You Might Be Losing Mario Kart World Races Because Of Charge Jumps

Seasoned Mario Kart players know to drift often to build up boosts and get some extra speed coming around corners. With charge jumps, Mario Kart World seemed to add yet another technique to get some marginal gains and edge out opponents--but the story isn't that simple.

Charge jumps, which are essentially drifts done on straightaways instead of corners, come with all the same visual indicators of granting a speed boost as classic drifting, but it turns out that the technique may technically slow you down. Following intensive investigation from the Mario Kart community, fans have seemingly confirmed that normal acceleration on a straight is preferable to charge-jumping.

YouTube user Karting All Day comprehensively explored the differences in speed between charge-jumping and normal racing in the video embedded above. Kotaku also independently confirmed the results across different top-speed builds.