrades you can, with a primary focus on acceleration and speed.  Both go 
hand in hand, and trust me, you’ll need them.  Good luck.

Race Name: Final Boss Race
Balloons for Entry: Complete every world in the game and collect the four 
pieces of the Wizpig amulet.  Fly into the pig skull and you’re there.
Number of Laps: Three
Number of Competitions: Two, plus a Trophy Race at the end.
Strategy: The first thing you’ll notice with this is that Wizzy jumps out 
ahead of you right at the start.  I told you he was a darn cheater.  To 
counteract this you’ll have to get a number three boost with the car.  If you 
don’t, restart.  It’s really not worth it to keep racing if he gets ahead of 
you early.  He will keep the lead if he does, and getting him to relinquish it 
is rather hard unless you can nail him several times with rockets.  He’s a big 
target that doesn’t move around that much, but meh.

The course opens up with a semi-short piece of straight track leading up to a 
bridge.  You have to stay ahead of him here.  You cannot afford for him to be 
ahead of you on that jump.  It gets nasty if he is.  As you’re going along the 
bridge, you should see two zippers on either side of the exit.  Do not take 
them.  Although you’ll need to get every other zipper in the race, these can 
screw you up and throw you directly into the water, which is basically a game 
over since he’ll be far and way from you by the time you get out.  If you lose 
sight of him, it’s basically a lost cause.

As soon as you’re back onto land, you’ll be on a narrow pathway.  Make sure 
not to fall off, and don’t let Wizzy trample you.  It flattens you, which will 
give him the ability to amass a decently large lead fairly quickly.  Another 
thing that I’d like to mention here is the fact that Wizpig is capable of 
making very long jumps.  You wouldn’t be surprised if he made the Olympics.  
Because of that, he will be able to catch up to you in several points of the 
race UNLESS you followed my advice and picked up an acceleration upgrade for 
your car.  If you did, you’ll be able to recover from the water and jumps that 
you’ll be making.

Anyway, after you go along for a little while, you should be up to a small 
stretch of dry land surrounded by water.  You’ll notice that the water 
penetrates the track.  In order to make it across, you’ll have to hit the 
zipper and hold up on your racer.  Doing this should allow you to clear most 
of the jumps, but the final one before the track starts again is a 
whole ‘nother beast.  There’s a sizable gap between that and the next part of 
the track, and if you aren’t careful, you will stall your car for several 
seconds and possible mess up your race.  I can’t tell you how many races I 
lost in the third lap because of this.  Make sure to hit it at an angle, and 
if you don’t hit the zipper, you’re finished.  I like to point the closest 
towards land, with my wheels pointing towards the right and my car slightly 
tilted up.  You should be able to clear it if you’re lucky, and continue on 
with the race.

The rest is just a simple hop skip and a jump, the real challenge comes when 
Wizzy gets far ahead of you.  A basic rule is this – if he’s not in sight, 
restart.  Unless you’re sure a couple of rockets will close the gap, it’s not 
worth it to keep going.  I find that more often then not I screw up and waste 
a bunch of time because I have a false hope of winning.  It don’t work like 
that, and I had to learn that the hard way.  Don’t make my mistakes, that’s 
why you’re reading this faq.  This race primarily resides on luck, and if 
you’re lucky, you’ll make it and win the day.

Section Six: Conclusion
-----------------------

Well, congratulations.  You’ve beaten the game.  It’s been a long road, and 
although I’m not covering the final territory, you’ve done a good job.  To get 
to FFL, you’ll have to beat every trophy race in the game.  If you’ve been 
following my guide, you should have done that.

Getting through this guide has been a big challenge, and I thank Jesus every 
day for giving me the strength.  He is my Lord and Savoir, and it’s only 
through Him that I can go on every day.  If you don’t know him, please 
consider.  It’s the best choice you’ll ever make.

Thank you for reading my guide, any suggestions are welcome.  You can PM me at 
http://forums.nintendo.com.  Look under Kratos215, and you send me a PM.  
Thanks!


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