Mario Kart 8 originally released for Wii U back in 2014 and received rave reviews, but there were a lot of people that missed out on the game entirely due to not having a Wii U. That is why Nintendo wisely decided to re-release the game for the Nintendo Switch and with that mostly comes the same game with a few additions. This original game has many features that have lasted all throughout the franchise and one of those is boosting at the start of races.
The lower level difficulties such as 50cc and 100cc in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are not that bad and allow you to mess up and be able to recover pretty easily. However, the higher difficulties, especially 200cc give you no margin for error whatsoever. This also means you will need to take advantage of anything that is given to you and getting an extra boost at the start can be a help.
At the start of every race in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a Lakitu will pop up with a traffic light and start a countdown of 3, 2, 1, before the go. What you may notice though is that some racers have managed to get an extra boost at the start while others may have a backfire and get left behind for a second. Like most things in Mario Kart, this all involves timing.
When Lakitu starts counting down, do not hold down the gas quite yet. Keep a close eye on the number and wait for the 2 to show up. Don’t start accelerating yet, but wait until the point right before you can assume the 2 is about to start fading away. Start holding down the A button, or whichever it is on the way you’re holding the controller, and you should get a boost right at the start that depends on how high your acceleration rank is on your vehicle.
This is something you’ll have to practice multiple times to get it right, and it’s not something you’ll probably even pull off correctly after you know exactly what you’re doing. It can be frustrating when you don’t get the boost, but it’s much better not to get one than to backfire by holding down on the gas too early, so be very careful when trying this out in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
