Jump Boost

A Trick (also called Stunt) is a technical move that first appeared in Mario Kart Wii. After jumping off of most ramps, characters can perform tricks. Upon landing, the player will get a Jump Boost. If launching off of boost panels, karts flip horizontally (similar to a corkscrew motion) while bikes flip vertically if using the Up or Down controls. Tricks can also be executed on boost panels itself. Many basic tricks include Mario and Luigi looking backwards and waving or wagging their feet, but more notable tricks include Yoshi sticking out his tongue, King Boo shrinking and laughing, or Funky Kong's and Donkey Kong's one-handed upside down flip.

Tricks reappeared for Mario Kart 7, with the same kind of properties and can be activated by pressing while going over a ramp. However, characters no longer spin or flip at all when performing one. It was also known as Jump Boost, which is shown on the e-manual. Unlike Tricks in Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7 has only 2 variations of a stunt per character. With the exception of Metal Mario, each character in Mario Kart 7 has at least one animation of them facing the screen, while the other animation doesn't (for Metal Mario's case, however, both of his animations show him not facing the screen, making him the only character with this trait). For example, Luigi has 2 stunts, the first being an animation of him punching the air, and the second being Luigi flailing his arms about. In Mario Kart Wii, however, Luigi has 6 stunt animations, 3 for bikes and 3 for karts. All stunts for each character can be seen below.

Tricks reappear in Mario Kart 8. This time, there is a new sound effect when a character performs one. There are a total of nine tricks for each character, three for karts, three for outside drifting bikes and ATVs and three for inside drifting bikes, although almost all of the inside drifting bikes tricks, despite their slightly different coding, end up being the same ones performed on outside drifting bikes and ATVs, with the exception of the tricks of Peach, Larry Koopa and Baby Daisy, who have a trick which is different when performed on an inside drifting bike. Two of the three trick types have no special requirements, though the second type is always used as a glider pad trick. The third type is only seen at anti-gravity segments where the player can spin or flip their vehicle when performing a trick. When tricking, karts/bikes/ATVs can also be controlled by which button from the D-Pad/Circle Pad is pressed, or which way the Wii Remote/Wii U GamePad is tilted. Tricks are known as Jump Boosts in the stats screen (in version 2.0 and later) and the e-manual. In certain courses, it is possible to perform Trick Combos, which consist of multiple consecutive tricks to gain a much longer and faster boost.

In an American commercial for the Nintendo DS, the game Mario Kart DS is featured in a CG animation where Mario is performing a trick over a ramp, even though the first game to introduce tricks is a later game, Mario Kart Wii.

Bike/ATV
Note: Some characters have different trick animations for whenever they're using the inside drifting vehicles.

Trivia

 * In Mario Kart 7, a Trick will have a different sound effect when performed in two courses; Rainbow Road and SNES Rainbow Road.
 * Likewise, in Mario Kart 8, playing as Villager will also result in a different sound.