Mario Kart 64/Tactics

In addition to knowing what to do in each course, it's also important to know why you're doing it, so you need a good understanding of the game physics. This will also help you pay attention to little details that you might not have thought about.

Weight Class
The lightweights, Toad, Peach, and Yoshi, are the fastest, have the best acceleration, and slow down the least on offroad surfaces. The three lightweights are identical to each other. Always use one of the lightweights in time trials.

Rocket Boost
Press and hold A just before the light turns blue to get a speed boost at the beginning of a race. To save an extra .01 seconds, start pressing A before Lakitu starts counting down, and just before you would normally press A, let go of A for just long enough that you won't spin out, and then press A again.

Reverse
Press B and down to go in reverse. This is never done except to help position the kart to set up for a fastlap attempt on lap 2.

Spin Turn
Press A, B, and left or right while standing still to quickly spin around. This is only used in some SC races. You can also press diagonally down and left or right while spin turning to do a reverse spin turn, which is useful for some shortcuts.

Turning
Press left or right to turn. Turning normally slows you down, so you should use power slides to go around turns so you can then release a mini-turbo. Turning without power sliding slows you down, so it should be minimized, but sometimes it is needed to make occasional slight direction adjustments when needed. When you do need to turn, you should aways untilt the kart.

Hopping
Press R to hop. Hopping repeatedly is done to go around sharp turns. Hop turns are used occasionally to make slight direction adjustments. Hops are also the start of power slides. You can hop over gaps at corners to save distance. Don't make the mistake of hopping repeatedly on straightaways because it slows you down.

Power sliding
Press left or right and press and hold R to start a left facing or right facing power slide, and then move the stick back in the opposite direction. Each time you move the control stick back and forth, the smoke will change from grey to yellow, and then to red. Slide around turns and corners as tightly as possible, unless specified otherwise.

Mini-Turbos
After changing the smoke of a power slide to red, release the R button to get a speed boost. Mini-turbos should usually be as fast as possible.