Drift



Drifting (also referred to as Powersliding) is a move in the Mario Kart series, allowing the kart to keep speed around corners, at a cost of a bit of handling. Beginning with Mario Kart 64, it is possible to use both directions of the D-Pad (left and right) simultaneously while in a drift to cause the kart to get a short, but helpful Mini-Turbo when the drift is ended. In most Mario Kart games, excluding Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, the player had to hop before being able to drift. In addition, from Mario Kart Wii, performing Mini-Turbos by drifting had been simplified by becoming time-based rather than tilting/pressing the control pad multiple times.

In some games, one can perform a long powerslide by steering at the opposite direction while holding the drift button (when drifting to the left, steer right and vice versa), at the cost of speed. However, starting from Mario Kart Wii, performing this technique would delay the Mini-Turbo and causing it to take longer to charge.