Does anyone have any advice for winning on Mario Kart DS? If it involves snaking, could you explain some tips?

I know snaking can be very helpful, but I always ram into a wall right before I let go of the turbo button or fall into a pit of lava right after.Does anyone have any advice for winning on Mario Kart DS? If it involves snaking, could you explain some tips?
EDIT: Beware! what was a Short Answer has evolved into a Wall of Text! The following Wall of Text will critical hit you for 20 000 damage!





You can beat it with very few snakes, i have myself. If you arent very good at it, do it only on straightaways or big smooth curves. Also i found it very easy and necessary to snake a u-turn. If you are crashing into walls, it is either because of:





a) Not snaking fast enough





b) Not aiming your snakes





If you are taking to long to complete a snake, then you need to practice your hand speed. You just have to keep practicing.





It is important to realize that you must turn during a snake almost all of the time. Always aim yourself towards the inner wall if you are turning around a corner. And you can turn more or less during a snake by holding either of the directions longer.





Edit* Furthermore, if you can't snake a turn, take the shortest path possible. The AI always average the middle of the track, and lose valuable time. Also use items ASAP, if you get triple bananas, hold L and keep it behind you, it can take out people who are trying to pass you and saves you from green and red shells. IMO they are better than spinning shells.





Pick a good handling car, they pwn. And also stay in second place as, incase you dont know, the items you get depend on your position. You can easily get red shells in second and you dont get pwned by blue shells if you dont know how to dodge them. If you are first and a blue shell is about to hit you, slow down to get close to whoever is in second so the explosion hits them.Does anyone have any advice for winning on Mario Kart DS? If it involves snaking, could you explain some tips?
snaking is your best friend. but other than that dont go for characters with top speed if you're still hitting walls. try some with more top end acceleration like shy guy or the bone turtle guy or an overall like yoshi. while snaking just hit left right left right, that should get you to the turbo boost. Also while snaking if you push away from the drift then you will drift less in that direction and same goes when you push towards it. once you get better you should try heavy characters such as bowser which pushes everyone out of his way. and at the start just in case you dont know about the boost, at the count down, when the 2 enlarges and is about to switch to 1, start to accelerate, you will get a boost from start which will quickly put you ahead. best spots to be in in the races, 6/7 for variety of weapons, 2 because of red shells, 1 because you can get away from all other racers. I get no less than 2 star ratings in every cup except maybe 1 or 2 which i get 1 star or A.